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Add my smiles and congratulations. 37 years together!!! That is so very special! God Bless you both with many more years together....and far more miles CTFW!!!

Curious. Has anyone tried to use the points from one of those el cheapo fuel pumps found on eBay on your original fuel pump? Or.. Is that the failure point on the el cheapos? Or... Is it a different set of points altogether? I ask because if they would work, the cheap pumps are cheaper to buy than the replacement points....

If Yamaha had put a liquid cooled V4 in the new Venture, how many of us would be 1st year buyers?

I've had a similar MSR product for about 15 years. Still works great! I do like this newer unit you like. The wind protection is most important...

Yeppers! Agreed. I do like the RSV. Very comfortable bike. I don't mind the air cooled V-Twin...provided it has the typical Yamaha power plant engineering behind it. It should be quite the motor. I do hope I get the chance for a ride in October when they come to Phoenix. I tried to sign up, but just got a form reply. We shall see.

I know. But that thought does bother me. My Yukon is going on 190K with original iridiums in it and getting better mpg's than when new. I have troubles thinking that would be possible with our V4's. Wonder what the most miles anyone has put on their iridium plugs on a V4??? Survey? I just cleaned the plugs, gapped them and put them back in. BTW, my diaphragms looked brand new. Threw some carb cleaner on the plastic slides to clean them and put them back in. Beans...forgot to take pictures....again! Well have to put the bike back together and then put the oil change on hold until I get back into town next week. I do enjoy working on them, but getting harder to go up/down from the garage floor these days!

True. But I still had to take off way more than what I do with the 1st Gen. Air cleaner replacement is 5 minutes on the 1st Gen, 30 minutes on the 2nd Gen. Plugs, the same.....especially since the tool kit was useless on the 2nd Gen. Used the 1st Gen's tool kit for that. Carb check of the diaphragms....tank has to come off on the 2nd Gen. So to do all that I wanted to do...the bike has to come apart far more than the 1st Gen does....to say nothing of the lack of a center stand adds more time to either put the RSV up on a front tire stand with braces or on a lift. My point was, IMHO, all the engineering thinking that Yamaha did on the 1st Gen was left on the "cutting room floor" on the 2nd Gen.

...before our riding season hits in full swing.... Two more things stand out in the differences from the 1st Gen and the 2nd Gen. 1: Toolkit 2: Ease of maintenance. Oh...3. Putting bike on front tire stand. 1: Differences in the toolkits are like the difference from a TinkerToy set to a Craftsman. Even the spark plug wrench sucks. Won't reach and doesn't have the rubber insert. Of course, I may not have received all the proper tools to begin with...but like to think so... 2: Have to take half the bike apart to check the plugs. Really? 3: 150 front tire makes holding up the bike in a stable position almost impossible. She is wedged in as tight as I could get that 150 tire...and braced with 2 blocks of wood under the pipes. One more eason to go with a 130 front tire! Didn't want to use the hydraulic stand as I wanted to clean underneath and do an oil change. Now, since I've had the bike a little over a year, it's time to change air cleaners (done), check plugs, oil and filter, clean up underneath, rear master fluid (looks good), might as well pull diaphram covers too while I'm here... \Found Iridium plugs in scoot. They look good to me. But what do I know? I've always used standard plugs....Did put iridium's in 89 but that is easier to check and replace. Whatcha all think? In order...left to right. 1,2,3,4. I'll clean them and re-gap them.

Full blown Venture Royale. All the goodies are there. She must be 6ft tall to be able to handle a 1st Gen Beastie!

Belt drive is a piece of cake to deal with. I changed out the rear tire on the 950 and all I did to make life easy was to mark the positions of the adjusters on both sides of the rear end. After that, it was easy to apply the proper tension to the belt by moving the adjusters until the marks matched. Done. Belt life is very good these days. Probably mucho years. Mine was a 2009 with 11K plus miles and looked brand new when I sold it last month! The biggest problem people have with belt drive is having a dealer or someone put to much tension on the belt, destroying the belt drive pulley bearings. That's why I did the work myself..

You might want to look into aVStar 1300 tourer. I really liked my 950T.....a smaller version. If you ever decide to do sightly smaller.

The clutch line goes down the handlebars and under the bike. Transfers to a metal line then to the clutch slave cylinder on left side of motor... In between the stator cover (big) and the drive cover (small). Your left shin is about right where the slave is if sitting on bike. Probably be a good idea to rebuild or get used master and slave. And flush out system. Lots to read on this site, with pictures too. Plus manuals. Look in tech section, 1st generation.... Agree with replacing master rear brake parts. If frozen, they aren't worth time to rebuild. Cheap enough. Flush rear brake system too, but remember, the rear break master also feeds the left front brake. Again, better parts available to replace original.

