Rick Butler

Folks, I know this topic has been brought up just recently so I'd like to share what I've found out while servicing my 02 Midnight. When I checked my valves just recently I decided to remove the carbs and disassemble and clean them up while I was in there. It was the then that I saw that there appeared to be some significant cracks starting in the intakes. So I then decided to replace them all since I plan to keep this bike for a long time to come now that I have it where I want it. But as many of you know, I like to take items apart to see what's inside. so this is what I did to one of the intakes, of which I have attached a picture to show how far the inner aluminum base goes up. My intakes are about 6 years old now and even though there were cracks starting to form, I can tell you that in the end they were all superficial. The rubber on these intakes (above the aluminum base that is molded in) is so thick that I seriously doubt that a crack will make it all the way through. But I could be wrong, especially on older intakes. As a special note, when I was finished installing the new intakes, I checked the compression before I put in new plugs. This engine now has about 90k on it and all cylinders produced right at 180 lbs, which I thought was pretty good. Hope this is enlightening, Rick

Yeah John, A lift is really a must-have. Once you have disconnected the hoses from the AIS valve you can remove it to get it out of the way of the linkage nuts/bolts. With the lift in place but not lifting the bike, you can take the nuts off the top and bottom link bolts. With the nuts off, raise the jack enough to take the pressure off the link bolts. I usually do this by feeling the bottom bolt as I raise the bike and when it gets just right, you can feel the bolt push through to the other side, so take it out. Now the inside or right link can come off. The left side link will come off after the top bolt has been removed. There is a good chance that there is some crude on two bolts that you took off. I usually clean them up on a grinder wire wheel to remove the crude. The bearing races may also need to be removed from the needle bearings and cleaned out and greased along with the bolts. This will help them from retaining moisture in the future. Putting the new links, install the top bolt and the left link first. Now the bottom bolt will not align with the linkage hole. Just jack the bike up until the bolt slips in from the left link through the linkage hole. Then you can slip the right link on and install and snug the nuts up. Now let the jack down to where there is now pressure on the bolts and you can torque the 2 nuts to 36 ft lbs. Then you can put the AIS valve back on and hook the hoses back up. Hope this helps, Rick

You know Guys, As much as I like Allen's products from DiamondR, the cleanest best looking extra lights for the rear of a RSV or RSTD is made by Harley. They provide both an extra set of running lights but also extra brake lights since they have dual element bulbs. I usually cut the end off the lead and wire them up with a relay for both the running and brake lights. You can tap into the tail/turn signal wiring/connector just behind the battery, where the blue wire is for the running light and the yellow is the brake light. There seems to be two of these Harley light kits #68230-97A and #68230-88B where you can find them at your local dealer or http://www.surdyke.com/hd/product.asp?prod=4138&cat=109 probably for a little less. Either one will work where the 88B retails for $154.95 and the 97A for $169.95. Hope this helps, Rick

Rick, I notice in your product description of this stator that you have a special note: This unit requires hard wire (soldered) connection Could you explain this further and how much trouble does it cause for the general do-it-yourselfer. Thanks, Rick

Guys, After reading all this sound advise, I have one tidbit of information for those of you who ride with passengers. There will be those times when you will inadvertenly get the bike off balance and it will want to fall over. And most likely you will catch it, but it will be too little, too late and your leg muscles will be bulging as you try to keep the bike upright. And the weight of your passenger naturally leaning with the bike only makes the situation worse. Then it gets to the point that you can't hold it any more and the bike goes over on the crash bars causing the passenger to spill out of the back seat and onto the ground. Most of the time when the RSV gets to the crash bars, it will go completely horizontal onto it's side. Here is where the passenger can help if they recognize the situation. Instead of just sitting there as the bike goes to one side and their weight only causes the bike to go over sooner, if they would just shift their weight to the other side, it will help upright the bike. It's like when you make a slow turn on a sloped surface and have to lean your body to the outside of the turn to help keep the bike upright. All you are doing is changing the center of gravity of the bike and passengers. I first discovered this by accident when we pulled up to the west entrance of Big Bend National Park on my 93. The concrete pad was poured in two sections and one side at the joint had a slight drop. When I pulled up, my front wheel rolled to the side that had a drop, which caused the bike to go off center as I stopped. I caught it, but knew it wouldn't be enough, so I spoke into the intercom "Linda would you please lean to the left a bit" which she did. And just that weight shift brought the bike back upright and saved us from going over. Since then, we have done this several times to keep the bike up where she has started recognizing the situation and making the correction herself. Of course a big grunt from me with both hands on the grips is always a good signal to her. Hope this helps, Rick

