SilveradoCA

Thanks everyone. I thought of one more question: the 'Audio' button on the radio control seems to make intermittent contact. Has anyone had to open up that controller before?

Today was the day. I picked up my 2008 RSV and rode her home. It was one of those tragically rare serendipitous days where everything comes up aces. I checked into my flight online last night, and got my boarding pass in my email. Walked into the airport... ZERO passengers waiting at the security check; I was through in about 90 seconds. The plane was about 1/2 full. I got my own row. Flight was wheels up 5 minutes early and touched down 15 minutes early. I had booked a cheapest economy rental car to do some running around in the city before meeting the seller at his house. The rental desk had nothing but trucks, so I drove a Nissan Titan today for $40. It was OK, but certainly better than an econobox. My errands took less time than I thought, and then SCORE!!! I got an alert for an online ad selling something I've been searching for: a 1990's vintage Hein Gericke Firstgear Ranger jacket. I had one back then, and let it go to my uncle when I sold him my Road Star. He crashed the bike and wrecked the jacket. Today I paid a guy $125 for an old style, serious quality leather biker jacket that cost about $500 in 1990's money, in great condition. Back to meet the seller; hand over the balance in cash, get the bill of sale written up, and pop over to the registry office for a plate. At lunch time. I figured to be there for about an hour. There were two people in line, and one just leaving. I was out of there with a new plate in about 10 minutes, plus the gal behind the desk was a babe. Dropped the rental off, seller picked me up and we were back to his place. 15 minutes later and I'm on the road. I only almost dropped her majesty's largesse twice at walking speed; did I mention it's been about 15 years since I rode regularly? This motorcycle is somewhat top heavy, but we knew that. With my hybrid Hobbit/Dwarf lineage and 28" inseam, I can comfortably and easily get both balls of my feet down, and am quite comfortable with the seat height. Today's ride was 497Km. Oh, and the weather was a perfect 27°C and sunny, with a little breeze. Final win of the day: I was 58Km into my fuel reserve when I hit the last gas for 200Km on the way home. I could've used a little walk, honestly, but it was going to be dark in a couple of hours. Anyway, on to the important bits. Plusses: The bike is sexy. She got looks everywhere we went. It shows some wear, but comes by it honestly. It's never been down. Love that small-block V8 sound. Odometer is at just a hair over 64,000Km. She runs very well. Starts, goes, stops, turns, shifts, all AOK. It came with a cover, Fox pump for the air shocks, and a trailer hitch that the first owner had installed and apparently used once. (I will use it... never.) Also came with 2 extra helmet locks, and a handful of keys. I stopped by the dealership where the original owner had it serviced, and they gave me a service history. I'm pleased, and confident. He basically had ALL the fluids, including brakes, clutch, oil, coolant, and final drive lube, changed every year. Valves were checked and in spec just 8000Km ago last year. Fuel pump was replaced about 12,000Km ago, less than 2 years ago. He had moved to BC for a while and then came back, so it also had an out-of-province safety inspection done, again last year. All five-by-five. The dudes at Riverside Powersports in St.Albert were very helpful, so before I head out on my ~5000Km BC tour in a few weeks, I'm going to have them slap a new rear tire on her. (This one could probably go half that or so before needing replacement, but I'll do it before I head out.) I'm happy with the power and performance; In the continuum of horsepower, she falls squarely in the 'enough' range. Not more than enough, but enough. That beautiful beating heart of a V4 has power EVERYWHERE... from off-idle right until the rev limiter. Love it that way. She's quite comfortable, generally. (More on that in the next section.) Wind protection is great in my opinion. No buffetting to speak of. Seat is great (maybe a hair too wide if I'm being picky, but it's just fine). Lots of engine sensation in the bars, but not uncomfortable vibration there at all. Cruise control! Within about 1 hour of riding today, I realized that I may not be able to comfortably ride a bike without this. Severe carpal tunnel syndrome in both hands, plus some funky nerve impingement stuff in my arms and shoulders (related to advanced osteoarthritis in my C2-C5 vertebrae) mean I have to keep my arms and shoulders moving, a lot. To summarize the plusses: I'm very happy with this purchase, and today's ride was great. Delta (things to change): The pipes are too loud for my liking. They sound cool in town and at idle, but at highway