CaseyJ955

It lays horizontally right behind the top of the radiator under the coil/TCI rack. I'll grab you a pic.

What brain flatus, didnt even see that 2nd screw, must have looked at it half a dozen times. It seperates nicely after both screws taken off. It was bone dry so I sprayed cable lube into both upper cables through the top and worked the throttle until it started seeping into the junction along the lower left, which I also took apart and lubed along with the short lower cables. I flushed out the barrel with a little alcohol and followed up with cable lube and then worked a little white lithium grease into the inner part of the barrel that could be reached without pulling it entirely off the bike or removing the cables. It's smooth and free now, I full expect this to have solved the problem but I wont know for sure until I mount the carb rack and have the assembly under some load.

This is over on venturers, someone did a nice writeup. As Flyinfool said, it's a bit of work so this might shed some light on it. http://www.venturers.org/Tech_Library/?action=article&cat_id=001006&id=250 I wanted bugs worked out and I do take a fair amount of trips and I saw the difference in how much crap you can put into an 86+. I went to effen Sams Club and my 89 swallowed up stupid amounts of groceries and commodities. I think it holds almost as much as my old VW Squareback . Maybe not but it holds plenty! If you dont find what you want there I'm willing to go have a look at the one here in Rapid City for you and see if its worth while. Of course when I went to buy mine I went to Sioux City and that was a fail, I found one in Mitchell and it was sort of a fluke, driving by looking for someplace to buy a good burger and there it was bigger than ****, all blue and purdy sitting in front of an obscure little powersports shop, well off the main drag. I rode her home for $2050 and before it's done I'll have another $1000 and many hours into her with fork rebuild, R6 brakes, new steering bearings, new tires, Ignitek, COPs, carb work, progressives et al. In the world of Vmax guys have been known to use the Venture engine to get that extra 100cc, I understand it's a difference you can feel but I'm not sure it's that much different with the tuning of the Venture. I had always planned to install a Vmax top end on mine and I think that extra 100cc is worth a few ponies. http://www.vmaxforum.net/showthread.php?t=1801 I also know that some gear ratios were changed slightly in 86 but I'm not sure what that actually translated into for that top gear highway cruising rpms. I do like the look of the pre 86, the smaller luggage wouldnt work for me but it looks pretty sleek compared to the bulkier look of the 86+. My trips often end up lasting over a week and many times I have no idea where I'm even going when I leave, that extra luggage space was a must for me.

I chose to go with an 86+ and 2nd gear improvements were a big part of that. Upgraded forks and brakes, electric rather than hydraulic anti-dives and a few things I cant recall right off the top of my head, but 2nd gear, big luggage and the 1300cc were the biggies. A proper 2nd gear fix is not cheap, or quick. If I had one with a bad 2nd gear I would use it for parts unless it were really pristine. I dont think I would even bother buying one with a bad 2nd gear unless I needed parts and could get it for the price of a few bags of groceries. These cool bikes are actually pretty cheap to buy with a good 2nd gear, might have to shop around some but you should be able to get something decent for the $1500-2500 range. I know in the world of Vmax a 2nd gear fix easily exceeds $1000 and there is a whole lot less to disassemble. Old bikes have a way of prying open your wallet. This one is near me but just as an example https://rapidcity.craigslist.org/mcy/5999765570.html https://denver.craigslist.org/mcy/6041299870.html https://denver.craigslist.org/mcy/6039806850.html As far as mileage I know there are a lot of Ventures and Vmax running around with well over 100k. I dont really let high mileage bother me much on Japanese vehicles, but I do adjust the price accordingly. Service history is a huge plus so you know when the valves were adjusted and that all maintenance has been done, otherwise you can budget for all that out of the offer on the bike. I have a habbit of cruising CL bike listings and I often notice decent Ventures in and under that $2000 mark.

Aside from #1 that sounds AWESOME!!!