I use the center stand for most of the work. Anything more needed in the rear, I take off the front wheel and let the front end "kneel down" while on the centerstand. You could use a scoot lift, I would think just brace with 2x2's to clear exhaust. I haven't done it as haven't the need.

I agree. We just don't know enough at this point. But I'm "hoping" Yamaha will continue to live up to it's honesty as it has over the years. For me, they honored my asking for help by providing parts for free when my out of warrantee Street scrambler caught fire. I was able to rebuild the scoot, at the dealership (mechanics came over to help when they could) and all was well with the world...until I got shipped overseas and had to sell the scoot!

BUT, Pucster...what's the difference? From my memory of what I had with the YES contract, All Yamaha is doing is paying for your extended warrantee on the new scoot. And a 4 year extended warrantee has got to be "lots O bux"! Doesn't this warrantee thingie still beat the competition?? Or are we talking semantics here?

Here is the link for the YES Plans. Yamaha Extended Service Plans.... http://www.yamaha-motor-yes.com/benefits.jsp?target=000 Now, if memory serves, I was covered for all mechanical failures, trip interruption, towing... to be repaired at no cost to me for labor or parts....by any dealer in the USA. There was no deduction and no limit. It covered mechanical failures like the factory warrantee did. Exclusions included tires, brake pads....in other words, parts that wear out normally. Conditions were I needed to maintain the scoot as per Yamaha's specs in the owner's manual. So I documented my oil changes, etc... The Dealer said it's just like the normal warrantee, difference is....it's a "you pay for it" extended service contract. Shame, I just threw out the contract a few days ago, since I sold the scoot.....otherwise I could have PDF'd it and put it in the archives.

To many others have had good results with changing the front tire to a 130. Even the new Venture has skinny front tire. So I will buy the tire and find out. I wonder how much your speed instability was caused by the rear mod and the front 18" tire. Though, I haven't read anyone else having a stability problem with an 18 inch tire swap either??? Glad you brought up the seat mod. Rick Butler (on this site) did a seat mod for me and it was a great job. I'm looking forward to doing same for the RSV and VR at some point. Since I ride both scoots...keeping one in Phoenix and one in Green Valley....I simply haven't had the time to ship a seat out. And now we are getting into our prime riding season, so may have to forgo both seat mods until next summer. I got 1 inch on the front end lowering and could have gone another 1/4 inch on the RSV. Did have to move the rubber bumpers to between the bars and the inner fairing so I could re-use them, but I also had Baron's 1 1/2 risers, so that helped me there as well. Probable why I was able to get 1 inch easily. All good points to consider....Thanks

Are you kidding me? Grins! It's a Yamaha!! In 2 years... never a burp. In fact, The darn scoot ran perfectly for over 11K miles, then sold last month. Gas, oil, filters, tires and plugs. Not to shabby for a 2009 VStar 950 Tourer! But no...never even had a chance.

The 130 front tire and lowering the front end will help with the physical side of things. I lowered my front end and very happy with that. Next comes the front tire! ...And the best thing you can do to help with slow speed turning is to look where you are going. Remember, where your chin is pointing is where the bike goes. Do that, feather the clutch, ride the rear brake and you will find yourself doing u-turns without even thinking it's an 867 pound elephant!

When I bought my VStar 950T from a dealer in Tucson, it was over one year old but only had 800 miles. Guy had bought it and promptly traded it in for the 1300 as it was bigger and fit him better. I asked for and got Yamaha's Extended 2 year warrantee...for free. It covered everything the factory warrantee did and was honored at all Yamaha dealerships. I "assume" this is the same thing. As Puc suggests, it may have different wording as to how they cover things, but it still will be a Yamaha warrantee. And that says something! But I would suggest if this concerns you, ask them.

HAve to add some things to the HD to make up for what it lacks as standard equipment. ABS for one.....that's $800 clams. But it really isn't about the money, in my thinking, it's about the value, durability and the ride.... I was never one to concern myself with status. Not in my vehicles, my work tools, my clothes or anything else for that matter. I'm concerned with value for my hard earned cash. Yamaha has never failed to give me that. Not in music, in stereos, in motorcycles.....

The Star Eluder..... A bagger! The RSTD version of the new Venture....cool looking! https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motorcycle?_ga=2.127745933.1410824348.1504295975-2021562092.1504295975

In the past few years, Arizona courts have recognized that those who wear protective gear by choice, are being proactive in their life care, and will rule more favorably for them in the event of an accident and medical/health/legal claims. Those who don't, do not get the same respect. Insurance companies and opposing lawyers have picked up on this big time. So even if the motorcyclist did no wrong in the accident....he/she loses. In other words, wear the gear or lose the case. Add to that, road rash is just like a 3rd degree burn. The pain and disfigurement is the same. The lifetime care is the same. I've filmed enough of that. No thanks.

Don't know..... I did 2 bids. 1st one was a mistake, so I re-bid...and didn't put in the max amount.....