videoarizona

Congratulations Venturesome! You Da Man!

I'm still kicking though my postings have been sporatic. Ear operation in a few weeks will keep me off the scoots till the Holidays. Have to sell the 89, though. No longer comfortable for me to ride. Boo... Do enjoy that ride. Still have the 05 and will continue riding her until common sense says no more! Great to see posts from guys and gals that I haven't seen in a long time. I remember lurking for a few years and getting to know those names and enjoying their humor and information. Prayers Up for all of you! Good idea, Don! Thanks... David

Great find! I'm going to put that destination on my bucket list...for sure! Thank you for sharing, my friend!

Took the RSV out for a 100 plus mile run. Daughter came down and batted her eyes at me asking for a ride. You all know how that works. Good morning ride, for sure!

I was looking over the schematics as well....but just don't see it. There must be a tie in with the neutral/gear indicator switch somewhere....

Yep. And I think he changed his mind about the stuff as I never got anything from him...not even a PM.

The Shinko 230's have that same groove. I have no handling issues with those tires on both front and rear on my 1st gen. I keep air up to within 2 to 4 lbs of max sidewall listing depending upon load. They don't have the wear life but handle well. I now have a Shinko 230 on the rear of my RSV due to a nail in Chicago area. Had Shinko 777HD's on front and rear. 777HDs wears longer and still has good ride and handling in rain! I'm personally sold on Shinkos. Don't mind having to change tires more often as it's also a good time to grease the rear end and check everything out like brakes.

How did I miss this? Mike, I'm stunned. Lord, how can these things happen? I'm so very sorry. Know that you have family here. Whatever your decision, know support is here.

I'm thinking the carbs are a bit sludged up. And, with some luck and patience, you can get them clean by riding more, adding Seafoam, spraying carb cleaner down the throats and let it sit for an hour then ride her....IE...try and clean up as much as you can without taking the carbs out. @CaseyJ955 has good info. You can also try some carb cleaner up into the bowls by taking off the drain tube, opening the carb drain screw, and squirting it up in there. Lots of ideas on cleaning the carbs...search the forum. Don't forget to look below the pages as you search. The site recommends other pages similar to what you are searching for listed below. WARNING: This is a lot of fun, following the threads recommended...but can take days reading all the stuff! But most important....ride her. Watch the oil level and go. Sitting is hard on any mechanical beastie...and with the crap gas we have...a carb bike makes it worse.

And that is exactly the problem with the 2nd Gen. The overdrive 5th gear is way to high a gear for that heavy bike with a load. Get some wind against you and you either downshift or learn to live with horrible gas mileage! Ask me how I know.... Hint:

Actually, I think the 1st Gen gearing is perfectly matched to the 7500rpm red line and the high revving power band of the V4. They work together perfectly for just about any situation you are riding in. So yes, In my mindset...rev that baby up and enjoy her. You can take her to the red line in each of the 1st three gears without a sweat. (2nd gear will scare you)..you probably don't want to hit 7500 rpm in 4th...you will be seriously over the speed limit! Grins!

Not necessarily. The weep hole "may" show coolant but not oil. Regardless...the twinkie and the coolant pump are the two most common places for problems with oil in coolant. The twinkie also has the vent hose that @Du-Ron and I mentioned could be blocked...which still could be...but... I dont think is the case here. The twinkie (named because from the top it looks like one) is a heat exchanger...oil and coolant are only a tiny gasket away from each other. So any issues in the gasket will cause a mix. I'm going to go with the pump, though. As Steve, @M61A1MECH said...there is a common shaft driving the impeller with seals to keep the oil/coolant separate. Those seals do wear. It's not a hard fix as everything is right there on the lower right side front of the motor. Get a cover gasket and take it apart. Info and pictures in the manual area and by searching the forum. Either way...I would do both twinkie and pump before I would think of head gasket. Suggest you go to the section that has the 2nd Gen technical info, then the parts diagrams area. You'll find the parts manual as well as the service manual there. In the water pump section, will be a blown up diagram of the pump so you can get familiar with the parts. hope this helps...

Got up this morning to a nice, cool breeze and I heard the RSV calling me. Got dressed and hit the road. Went clockwise this time...on my loop to Sahuarita, Sonoita, Patagonia, Nogales, Rio Rico then home. Left at 7am. Arrived home at 11 am. Breakfast at the Stage Coach Inn restaurant. Still good (and I've been going there for over 25 years). First went there to spend the night while filming a Solar documentary many moons ago. Restaraunt. Front of Hotel in Patagonia. Newer Victory shared the motorcycle parking area. My RSV was NOT intimidated at all!! Photos of the Sonoita area. Tucson is way to the north over my right side mirror. Way back there. See it? nah...behind those mountains.... More of the mountain range. My home is on the other side.... Nice day for a ride....Our riding season is back!! Who Hoo!

