Flyinfool

The 7" drum brakes are not that terribly heavy. Since you are adding brakes the brakes can stop their own additional weight easily. The controller that I plan to use will be mounted on the trailer tongue, with a wireless remote controller mounted on the bars. The trailer will have a standard 4 or 5 wire electrical hookup. I just have to make sure my brake light circuit can handle the amps of the brakes. Should be no problem since my trailer lighting is relay isolated. This way too, the trailer can still be attached to any bike with the same 4 or 5 wire connecter. Mine will be setup 4 wire just cuz thats what everything already is.

We are trying again tonight. Come one come all.... Hers a shortcut to get you there. http://host718.123flashchat.com/venturerider/123flashchat.php?init_group=venturerider

The ignition bypass on the 2nd gens is adding a relay to carry the current and the ignition switch is only switching the relay coil power. This way it still works just like normal.

Kill switch should not take out horn and lights. I would certainly start at the fuse boxes.

Was that 500lbs the empty trailer or fully loaded? If that was before you add gear you may have a problem. Check the max weight ratings for the hitch that you have on the bike. The rules of thumb that I have always used are; 1. Tongue weight should be 10% of trailer weight. 2. Max tongue weight on a bike should be 40 lbs.* 3. Trailer gross weight not more than 50% of tow vehicle loaded weight. These seem to be in conflict. *The closer the ball is to the rear axle the more tongue weight you can carry. The lower the ball, the less side force the trailer will have if it does sway. If you have to little tongue weight, the trailer will sway. The faster you go the more likely to get trailer sway. You need to experiment to find out the limits of YOUR setup. Exact numbers of what works for me or anyone else, may or may not work for you. While Someone else's numbers may not be right for you, they may still be a good starting point. While you can to some extent control your following distance, to help with your increased stopping distance. That does not prevent some jerk from pulling into that nice gap and then having to hit his brakes because he is to close to the care in front of him, or the one that stops at the stop sign and then pulls out right in front of you. At some point a panic stop will need to be made. Make sure you have tested your limits fully loaded. My trailer is about 400lbs loaded, and I am not comfortable with the stopping distance. I have found all of the parts necessary to add electric brakes to my trailer. You may be able to check your trailer weight with a bathroom scale. One wheel at a time, and a hunk of 2X lumber under the other wheel, then check tongue weight with the trailer tongue at the same angle it is at while hooked up to bike.

Glad you got it fixed. As for speeds in gears, Hold the throttle wide open and don't shift till you feel the rev limiter. Thats the power band. You will not hurt the engine doing this, but you will hurt the feelings of most Harleys that are watching you dissappear........

Now wait just a pie eatin minute here. A Pie Butt Ride? That sounds like it is right up my ally.......

Now that almost sounds like what made Erika stop coming to the docs with me........

Thats a good ish....

Yes it is possible to line the tank. There are several good writeups on this site of how to do it, and discussions of the different materials available. White smoke out of a cold engine is normal especially if you have high humidity, On a cool damp morning mine looks like a fog generator until it gets warmed up, some backfiring of a cold engine is also normal. Did you have the choke on? Check for exhaust leaks?

Puc, I'm still sendin prayers and best wishes for you. It sounds like the news for you is slowly getting to be less and less bad, thats a good thing. Thanks for keeping us up to date. With my own recent travels thru the CTMFW, a lot of this medical stuff is fascinating. Scary as all get out, especially if you are on the receiving end, but still fascinating. There may be a lot of CTMFW talk in chat tonight......

Oh my, Bike porn, she is nearly nekid........ Headlight and tail lights and brake lights do run thru CMU but only for a sensor to turn on the warning light if one of them burns out. easily bypassed. The Turn signals do not run thru the CMU but only have a wire into the dash for the dash turn indicators. Get a flashlight and take a look in the tank for rust. If you ae belo2w a half tank you can pull the sender (under the seat) to look at that half of the tank. How long has it sat before you got it, it may just be gummed up carbs and some SeaFoam may help. The switch for the fan is located just behind the radiator high on the right side. it is easy to accidentally knock the wire off of the switch. Short the switch wires to see if the fan comes on.

If the valves have never been done then they are due. Recommended is every 26K. If they have been done before then you are probably OK for a while yet. One way to get a clue on if they have been done is to look at the edges of the valve cover gaskets. There is a half circle part on the side of each head. if that has cracking or you have oil leaks from the valve covers, then it is very old rubber and the valves likely have not been done before. If the rubber looks fairly fresh, they may have been done. This is not a guaranty either way, just another clue.

While having the valves in proper adjustment is needed for a perfect carb sync. Checking the valves every time you sync the carbs is not necessary or realistic. How many miles are on your bike? Mileage is what determines when the valves need to be checked. Valve adjustment just sounds scary. If you can take apart a carb you can do the valves. Even I did my valves. It is not hard, just takes a lot of time. and it will be a great satisfaction when you are done.

Someone mention food?????

Since the shims are case hardened I would not want to take off much more than .1mm (.004 in). Any more than that and the case could be getting thin and I would worry about them holding up in use. So your abundance of 300s could go down to 290 ish safely? I do not know what the thickness of the case is on these shims. Case hardening is normally .010 to .030 thick. These shims were hardened before the factory ground them to final size. I do not have a good way to measure the remaining case thickness. Some may have a lot more case left than others.

Start by using @cowpuc recommendation from Ricks Grinding Noise thread. On the extended pistons use a strip of cloth soaked in brake fluid to clean the pistons, then push them back in with a clamp. set up your clamp to hold those 2 pistons in and gently press the brake to extend the stuck pistons most of the way out. Now clean them with the cloth strip and brake fluid. With some luck you can get them cleaned up enough to get back to functional to get you through the trip and then do a proper rebuild once you get home.

I will try to remember to check my stock when I get home tonight. I know I have a pile of leftover shims from having just done mine. If desperation sets in, I have a surface grinder and can make any size you need.

Good luck to the Puc. I hope they have good answers to all of your questions and even answers to the questions that you never thought to ask.

Well getting the bike off of the stand turned out to be very uneventful. I have now had it on and off the dolly a few times. Once I learned the proper technique. it is no harder than getting it on and off the center stand. If some one wants a set of drawings and parts list so they can make one for themselves, just let me know.

I think your bouncing days are getting pretty limited....... Hopefully you did not undo any healing that had been happening by laying the wrong way. Prayers and best wishes for you get things put back together ASAP. Warden is gonna knock some sense into you yet. But she might need a new frying pan by the time this is all over with, the one she has must have a lot of dents in it by now.

Nice write up. I really do wish I could have made it there. And you rode almost right past my house and some free ICE CREAM and grilled hot dogs, and I didn't even see you wave. Knobs, levers, switches and dials. Did you duck last night?

Waving is a personal choice, I see many bikers that do not wave. If my left hand is not busy I usually wave, but that is just me, many, maybe even most, do not wave back. I really don't care if they do or not. There are some riders that are deeply offended if you do not wave, there are other riders that are deeply offended if you do wave and are not on the same brand bike they are on. Then there is everyone else in between the extremes. So to answer your question, No it does not make you a jerk, it just makes you one of the many that does not care to wave.

Nope That vid was posted back in May 2014. They have no clue now what the new Venture will be, so certainly had no clue back then.

My 1st gen does similar. The cruise always steadies out about 5 MPH less that what I set it for. So I either speed up to the extra 5 before I hit set, or hit set, wait a bout 5 miles for it to stabilize and them hit ACCL a few times to get it back to where I wanted it in the first place.