I remember guys heading up there with the KLRs and stuff back when I was more involved with dual sport (will be again fur sur). With the right rubber, who knows..

No rust on this turd yet, but it's not out of the question, this is a rusty state for being so far inland. I'll just go dig into it, maybe this is a good time to get some heated grips.

Welcome. As mentioned, let the love begin. Nice bike.

How do I get into this guys will? He can bug in instead of out for damn sure.

I'll have to dig up the reciept for the last lid I bought, I think it's in my Triumph file. I got it online and the customer service was quite good but can't recall where. I see that motorcyclegear has a way to find an appropriate lid by actual head measurements. I would guess that others may have that ability as well. I'll dig the online retailers and see what I can find. It's nice to know that revzilla and motorcycle gear are trusted, I'll start there. Thank you.

I put Dunlop E3s on my gen 1 last fall, they have a grand total of 0 miles as of yet. They sure look and feel superior to the Metzler Marathons. I did quite a bit of fishing and research before choosing them. BTW the car tire looks pretty BA.

89 VR. Throttle was too stiff before, I have the carbs off now and it's less stiff but the barrel feels like its bone dry. I'm going to lube the cables while it's all apart but I'm wondering if I need to remove the throttle barrel to clean/lube it, if so what is the best way to remove it? Also how to drop the cables down off the loud handle so I can get some spray in there or is that done while the barrel is off? Thanks! any how-toos or a link for this would be great. TIA!

Let me kick this valuable thread in the pants and put my hat in the right of COPs DIYers. I bought a set of plug-n-play COPs for my Vmax, they worked great but there were two things about said COP kit I did not care for. 1. They were assembled using crimps, I once put a whole day on 3 cyl and finally found that one of those crimps had lost it's grip on the wire and disassembled itself. 2. The sheath used is that rigid thick split sheath which made install awkward and it looks funky. I went to do the COPs for my Venture and felt it was easy enough that I could do it myself. My scoot is an 89 but I have an Ignitek going in too so I'm not going to use the resistors I bought when I first decided to do this. I'm into this for maybe $25 and 90 minutes, I took my time and got OCD about fit/finish. I have my carb and TCI/coil rack off the bike now so I did some loose measurements and decided that they could be a little too long rather than a too short. I'm going 14" front and 26" rear which is probably a few inches excessive but with the bike torn down it's hard to get an exact route. I started by hitting Ebay and buying 4 COPs and a factory COP harness off an early 2000s CBR600. $15.90 shipped. Since it came with the harness I disassembled said harness and harvested the COP plugs with around 8" of wire on each and discarded the rest. When I removed the OEM coils from my Venture I harvested the OEM pigtails off of them but only around 2" of wire on those. I reached into my massive box of surplus wire and found some bulk that would be enough to do the whole job. I then went to the local electronics warehouse and bought a 4' stick of 1/8" heat shrink tube and cut it into 16 ~1" lengths for this project with plenty to spare. Also picked up 10' of 1/4" black nylon braided sleeving since it's flexable, durable and it looks good. Of course I already have my soldering iron and supplies. Thats all I needed to buy and all it cost. Dingy clarified above the polarity of the COP and on my bike the red/white wires were + and the orange was - on the coil pigtails. I soldiered and heat shrunk the joints so that they would not corrode or come apart and inched the sheathing over it. If you compress the sheathing the ID expands greatly allowing it to be inched over the harness and compressed enough that the far ends can be soldiered on and the sheathing can than be stretched back over the whole thing. Of course when I install them on the bike I'll use a dab of dielectric grease on the terminals. I did also use a little bit of 3M electrical tape on the ends to keep the sheathing from fraying. Pics for your viewing pleasure

I called both showrooms in the area, nobody has the Signet x, or really much in the way of Aria. Nor the Airframe. They tell me there is very little demand for the high dollar lids. I'm going to end up doing that thing where I order online with my gourd measurements and hope I hit it. A few of these places offer free return/exchange services. I called BH HD shop, "Hello, I'm in need of a good quality lid, wondering if you have a good selection?" "Um... do you mean like a hat or what?" "No, a lid, a helmet, I know it's a long shot but I'm looking for something in an Aria full face for a long oval" "...... nothing like that, hold on please"..... "We have Harley Davidson brand and (freedom & something) brand" "Ok, not quite what I'm after, thank you for your time" She did call me back and said she could order Aria and almost anything and shot me some prices, so the cust service and follow up was there. I was surprised that the word "lid" meant hat and not helmet. Nice lady but the moral of the story is I'm not probably not going to find anything on the shelf within a 300 mile radius. As I suspected its going to be an online affair so an advanced knowledge of which lids fit my freaky ass dome is a plus and also as suspected, the high end Aria is probably the best combination of quality, fit and quiet. I tried to wear ear protection and I just cant, I tend to get panicky if I cant hear whats going on around me. With a helmet that can minimize wind noise I'll be ok. Thank again gents for the feedback and information. It really is helpful.

I have had good luck with larges, but not perfect luck. The first real helmet I bought was an Aria signet in 2000 when I rolled my Sprint ST off the showroom floor, not really understanding helmet shapes, ie long oval. I learned that the Signet lids are actually good for a long oval melon and I did squeeze a lick over 10 years out of that one. For lots of items I do that thing where I find it on the shelf and decide it fits proper, then come home and find it on Ebay or some online dealer that doesnt flood the market with Chinese counterfeit items, then buy for 20-50% less than retail. Maybe doing that for lids is not a solid plan. We only have two motorcycle showrooms around here that sell real proper non-HD bikes and gear. If I want to buy studded chaps, a Village People vest and a 1/4 helmet with flames and a skull I can go to the HD showroom. Around here the vast majority of HD riders wear no lids so I'm sure it wouldn't make sense for them to stock proper lids even though they are the largest motorcycle showroom in the area. Other than that it's about a 6 hour ride to the nearest locality where I might find showrooms big enough to carry the spendy lids. My wife got a medium youth HJC off the shelf for $79, not fair that I'll end up paying> $600 haha. I'll make some calls and see if anyone has either of the two models I'm sort of looking at. Do you feel that the inconsistencies are bad enough that if I find a great model/size/shape of helmet on the shelf that it would be different if I ordered the same lid online? I expect that the price difference will be significant. Thanks for the reply.

I'm looking at this on motorcyclegear.com and trying to narrow down a good lid. I'm a long oval large with my funky mellon. I'm wondering if anyone here has tried the Airframe Pro. It looks like it has all that is important to me, the site says it's quiet but many of the reviews dont really agree. Quiet is a must, aside from comfort its probably my biggest concern. I do not use ear protection, and until this point in my life I have been just fine riding 800+ miles in a day with nothing more than wind noise, twisted thoughts and the voices. I wonder if anyone else has tried this lid? Any other suggestions on long oval lids that are exceptionally quiet. This will be the first time I plan to install headset and mic for music and intercom. My current Arai is just to noisy to hear anything at highway speeds. I thought about some of these techy lids with all that stuff built in but I dont want to use bluetooth and hassle with battery life, besides I have no use whatsoever for phone pairing and all that other crap but if one of these lids happens to be really quiet I might consider it. Edit. The Signet X looks really good too, and reviewers say it's quiet and good for a freaky long melon. I'm hoping not to have to spend 6 bills to get a proper lid. I will if I have to but dont really want to. Thanks!!

The lines were aftermarket (I think). They have the heads that can be swiveled around for best fit. They were not a perfect fit but they worked. I used a splitter off a Vmax and made a bracket to mount it. There is a guy in the classefieds that sells a braided line kit with a piece to delink the brakes. I should have bought that, it would have been much easier. The braided stainless steel lines really improve brake feel over the OEM rubber lines.

