circa1968

Yes, that's your freeze/drain plug. When changing your coolant, you need to pull all four out to drain the coolant that still surrounds the cylinder. Not sure what will happen if you pull it prior to draining the whole system though, you might get more than you bargained for.

Pictures look identical to the custom dynamic one I installed. My guess would be they all come out of one factory over yonder and then get shipped to different resellers.

But, is he pregnant yet? Apparently that's a thing now too. I'm probably venturing (no pun intended) into trouble land here..

Quite tempting, but my heart will always be in the midwest. Crappy weather and all. But, way back when Cali was a great state to live in, I married a Cali girl....

Sport bikes, I understand, but why not any electric vehicle? Just curious. Is it cost, range, aesthetics or something else? I'm no greenie, nor am I convinced EV's are as green as purported to be, so that's not my motivation here, I like that there is new technology challenging old technology. At the end of the day, that may even be a positive for the old tech if it is forced to advance to keep up with the new kid on the block. Competition is always a good thing. Hopefully, (not likely) the gov't doesn't muck it all up. I used to think electric bicycles were, at best, a fad that would quickly fade away, but I was wrong. There was market demand for the product and mfg'ers innovated and came out with a wide variety of great new products. I see them everywhere now. For example, a few months back, I met two guys, well into their 60's at the end of an 1800' mountain bike climb. They were both on electric mtn bikes. Two things were clear to me, 1) they were either brothers or lifelong friends doing something they enjoyed together and were having the time of their lives and 2) they would not have been there with me at the top if not for the electric bikes. I'm not yet at the point where I need electric pedal assist to climb a hill, but when that time comes, darn straight I will buy an electric bike and enjoy it.

Sorry guys, didn't intend to suggest these electric bike are currently a viable alternative to our Ventures or any of our other favorite gas-powered rides. Range and cost are limiting factors, for sure - today. I guess the point I was trying to make is the rate of progress does show a path to viability. If you do an internet search on electric motorcycles, you'll see the obvious - every mfg'er is working on one now. Competition is a good thing, it will drive better technology and lower costs. For me personally, whether it be electric cars or motorcycles, in addition to range/price, I want to see easily swapable, low-cost and modular battery packs that let me select how much battery to install based on my driving/riding plans. I suspect profit margins and gov't mandates will prevent the swapable battery packs though. There are also new battery technologies being demonstrated that can recharge very quickly & hold higher energy capacity. https://www.electronicdesign.com/markets/automotive/article/21245207/electronic-design-siliconanode-lithium-ev-battery-fully-charges-in-under-10-minutes I'm going to be watching craigslist and marketplace for a used Zero, hopefully I can snag a decent used one at a good price and I will happily share my experiences if/when that happens. In the meantime, here's a fella in New Zealand doing a range test on his 4-year old Zero:

Here's what I did: The Custom Dynamics LED/control module is very good. Its programmable and I have mine set to quickly flash the brakelight for 3 seconds before going solid. Their customer service is phenomenal too. A few months ago the left side blinker was blinking slow. I emailed them on a Saturday morning, for whatever reason, not expecting to hear back until Monday, at the earliest. Got a response back same day! It ended up being a bullet connector that came disconnected on the front blinker and caused some weird load imbalance on the controller, which has some smarts built into it to at least tell me something was wrong.

Just throw in the towel and move to Cali. At least we have (mostly) good weather. I need someone to keep me company out here.

Thanks for the links @cowpuc Silence is golden! haha I know that's definitely not a shared feeling in the motorcycle crowd. I don't subscribe to the 'make everyone hear my motorcycle withing a 1-mile range' so I'm safer theory. Just ride safer is my theory. For anyone else interested in keeping up with electric motorcycle news, here's a good website I found, focused on just that. https://thepack.news/

Agree 100% @Freebird These are not ready for touring yet and the prices are very high, too high. For me, I'm just excited to see the advances in technology and the market expanding. If they can keep making incremental advances in the tech, range and bring costs down - which I believe they will, these will be very viable bikes. 150 mile range at 80MPH with a 30 minute recharge would be the minimum requirement for me to consider as a touring bike. But for a 2nd bike for around town, weekend warrior rides, I could live with ~100 mile range. Not for everyone, for sure. Here's another one, similar range limitations, but clearly looking at breaking into the touring market: https://www.energicamotor.com/en/models/energica-experia/

A pretty good review of the bike: https://www.cycleworld.com/story/motorcycle-reviews/2020-zero-sr-s-first-ride-review/

https://www.zeromotorcycles.com/model/zero-srs This company is about 25 miles from me. They started up in the mid-2000's and were originally making smallish dirt bike style electric bikes. I've occasionally checked their website over their years to see how they were advancing and if they had anything more appealing to me. They've steadily moved from a marginally marketable proof-of-concept to their newest bike, in the link above, which genuinely gets me excited. The Harley Livewire does also. I saw one recently at the grocery store and the way it silently sped away was so Jetson's like, it was awesome. I don't know how truly 'green' these things are, as we've previously discussed. If they are great, that's a bonus, but not my main focus. If not, they are still very cool technology advances packed into motorcycles that at least look appealing to me. They again are very pricey, win-the-lottery purchase bikes, but cool as heck, nonetheless. Keep an eye on Zero, they may well be one of the first to come out with an all electric touring bike, based on the trajectory they've been on since they started.