speeds they set my tinnitus at an 11. I was wearing a new Shoei Neotec II helmet, and foamy earplugs. I don't hear a drone per se (I can still hear every individual exhaust stroke), but the overall volume is just a bit much. I have no idea what kind of pipes they are; I can't find any markings. I'll take a pic or two tomorrow; maybe one of you can recognize them. In any case, I think they've probably saved enough lives in their career, so I'm going to retire them. Also, on deceleration, we're gifted with a preposterous cacophony of low backfires, pops, and burbles. Not in a good way; it sounds silly. Looking at the ends of the pipes, they are a little coked up, especially the baffles. I think she runs rich currently. Maybe needs some tender loving tuning. Ideally, I'd get the bars back an inch or so closer to me. Short guy, short arms, you know. I'm sure there is some kind of pullback riser that can fix this. The heel shifter has to go. I don't like them, and it's in my way. Gears are to be shifted with the toe, the way the gods intended. Part of the fun of having a prematurely broken down body, is that I have to keep in almost constant motion to be comfortable. I have to move my legs from way up on the highway pegs (which I can surprisingly reach at all - my knees are almost locked), back to having the balls of my feet on the back edge of the footboards, and all around in between. Shortly I'll remove it and cut it off; ultimately I may find someone to fab me a custom one that does away with the outboard jog in it, making the arm straight and the toe lever wider. The windshield has to come down, by at least 6". It's fine when it's clear, but by 10PM just as the sun was close to going down (way up North, remember) and being covered in thousands of dead bugs, it was a problem. If I ever got caught in the dark like that, I'd have to prairie-dog standing up on the boards just to survive. The rider backrest needs to be replaced. This one is too high (already at it's lowest position), and the shape doesn't match my back at all. Plus it's too far back. Short legs, I tell ya. Will look for a different solution there, or maybe none at all. I don't have any lower back issues. I'm going to have to play around with tire pressure and fork pressure. I had 36psi in the front tire, and 5psi in each fork leg. I could feel every mouse hair I drove over, and she gets a little unsettled up front from any kind of undulation/bump/crack in the pavement when heeled over. It may be the front tire too; it's fairly new with lots of tread, but maybe just the make/model characteristic? It's a Metz Marathon Ultra. There is an obvious pulsation from the front brakes, most noticeable at slower speeds. I'm assuming it's a warped rotor? I'm planning on doing the Road Star brake swap anyway. I certainly CANNOT brake this big girl effectively with two fingers, which is how I've been doing it since I was taught. It takes all 4, and a goodly amount of pressure. The brakes are sufficient in power and modulate OK, I just want more, and finer. To certain someones at Yamaha Motor Corp.: the air stems for the fork and shock could EASILY have been made long enough to actually reach, but you didn't. Plus, you built and sold this bike for 14 model years without a tachometer? Really? You have dishonoured your clan, and must now perform Seppuku in the town square. Need to add a phone mount, cup/bottle holder somewhere to drink more (I usually drink about 5-6 litres of water per day... pretty tough when you're moving and your water is in the trunk), and change the tank bib for one with a pocket that's actually useful (and without the studs; they're not my style man!) The chrome (or polished?) gas cap has to go. I see three of them reflected in the windshield. Is there a known replacement, or shall I tastefully rattle can the one I have? The rubber bumpers for the lower fork deflectors are gone. I've read that this causes the deflectors to divorce the bike; will remedy promptly. Now, Questions: Quite a few times today, the cruise control just randomly began losing speed, then the orange RES light came on, and I had to reset it. Any ideas? There is a distinct harmonic sound coming from... somewhere. I couldn't say where specifically, thanks to those loud tubes. Sometimes I thought it was the final drive (or maybe the rear tire), other times it sounded like engine (which made me think of out-of-sync carbs). Thoughts there? I believe the speedometer to be WILDLY optimistic. Anectodally, I think it reads almost 15Km/h too high at highway speed. I'm off to search the tech forums for this, as I believe it's a known issue, with a known remedy? Need to build a tool kit for this bike. Are there ANY random SAE fasteners, or are they all metric? What about Torx, any of those? Here's the TL;DR: Great bike, love it. Happy I bought it. Needs some tweaks. What do you think?

That is a good deal. Thanks Doug.

In Alberta, the legal minimum PLPD (Public Liability & Property Damage) you can buy is $500,000. That's kind of like $25K USD, right? $1M is pretty much standard. Our government legislated a cap to value on certain types of injuries (whiplash claims, basically), which was intended to reduce insurance rates. It didn't. That said, the PLPD portion is the cheap part of the insurance. It's about 30% of the cost of my policy, which works out to about $200 CAD per year.

Even up here in Canuckistan, guns & ammo are good currency. In fact, I sold off enough of both to pay the bill for my new RSV. I had a number of Kimber 1911's, and was well pleased with them. Don't know what all the haters are on about. I prefer them in the standard 5" configuration myself. Owned a couple of 4" Commander style, but never a shorty like that, though I have shot them. Looks good Freebird.

The reason I suspect a repaint (which looks like a good one - even the coachlines between the two colours look good) is that I can't find that colour combo listed for ANY year of RSV. Nor for the RSTD? The silver looks a lot like the Titanium Silver found on 99's, but that was with a lighter silver underneath. Plus the painted cowling ahead of the gas cap.

I'm heading out Thursday AM to pick up my bike, and would like to tap the brain trust here for some experience. I may be riding back through rain; how wet should I expect to get? I will take rain gear, of course. I'm more curious as to how dry you stay behind the bodywork. How much wind/rain do you get on your hands? At this time, I don't have a pair of waterproof gloves, but if you tell me the hands are quite exposed, I'll stop and pick some up. To cut or not to cut? My lineage traces back to the Shire on mother's side, and the mines of Moria on dad's. Some cousins lost a bunch of money to a big lizard, and another took a long walking tour to get rid of some jewelry - he didn't have a bike. That is to say, I'm sized between a hobbit and a dwarf - 5'6". The stock shield is WAY above my line of sight. Looking through the screen bothered me on my Road Star, so I will be dealing with the issue ASAP. Honestly, it's only because I won't bother to check a bag that I'm not taking a jigsaw with me. For those who have cut the factory shield down, how was the result? I don't mean in terms of finish - I'm a carpenter, I cut and fit things for a living, and used to make templates out of plexi-glass. I mean how much did you cut, and were you happy with the wind/rain protection and smoothness of the airflow afterward? Otherwise, tell me about your experience with a replacement windscreen. Driving lights - do they have Hi/Lo like the headlight, or only one loudness? Does anyone have one of those headlight modulator dealy-o's? What do you think of them? Where/how do you like to mount your phone? Mine rings infrequently these days (thankfully), but is my map and music. The bar is pretty crowded, and I don't want it in front of the speedo. ETA: a couple more questions! If you've done any performance upgrades to your GenII, what were you most happy with? What do you feel you could've not bothered with? Mine is stock except for some slip-on mufflers. I'm sure I'll think of some more, but TIA for these ones!

I'm a homebuilder by profession, and one of the things I see often is people who buy a new home, and six months later still have bedsheets hung over the windows instead of blinds or curtains. You see, they spent their whole budget on the house, probably all new furniture too, and kept nothing for incidentals. A year later when we do their 12 month review, they complain how high the property taxes are. I've also learned that people have all kinds of different expectations from what they buy, and tastes differ like the weather. Budgeting for use as well as purchase is an important concept. On the RSV I bought this week, I had a budget of about $8500, if I found the right bike. For the price I paid on the one I did buy, I covered insurance for the year, a new rear tire when it's due, and about 2 weeks worth of touring on the road, all for the same total budget. That Kawasaki isn't for everyone, but it is for someone to... Buy It. Ride It. Smile.

Over the last 3 months I've been shopping hard for a RSV, and never seen one in those colours. The '99 colourway was this: Sysop's bike isn't the '09 colourway either. They were a brighter Candy Red over metallic black Raven. Has anyone else seen the cowl around the ignition/gas cap painted body colour? It could have been repainted for any number of reasons though. Owner wanted something unique? Hail damage? Who knows. Who cares, if the bike is in good shape? So long as the dealer isn't passing off a salvage titled ride as something else. If the condition is good for the money (and that's a fairly low price, certainly less than we'd pay up here), I say... Buy It. Ride It. Smile.

Oh no grubsie, that's strictly safety chrome.

Wow! Looks great, that colour combo sure has been popular this week! What can you say about the handling dynamics of it vs your RSV? I've never ridden a trike, at least not since a Honda Big Red when I was a kid. Congratulations Doug!

Boat is actually an acronym: B.O.A.T. This stands for "Bet On Another Thousand"! One thousand in local currency is also known as 1 BOAT dollar.

How's this for good karma: I messaged the seller to let him know that I'm flying back down to pick up the bike on Thursday morning. He says that works with his schedule, and asks what time I will be there. I tell him, and he replies "I'll be waiting at the airport, Arrivals 8, when your flight arrives." Apologies to 1970's Honda Motor Corp., but you really meet THE nicest people on a Venture.

I insured my new (to me) 2008 RSV today. 2mil liability, full collision and comp coverage, $500 deductable. $690 per year through AMA Insurance. It seems reasonable for the moment. I will keep shopping quotes. On the other hand, I emailed my commercial insurance (business coverage) agent with a BLAST today. I got my yearly premium notice, and it had increased 77% year-over-year. W.T.F.?? No claims - ever - and no change to the nature/volume of my business. NOT OK. There is value in insuring with a company who has a good reputation for settling claims promptly, but remember, there is ZERO loyalty in insurance, and every dollar you spend over the best value you can find is a wasted dollar. My stepmother has been in the insurance industry her whole life, and will happily tell you this.

Torque is a measure of force. Power is a measure of work - the rate at which a mass is moved over a distance, basically. How often (RPM - applications of force per unit of time) a force (torque) is applied to a mass, defines how much power has been produced, if the unit of distance is considered constant, and therefore disregarded. My dad used to say that people buy horsepower, but drive torque. Both are important. A fantastic example of this is the 'diesel wars' between Ford, GM and Dodge. The magazines test how the trucks accelerate a loaded trailer, and how long it takes them to make it up a long steep hill pulling it. Inevitably, the one with the most torque wins the accelleration test, but the one with the biggest power number wins the hill climb. Until you start breaking driveline parts, there is no such thing as too much of either. Only enough, not enough, or more than enough! I wanted to add to this: a big V-twin feels a lot like a diesel V8, while a higher revving V4 feels more like a performance gas V8. When I was a young hooligan, I sometimes drove my dad's '72 Ford with a 351 Cleveland 4V-HO motor. It wouldn't lift the front wheels off the ground like some of the big blocks I tried out, but man did it perform between 4-7000rpm. At the time, my car was a Mazda RX7. It worked like an inline-4 sportbike. Gutless on the low end (i.e. no torque), but would start to spin the tires at around 8500rpm (good horsepower, once you had the revs up to where the math was working in your favor.) In terms of heavy-weight motorcycles, the choice is whether you want to live in the low end, or the mid-range of the bike's RPM. These aren't sportbikes, and I don't think anyone is running the motor at 9/10ths, tap dancing on the shifter.

Nice work SilvrT. I've been through Castlegar quite a few times on my way to/from Nelson, Fernie, Creston, or someplace, and lived near Invermere for a spell. Did some work in Kimberly WAY back as well. It would be nearly impossible to fully enjoy the Kootenay region without a boat of some sort. How else to catch some of those monster rainbows haunting the local waters? Enjoy.