From what I can see they with K&L they are different part numbers on the needle valve but if they are similar length and properly fit the ID of the valve seat they should be usable in a pinch. They dont seem that different in price. What would be nice is to be able to find a buyers guide that would help us compare the specs and measurements of each needle valve to see just how they are different.

The R6 calipers I got were from an 99-02 and the rear caliper is the front right off an 03-09 R6S. I tried the linked brakes for awhile and decided that I did not like them at all. If the OEM calipers had not had some pistons hanging up I might have just kept them and put on some decent pads but I think in the long run this is going to be the right answer.

I had hoped so too, but it didnt work.

It's fortunate it started and ran at all after sitting that much. The carbs can be finicky, especially if left sitting with ethanol. I agree with Jaycee, 2qts probably overfilled it and it's getting sucked through. It only holds around 3.5qts from empty. I'll PM you my contact info, your close enough to me that if you get stumped maybe I can help.

I use a couple sheets over my head to keep the government from hearing my thoughts.

I threw some R6 calipers on mine, they bolt right on but the factory lines wont want to bolt up to them, the contour is wrong so a good time for some braided lines. I've heard some say that even some decent pads with the OEM calipers will make a good difference. I delinked my brakes at the same time. I got my calipers off Ebay for 50 shipped for the pair of blue dots (steel pistons). It came with braided lines that just happened to fit. Make sure the oil you got has no "friction modifiers" or "energy conserving" qualities, bad for the clutch many say. A popular choice is Rotella 15-40 diesel oil. I use it in my Venture and Vmax and I know plenty of others use it as well. If it's been cared for 70k is young. Theres a lot of these V4s out there going strong with twice that mileage but without a service history it's tough to tell. A compression check will tell you a lot, maybe plan on a valve adjustment if you dont know when it was done last. There are a few things this can be and some of the wiser folks might have more, but the rear swing arm bearings are probably the first thing I would look at from what you describe. If that checks out you might as well check steering head bearings, if they have not been inspected/repacked they need it that, vid link below. Mine also has 70k and I just replaced the steering bearings/races with an All Balls set. Fork brace not broken? Fork oil good? Some of the early ones had issues with frame corrosion, not sure how long that went on but inspection of the frame to make sure no fatigue or corrosion is probably a sound idea. I'm sure others will more experience will have more answers. that.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvtI4wEUCwE.

I use the lowest grade (above 85, which you can still get here in SoDak believe it or not) which is not tainted with ethanol. Using more octane seems to have no effect on the Venture or Vmax. Ethanol avoidance is the biggie more than anything else. 87+ seems to work just fine for me but usually I have to run 91 to avoid the ethanol. I used to use premium with the HDs and other air cooleds because cyl temp can get way up there and cause all sorts of detonation, I just havnt experienced that on the Yamaha V4s, they seem to run true and consistent on any pure gasoline.

Genuine Yamaha is obviously excellent but spendy. Of the aftermarket I have read that the Japanese made K&L is the only route to go, anything else is a crap shoot and probably made in China. I know the guys on the Vmax side have had good luck with K&L but not others. When I did my jet block plugs I had to soak them for 2 days before they started to soften up and take their normal shape but they were rock hard and distorted when I began. After a 2 day soak I could feel they were softer and had taken their normal shape, had to wiggle them back in and they were quite snug. You did use 100% wintergreen oil with the alcohol? I believe it was cimmer (I think) that iterated how important the jet block plugs are in the other thread. Since the bike is together may I suggest a wet float level test. If the fuel level is maintaining it's proper level then I think we can rule out floats/needles/seats and move on to other possibilities. Hoping we can narrow the problem down by ruling things out. I'll attach a page on the wet float level check. We'll get to the bottom of this. I assume the air box was installed during the tests, these carbs wont behave well at all w/o the air box installed. I know there are some guys here that have been doing this longer than I have so there is a better way please step in and correct me.Wet Float Measurement (1).pdf