Gearhead

Dick, did you get everything torqued down and maintain smooth movement? I found the stock springs in both my Virago and my Venture measured within spec when I replaced them. They had both been bottoming out, however. I don't understand how the springs could get "tired" without becoming shorter (squished, plastic deformation). All steel has basically the same modulus if elasticity (stiffness), from cheap grade to high strength. Different ultimate strength, but same stiffness. This leads me to conclude that either 1) the springs fatigue without getting shorter by some mechanism I don't understand, or 2) they were too weak to begin with. I'm inclined to believe number 2. When we first buy the bike, maybe we ride it gently for a while, not creating the bottoming condition but enjoying the supple ride supplied by the soft springs. Later as we become more confident on the machine, we push it a little harder and, presto, it bottoms out. My point is, just because the springs measure OK doesn't mean they really are strong enough for the bike. Jeremy

Ahh, another guy who drives his Venture down a dirt road! I feel at home now - hehehe. I have about a mile of bumpy dirt road to ride my big "enduro" on. Jeremy

Dick, let us know how that new Progressive rear spring works for you. Jeremy

I've not worked on nearly as many bikes as Squeeze, but FWIW... I've usually done what GeorgeS does - use the volume method. I am always careful to get a complete drain by allowing them to drip for a while, then pump the sliders up and down a few times. If I'm not taking the forks apart, I put some ATF in them, stroke them, and drain them again to flush the old gunk out. Last time I did the Venture, when I put in the Progressives, I did this, filled with factory volume, then for the first time I made a detailed measurement of level. They weren't identical, but were very close, probably within a half inch. If memory serves, the level was around 6 or 6.5". Comment on level - air trapped in the bottom will throw the level way off. After adding new fluid, burp the forks by sliding the sliders full travel a few times. Comment on Progressive's recommendation - the instruction sheet we all got is the same one they send out with all their fork springs. 5.5" is not a finely-tuned setting for the Venture, but rather a generic safe level to ensure there is still a little airspace with the spring and cap installed. And I would say the Progressives occupy quite a bit more space - they are longer, with thicker wire and more windings. The airspace accomplishes two things: allows room for the volume of the spring, and allows some minimum space for the air to compress into. The smaller the airspace, the more the air that's in there has to compress and the more progressive the fork becomes due to the spring action of the compressed air. I dunno if "more progressive" is good or bad. However, any air pressure, whether due to compression forces or due to air put in by the rider, exerts pressure on the fork seals and I think causes them to wear out faster. I've never heard this rule of thumb before, about wanting the air chamber to be the travel plus 10%. If you assume the spring takes up the 10%, then what that means is from fully extended to fully compressed you compress the air to half its original volume. Cutting the volume in half doubles the absolute pressure. Hmm...probably the compression % is a little higher because the cap also takes up about an inch. I would think that once you reach some critical amount of oil to fill the bottom of the fork and lube the piston, the primary effect of changing oil level is effective spring rate. I don't think the damping mechanism is going to care if you raise or lowering the level an inch or two, as long as the orifices and piston chamber stay filled, right? EddyG, I can't totally get rid of the wheel wobble on mine. Dick, that is funny, but it could happen to anyone. Glad you didn't damage anything. Jeremy

Marcarl, If you pull the radio/cassette unit out of the LH side you will see the supressor mounted forward of the cassette. JB, what type of caps are you using? Will you let us know about their effectiveness? Jeremy

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3365&highlight=GeorgeS+exhaust+muffler

Certainly does appear to be a brittle break - no bending. That might point to a fatigue crack that developed over time, given that Condor has seen them bend w/o cracking. Another theory - maybe the bolt had been overtightened and weakened where the threads start from the shoulder, and that finally gave way, taking the flange with it. Randy, since it's a shoulder bolt, how do you tighten it enough to have drag? Jeremy

Huh? Squeeze, can you 'splain? I agree, your problem is definitely stator. FWIW, The test's I've used all involve measuring across the 3 wires coming out of the engine with the plug unplugged. 1) Engine off, check ohms from one connector to another, 3 possible combinations. Should be about a half an ohm each. 2) Engine off, check from each connector to engine ground - should be NO continuity. 3) Engine on, check AC voltage from one connector to another, should all be about the same and should rise as RPM rises. Jeremy

Your choke shouldn't be on that long, a minute or maybe two, max. Jeremy

Oh, Greg, I was going to suggest that you could seek out a set of lightly used carbs from ebay or such. Jeremy

Helps? Not much help for those of us who have done EVERYTHING and can't get close to that! Kinda just makes us want to shoot ourselves in the collective foot! :-) Really, I'm glad you're getting such excellent mileage. Really! Jeremy

Short answer: yes and yes. I like it and the CLASS is not necessary. I did static sag measurements with just a rider and with rider & passenger. I was shooting for static sag of 30-40% per general recommendations for a streetbike. With rider and passenger and MAX air pressure, I was using up about 63% of the rear wheel travel just sitting there, and front wasn't too good either (all stock). With Progressive fork springs, the front sag has been easy to get in that range. I use slightly less preload spacing than they recommend and use just a smidge of air pressure in the front shocks - just my preference at this point. The rear replacement shock does not use air at all! No connection for it. I kinda like the air feature, so it bummed me out a little. I kept my CLASS (some would debate whether I ever had any to begin with) and fitted an air hose in the RH saddlebag for tire emergencies (doesn't work great, but it does work). The shock has a screw-ring-type preload adjustment and a damping adjustment. Damping adjustment is eaily accessed on the bottom of the shock, but you have to lay on the ground. Preload is darn near impossible to adjust on the bike (but it can be done). Not something you want to do much. You get it set up and then leave it alone, and I admit I don't miss the adjustability at all. I ended up with the preload set at max, and get 21% sag single and 49% sag 2-up which is alot better. I had hoped to get less sag 2-up, but you gotta figure the passenger's weight is smack dab over the rear wheel. Furthermore, the ride is nice, single or double, and I don't think I've bottomed out once since installing the shock, so the proof is in the pudding (whatever that means). Hope that helps! Jeremy

I've seen used ones go for $75 or so. Could last a week, could last years, hard to say. I decided not to take the chance and bought the Progressive unit for about $350, partially because I thought the stock spring was not strong enough for 2-up. It's been good, should be for that money! Jeremy

"Last time I asked about prices, they were silly money, but if I can get some at a sensible price I will try them out." Yeah, they charge crazy prices for carb parts. For the Virago I have two extra sets of carbs that I've picked up along the way. Out of the three total sets, two had noticably worn tubes, one did not. "I noticed at tickover, though, that the butterflies are completely closed. I can be sure of this because I used a squirty can of carb cleaner, and this actually pooled in the inlet and did not pass the butterfly. I was quite surprised by the effectiveness of the seal, but it does mean that I could be sure that I was only investigating the pilot mix circuit." That's weird. "I didn't check the coasting enrichment diaphragms, but it doesn't pop on the over-run and under the circumstances, I don't feel I need to enrich the system any more, so if they're not functioning correctly, I don't think they're critical." No, but if they're compromised they will cause a vacuum leak which can affect the way the carb meters, although I think it's a very small vacuum leak. "Talking to the guy who runs the Venture UK club and website, nobody is getting 37 - 40mpg (US) (45mpg UK) here at those speeds (or even going slower, in fact)." The problem is that you Brits have forgotten how to tell a good fish story! :-) "The odd thing is that posters seem to fall in two camps (for the most part). Some report good mileage and don't believe anyone gets poor mileage for any reason other than an active right wrist. The other camp just say it's a big heavy bike and there's no way that you should expect good mileage and they don't get it. Are there two types of Venture out there ? Can I buy one of the cheap to run bikes ? Failing that I'll keep trying to work out the conversion, but any pointers from someone else who has made the change would be gratefully accepted - except no-one else has admitted to achieving this." I did start out around 32 and now get 38-39. (All figures are US, no sidecar or trailer.) I'm trying to remember just what I've done. The thing is, there was no single smoking gun. Looking over my notes from the past two years, here's what I found: - First 4 fillups averaged 32. Did service including oil change, carb sync, connecting crank vent to airbox which had been disconnected. Mileage fell to 31 for the next few tanks :-( - Vacuum advance was not working, fixed it, that was actually good for 4 MPG, getting about 35. You checked this already. - Now it gets a little fuzzy. Some here recommended drilling (4) 1/2" holes in the airbox lid, and I did that. Ran two tanks at 39 and 38 mpg. Then I cleaned up the connections on the TCI and ran Seafoam fuel additive thru about 7 tanks, and mileage settled in at the 36-40 range for some time. - Did another tuneup, this time valve adjustment, check carb sync (not far off), oil change, and again mileage seemed to suffer. Shortly thereafter I went on a 1200 mile 2-up trip of bad mileage. First 2/3 of trip I averaged 34, riding mostly 2-lane hiways, some Interstate. Overall average speeds weren't too high, no reason to get such poor mileage. Last 1/3 of trip were in extreme heat (100-107 deg F) and riding 80-90 mph to try to get it over with quickly. Averaged 25 mpg!!! After trip mileage was low 30's. - Replaced slides because diaphragms were badly rotted. Bike picked up top-end power, mileage ran around 34-35. - Taped over airbox lid holes for a couple tanks, got 33 & 34, then removed tape. - Mileage slowly "drifted" up to 37-ish over many tanks, don't know why. - I got a speeding ticket. This caused my overall average speeds to come down because I don't want another. Interstate speeds (about half my riding) have dropped from 80-90 down to 70-80. In-town and country road speeds also abated somewhat. Mileage now 38-39 for a few tanks. There's my complete story. Draw whatever conclusions you can find. I'm not sure what to make of it all, honestly, as the results are a little weird in places. I've pretty much conceded that the guys that get in the 40's must be riding slower and easier than me. For sure, high speeds REALLY do hurt the mileage, but your case does seem pretty bad. However, I haven't seen any comparison from another rider with both a hack and a trailer. You mentioned some low-mileage data from before you mounted those things. How reliable is that data? Was it a bunch of tankfuls or just a couple? Did you write it down, or is it based on recollection? My own recollection fails me often. I don't want to insult you, just asking. Is it possible to remove the trailer and hack for, say, 5 tankfuls and get some data? Jeremy