I've been exploring the same options for my travel trailer for the past year. There are only two viable options: 1: toy hauler 2: pull behind the travel trailer, the bike trailer. In most states, you can legally pull your travel trailer with a bike trailer behind. And in those states that frown on that arrangement, they usually never hassel us. The ONLY issue, and it's a big one for some, is you don't back up. Or you unhook the bike trailer, back up, then re-hook and go. Can make for interesting gas ups. If your pick up is diesel, then you are gold... in that you can fill up at truck stops...straight through! Our scoots are way to heavy to put a lift on the back of the travel trailer without some serious modifications to the bumper. The bumpers are made for maybe 150-200 pounds max. But that's easy to do with some welding to the frame..in essence, rebuilding the bumper. The real problem is tongue weight. Travel trailers are designed to meet a certain tongue weight with "X" amount of stuff inside and tanks (fresh, gray and black) somewhere in the middle of capacity. IE, your average going down the road weight. Adding 900 to 1K pounds to the rear end is going to eliminate most of your tongue weight all together! So, somehow you are going to have to add tongue weight to the very front (mount the portable generator above the batteries is one idea). Is this doable? Of course, but...and this is a BIG BUT...you have now reduced your trailer's carrying capacity a whole bunch and probably your truck's as well. IE, it will put a limit on the beer you can carry...or the kids, or....(insert your own fun stuff here). Toy haulers work well.....but there are issues there as well. Most of the time, your main bed is on lifts above the storage area and your couch folds up to the sidewalls. Putting the bike and it's oil and gas smells in your face as you eat and sleep. Yes, there are toy haulers designed with a modicum of intelligence and manage to keep the living and storage areas separate....but those can be quite pricey. Some even have "decks"...made by repositioning the door/ramp, then you can move the scoot outside. Of course, the gas/oil smells remain. I didn't like those to much, but it was an idea. As far as carrying the bike in the truck bed...sigh....you will need a large bed, you can't buy a 5th wheel trailer and your trucks load capacity means you may not be able to bring the dog...a cat maybe. You WILL have to add load springs (air or others) to the rear end cause even with weight distribution hitch helping to transfer the tongue weight to the front of the truck, the rear springs are not going to be happy. And down goes your load capacity of the truck even more. I know, I said there are only two viable options...but there is a 3rd. Buy a used horse trailer...one of the ones with the living arrangements in front. Yea...I know you said you didn't want to build...but turning the horse end to a bike end is far easier....seal it up and add some tie downs. Many of those trailers separate the horsies from the peoples....so the living arrangements work. Plus the carrying capacity is there as well. Think one horse with hay equals your bike! Many of them are 5th wheels, which turn and backup much easier than towables, but you lose pick up truck capacity and storage in your bed. Always a trade off...no free lunch. There ya go. I'm still thinking....no decision yet. We are enjoying traveling in our trailer, unhooking and driving to visit places then coming "home" to the trailer to plan our next adventure. The bikes are staying at home for now. That works for us and my Better Half has said no more bike rides for her. So I may never trailer and carry a scoot with me unless it's a 250cc puttputt to zip to town in.... Hope this helps...

Congrats!! My only concern is did you start her without the choke? If yes...then she's running a bit rich...(probably a good idea at this point in rebuild)...but that explain some of the missing. Overall, I'm impressed with your efforts. Great job!

Yep..you are both right. Mine is like yours as well. I was wrong...apologies!

My guess on the bogging down part of your problem. Since you are back on the factory air box, I'd go through the cards and set them up. Start at about 2.5 turns out. If you have a way to measure air/fuel...do so for each carb. After that, balance them for air delivery....be advised the owners manual has the info incorrect as to what screws balance what carbs/carb bank. Proper info is found with a quick search. Sounds like the P.O. may have adjusted the carbs a bit lean for the after market air filters and now you are way lean.....??? I'm not a carb guy so it could be the other way around. But I would bet once you get the mixture right and balance the carbs, she'll be back to normal. Both procedures can be found with a search. I'm on the road so can't help much at the moment.

Tilt the darn thing back....buffeting must be awful for pillion rider with it sticking up that straight....Geesh

Yes....

I do believe the RSV dash lights do come on when ignition turned on for a second or two.....

See mine under the seat. Works great there. Easy to see and easy to change...

Shinko 777HD's. I like them for ride quality, rain stickies and price.

I'm with Scott on this. Thank you, Carl!

To answer your question about touring the Southwest: Head to Calgary and say hi to James @VanRiver to rt 2, to rt 3 to rt 4 to I-15 at the US. James may have some suggestions for 2 lanes instead of I-15 heading south. Regardless.... I would come down I-15 to Utah, then get off and head down to the National Parks in the Southern part of Utah. Rt 9 through Brice Canyon, Canyonlands, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, etc.. Then go down to rt 89 into Lake Powell, to 89A down to the north rim of the Grand Canyon (Rt67 from Jacob Lake), then around to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, I-40 west to rt 66, then to 68 to 163 to 95 at Searchlight, 164 to Mountain Pass at I-15. I-15 west a few to rt 127 north to Death Valley Junction. North on Rt 127 through Death Valley to rt 190 west. To rt 395 and go north. From there, hit all the California Parks with the large trees and head north to Home. To the Dales in Oregon, etc.. If I had the inclination, that's what I would do. Especially this time of year. You can have snow in some of the mountain areas in October, but what a fantastic time to travel!

The headset circuits (front and rear) work for all. The intercom works (can be heard) over the rest. This way you can chit chat with backseat driver (!) as you enjoy tunes. Separate volumes as well. The CB interrupts the radio/tape/aux noise when the squelch lets a CB transmission come through.