baylensman

Gonna chime in. I've owned 3 of these beasts so far one 86 one 97 one 07 90% of my riding is as the OP said back and forth around town and under 60 mph. all of the bikes averaged around 32MPG in town. period end of story no bull ****, I've ridden two of these into the ground so far! I'm 300 lbs solo! add the GF and we're pushing 500 lbs with gear. The best i've ever gotten is the 07 on a speed run to Daytona with my bro (see other post about speed issue) was 43MPG. I swear by Seafoam once a year or more if I pick up an iffy load of fuel. The difference is immediate, noticeable and I could document it in terms of performance and time when I dump the next load in. I understand that someone 120 lbs lighter than me riding almst always under 55 running 30 miles or more per leg on his/her commute may get 45-50 MPG I've just never seen it.

I've taken a few moments to re-read some posts, looking for some how to tips. Anyway when I start searching and reading I end up down the rabbit hole so to speak. LOL. I've read some old long (5 pages or more) posts about various issues. I am amazed that someone could post a question on the forum about a problem they are having, then as other member chime in with possible causes fixes or try this, the original poster takes it upon himself to argue with every suggestion. In Walt's world logic has a place. If you are having a problem with your lower knifety pin not providing 1.21 gigawatts on demand, you obviously don't know how to fix it! So why would you then spend the next several days or even weeks arguing with everyone who had the same problem and managed to get it fixed? Especially when 99% of the replies all point to the same solution! Just asking is all?

No sorry had to finish the "Other " bike so boy child can get to work again. Then lost my job and had to start looking, got new job now perpetually tired. Hope to get back on it soon!

Well over the weekend (Saturday) my brother decides to go back to Daytona, asked me to ride along. We blasted off at 6:30 am stopped for petrol and flew. pulled into the track at just past 9:00 am yes just over 160 miles in 2 1/2 hours!( yes I have the ticket to prove it! $131.00 cop was nice and knocked the speed down to 9 miles over the limit) Well went to Vance and Hines He got the new FP-3 and X pipe on his Ultra. we walked around a bit, I must say I was disappointed in the display by Star and mother Yamaha. The Ultra classic from Harley with 6 Speed and fuel injection, the always outstanding Gold wing, as well as some offering by the other guys (Kawasaki and Suzuki). I may have to jump ship with my next purchase. Yamaha has about 18 months maybe two years, before they loss another customer. I may have to get the tattoo on my butt changed

I'd start here and head south using secondary roads to key west then up the east coast on US 1 Then follow the state Line to the panhandle till I was down to $100.00 or only had 1 day left then head for home. I think I could circumnavigate Florida in a week!

So early spring 80' weather past two weeks... OAK trees and early morning dew.

Okay not my bike. this is a 96 RS A model (not a TD) I posted before about the blown head gasket. well over the past couple weeks dodging weather and other problems got it all apart. Did a thorough inspection, used a straight edge to check for warpage, everything looked good! Put it all back together and fired it up today. Had to pull the plugs again and blow out the cylinders and clean the plugs. Charged the battery and it fired up!! Got some minor popping! well there is no adjusting the timing on these things either its on (bike fires and doesn't shake) or its off (doesn't fire and or shakes a lot). After a few minutes the left bank was throwing white smoke with no odor. checked the pipes the front pipe is ice cold and the rear one hot. Pulled the left plugs again and the front one was still wet. cleaned it again put it back in the bike fired and well but after a few minutes the white smoke is back. and it start struggling to stay idling. I was done for the day!! So sitting thinking, internal leak from a water passage to the combustion chamber? Bad gasket, improper torque? Head gaskets are one way fit. they can't be flipped left to right or front to rear or upside down the gaskets are asymmetrical. I did notice when I ordered the front gasket and rear gasket now carry the same part number. (they used to be two different numbers) Any ideas, i'll start tear down again on Monday morning. PS got two job offers today.( see my other post about being laid off) Both a few weeks out in start time. Don't know what the one is gonna pay ? The other is a 30% cut but beats hell of unemployment.

