SilveradoCA

Wow cowpuc, great story. A kid rebuilding the engine on his pride and joy in the school parking lot... man you're one of a kind. I'd like to meet you some day. Reminds me of the time I had to yard the drive shaft out of an old beat up AWD Chevy Safari van I had. That battlefield surgery took place in the parking lot of a 7-11, not too long before dark. I can assure you that neither Pride nor her sister Joy were there to bear witness to that piece of mechanical artistry. Just as I was getting the shaft disconnected from the pinion, the kid from the Slurpee shop came out, and in a warbly, cracking voice that told me he wasn't old enough to shave, said "Hey mister, do you need me to call somebody to help you out?" All he got in response was "Nope, thanks. Watch your feet." as the offending part, replete with done-in u-joint, came skating out from under the van. LOL! I drove that van on front wheels only for a week before I got around to fixing that u-joint. Also, 7-11 makes the best Slurpees, hands down. Your mopeds remind me of a thing called a Whizzer that my buddy's grandfather had in his garage. It was something else to get that little thing running (and smoking), and rip around Canmore 2-up. After the Z50 which was the source of my disease, I had a Honda MR50 Elsinore. While it wasn't of the true racing heritage of the bigger bikes with that nameplate, it was a big upgrade for a little kid, because it had BIG wheels, and a CLUTCH!

There is one other bike that's on the 'must' list, and it's not a Yamaha. 1988-91 Honda Hawk GT: This bike was also known as the BROS or NT650, depending on the market. They weren't popular due to their relatively high price at the time, and they weren't quite as fast as other 600-class bikes sporting 4-cylinder mills, but have a cult following today, and even an active enthusiast's racing scene. Look at the design tech Honda packed into the little thing! Single sided swingarm, disc brakes fore and aft, light weight and narrow profile in an aluminum perimeter frame, moved by a liquid cooled 650cc v-twin. This should be the most popular bike of it's size for the period, IMO. The fairing on this example is aftermarket, but I think it looks awesome. This bike is for sale, with less than 9000Km on her, but he wants about twice as much money as I have in the kitty, and I can't really justify 3 bikes at the moment. I plan to watch this one and see where it's at come winter...