Well, that moonwalking bear is pretty cool. I didn't even see him the second time, when I was looking. I had to watch it a third time. But with all the mahem going on, he just looks like another player in black. "One of the studies I always found interesting is the purple gorilla test. It was published about 4 years or so ago to illustrate one of the reasons people hit motorcyclists. It was also used to justify that greater awareness of motorcycles is the most effective way to cut down on accidents....That is why they said education of the common motorists about motorcycles would be the most effective way to cut down on wrecks. If they expect to see you they are more apt to see you." Ya know, I agree with the concept, but I don't think education will do it. I've been in a number of driving classes (speeding habit) and they always talk about bikes. It's not education that forms the impression but experience. Thus, it comes back to the point that we gotta be careful and drive defensively, and even then, sometimes stuff happens. Jeremy

Question for you, Utah: Connect your IPOD but leave it off. Now listen to the radio on a good FM station. Plug and unplug the IPOD cable and see if you hear a difference in the sound when you do. Congrats on your mod. Jeremy

Well Greg, that sucks. I synced my carbs once and had the mileage go down by about 2. Don't understand that. Did you say you checked to make sure your vacuum advance was working? Good spark? Did you check the condition of your coasing enricher diaphragms when you had the carbs apart? Don't know if they'd affect mileage much. "Now, rightly or wrongly it seems to me that this pilot fuel jet seems to be determining most of the mixture and that the pilot screw seems to be controlling how much mixture is allowed in, rather than the composition of the mixture itself - a way of making it look as if they're allowing home mechanics to make changes without allowing them to make much difference." I don't agree with your conclusion in the last sentence. The engine at idle is drawing most of its air through the tiny opening of the throttle plate, not through the PAJ's. Those certainly affect it, and give the fuel some emulsification before it enters the carb throat, but that mix then mixes with the air coming past the throttle butterfly. So changing those pilot screws DEFINITELY alters the mixture significantly. I've read that if you need to make GROSS changes to pilot mixture you need to change the pilot jet, and then the pilot screw gives a adjustment within that range. I'm sure the ranges of adjustment from one size pilot jet to another overlap. Some of your data indicates that when the smaller pilot fuel jet is used, the smaller pilot air jet used also. I wonder if those two always go hand-in-hand. If you're compiling data, I have an 87 VR 1300, California model, with stock carburetion. As I said before, it usually gets 38-39 US in normal driving which is about half interstate (80 mph) and half country roads, some signals. My best was about 42 I think riding slowly with small daughter on back. One more idea I just had. How many miles on your bike? One thing that gets worn and doesn't get much attention is the needle jets (emulsion tubes). The needle is constantly working up and down in that brass part and it wears into an oval shape which obviously doesn't meter correctly in conjunction with the needle. I had it happen on my Virago with lots of miles; if I held the tube up to the light I could see the oblong shape of the hole. I had a friend with a Suzuki quad where this condition was very severe. It would load up, foul the plug, etc. I've not had the Venture's carbs apart, but I did replace the slides/diaphragms. When I had them out I shined a light down the bore of the needle jets and they appeared perfectly round, but it's easier to tell if the light source is behind the jet. I could actually measure the oval-ness with a caliper on the Virago. Jeremy