Thinking of adding some more LEDS and moving some of the ones I have to different places. Does anyone know where to get Smaller then 20 Guage connecters? The wire for LED is very fine and the heat shrink connectors I use now sometimes I forget to double crimp the wire can work loose there so tiny. went to the RC shop but those aren't truly weather tight.

So I bought some bling last year. Some of it from china some of it was US stuff. My bike is outdoors in FL sun and rain always, tried the cover thing but with the winds on the coast it just beats everything up. Well the think that gets me the most was the exhaust clamps I got for the conversion to HD mufflers, there were some cheapos out there but I though, this gets hot then cold then hot again and takes a lot of abuse so I bought the expensive (Baron's) US heavy duty triple chrome clamps for $60.00 bucks. Well the cheap fog lamp bar has held up better! That $30.00 bar to hold my passing lamps from china looks like it just came out of the box, the clamps are starting to rust right at the fold. I did naval jelly the rust away then polished and waxed, but the wax is probally gone (melted) in the first couple of miles. the radiator shell looks new, the caliper covers looks new. The driving lights look new. The bag rails Look new(Yamaha) the switch block (again $$ US made) replaced due to discoloring. the fog lamp swivel brackets look like **** (US made from auto parts store) going to replace. Stainless steel flag stand (supposed to be stainless US made) is mostly orange with rust except the staff itself. the luggage rack (Chinese) is rusting at the all the joints. the front fender rail is rusting at the joints (Yamaha) No point to this just relaying my experience. My Bike is my car, I ride it every day regardless of the weather(unless i'm picking someone oe something up and the Lincoln starts LOL) letting you all know what held up what didn't so far.

Barry, sometimes we have a little too much time and tend to overthink. Its the battery Bro. As to blown fuses, did you get a big fat spark when you hooked up the jump box? Which did you connect last POS or NEG? That could've done it to the fuses. Like everyone else said pull it, fill it charge it then test it.

A lot of dealers still have NEW RSV's and you can check the Royal star website to get pricing. even though they're 2013 models getting a new one is still pretty cool , and the 5 year warranty doesn't suck either

Well a bunch of Life smacked me in the face since the layoff! My Girlfriends is having heart problems and complications from diabetes, so me being out of work has helped a bit, I can take her to Doc and help ask the right questions. My little Dog slipped his leash ran across the street and bit some snobby ladies little dog, I offered to pay vet bill, she called the cops now I got to deal with that. Had to cancel my trip to Bikeweek. The Oak tree pollen has turned by beautiful Galaxy Blue venture kind of yellow green the day after I detailed it!!!!! The house I used to own with the almost Ex may close this week, can't wait to see what the wright off is and if I get to pay taxes on the short sale. Parts I ordered for the kids bike were backordered so its still on my back porch making my neighbors real happy! But I look on the bright side, I got an interview with both Home Depot and CARQUEST this week, my brothers company is thinking of starting a new division, the problem is they didn't have the right guy to run it (till now) so that may come into being this month!

Well a bunch of Life smacked me in the face since the layoff! My Girlfriends is having heart problems and complications from diabetes, so me being out of work has helped a bit, I can take her to Doc and help ask the right questions. My little Dog slipped his leash ran across the street and bit some snobby ladies little dog, I offered to pay vet bill, she called the cops now I got to deal with that. Had to cancel my trip to Bikeweek. The Oak tree pollen has turned by beautiful Galaxy Blue venture kind of yellow green the day after I detailed it!!!!! The house I used to own with the almost Ex may close this week, can't wait to see what the wright off is and if I get to pay taxes on the short sale. Parts I ordered for the kids bike were backordered so its still on my back porch making my neighbors real happy! But I look on the bright side, I got an interview with both Home Depot and CARQUEST this week, my brothers company is thinking of starting a new division, the problem is they didn't have the right guy to run it (till now) so that may come into being this month!

You are correct very easy to crash even in training mode. A seconds inattention and I'm either shaking a tree or climbing the roof!!!! Mine doesn't do video just stills

First bike at 8 years old

Do a quick visual self check. Remove cap and peer inside, can you see the fuel. Rock the bike listen for splashing.