My first motorcycle was a Honda - Z50, vintage unknown, but I was 5 years old and it was 1981. In spite of that, I have always liked Yamaha bikes the best, to the point that there are very few marques, common or exotic, which can turn my head like a Yamaha can. (I would part with some hard-won shekels for the right Triumph, Moto Guzzi, Ducati or HD if the stars aligned though.) My first street bike was a 1991 Yamaha YX600 Radian, bought brand new, on layaway over nearly a full year, from the neighbourhood motorcycle shop. In those heady days of youth, after months of drooling over the masthead magazine buyer's guides until they were ragged, what I really wanted was an FZR600, or a maybe a Virago 1100, both of which were wildly out of my price range as a kid washing dishes and slinging pizzas in a restaurant kitchen. Hell, I even had to buy my helmet on layaway! (That was an Arai Quantum with Mick Doohan's signature livery, and it was awesome). I'll save the tale of family civil war over this purchase for another thread, but for now, suffice it to say that when your father forbids you from something, and you tell him it's clearly his fault you've done it, you will learn the meaning of apoplexy, regardless of it's attendence in your vocabulary. I owned that motorcycle twice as a matter of fact, and very nearly three times. We rode all over Alberta and BC together, but in '98 I bought a Honda VTR1000, and just wasn't riding her any more, so sold her to the father of a casual girlfriend from school. Then in '01 Yamaha lured me again, and I rode home on a brand new Road Star. Certainly a change of pace, and I loved that bike too. Harvey had by that time knocked the rust off his riding skills, and was ready for something bigger, so I bought the Radian back from him at a fair price. I rode it occasionally for another season, then sold her to a stranger when I was liquidating to move to another city. About 3 weeks ago a '91 Radian in the same colour showed up on the local online classifieds. It had a scar on the tachometer housing, lower engine case and left muffler. Just about exactly the kind of damage you'd create when you low-side the bike because some vacuous bouffant cuts a California lane change across your bow because she forgot to get smokes, right in front of the Esso station at Crowchild Trail and 5th Avenue. I'm currently keeping my powder dry for other purposes, but it was a hard choice not to have her back for old time's sake. (This is where my Yogi and Jedi training remind me to eschew attachments, and it's well.) OK, OK, on to the point of the thread. There are a number of bikes that I fully intend to own at some point, to satisfy the urge to ride them and see if they are what I think them to be. This of course will occur during a serendipitous intersection of funds and opportunity. This spring, several of these bikes have been available; some were out of budget, and others were seen and gone so fast from the classifieds that I invented a few new curse words, let me tell 'ya friends. A few examples: 1999 Virago 1100. This was the last year for the Virago, and the Special Edition treatment decked them out in a black & chrome tuxedo, with sexy wire spoked rims to boot. One of the nicest factory chopper style bikes ever made, in my opinion. I missed out on not 2 but 3 of these this spring, all of which I would have bought within a week (next payday sort of deal) but didn't last long enough on the market. I saw 2 cherry examples with less than 40,000Km on them sell for well under $3000CAD. 2007 V-Max. Again a last-year-of-breed. Do I need to explain this one? (I have a plan for an awesome paint job featuring Ol' Bob Grey - Pennywise the Dancing Clown - for this bike. Do I need to explain that one? Just like Pennywise, the bike will seduce you "C'mon Georgie, want a balloon? We all float down here..." and you won't know exactly what that means until you get comfortable with it, and IT tries to murder you.) 1991-1993 FZR1000. Maybe overshadowed in the later years by Honda's CBR900RR Fireblade (which was crazy light for it's class, and brutally fast, but twitchy and capricious. They can only be ridden properly in the Miguel DuHamel style, which is to say at 10/10ths, and steered mostly with the back wheel...), this was the first liter bike I ever rode, and the first time I experienced the kind of time-warp sensation that only a sporting litre bike can rightly provide. Five valves per cylinder? C'mon! This bike can EASILY do the Kessel Run in well under 12 parsecs, and not feel scary at any speed. I also think the FZR line is prettier than the YZF bikes that followed. I have not seen an FZR1000 for sale in over a year. 1988-1990 SRX6. SRwhat? I think you folks South of 49° only saw these for 1 year, and we Canucks for 2 or 3 IIRC, though they did have a longer run in the Euro and JDM markets. This is a skinny café-sporty standard that never found an audience. It's got a 600cc air-cooled 4-valve SINGLE, with a kick starter and two exhaust downpipes. Yes, each exhaust valve gets its own. They also have triple disk brakes and a decent suspension. They're really skinny, and only weigh 350lbs. Supposedly they will wring almost 170Km/h from the 45hp in that little thumper. I want one bad, but they're like unicorn teeth; hard to pull out of the mythical creatures who own them. 2005-2006 MT-01. If the Venture and Royal Star lines were the evolutionary softening of Mad Max, the MT-01 is the culmination of exactly the reverse, beginning with the 1600cc Road Star in 2001. The massive engine quickly grew to 1670cc, then Yamaha shaved some weight in the engine, built a sporty cruiser chassis around it, and gave it some brawn in the Warrior. This however, is more a redhead step-child; Yam shaved yet MORE weight in the engine, gave it MORE power, and wrapped it in a sports chassis that's derived largely from the R1. This redhead step-child is Christina Hendricks. 2006+ FJR1300. This is like the Porsche 911GTS of motorcycles. A seriously powerful and torquey - 142hp, 99lb.ft - engine known particularly for its smoothness, pushing a roomy enough sporting chassis, with shaft drive, ABS, adjustable windscreen and bars, factory side cases and rack giving enough capacity for lightweight touring even at extra-legal velocity, with lines that look like they were designed for the Air Force. After 2013 they were available with an electronically adjustable suspension, and computerized drive modes. This is a GT bike of the first order.

This dumb carpenter can confirm that this works in wood as well, as a last resort if you don't have time to drill/dowel/glue/pilot, don't have any glue, or whatever. Be aware that the steel wool will rust with amazing speed, and will stain whatever it's touching.

You might try the Old Motorcycle Shop in Calgary. They have a huge parts inventory and an e-bay store.

[video=youtube;y8OtzJtp-EM]

OK, that one isn't so old...

I have a huge playlist that I listen to while I'm making miles. Most of the music is from the late 80's and newer (not surprising given that I'm smack dab in the middle of GenX, and a fair bit younger than most of you), but here are a few of my older faves from that list: Edit: It seems I can only link 1 vid per post. Sorry for the post dump!

You may be right Freebird. Since I didn't know it existed prior to this, my life isn't diminished by the deficiency of it though LOL. Just another item to put on ​THE LIST...

What you describe is exactly the functionality I'm looking for, and I remember seeing at least one post about how to wire it, maybe another on the other Venture site too. Thanks friend-o.

After seeing this thread, I had a look at my bike; the little button near the power port turns my driving lamps off, but only while the button is depressed. When I let go, the lights come back on, as if it were wired as a temporary flash switch. I don't know if they were wired wrong or if this is one way it could normally be done, but it seems kind of useless? It's a long, awkward reach forward and under the bars just to flash those lamps. I actually thought that button was to reset the power port like a breaker, in case too much load was applied, like from a compressor or something. The next time I have the fairing open I'm going to try to re-wire those lights, to make them pull power from a relay rather than through the ignition switch. Maybe I can get the on/off button to work too.

I just ordered some 15W LED PAR36 lamps for mine. I'll let you know how (and if) they work once I get them.