LOL. I'm a relatively new wrench head and I thought it was just me. I will sleep better tonight.

What @PastorCurt described is a very good method for controlled stops. Dragging the rear brake as you come to a stop and using less front will prevent front dive, which seems to make it a bit more unstable, IMHO. The other change I made to the bike was upgrading the front calipers to the R6 4-pistons. The stock calipers will stop the bike, but they always seemed to be just off/on to me with too little finesse. When I had to make a quickish stop, it seemed like they were doing nothing until I really grabbed hard, then it was too much and a nose dive and an unstable stop. With the 4-piston calipers I have much more finesse and control over how much brake power is applied and can ease into most stops with little to no front end dive. BTW, I lowered my front only 1/2" as I didn't want to make a too dramatic change (so I thought) and then have to go back and redo it. Even 1/2" made a big change and I can more or less flat-foot at a stop. My heels might be just a hair off the ground if I am not leaning more to the left at a stop. If/when you lower it, the rubber bumpers that sit between the handlebars and the fairing will need to be modified. I just used a dremel with a small sanding wheel to make the U cutout a little deeper so they sit further down on the bars. Here is the bluetooth receiver I installed: https://www.ebay.com/itm/331841419661 And the phone holder/charger: https://www.ebay.com/itm/392997266015?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=v984r6nmshi&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=5AnVekZESR-&var=661914431613&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Lowering the front helps a bit, but slow speed handling on this bike may take a little getting used to. Regarding the cassette and bluetooth, I removed the cassette player itself and made a little storage cubby out of out instead. You have to remove the front fairing, and wiggle around inside there a bit to get the cassette player out. Not easy, but certainly doable if I can. The cassette player has an aux connector in the front and there is a separate aux cable on the back of the cassette which goes to the head unit. Its a simple 1/8" DIN style connector. I purchased a small Bluetooth receiver from amazon, hard-wired it to switched power, ground and ran the output to the aux connector. I also hard-wired a phone charger/holder and mounted on the bars, near the right side controls. Now, when I ride, I set the audio to AUX, connect my iphone to the bluetooth and listen to Pandora. I've also got a good collection of songs stored on my phone in case I'm out of range to receive pandora, but that hasn't happened yet. Stick with it, you'll get used to handling. For reference, I'm ~ 5' 9" and weigh 155 soaking wet. I'm sure its easier for the big dudes here to handle this bike, but again, if I can do it, its doable.

I just bought two tickets the other day, gives me double the chance with the pretty girls and a 35k moto. Of course, 2 x 0 still equals zero...

Yep

I don't have any experience with BMW bikes, other than one test ride I did back in the 90's. I think it was a 1200 boxer, but don't remember the exact model. The back-forth vibration was just weird to me and it was a very short test ride as a result. But I have known and met many BMW boxer engine riders who love them. I just thought it was interesting that they saw a market for the big touring bike & developed one. I know there was a recent discussion on Indian/Polaris and some history there (which I was unaware - thanks), but man, that Pursuit is looking like one darn sweet bike. I starting thinking about the Challenger a couple years ago when I saw that you could add a trunk. The Pursuit is built off the Challenger, but with some new features. Pricey for sure, but other than it having a Yamaha V4 engine, it checks all my boxes. Of course, that's on paper and I have yet to even see one in person, much less ride it. Its kinda like wanting to ask out that pretty girl, but then what if she says no... haha Girls & motorcycle, so many parallels...

We're pretty savvy here in Cali. Give us a problem and we'll find a solution!

Interestingly enough, BMW has come out with a new large cruiser-style touring bike, the R18 Transcontinental: https://www.bmwmotorcycles.com/en/models/heritage/r18-transcontinental.html Reviews are mostly good, but the boxer engine foregoes a good foot-forward resting place, which might just be a deal breaker. The Indian Pursuit is getting very good reviews and a bike I am personally very interested in to replace my Venture. I love my Venture, don't get me wrong, but its going on 16 years old. That in and of itself doesn't bother me, I know these bikes are reliable and at only 32k miles, it has a lot of life left in it. The issue for me is the dealer will no longer touch it. My local dealer did agree to do a valve adjustment in January because they were seasonally slow, but they said that's it. Before I went there, I checked with a small local indy shop, who does all my tire swaps, and even they said no, they won't touch it other than tires, or basic maintenance. I'm getting more comfortable working on bikes, thanks to the group here, but if it needs some work that's more than I'm comfortable doing, or if I happened to be on a road trip, I'm screwed. If Yamaha announced they are re-introducing the V4 Venture, with fuel-injection and ABS, I would go put my deposit down the same day. But I'm not holding my breath on that.