No Jack, The card they give you is a nice plastic (credit like) card with a nice scenic picture and "Senior Pass" on one side and all of the restrictions, bar code, magnetic strip and a place for your signature on the other side. But I'm guessing there may be something like your name, address, DL number on the magnetic strip. Heck no further than you are from Yosemite, I'd ride over there just to get the pass. Rick

Yeah Condor, It's like George says, just ask for it at any National Park entrance. I picked up mine when we pulled into Yellowstone this year. He said sure thing and asked two questions. 1. Was a US citizen and 2. Was I at least 62 years old. And when I answered "yes" to both, he asked for my driver's license and he worked me up a Senior Pass for $10 (for the rest of my life). And it covers anyone that is in (or on) you vehicle (up to 3 extra people). Now because of the proof of age restriction, these passes can only be bought in person from any National Park entrance, unlike the annual passes. And when you use it, you have to show the pass as well as photo id (drivers license). Rick

Jim, The best windshield bag I have found (and have used for about 5 years now) is made by J&M. It just slips down between the windshield and dash before you tighten up your windshield screws. And it is not deep enough to where it will cover up your speedometer when it hangs down (like the Hopnel). The best place to buy it is from Sierra Electronics which is the largest of the J&M distributors. http://www.sierra-mc.com Search for HDCH-960 or HDCH-990, where I think the 990 has studs and sells for $85 where the 960 is $51. Now for a trunk rack bag, it's pretty hard to beat what Yahama sells as a Star accessory. It has 2 expandable pockets and was built for the Star trunk rack. But then again there are also other aternatives. Hope this helps, Rick

Yeah, The 85 V-Max was the prototype for the 86 1300, where it received the V-Max bottom end and final drive which had been beefed up for the hotter V-Max engine. But saying that, the final drive was not exactly the same when it came to gearing because the XVZ1300 it had one more tooth on the ring gear like the newer RSVs. Rick

GW, It really doesn't matter, pick a year, any year, they are all the same. Now will they fit into your 85, I'm not sure. Because the 83-85 Ventures have a different final drive. Rick

Gosh, I'm really surprised that no one has replied to my last response on this issue. Maybe it was too confusing? But I wouldn't think so. Rick

Kent, You are absolutely right that this discussion might be better suited on your patio over a beer. But then the rest of our friends on this forum would not be privy to any concrete results that would come out of it? However I just remembered a good tech article I saw on the Sonic Springs site. In fact I used to think like you do about springs and preload until I started reading articles like this. http://www.sonicsprings.com/catalog/preload_tech_article.php Another good place to get information on topics like this is the Race-Tech site. I got involved with Race-Tech when a friend convinced me to install Cartridge Emulators in my 93 (which I'm running also in my 02). http://www.racetech.com/SubMenu.asp?cMenu=4&c=Yes&cSubMenu=9&showPage= Anyway you will see that spring rate is just what it is, the rate that a spring will compress (of which nothing will change that rate). And that the issue of Preload is nothing more than a technique of setting ride height. And this distance is the height of the bike with the bike's wet weight, you, your gear and anything else that is placed forward of you on the bike like a loaded tank bag. The procedure of properly setting this height is also called "setting the sag", which is nothing more than setting the attitude of the loaded bike so that it doesn't do anything unexpected while we are riding. And most of us realize that we need to change something when the passenger starts complaining that the bike is bottoming out and it hurts. So now we stop and add some air in the rear shock so the bike doesn't settle as much and there is still some spring left to take up any bumps. The same in the front, where we notice that the front end is diving too much, bottoming out, or causing the bike to wallow in the turns. Adding air to the forks is less effective because of the volume, but it also causes the bike to settle less under these conditions. And if you think about what is going on, you will realize that if we did the optimum change to our bikes, that each of us would have different spring rate on both the rear shock and the front springs (because of our varying weights). This is done more with racing bikes than street bikes like ours, but the principles are the same. That is if we want to get the same effect so that the bike handles better than it does off the show room floor. Now it all boils down to economics as to how much we want to spend to effect this change, where most of us are probably satisfied with the bike as it is. But in my case I've never been satisfied with the characteristics of a stock bike, which is whey I tinker with changing these features (yeah brakes included) and learning as much as I can from others. This is why I'm running Race-Tech Cartridge Emulators and heavier (constant rate) springs in my forks and a rear Works Performance shock set for my weight and riding style. But I paid a premium for all of this, on top of the price of the bike. A friend decided to change out to an Olins rear shock (set for his weight) and a set of fork springs (set for his weight) on his 04 FJR and it cost him over $1,500. And that was after he did his homework on finding the best deal and doing all the work himself. The bottom line with large touring bikes like what we ride, is that the manufactures cannot build a bike for each of us to accomodate all of our varying weights. So they come up with a compromise....air adjustable suspensions, so we can adjust for these different weights. It's not the best solution, but it's the best and most economical under the circumstances. And Kent, no further than we live from each other, we need to get together, (I'd say more often, but we have never met once ) since we seem to share the same riding style and both like to tinker. And we seem to have partners that also like to ride (or passenger in my case). I also have a group of guys I ride with that is pretty diverse, where we have both touring and sport touring riders. (They are also the reason I bought a Ninja 650R for a play and track bike to learn more) And when it comes to riding, we spend alot of time in Arkansas and the Hill Country as well as all of the back FM roads up NE of Dallas (also the route to Oklahoma and Arakansas). In fact Stoutman came down to Kerrville year before last to hang with us. But that weekend was a little wet so he came back early. I'd better stop here before I run Don out of server space. But in closing, I always remember what Oprah said once, "Knowledge is Power" and she's right for the most part. Rick

Yeah, I still remember back in the days when I was young and stupid. However most of these riders are wearing some sort of head gear, so it wasn't filmed in the Black Hills. However, Mother Nature still needs some more time to clean up the gene pool because it's still a little dirty. I also remember walking out of the movie theater in 1970 after watching Easy Rider and had this urge to sell my Triumph and buy a Harley. But this video clip also makes me think that I wouldn't mind owning a Harley if it wasn't for the people I'd have to ride with? Just kidding but it does seem to have some truth to it doesn't it? Rick

Sorry Kent, I guess I didn't make myself that clear and was really addressing the front forks, which was the issue I think you were pointing out. Yeah, for most of us who are around 200 lbs or better, you need to have some fairly significant air in the shock. But this is still meant to establish the bike's rear ride height once the rider and especially the passenger (over the rear wheel) are on the bike. Yeah it really doesn't raise the bike per say, but it doesn't let the bike drop as much as it would with less air. I think in your case with 15lbs of air and your weight, you probably had the shock compressed pretty good. And it probably sat somewhat lower in the rear which caused the wallowing in the curve because you now have more rake & trail. But, I will suggest that a 150lb rider could have ridden your bike with 15lbs of air in the rear shock and it would handle just as well as it would with you on the bike with 45lbs of air? Now in my case I'm running a Works shock so I don't have to deal with the OEM shock. And all I have is the proper spring rate for my weight and 500 lbs of nitrogen and oil to control the compression and rebound dampening, where I can adjust the rebound. It's the front forks that really don't need that much or any air with the proper springs. But then again for a rider that is heavier, then yes they will need some air, but again to limit the sag (ride height) once the rider get's on the bike. I know from experience that this bike alone needs a heavier 1.20 kg/mm spring rather than the .90kg/mm. But, air is a poor medium for any shock and they are using it to provide the rider the option to set the ride height because of the broad range of rider/passenger weights. Why is it that in autos that air shocks are often referred to as load levelers? But you are so correct that each rider needs to adjust their bike's suspension to fit thier riding style and comfort level based upon their weights being placed on the bike. JMHO, Rick