So after losing a job back during the oil spill, I fought and clawed my way up the parttime/fulltime/management tree. last October I got the chance to switch divisions from retail to home services. All day shift weekends off and a raise!! Booda boooom! We were in the process of moving offices to put the whole team in one section of the building, the Boss comes in and says Hey guys I just got a phone call. Corporate shuts us down!! all across the country over 300 people gone today! Turns out unemployment here is FL only pays max about 1/2 of what I was making and takes 4 weeks to get first check! May skip bike week this year. Dusted off the resume and hit Indeed and Monster filled out 8 apps. I called the Retail side and they'd love to have me back, full time sales instead of management though...I'll give that one some thought. They're going to try and replace parts specialists with contacts at every major MFG across the counter, with predictive algorithms from some computer. Its been running for 6 months and gets every order wrong. meaning I then have to airfreight stuff to customer and send a tech back out a second or third time. Ha now the techs are on their own.

My Girl friend bought me a 360 a few years ago with the kinnect. we play some of the sports game, mostly I play 1st person shooter/action NON-military. been through all the batman games 2 of the Ironman, crackdown GTA and a few others. Online/PC I play DDO, my son bought me the game years ago thinking it was a stand alone, didn't realize it was subscription based.I've been hooked for over 7 years. DDO now has a free to play option...

okay checked the decks and the head for warpage both are in tolerance. the chain , cam sprockets and other top end parts look good. very minor carbon build up. So I beginning reassembly. Now I did it on this bike 5 years ago.. but then I had a shop a lift lights on stand air tools assemble tables parts washer bead blaster and a place to leave everything out for a few days. Now I have a few hours a day, before the light goes and the neighbors get cranky and I have to put every thing away. no compressor but I do have a lift. I know I went through this before, but the shop manual is kind of iffy on some details, and my memory is contradicting the manual any way. does any one have a better sequence of drawing or pictures of the assemble process? I'm stuck with the timing chain dampers!! according to the manual the two piece dampers (*see 5 in pic) are on the carb side of both heads. and the single piece chain guide is on the outside or exhaust end of the head. however the cam tensior adjusters are both on the rear edge of the head or on the rear head under the exhaust on the front head under the carbs. that just doesn't make sense to me, and my memory is foggy enough that i'm not sure any more, the polish marks from the plastic tensioner in the head would seem to agree with me. But the issue is I can't get enough slack in the chain to install the cams now, so do I pull the head off again and move the tensioner or am I missing something?

Update and question if I may. So got rocking on the job. the front head gasket (not the one I replaced before) seems to be the problem. This is the issue the gaskets is 3 metal layers and 5 paper layers from the factory kinda like a club sandwhich, paper metal paper metal paper metal paper. All the paper is gone POOF no remnents at all! Just the three metal leaves. I pulled the radiator and hooked up the garden hose and tighted a clamp, when i turned on the water it puked out about 1 or 1 1/2 cups of whitish yellow pulp then some rust then clear water. what would make the gasket behave in this mannner?

Okay saw the post about you guys planning the great run! This is for the rest of us and maybe some of you also. Who's going to bike week? what days will you be there? Where and when should be meet? I'm leaving St pete sometime Friday the 13th and coming home sometime on Sunday the 15th. I have a place to stay. My brother is meeting me there (me may ride over together) he knows his way around town so I think I can get almost anywhere.

oh I was thinking center of state north to south not east to west DUH. Its been a few years for that also. Last few time was with the kids so I made it a straight shot 180 miles one way, I wanted it over with LOL. Running north to south if you get between 441 and 27 there aren't many secondary roads in the swamp, most are tertiary at best! Many are a lane and 1/2 for a few miles. Any way you go take your time its still pretty country and some great old buildings

actually if you search these forums you will see this picture about a month back along with a test set up on a XJ6 so they are bringing the tech to other bikeshttp://www.venturerider.org/forum/watering-hole/92687-16-venture.html