I agree. I do think it's a shame that Yamaha went their own way ALL THE WAY when it comes to styling this machine (which is hot like fire), but went with focus group findings when choosing the power plant. I can't fault them for it though; they are in business to sell motorcycles, in as great a quantity as possible. I simply feel that, had they modified the new VMAX monster mill for this bike, the gap between the SVTC and the competition would have been much larger, both figuratively and literally. Can you just imagine how handily it would SMOKE the competition with something like 120 lb/ft and 170 hp? As suggested by others above, the proof is in the riding. Yamaha is doing their power tour right now; I think I'll go try one.

I joined my first discussion forum around the time that I incorporated as a small business for the first time. Silverado was part of that business name, and it kind of stuck. The CA is for Canada.

Perhaps I need to ride into VR global headquarters and pay up in analog money?

I rode a VMax, once. I think that bike wanted to kill me, so I limited myself to the ~120HP supersports of the day. You know, for safety.

Not to derail the thread, but I fully support any and all businesses who choose or refuse to do business with anyone, for any reason. I also support any individual choosing or refusing to do the same, for any reason. Liberty is cool that way. This is the first time in... about 15 years that I've wanted to transact with a business and PayPal being the only method of settlement. I'll figure out a way to get my dues to the site though, that's a for sure. This place is priceless.

I rode a RSTD before I bought my RoadStar back in 2001. (I understand the RSV has bigger carbs and hotter cams.) Never ridden a Venture, but that motor is one of the things that made me want one way back then. I love how it sounds like a hopped up V8. The price kept me away, as I was still young enough to want to buy newnewnew. These days I'm happy to be poor enough to buy used and pay cash. Something about this colour makes me want to drink a Cherry Coke.

Thanks all. I'm awfully excited. I believe I got a great deal on her too. About the only things I can think to add would be a mount for my phone, and a tach. I think it's purely criminal to sell a motorcycle without a tachometer. I always wished for one on my Road Star (despite the laughably low redline!) SilvrT: I'd love to subscribe... is there a way to pay other than PayPal? I stopped using their service on principle quite a few years ago: I was a firearms instructor, RSO and amateur competitor for some time, and they have a policy that shuts out a lot of firearms related companies, so many of us boycotted out of solidarity. I'm surprised that notion doesn't have big traction in the US, honestly. It caused major problems for a couple of excellent specialty parts/accessory shops up here. https://www.paypal.com/us/smarthelp/article/what-is-paypal%E2%80%99s-policy-on-transactions-that-involve-firearms-faq585

Today I found my bike. I had spent the weekend "in the city", in part to look at a few Ventures. Late on Saturday I checked the online classifieds to see a new ad, and made an appointment to take a look. It didn't take me long to decide to buy this bike. It's a 2008, Black Cherry over Raven in colour, 64,000Km on the clock, and what seems to be every chrome farkle you could think of, right down to the bullet shaped fork ends and little baseball cap bills on the lights - even the rear signals. The bike is in excellent condition, with 1 minor small ding in the tank that I can live with, if one of those paintless dent repair magicians can't disappear it for me. Bearings, brakes, suspension all seem tight, the rear shock is dry and has no signs of previous leakage, tires are good, and the bike was serviced yearly at a single dealer. It does have some fairly loud aftermarket pipes on it - Cobra or V&H I think - which I'll take some time to decide if I like enough to keep. As it was Sunday afternoon and I had to be getting back, I gave the fellow a reasonable cash deposit, wrote up a receipt, and will arrange to get back down to pick it up this week. The 450Km ride home will be a good shakedown test. I'm a happy man. IMG_0133

You're right, coroplast might be a little lowbrow in 2018. Better get straight to the holographic projector, Star Trek style! p.s. Now I'm going to have 'Mrs. Robinson' playing in my head all day. Thanks for that! Koo-koo-ka-choo!