Goose, You make some very good points, especially to have the forks equalized with each other. However for everyone's information all the air does in the rear shock or front forks is adjust the ride height. In other words it raises or lowers the bike based upon the overall fork or rear shock travel after the bike is loaded with rider and/or passenger. The ride of the bike is really based upon the spring rate and the shock or fork dampening. And the controllable dampening is only available to the forks in the form of fork oil weight and amount of oil. If I remember right, the weight of the oil controlls the compression rate and the amount of oil controls the rebound rate. The spring rate really controls the basic part of the ride based upon the weight that is added to the bike. The Japanese build these bikes for an average rider & passenger and the spring rate is set as cushy as they can for a comfortable touring bike. The specs for the RSV is a front spring rate of .90kg/mm. However for most of us, we need a spring rate of 1.20kg/mm to decrease the front end sag with the weight of the bike plus driver. This heavier spring also helps in front end dive under heavy front braking. So if you are an average weight rider with an average weight passenger and ride primarily on the straighter interstates, the RSV is suitable as delivered. But if you ride two-up when riding alone and like to ride more aggressive and want the bike to handle better, I'd suggest that you at least consider changing out the fork springs with Progressive's or a constant rate spring from someone like Race Tech or Sonic Springs. A good time to do this would be when you decide it's time to change the fork oil. And then forget about running any air pressure because the springs now control the ride height based upon the spring rate, the available travel, and bike/rider weight. Hope this clears up some questions, Rick

Goose, I think when they say they see metal, it's really fine particles in the form of a metalic sludge that Kit spoke of. But saying that, I will suggest that if you did the initial final drive fluid change at say 2,000 or worse 5,000 miles, you would see a very heavy metalic laced sludge on the magnet. And from my experience, at this time you would have already permanetely damaged the needle bearings in the pinion gear. Rick

Guys, Trust me, there is NO air bladder in this shock. What you see is just a rubber boot to keep crap off the large shock ram. And after it stops leaking oil, it will stop holding air. This because the seal has stopped sealing because of small scratches on the outer ram. Regardless if your bike is still under warrenty, your dealer and Yamaha will replace it. If it's not under warrenty, then the Performance Works shock is a good alternative. Not an inexpensive alternative but one that can be rebuilt and will last for a longer time. But the stock 2008 shock is only $350 (plus shipping) from Flatout Motorcycles and you might find a used one on Ebay if you don't think you will keep it for longer than 5 years. Hope this helps, Rick

Not really George, It's always been an issue to replace the final drive fluids within the initial 500-1,000 miles. This is because of the fine metal shavings that come off the newly machined beveled gears. After a short period, the gears get smoothed out and this is not an issue. In my case, I inadvertently didn't get this completed in time (took off on a long trip) and had to have 2 drives replaced because of the damage this contaminated fluid did to the inner needle bearings. This fuid not only lubricates the two main gears and their bearings, but also the inner bearings in the pinion. I think the message of this post is: 1. Make sure you replace the final drive fluid in the 1st 500-1,000 miles (I would suggest 500 miles to be on the safe side). 2. On future refills, use a quality synthetic hypoid fluid, where I would suggest a higher pressure severe gear fluid. These fluids provide better lubrication and run cooler. And I think changing this fluid on a more regular basis (like every rear tire change) than required is not a bad idea considering the amount of fuid that is involved. And there is some thought that I don't change this fuid that often in my car or truck, so why should I change it in my bike? Well one, our auto final drives are built with heavier duty bearings and two, maybe we should be considering changing it more often and with a good synthetic fluid in our autos? Hope this helps, Rick

Yeah Brian, I think you did. And from what I see they didn't conclude their R&D until just November 1st, where it's now available for sale. I've never noticed but has Buckeye always offered high output stators for the 1st gen and now they have one for the RSV? I'm really surprised that Electro Sport hasn't been able to make one that will work. Brad, with the burned up connector you showed I'm wondering if maybe they needed a soldered connection where Buckey makes a special note that Their unit requires hard wire (soldered) connection? Sorry for getting you involved in this project. It's been just about a year now hasn't it? Rick

