7 lakes

Me too. I've found that most of the time leaks are crap between the seal and the tube, there isn't really a surface or enough action on those seals to wear them much, they lead a pretty easy life. If they're old and stiff that's one thing, but if they're still pliable then cleaning almost always does the trick for me. Gaiters are nice, they keep stuff off the tubes and eliminate cleaning, if you like the look.

Must be a pretty nice hole.

I gave $3800 for it in 2004 and sold it a year later on ebay for the same amount.

Thanks, but I sold the bike 13 years ago, was just sharing the story with you guys and thinking maybe the current owner was a member here.

I've had good results with Counteract beads, it beats clamping or sticking weights on newly restored rims. But once in a while you get a tire that just won't balance right, beads or weights. I bought four tires for the Charger a couple of years ago and they had to replace one of them after four tries to balance it, looked great on the machine but vibration at 70. Just a bad tire.

Hi Everybody, I thought I'd share some photos of the bike that made me fall in love with Ventures. I bought this '83 in 2004, sold it in 2005 and regretted it ever since. I had sold off some bikes including the Electra Glide that my wife liked to ride on, and she announced that she wasn't gonna be gracing the rear end of any of the naked bikes, so if I wanted her to go with me she was gonna need a touring bike. A big touring bike. Not one to argue when I'm instructed to look for a bike, I was in the market for an early gold wing to rehab when I saw this '83 on craiglist. I had a hard time believing the description of its condition but after refreshing my memory of what I'd read about the Venture I went to take a look. Like any 21 year old bike with the original tires on it this one had a story behind it. I bought it from the original owner who purchased it in '83, along with his best friend and riding buddy who bought a matching one on the same day. They had been like brothers since they were kids, had learned to ride together, and bought these bikes planning on a long cross country trip. I don't know how long it took him to put the 8,725 miles on it but just before they planned to make their trip his buddy was diagnosed with cancer and passed in a few months. The bike was put in the garage and never ridden again. The PO told me that he had nearly every year, never more than two years apart, trailered the bike down to the dealership and had them get it ready for the season, telling himself he was going to ride it. But every time, it he warmed it up then put it back in the garage with tears in his eyes. Come winter it went back to the dealer for winterizing and next spring they took it out of mothballs. He said it became a kind of ritual and he didn't know how to stop. Finally he decided he was ready to let it go, that the best way to honor his friend was to let someone else make memories on the bike the way they had wanted to. We fell in love with the bike, I couldn't believe how nimble it was for a big bike and the missus felt more comfortable on the back of it than any other bike we've ever had. But ... you know ... a year later I sold it for something else I was drooling over. A mistake I won't let happen again, the '84 is a permanent addition to the collection. I sold the bike in 2005 to a nice guy from Georgia, if I remember correctly, who came all the way to Seattle to check it out and have it shipped home. Heck, chances are real good it was someone from here, did you buy this bike from me in 2005? These photos show the bike as found. Not wanting to ride 2 hours on the freeway on 21 year old tires, I trailered the bike home Saturday and new rubber went on Monday. I took these photos after washing the bike Sunday morning, this is how it looked after nothing more than a quick wash to get the road dirt off. Enjoy. Tim

As a new guy who has been on numerous different forums in the past for this and other interests, it's inevitable that there will be a tiff now and then, sometimes resulting in someone leaving. And it's amazing how many times I've seen someone new come on a forum, post hot and heavy, rack up a big number of posts in a short time and then leave in a huff over something. Unfortunately people just do that sometimes and it has waaaaay more to do with what's going on inside their own head that it does with anything that was said on the forum. I've been a club president, forum admin, forum moderator, etc since the days of DOS bulletin boards and this is without a doubt the most civil group I've ever seen. As far as the 4 vs 2 debate, my opinion is that I like motorcycles. And other people who like motorcycles. It may be corny, but good grief we all feel the same way when gurgling along a country road at sunrise on a bike, right? Isn't that why we're here? Some of us love to ride more than wrench, some of us love to wrench as much as we love to ride, some love new some love old, etc. But the bottom line is the LOVE part, the reason we're all here is because there's something about a giant chainsaw engine on two wheels that tickles a place in each of us that doesn't get tickled enough. If folks focus on what they share, and how much the shared thing means to them, they get an awesome place like this. If they dont, they don't.

Glad you got the tire issue solved! If replacing the fluid made that big a difference then the system internals are most likely not far from giving you trouble, I would suggest gathering parts and getting comfortable with servicing the master and maybe just replace the slave.

Have you checked the date code? I won't run a tire that's more than five years old no matter how much tread it has, and I've seen 3 year old tires with a lot of sun exposure that were ready to be replaced. They just get too stiff and hard and slippery.

Nice! Very clean solution. That's pretty fast prototyping too!

There are name brand kits listed on ebay with everything you need, you can search by your year make and model and find them. I've been just buying them by length,not by make or model. Several ebay sellers offer a selection of pre-made lengths, all with the same angle banjo ends, and you pick the one that is the closest to your perfect length, leaning toward the longer side of course. Its up to you to determine the lengths you need. It's entirely possible that you may find the banjo angle isn't going to work for you, what I would recommend doing is ordering one short hose (12-15 bucks) that you can use to check to make sure the angle of the hose from the banjo is going to work, and you can factor it into the length of the hoses that you order. This is what I'll be doing shortly with mine, haven't been in there yet and I may find that the hoses I've been using won't work. This is my DIY approach, you can save a lot of money doing this yourself or you can buy pre-selected kits which is much easier. I enjoy nothing more than being elbow deep in a bike, and long ago grew used to fitting this stuff by fit and not part number so my opinion has to be taken with a grain of salt. If you're not looking forward to the job then I'd recommend a kit. Tim

Sometimes these designations make their way onto the title, but more expert Venture guys will chime in with an easy way to tell I'm sure.