Generally speaking, I look at my son's generation and think, "Man, how did we produce such morons?" (for the record, I don't think my son is a moron, quite the opposite) Then I wonder how my parents looked at my generation when I was younger...most likely the same way and I'm certain I proved them right on occasion....And their parents probably thought the same of them. Its the nature of young people to bush the boundaries and its the nature of society to constantly move those boundaries further out. All we can do is instill values and morals in each of our own kids & hope they do the same for theirs and at the end of the day, we did our part to make this crazy world a better place. Love all the stories though! I also grew up driving tractors and farm trucks in the midwest and had fun learning how to "drive" in the snow. I would add gravel roads to that too, some good ole fishtailing and counter steering lessons in the summer time! Good times.

Spot on. The energy to mine, refine and produce those electric car components comes from oil/gas powered sources. TANSTAAFL. As an electrical engineer, I love the concept of electric cars (I would consider buying the Mach-e Mustang, its a neat vehicle but wish they didn't call it a Mustang, its not). Its an incredible advancement in technology, but they are not necessarily environmentally friendly for the reasons you point out. Just like the wind mills. Sure, once they are up and running, they provide 'carbon-free' electricity. But, if you've ever seen just one of their blades being transported down the highway, they are massive. It takes a semi and several support vehicles just to deliver it over many miles of highway. And before then, material has to be mined, refined, processed and turned into that blade. Once on site, it needs big, heavy diesel powered machines to assemble. How many years does a windmill have to run 24/7 to produce more 'carbon-free' electric than it took to build it? If there were no gov't subsidies, would they ever get built? If the answer is no, then trust the bean counters that they are bad investments. Again, not opposed to any of these new technologies, also don't have all the answers, but too many people believe in carbon-free fantasies. Heck, even walking or riding a bicycle consumes oxygen and produces carbon dioxide. Also, most people don't realize the batteries do not last forever. Every charge/discharge cycle takes a small % out of the remaining useful life of the battery - same as every other battery. I have to assume that the Mfg'ers are over-provisioning the battery capacity to accommodate for this. Here in CA, they are required to warranty the battery for 10 years to be at no less than 80% of original capacity (IIRC). The only way they can do this is put in, say, an 18kwh battery and call it 10kwh in the specs, for example. In 10 years time, it will lose ~80% of its original capacity, but still be within the original spec of 10kwh. That adds more weight, which is counter-productive. I'd like to see that requirement go away, lower the weight/space requirements and make the battery packs cheap, drop-in replacements. If they can drop the weight, lower the costs and get the range up to 4-500 miles on a single charge, you now have a viable alternative to ICE, but still not carbon free.

You think that's bad, Commiefornia is outlawing ICE CARS by 2035 and now Massachusetts is following suit. sigh, I want America back, I miss her dearly

That’s a beauty! I bet you have a lot of guys here jealous. I am. I have a 1982 Yamaha Vision (baby Venture?) that I’m bringing back to life after it sat since 1992, with only 12k miles on it. Rebuilt carbs (twice), fuel pump, petcock, starter motor, front brake master cylinder & caliper, new plugs & fluids. She runs like a champ now. Fun little bike to ride.

While I no longer ride in heavy commute traffic and try to avoid as much heavy SF Bay area traffic as possible these days, especially on the motorcycle, I have to weigh in on the 'crazy CA' lane splitters. So first, yes, there are the occasion crazy (young) idiots who weave in/out freeway speed and they could be ticketed for that as a judgement call by the police if its unsafe for them or surrounding vehicles (although law enforcement in CA is essentially non-existent these days....but that's another topic so I'll stop there). Second, I spent many years safely and easily splitting lanes during rush hour commute traffic - yes, even on my original '99 Venture, back in the day. It can be safely done and I can assure the reality on the bike is much different than the perception. The safe way (perhaps only way) is when traffic is at a crawl or stop. For the most part, I typically would be 'in' traffic, moving at the same pace and when it slows to a crawl or stop, is when its safe to move into the space between lanes at a slow, safe speed. If traffic came to a sudden stop, so would I before proceeding to split. I can't say how fast, but definitely not 25+MPH. It takes slow speed handling skills, respect, patience and diligence and a sincere commitment to safety first, for you and the vehicles around you. Going at an appropriate pace, it was never unusual to see drivers move over and give me even more space, as they saw me approaching. As soon as traffic starts to flow is when its time to stop splitting and re-merge back into a spot in traffic. The only 'close call' I can think of was when a driver one car ahead of the one I was currently passing opened his door to dump out coffee. I was going at a slow enough speed to safely stop and neither he, nor I was in danger, but perhaps might have been different if he waited longer & didn't look first. I've never seen an accident from safe lane splitting either. As a driver, the worst part are the "hey, wanna hear how loud my pipes are' jerks. They will jump right next to you & blast it, fortunately, they are few and far between. I'm not a daredevil or a big risk taker and I would still split lanes today - when its safe to do so, as described - if needed.