Guys, Please don't fall for that old "how often do you change rear end fluid in your car" trick. Automobile final drives have much heavier bearing and races than the Venture has. Most of the bearings in this final drive are pretty heavy, but there is a set of needle bearings in the head of the pinion gear. If any heavy metal contaminated hypoid fluid make it's way to this set of bearings, they will be severily damaged. I discovered this the hard way after loosing 2 rear drives to the fact that I didn't get the initial fluid changed out within the 1st 500 miles. In my 3rd drive, I changed the fluid out in 500 miles then again after the next 500 miles and used Mobil 1 synthetic Then I went with the most severe wear synthetic hypoid I could find which was Redline Heavy 75/240 weight. I have since started using AMSOIL 75/140 severe pressure gear lube. I have over 80K on this drive with no problems and I change it out with each rear tire change after I grease the drive shaft splines. Hope this helps, Rick

Sorry Kit, I didn't mean to throw you off with the picture of the Wilwood valve. I couldn't find one of the Speedway compact valve that showed the adapters and banjo washers with the line. But for your info, here are a couple of pictures of the front and rear calipers after I finished installing them. Rick

Kit, Rocket hit it on the head with getting the caliper to bleed by taking it off the bracket and let it hang with the valve at the top. But since I had 2 calipers at hand, I played with them and took 2 and made one with the bleed valve at the top. But I had to also releave the outer bracket to accomodate the different sized pistons that were now switched. Now on the valve, I'm not sure if you found it, but it's at the following link: http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/1979,9_Compact-Adjustable-Proportioning-Valve.html?itemNo=Proportioning%20Valve But when I received this valve I was rather puzzled on how I would attach it to the master cylinder. The valve came with two 1/8” NPT brass fittings designed to mate with flared metal lines from a car. But as I was playing around with a fitting that came with my Galfer lines to mate with the master cylinder, I saw that with these brass fittings taken out the taped hole was almost identical to a 10mm X 1.00 pitch male fitting. In other words, it would start to screw in, but only so far because these were pipe threads and therefore tapered. So after checking the thread match from the NPT brass fitting to my 10mm X 1.00 Galfer fitting, I decided to re-tap these NPT threads for a 10mm 1.00 pitch which went just fine. But the threads were not an exact match so I chose to use banjo bolt copper washers to insure a complete seal at the fitting, and this worked. I have attached a picture of a Wilwood valve showing both the input and output line fittings (with copper banjo washers), the original brass 1/8” NPT adapter and a 10mm X 1.0 pitch tap. I used 2 Galfer line fittings where the input side is 1/8” (28h Gas) on the left side and 10mm X 1.25 pitch on the right side which mates to the output from the master cylinder. These 1/8” fittings are straight threads which very closely match the 10mm X 1.00 threads. But the Speedway valve works much nicer in that it's a more compact valve that is a straight through design. If you need any help on doing this I can do with what I did with Don and a couple of other guys....order the valve and line, and tap the valve and assemble it together so you can just bolt it up. But if you have the metric taps you can do it yourself. I get the line from CycleBrakes.com (800) 805-2118. Just tell them you want the line and 2 adapters that Rick Butler has a standing order for. Let me know if you need anything else, Rick