The service manual says 28NM, which is ~ 20lb-ft. Tighten the tops first, then adjust the bar angle with the bottoms snug, then torque the bottoms. You'll understand why when you see the riser caps; the top and bottom mating surfaces are not the same depth (thickness). The thicker part goes to the top, and makes contact with the riser extension. The bottom doesn't make contact once tight. This is mentioned in the instructions supplied with the riser extensions.

After I posted those pics, I noticed that the right farkle light was crooked, so I went down and straightened it. Then I remembered that I wanted to take the antennae off, since I removed the flaky stereo controller a long time ago, and didn't use it before that. Once I saw how dead easy they are to delete, I felt like a tool for not having done it sooner.

I joined so that I could interact directly with the people who have contributed so much knowledge and expertise about these bikes. Found a few laughs along the way. I must say that as a member of lots of interest-based web forums, the civility and polite language here is a different experience than most. It's like I stumbled into a church group meeting; not in a bad way. Whoever wrote the old ads that said "You meet the nicest people on a Honda!" never stopped by this forum, I'm sure. $12USD is close to 3 months wages in Canada, but it's worth it at several multiples of that regardless.

I'm not a huge fan of the studs on the tank bib that Cherry's been wearing since I bought her, and frankly the large looking zip pocket that takes up most of the real estate is as useless as a prairie lighthouse. The velcro-flapped one below it is only slightly less useless. I'm going to see if one of the outdoor/technical gear shops in town can use it as a pattern, and make me one out of ballistic nylon with 3 rows of PALS webbing down the centre, so I can use any combination of big or small MOLLE style pouches in its place. Those kind of pouches are cheap and widely available online, or expensive and widely available if you wanted to buy from one of the Gucci operator/door-kicker brand names out there. Whaddaya think? If you have a better idea, let's hear it.

The list of design engineers I'd like to round up and flog in the town square gets longer every time I put a wrench in my hand. I realize that designing for efficient assembly is paramount to them, but I swear some of the things they do are out of sheer spite.

Here you go: quick snap after a quick 320Km ride today. I don't seem to have any pics with the 13" wide touring screen. This is with the OEM screen still mounted when I bought her.

Exactly like that one. I find that colour a little boring in a mono-tone scheme like that; reminds me of concrete. The accents on the engine, stitching etc. make it look better in person. But imagine it with some tasteful blue and gold, and it would be sharp.

FWIW, when I bought Cherry, she had a partly worn Dunlop E3 on the back. As near as I could tell, that tire had about 6-7000Kms on it, based on what the seller told me and some info I got from the shop where he had the bike serviced. I put another 5600Km on the tire, and it was DONE. Worn flat in the middle, and scallopped so bad toward the outsides that it sounded a bit like an air raid siren. I didn't bother looking into Dunlops again. I do like their guitar picks though, even though I can't play for ****. I suspect the P.O. ran it a little under-pressured, and he and his wife would have gone somewhere the far side of 500lbs between them.

If your '08 is the same colours as mine Black Cherry & Raven Black, then I think it's monstrous to paint over it LOL. Sincerely though, loving how your bike looks is of the utmost importance. She should make you turn back for another look like a curvy Stampede cowgirl in good fitting jeans. Not sure if it's important to your decision, but a glossy non-metallic grey is really popular on Harleys over the last few years. My friend has a CVO Street Glide, and it looks excellent. If grey, blue and gold were my choices, rather than pinstripes I'd do blue & gold rally stripes; thinner on the fenders, and thick over the tank and trunk. I happen to like rally stripes though. If pinstripes are a must, I'd do a double-gold to separate the grey from accent areas in blue, similar to how the red/black is laid out. That would be a sharp looking bike. You could probably get a nice Navy emblem or other imagery done in vinyl and lay it on before the clear coat if you wanted. Or definitely hand painted or air-brushed if you are a Picasso or are willing to pony up for a good artist. Hope to see pics when she's finished. EDIT: To your windscreen question - how tall are you? Yamaha must have hired a Dutch designer on the windscreen desk, because I think you'd need to be about 6'5" to see the road from over the plastic of the standard model, which is 17". They do offer a comically high 22" touring model as well, if you're over 7' tall. I had a 13" extra-wide screen on, which REALLY kept the rain off you, and would be the right height for someone about 6' tall. I'm 5'5", and just fit an 8" tall screen, which is almost perfect for me. I see over the top of it until about 6' in front of the bike.

Since we have the same bike in the same colourway, we should have the same tires. Michelin Commander II front and rear, with the front in a 130/90-16. It's how the bike should have come from the factory IMO. I've been more than satisfied with every Michelin tire I've ever run on a bike, and this holds true with my RSV. Precise handling (such that can be expected from a wallowing hippopotamus of a motorcycle), excellent wet and dry grip, zero tram lining or following on tar snakes or longitudinal cracks. I only have a little under 2000Km on these since last summer, but my chicken strips are just a hair under 3/4" wide, and the tires still have their casting whiskers, except through the centres. I expect these to last a long time.