Flyinfool

I have had good luck with a long sleeve cotton shirts for hot sunny days. Cotton is good at keeping you cool, you can wet it and almost be cold while it is drying. Cotton is good in the summer for the very reasons it is not recommended in the winter. There may be modern fibers that work better than cotton at keeping you cool, but I have not found one yet. On the down side, cotton has very little abrasion resistance to pavement if you are sliding down the road. It will only help you out for the first 2 or 3 inches of the slide.

How big of flags are you talking about? Big flags are a lot of wind drag and can be loud flapping in the wind, your poles have to be quite strong to hold up at 100 mph wind speed. (70 MPH into a 30 MPH headwind is not unrealistic) Big flags also add a lot of side load in a cross wind. So if you are talking big flags then I would say to go for it but only for around town. Small trunk mounted type flags are no problem, tell her they will look great. Now if you have a receiver hitch you can make a plug in flag pole holder to put them on and take them off in just seconds. That way you can have the flags when solo and take them off for 2 up and both be happy.

I looked at my bike and decided to give it a bath. So I rolled it out of the shed into the middle of the back yard, and wouldn't you know, that silly bike is still afraid of water. It took off down the block and made it around the corner at the end of the street and the next thing I know is it is wanting a drink of gas. so give it a good drink right up to the top and while I am paying the bill, sure enough it takes off on me again. It took another hour to get it back home, now it is to late for a bath, so I tucked it in and went to bed.

Touring with "characters"? So has he ridden with @cowpuc yet?

Most cheap ohm meters have difficulty measuring low values like the stator. If you wand a "good" meter get a Fluke. That is what most pros use, but they are expensive. I have a Craftsman P/N 73756 meter, I like this one because it has a clamp on amp meter so that you can measure the amps AC or DC without having to disconnect any wires. I found it on sale for $50. This feature makes it easier to test the charging system. Just clamp on to each of the 3 stator wires one at a time and they should all be putting out the same amps. If one leg is different then you have a bad stator and/OR a bad rectifier. The ohms function works well enough for testing a stator. I use an Amprobe P/N AMB-35 for measuring low resistance things. It also lets me run a megger test on the windings insulation. But that is getting to a whole new area of messing around with stuff. This is a very expensive meter that can hurt you if you do not know what you are doing.

I've made a squirrel head shot with a .357. It just takes 5 years of 8,000 rounds per year of practice first. The trick is to get it while it is still outside, saves on roof repairs. The other advantage of a 357 over a pellet gun is that the squirrel can not hide behind a stick, well he can but it won't matter. Dang, I sure do wish I could still shoot like that...................

I guess a lot has to do with your circumstance of the moment. IF you going COP because one or more of the stock coils has failed and you need to get running and willing to "upgrade in the process" but funds may still be an issue? This is a good reason to try to make the stock TCI work. Are you going COP just because you can and money is no object? Then replace the TCI at the same time as the COP.

Based on the description of the resistor that came with the Kit it was probably a 10 Watt. If the Dwell is around 40° (I'm guessing but, probably less) that makes for a 11.1% duty cycle. So if there is good airflow over the resistor a 5 watt could get it done 10 to be sure and have a safety margin. OK, so I know just enough about electronics to be dangerous, but I am far from an expert. Per the service manual, the stock coils have a resistance between 2.4 and 3.0 ohms. This means that the TCI must sink between 4.7 to 5.8 amps. (you need to do the math at 14 Volts not 12V since 14 is normal when the bike is running). From what I can determine only from reading some of the threads, the COPs are around 1.5 to 1.8 ohms. This means a current of 7.8 to 9.3 Amps First thought is has anyone looked inside of the TCI to see what transistors they are using to switch the coils? Could they be replaced with a more modern transistor that can handle the 10 amps. Maybe change to a MOSFET without to much redesign of the board? A more modern transistor may actually produce less heat that what is in there, even at the higher amps. Second option would be to make up a simple circuit with a power transistor that is driven by the output signal of the TCI to handle the actual load current of the COPs? I think this could be done fairly inexpensively? This would end up retarding the timing by around 0.06 degrees, not enough to matter. Option 3 is to spend the bux for a new different TCI.

My hitch was all made from 1-1/4 ID x 1/8 wall tubing and my cross tube is in 2 pieces with the receiver tube between. Yours being made from 3/16 wall and having the cross piece as a single piece likely should not need the top plate like I have. my chain plate and top plate are also 1/8 thick. All of my joints are fully seal welded to keep moisture out and prevent rust from starting in any seam. My stinger is made from a piece of 1-1/4 od x 1/8 wall tubing with some extra support welded into the ball end. This saves a lot of weight over the store bought with a solid stinger that is made to hold 2,000 lbs. If you want I can make up a drawing of how I made my Stinger. Something to watch for with the powder coating. If they powder coat the inside of the receiver tube, the paint buildup may cause you to have a hard time getting the stinger in. Powder coat is pretty thick. Mine was painted with Rustolium which is much thinner and it was enough to make the stinger not fit.

Now I know where to go parts shopping. My stash consists of an 85 engine in boxes with a bad 2nd gear and 1 milk crate half full of assorted small parts.

Who says your stinger was to long??? My hitch for my 1st gen with fresh wet paint. It feels so good when a project comes together as planned. Nice job.

Did you shed a tear when you popped the seal? And now you will have a really low mileage bike to boot.

On my home puter I can open it just fine, At work I have to use the software the company decides on. It looks like the receiver hitch version is an extra cost option. the standard version leaves the receiver free.

Nope, even the links on the google page are blocked. Even just going direct to http://www.mountainmaster.net will get blocked. so it is not just a page it is the whole site being blocked.

I also get a warning of a malicious site and it is blocked by my Avast AV software. I agree that by the time you get the bike into the truck along with whatever ramps or lifting device you use, and straps and tie downs, and people and fuel, there will be no capacity left for the 600 or more lbs of tongue weight in a 1/2 ton P/U. It is far better to have to much truck capacity than just a bit to little. As mentioned earlier, there is also the legal issue, IF you should be in a crash and you are overweight, (ie running illegally) it is almost automatically your fault. The lawyers will not care what mods you have done to the truck, it is what the factory door sticker says. To properly mod a 1/2 ton to match the strength and capacities of a 3/4 or 1 ton would cost more than to just go out and buy the one you need. Unless of course you are doing the mods just for the fun of it.

As Freebird mentioned, many of those are simply way over loaded. Some get away with it figuring that they are only going a short distance and or fairly level roads or just don't care. There is a lot more to towing than engine size and rear gear ratio. Brakes, engine and trany cooling, axle bearings, tire ratings, hub sizes, even the weather makes a difference. When you look at that total combined max towing weights, many fail to add in the weight on the tongue, the weight of fuel, passengers including yourself and any cargo in the truck including all of the stuff that you store in the truck like jumpers, extra oil, tow chains etc. Its all weight and it all counts.

They say sometimes life throws you a curve ball, but then no one ever told me that sometimes life throws you a cannonball. Health is a major drain on the body making it hard to do many of the things you have loved forever, health also can wreak havoc on a family budget making it fiscally impossible to do all of the things you have done forever. Since Yamaha has gotten out of the touring bike market many members have moved on to other brands and left this site. Every time you see a Venture getting parted out that is our user base declining by one. Every crash or mishap with an obsolete Venture is also our user base declining by another one. Because there is no Gen 3 to fill the void, the void just keeps getting bigger.

The diodes are so cheap that it is certainly worth a try as long as it is out and opened up. Usually if a diode fails it takes out the main processor, but since the bike is still running you might just be the first lucky one.

Since the Hardly logo is stamped in just fill it with some body filler and paint them black to match the adapters and the rest of the bike. It will also give you that much less chrome to polish every day.

The RLU is about the size of a pack of cigarettes and is located behind the windshield and under the dash, or you might be able to get to it thru the headlight.

Cool Looking forward to it.

How long did you let it run? It takes a while for the filter and lines to fill with oil.

Many have tried, none have even come close.................... To get to it you have to be able to eat more ice cream than I can. I have not yet met that person...................

Glad you made it home for some sleep in your own bed. So with the trip out and back plus the rally how many miles did you put in? In how many days? My butt already hurts just thinking about it................

Neither, A car like that would come with the proper fastener torqued to the proper spec and run smooth enough that I would not need to add aftermarket thread locker to anything. Where I work, We do use the #425 Loctite for a plastic part on one of our machines, it does not damage the plastic and it does keep things together. The standard #242 blue loctite did eat the plastic parts. I have never used thread locker on my windshield bolts, and have never had one come loose. Wisconsin has the second worst roads in the USA behind only Connecticut, so I do get a good share of shake rattle and roll, bounce and jiggle. Average Wisconsin pothole............. The road smooths out when the hole gets enough cars in the bottom of it............