Bert2006

:sign yeah that:

Cant change them but sadly natural selection eventually will:confused24:

Welcome. Best site to be a member of and Black cherry is the best colour.

Could try to pour a bit of graphite in the keyhole and see if it lubricates the mechanism. It is usually available at hardware stores in small containers. Common practice for locksmiths. Also, key may be worn down, any spare key's that could be tried?

:sign yeah that::sign yeah that: For added stability on long runs or bad roads, I remove seat and attach a couple of tie downs to the frame under the seat.

Nope, no touring bikes this round

A work colleague who lives in a city about 2 hours from me bought a 2009 RSV this summer. Found out about it at a work meeting and I shared that I had a 2006, informed him of this site, sent him the link to it and offered any help he would need if he ran into trouble with the maintenance. I never heard from him until this week at another work related event where he informed me had traded the bike in at the dealer for a BMW after being spooked with the high cost of maintenance. He also mentionned that he liked how the RSV handled better. I asked what the issues where and there where 2. 1. Headlamp and passing light kept blowing fuse. Dealer told him he needed a whole new wirring harness. Asked him if had checked for any pinched wires next to the steering stops and he had no idea what i was talkng about. 2. Broken tab on windsheild bracket. Dealer told him he neded a whole new front fairing. I asked him if he had visited this site for info, he had not. Had he called me or visited the site he would have quickly figured out that the dealer was gouging him. I would have been able to help him based on the info I had learned from the collective expertise of the members of this site. I guess you can bring the horse to water but you cannot force him to drink. In the end when I explained to him that those were only small issues, i could see him thinking back to the premium amount of cash he forked out for the BMW that he admits is not close to the comfort he had on the RSV. SO THANK YOU ALL FOR THE FREE ADVICE THAT YOU KEEP VOLUNTARILY POSTING:clap2:

Cool

If I where to do it I would move some of the accessories from the current bike to the new one. Having said that, the RSV stands out in a crowd and if the price is right, might go there but looking forward to if and what Yamaha puts out to replace it. Hoppefully fixing the few shortcomings of the 2nd gen.

It was pretty dark. From the amount of crud acumulated behind that center cover I doubt it was ever changed. In my case I have rather small hands so although it was close quarters, it was not too bad to get it out. Once pump is out of the way I took the hose of the top of the filter, slid the filter down out of the holder with its bottom hose attached. Took that hose off and placed it on the new filter and then reversed the procedure to put filter back in. I can see though that if someones hands are bigger it would be a paint to get in there.

Just finished to install the new filter and pump. It was actually an easy job to do. Hardest part was getting the old filter out but the rest was quite easy. Once installed I turned petcock back on, then just turned the key on to pressurize the system and then checked for leaks. All was clear and started the bike, purrs like a kitten now. Shut her down and checked for leaks again. Will leave it that way overnight and re-install covers in the morning if no leaks are visible then. Thanks again to all who posted info on this process as again it gave me the confidence to do this myself. Looking forward to a good ride tomorrow.

You got me thinking and worried that the way I had tightened things up could lead to problems in the future. So I used rubber seals that you get when you buy a universal kit to rebuild faucets. Placed them between the cover and the spacer that SlowRollWv provides with the kit. Now all is snug again, but without things being over thight. Here is what the seal looks like.

Man you folks are demanding ...jeeezzzz.... Here are the pics, taken from my phone so not high quality pictures but you can see how the covers clean things up and are so well polished.

Received from SlowRollWv and installed my carb and twinky covers today. These are very high quality and included all of the required hardware. Only thing was that the choke side cover was a bit though to tighten down. Either screws where a bit long or there was gunk in the threads. Twinkies where easy to install. Did not use any locktight so will monitor to see if anything comes loose. Good quality work sir and thanks for shipping the parts to the great white north.

I put gym type floor pad to separate tires from concrete and leave it on the side stand. Usually top up fuel tank add a can of seafoam run it for a few minutes to ensure the mix gets into the carbs. Shut off petcock. Change oil and filter, test coolant, ensure tires are at right pressure, hook up battery tender and put cover on bike. Usually do this in mid november when snow starts here.

Cool:canada:

Having headsets would certainly help. My better half likes them as we can communicate and also listen to music. She appreciates me giving her a heads up on what moves I am about to pull on the bike. This way she can also let me know if there are any issues going on for her with the ride. Understand you, mine also gets tired or bored after 1 to 2 hours on the bike. Frequent stops help, but have not been able to realy take long distance trips with her yet. I am focussing on making sure she is enjoying the rides and gradually working our times up. Weather has to be perfect though.

For me tires are, especially when the resulting handling improvements are so significant. So horray for CMII's

Man you have already highjacked your own thread:rotfl: Truck-lite is what I used, Kuryakin markets them under a different name.

Commander II's front and back.

Thats discrimination, they should make the same offer to Venture owners:cool10:

Good advice on the battery. As for the coffee can, knowing me it will fill up quite fast... :rotf:

Got home after work and tried to start and it still would not, so I removed the side cover and gave the pump a few taps with the handle of a screwdriver and it started ticking and bike started with no hesitation whatsoever. New pump and filter are on order and will be installed by the weekend. Thanks all who posted as it helped me greatly.

Will be trying to tap the pump tonight as it only stranded me this morning. I am replacing both the filter and the pump now so I have some peace of mind. Will replace points on the old pump and keep it as a backup for the future. Parts should arrive on thursday so weekend project here we come. Hate to have to push this beast more than 20 feet.