I have a little input and a question. First the question: can the 12V on pin 7 be used to trigger a mini relay in parallel with switching the radio on? "Other guys have said you REALLY should ground the audio input to the outer ring (shield) on the amp cable that "used" to go to the cassette." I grounded mine to the shield and it works. Actually, I soldered the ground wire to the point where the other end of the shield terminates. There is a difference between Mbrood's schematic and the one on the website I sent. Mbrood swiched all the audio connections - L, R and common. John on the other site didn't switch any of them, leaving them connected whether using the radio or the MP3 (GPS), but he did run the audio thru an isolation transformer, and frankly I don't really know what that is. I tried to connect it direct, with no switching there (only switched the pin-1-to-7 connection) and no transformer. It didn't work right. The MP3 interferred with the radio sound when connected but turned off. I don't really understand why or even remember exactly what it did, but it made the radio quiet or something unless I unplugged the MP3. So I tried the easy way out and just switched the common, leaving the L and R connected all the time. I used it that way for a year, as it seemed to fix the problem, but it always seemed like the radio didn't sound nearly as lively as the MP3. I chalked it up to the digital sound being better. One day recently I fired up the radio with the MP3 unplugged for some reason, and the sound was much livelier. What happens is that when the MP3 is connected, even though the common is switched off, the L and R connections still interfere with the radio sound. It seems to remove the stereo effect, making it sound mono. I can plug and unplug the MP3 and hear the radio change, and it's much better unplugged. So, I bought a mini relay and need to change that wiring. Maybe simply plugging in that isolation transformer would solve this problem without all the switching. I dunno. Does anybody out there know? Jeremy

They're in there, but in a different place. In the manual on this website, look on the very last page. I've done just what you are describing, and I was not the first. I got helpful schematics from several here, and one guy wrote a fantastic article on how he installed his GPS and tied it into the audio. Naturally, now I can't find those posts. You guys who graciously supplied schematics, would you do so again? I did find the GPS article on another site: http://www.venturers.org/Tech_Library/index.php?action=article&cat_id=001003&id=365&highlight=gps Jeremy

Oh, one more thing. On my bike, the auto-volume contributes to the noise. If I turn the auto-vol all the way down and crank the master volume up, the noise is less. Changing the relationship between the master volume and the individual headset attenuators also makes a difference. Jeremy

Neither do I know why it would be intercom only; on mine the noise is slightly less when the intercom is on (except for the mic pickup, of course). I helped my noise by improving ground. The ground on the unit itself was fine, what made a difference was the ground from the voltage regulator to the battery. Here's a question - does the noise change when load is added to the system? If you apply the brakes or turn on the blinkers, does the noise reduce or change? On my bike it gets less when there is additional load applied. Jeremy

Hi guys. No, been out on vacation, not working on CB for a while. Now I'm back and sure would like to fix this thing! George, what pull-apart are you referring to? Inside the CB unit or external? Is it the 4-wire (I think it's 4) that plugs into the back of the CB? Are you saying you had the SAME problem (volume and squelch knobs stuck wide-open)? Thanks, Jeremy

Well, Slayer, why don't you quit beating around the bush and say what you mean! :-) I bet you could sub a cheap flasher, give up the cancelling, and find a way to wire up the starting relays as well. But it might just be better to find another part! Jeremy

So? Did it run? Jeremy

"I was doing some reading concerning this, as to how Barometric Pressure affects the flow of the fuel to the Jets. Apparently the Height of the fuel in the Bowl Chamber, changes how much fuel a given Barometric Pressure can force thru the jets. I been looking for more info on this, but as yet have not found a complete explanation of how this works. From what I have found, this is apparently basic to any Carburator." George, I believe this is due to hydrostatic pressure. The force that pushes the fuel thru the jets is a combination of atmospheric pressure and hydrostatic pressure. Hydrostatic pressure is simply the weight of the liquid above the measuring point. As divers go deeper they need better diving suits, right? Similarly, as the fuel is deeper there is more weight pushing it thru the jets. Jeremy