Guys, I have been following this Lifesaver TCB post with interest ever since I became aware of it from Orrin's original post. And I felt that if it worked as reported it would be a very valuable and less expensive option than my solution of using a proportioning valve on the rear caliper. From the best that I can gather from what Kit has reported, this valve is really just a hydralic shock absorber to the brake caliper. However in our case on the rear caliper, there is so much volume of brake fluid that is being used in one place that this device cannot take enough shock to control a rear caliper lockup. This rear brake has 4 pistons being applied from one master cylinder and in all reality is way too much brake. In fact I have even written Yamaha providing my research on this topic and I feel it has fallen on deaf ears. This bike (or any big bike without linked or ABS brakes) does not need a 4-pistion caliper on the rear brake.....period. Look at what other big bikes use, even Yamaha's Road Warrior or the newer Stratoliner....yeah a large 1-piston sliding pin caliper. And most of them use 4-piston front calipers, where the standard Road Star was upgraded to 4-piston calipers in 2005. They started out with just what we have, 2-piston sliding pin calipers in front and a 4-piston caliper in the rear. And these bikes are much lighter in the rear and the front than our RSVs. Go figure? I think Don's suggestion of using both a proportioning valve and the TCB would be the optimum solution, but this really starts to get expensive. This is why I gave up on installing a converted 1st gen proportioning and metering valve and went with just an adjustable propotioning valve as the better solution. In case any of you have not been following all of my posts on this issue, I will repeat my solution again again on my RSV. In fact this bike has almost killed my wife and I once, banged (broke my 2nd metacarpal) us up bad a second time, and tore me up the third time (broken collar bone). However I have rebuilt the same bike 3 times now and am still riding it with about 90K on it. After my last accident, I thought about selling it and getting somewthing with ABS, butgave it one last chance by installing a Speedway adjustable proportioning valve to the rear master cylinder, which solved all of my problems with this braking system. However, I first installed 1st gen 4-piston front calipers and modified one of our front 2-piston calipers and put it on the rear. This mod was just taking the piston body from the left (I think) with the frame from the front right caliper. The right caliper will bolt up alright, but the bleed valve is at the lower part of the caliper and it will not bleed normally. The valve needs to be at the top of the system to get all the air out. And when I first installed a proportioning valve, I tested it to see if it cut the pressure or the volume flowing to the caliper. The pressure stayed the same, so I concluded this valve just cut down on the volume allowing the pistons to advance slower than previous. This allows you to firmly press on the forward control brake pedal to set the caliper and pistons to the rotor and then to apply more constant pedal to brake as needed. In the stock condition, this caliper will slam these 4 pistons to the rotor with just a fair amount of brake pedal movement. And if you are in normal control of your stop, you can apply better pressure to the rear. Howver when you get into an emergency sitiation, all bets are off and the right foot will do whatever it wants based upon past experiences......mostly from your car or truck emergency braking. The basic solution (as many have already pointed out) is to get into the habit of using your front brakes first and then come in with a properly modulated rear brake to come to a controlled stop. In conclusion, I have spent alot of time and money to come to a better solution to this bike's braking system and now have it where I want it. In fact I plan on keeping it until it won't run any longer, because I love what pleasures these Ventures have given me (and Linda) since 1983, in spite of how bad we have been hurt on this last one. I'm just thankful that I'm still able to ride . And even more important that Linda will still ride with me . Just a another note. I have helmet decals I had made up on both sides of my helmet of "Crash Test Prototype" with the crash test symbol, but Linda wanted "Crash Test Dummy". Mine is a symbol of being a survivor and Linda's is for what our friends think of her for still riding with me. Hope this helps, Rick PS: Sorry for getting to long winded

Eddie, I went through 2 rear ends in my 02 before I realized what my problem was.....where I didn't change out the initial hypoid soon enough. On my 3rd one, I took it on a 400 mile trip and changed it out on the road (motel) with a Mobil I synthetic and then again when I got back home. I was told that my 2 previous final drives had wore out the needle bearings in the pinion shaft. It was my opinion that since I had not changed the initial fluid within 500 miles that some metal contaminated hypoid had made it's way into the internal parts and caused premature wearing. On my 3rd change, I went with a high pressure Redline 70/240 heavy shock synthetic and just recently changed it out with AMSOIL extreme pressure 75/140. These heavier synthetics just wear better and run cooler. I have put another 60K on this 3rd drive and it's been doing just fine since 2003. I beleive it's critical to get the initial hypoid changed out within the 1st 500 miles and changed out with a good heavy duty synthetic hypoid. Hope this helps, Rick

Guys, Rustoleum makes a water based epoxy garage floor paint that is the best I have ever seen and you will only have to paint it once. Any other concrete paint will be torn up by the skirm of your car tires. And Home Depot sells it. Just make sure you get enough for your entire garage as the standard package only does a single car garage. I have had mine down for 3 years now and it still looks like new. The nice part about it is that it's a pleasure to clean up. Here's a link to the product: http://rustoleum.com/CBGProduct.asp?pid=16 The bottom line is that you get what you pay for and I would only want to do a garage floor ONCE. Hope this helps, Rick