Congrats, man.

The clutch master kit is part# 2KW-Woo99-00-00, brake master is 4H7-W0041-50-00. Great parts diagrams in an interface that won't make you crazy can be found here - https://www.yamahapartsmonster.com/oemparts/l/yam/50042d4df8700209bc789f6e/1988-xvz13u-parts Tim

Awesome. Sometimes I grind my teeth a little reading threads about bleeding, changing fluid, speculation about how "air gets in there" etc. when clearly the issue is that internal service is 2 or 3 decades overdue. Most guys don't seem to view hydraulic internals as wear parts with a maintenance schedule, but my factory manual for instance states that the caliper seals are to be replaced every two years. Nothing about leaks, damage or wear, just replace them every two years. Heck, I'm ridiculously picky about this stuff and don't do that. Edit: I feel like I may need to duck when I say this, but I've been using chinese braided steel lines from ebay. I ordered some to test and they worked out just fine, quality is good and now I have them on three bikes. The only disadvantage I've found is that the angle of the ends is intended to be universal, if you need a straight end or an immediate sharp bend off the banjo then they may not work for you. But heck the price is really hard to beat. Tim

Inlines can be tuned to run properly with pods but isn't easy, it really requires a tunable exhaust system too. Also what most guys miss with pods is that the air flow into the carb mouth, depending on the carb, typically needs a few inches of straight flow for the circuits to meter properly. Pods create turbulent flow and the carbs simply won't work right. Ever. Velocity stacks with pods can work, but it takes effort. Another key is that with an air box where all carbs share an air chamber that is a factor in how they operate although I don't have the engineering chops to try to talk about how . I have an 80 XS1100 with velocity stacks and pods, Supertrapp 4 into 1. 125 mains, 47.5 pilots, 190 pilot air jets, 6 discs in the muffler. It starts hot or cold on the first revolution, idles right, pulls strong all thru the tach with no stumble at mid range transition. It took a while and I know what I'm doing, if I were someone who didn't and had to ask for help in a forum at every step without the patience and an organizer full of Mikuni jets I can't imagine what a nightmare it would be to try to get it right. That's another thing, Mikuni flow rates their jets differently than others, if you pull a Mikuni jet and replace with aftermarket with same label it is most likely not the same diameter orifice and not the same flow rate. Yamaha is so good at flow engineering that other manufacturers have contracted them to design their intake systems. Being a few hundred years short of their engineering experience I don't try to second guess them. It frankly isn't all that difficult to set an engine up for flat out acceleration, but starting cold, running smoothly at all rpms, transitioning smoothly and generally behaving in a civilized fashion is another thing entirely. If stock filters are no longer available for a bike, my first approach is to search by filter dimension, there may be a filter that is much more common that is very near the same dimension and with a slight mod to the air box would work fine. Tim

Thought it was, maybe not. Sure fits like it is. If I had photos yet it it would be listed already. It's in the loft in the shop and getting to it will require moving a couple of bikes, doing some remodeling and the place is a disaster. EDIT: Yeah, so I was wrong. I remembered seeing a Venture badge on it and was thinking it was a dealer accessory but the badge was on a trunk rack that was with the hitch. And I know manufacturers discouraged towing but hey I'm old. Maybe someone recognizes the manufacturer? And I'm sure the duct tape is factory ...

Ok you've got my attention!

I have a pretty nice factory setup (complete) from my 84 that I was about to list in the classifieds here, pm me and we can talk. Tim

If there's no fluid in the clutch then the internals should be serviced, if there's air in there, there is going to be corrosion. From your overall description of the bikes condition I would plan on rebuilding the brake and clutch hydraulics. In my opinion the other choice is lots of tail chasing, bleeding, swearing, etc. Its so much easier to just go through them the right way once and move on. Tim

Saw a guy in the San Juan islands that was traveling the country on a bike with his dog in the sidecar.

An electric problem that comes and goes with temp changes is quite likely to be a poor connection somewhere. Things contract when cold and expand when warm so something may be shrinking away from contact and expanding back to it, usually its a circuit board of some kind but a poor connection anywhere can do the same thing and act as a temperature sensitive switch, like a temp sensor for an idiot light. The cracked coil suggestion is a good one, it would be a good place to start because it should be easy to see one if it's there. Look for obvious cracks / breaks in things and then check harness plugs, a bad connection inside the plug where you can't see it can do the same thing. A thin film of corrosion between plug pins and sockets can do the same thing, I've seen poor connections in plugs when they didn't even look corroded, just dull. If it is a wire or plug connection, the connection when warm should still be sensitive enough that you can break it by wiggling the harness. If it is in a circuit board, warming it up with a hair dryer can sometimes help find it. I would first do a complete visual check, then check each component with a meter for correct specs. If specs are bad or open circuit is found, warm the component and see if it works. If so, cool it and do it again to verify. We had issues with our internet and cable relating to temp changes, after weeks of in and out service I was finally able to talk to a senior line tech and told him I thought they had a cracked circuit board in the splitter at the end of our street that feeds me and my neighbors. When I described what was going on and suggested that was the problem, he sent a crew to check it out and called me back later to tell me I was right. He was pretty surprised. The early days of electronics in cars were plagued by this same issue, boards of the day weren't really up to the vibration and temp extremes at first. I replaced a lot of early GM modules with this issue. Tim

Looks like a nice area to cruise! I'm jealous, spending all my time working on the house while the bike sits ...

Preach it Brother! I've spent my time on top of a potatoe patatoe engine but prefer a different sound, something like engineeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeringgggggg ...