greg_in_london

Surely you get wires in the bead, though if that was showing the tyre would be in danger of ripping apart and jumping off the rim... 3K miles ? I had a Kenda down to illegal in less than 1000 miles, but I have a sidecar and was pulling a trailer.

Middlesex ? How's that a funny name ? It covered the area around London. It was East of Wessex (as was) and West of Essex. Come to think of it, it is North of Sussex (East and West) and South of....... Bedfordshire (and Herts & a couple of others.) We don't have funny names here ???

If he's a Brit it must be a real 200mph...

Very nicely done. Any insects and even small birds would go through those induction tracts without a trace, but a flicked up stone or some gravel could see it all end in tears.. What do you think the engine is and how fast would it really go ?

I'm going from memory here, though I could pull a starter apart to check, but surely the live connection (which the black probe is touching) is only connected to the carbon brushes. It only earths through the body when the central commutator is there and then eaths through the primary commutator coils, the brush plate and then through the body to the chassis. The magnetic field that it works against is generated by strong permanent magnets bonded to the starter body. 3.4 Mega-Ohms means some continuity - maybe from the brush touching the body or else the fibre washer that insulates the live m6 bolt that goes through the starter body is getting old/contaminated. That's not going to be because of the coil's insulation because the commutator isn't there. Easiest thing is to rebuild it and see if it works - no point talking more about it

My main bike for bowling around on at the moment is a Suzuki 650 V-Strom which is fuel injection. Soooooo easy. If the injectors ever need cleaning then it will be ultra-sound, a good second hand replacement or an after-market upgrade, though I've not heard of anyone having to do that. I've long that that FI and engine management would be great for the old Venture though.

I must admot I'm a bit confused about what you mean by 'converting the forks'. Beyond making a new adaptor to inflate the forks manually, what would you want to adapt ? If you have to do without the air assistance, then it can be worth adding a little pre-load to the spring (ie another or a longer spacer) or deciding on a stiffer spring. I used a heavier weight 'Sonic' spring (because I have a sidecar fitted and wanted more support) though others like 'Progressive' springs. They came with a spacer that I had to cut to length to meet my needs, so now the air assistance is for fine tuning and I don't have to rely on it.

If you can't do that, email it to me and I'll resize it and send it back.

Silly questions maybe, but: Have you checked the air inlet / air filter is not blocked ? Have you checked that all four exhausts are getting hot (could be an electrical problem, or one carburettor may be malfunctioning. Does the engine operate normally to 4,500, or like a sick dog ? There are people who know those ignition units who may give better answers, but they will need more information I expect. Глупые вопросы может быть, но: Вы проверили воздуха на входе / воздушный фильтр не засорен? Вы проверили ли, что все четыре выхлопные трубы становятся горячей (может быть электрическим проблема, или один карбюратор неисправен. Работает ли двигатель обычно до 4500, или как больной собаки? Есть люди, которые знают те единицы зажигания, которые могут дать лучшие ответы, но они будут нужна дополнительная информация, я ожидаю.

That tallies with changing the oil every five years, though waiting until you feel the difference would be the longest you'd want to leave it. From the specs the 2nd gen has 30% more oil in the forks than the 1st gen, so while I'm using mine (it's been sitting, waiting for me to tidy the exhaust recently) changing it each 2-3 years will be about right for me.

@Bert 2006 I have an early first gen, so there may be things I don't know about 2nd gens, but I've been riding and fixing bikes for thirty years and I've not heard of a bike in the past fifty years that doesn't have oil damped forks (or with leading links, oil in the shocks). I can imagine Yamaha saying it's not a service item if they stop it getting contaminated - does it use a cartridge ? Even so - how long is it good for before you'd want to renew it ? I've just looked up the spec page for RSVs/2nd gens and it says: Suspension: Front Fork: Oil Type 5wt Yamaha Fork Oil Level / Quantity 117mm (4.6 in) / 553cc (18.7 US oz) That sounds like a service item. There's this article too: http://www.venturers.org/Tech_Library/index.php?action=article&cat_id=002013&id=319 I kept on looking and found the user handbook on the Star site. On pages 7:29-31, in between telling you to consult a Yamaha dealer if your sidestand needs oiling or the battery goes flat, it does indeed say to contact your dealer if oil leakage is excessive or the forks don't move smoothly. Maybe the assumption is that the oil will last as long as the fork seals - or at least until it's out of warranty. I'll look for the proper manual and see if it says anything, though I'm thinking I'd rather be looking up where to drill the hole to put in a drain hole if I had a 2nd gen. I found the link for the workshop manual: http://home.centurytel.net/malizia/RS/Manual/ and it doesn't say that there is anything different to any other set of forks, so it's a combination of cost cutting and marketing, presumably. Weren't these bikes sold with a five year maintenance deal ? They may have increased the oil capacity so it would last five years - you'd have to ask 2nd gen owners if changing it makes a difference, but I'd be surprised if it didn't.

I've just realised there were a couple of posts in the time I was posting that I missed. We installed the classicstart8 and I'll check if we can boot through without the apps scteen when I get Jackie finished with Bejewelled Blitz - which might not be any time soon. I'll try out the other ideas and hopefully will be less frustrated than before. [@First & Last - Those links are tagged to your hard drive, though I should be able to do a search for them. http://www.classicshell.net/]

Thanks - that's useful. We'll mainly use it as an office machine and for browsing. If we need anything that will run better on a tablet we'll probably get a cheap tablet - not use a full desktop machine for it. Just being able to get to a list of the programmes installed without searching removes one major source of frustration. The download and install was quick and easy (the g/f did it and is still happily browsing FaceBook, so hasn't disturbed too much.) Anyone using 8.1 - is there any reason to download it ?

Sorry - we bought a machine and have found Windows 8 to be really really irritating and so the machine has stuck in the corner while we've used laptops, except for the missus playing Kandy Krush saga. From what was said on the other thread I was going to try out Robo-linux, but are you saying that with 8.1 you can boot without the childish iphone apps startup and have access to all your programmes from the start button again ? I didn't want to start downloading more gumf to make a bad job worse ? Or does classicstart8 do that ? Or do I need both ? I've just been bidding on a machine for someone else and was wondering whether we needed to factor in installing another OS or not (as the PO had installed W8).

You should also change the fork oil every couple of years - there will be a thread on it somewhere and if you have it a long time, the oil in the final drive box (once in ten years maybe). Engine oil is as easy as everyone has said though. Undo the bolt at the bottom to let it out and then refill with quality oil.

I wouldn't share links like HUZLER - experience shows that some people will actually believe that nonsense and re-quote it until it starts to seem plausible. You can bet some people will be sharing it on Facebook and it will appear in chain emails. I've never tried marijuana/cannabis, even though everyone assumes that I have because I've long hair and a beard. For me, I wasn't sure that I would justify not trying other drugs if I tried weed - and I knew of others taking a range of non-prescription drugs. Except alcohol of course, because to me beer was something I'd grown up with. On the other hand, I never thought that weed was a gateway to other drugs for other people. This is an open forum and my identity can easily be worked out, so I'm not going to mention who I might have known over the years, but generally people who smoked blow carried on smoking blow and moved on to nothing else, while still achieving well in their careers, while those who took other drugs were more likely to drop back to 'just' weed. I don't know anybody now that regularly takes amphetamines, cocaine, LSD or even Ecstacy anymore (or charlie, whizz/speed or acid as they'd be called). In the past some people went straight to heroin (smack), ketamine (still about) or glue sniffing, depending on what was prevalent where they lived and cannabis wasn't necessarily part of it. Unfortunately Darwinism has removed many of those from our company. I've no objection to the sale of those being criminal offences, but I do have a problem with people who have done nothing to others finding their lives and careers suddenly come to a halt because they have made choices that someone else has arbitrarily decided are wrong. The one place where this seems to be an issue is where teens and pre-teens get hold of any drugs and go completely off the rails. What I don't know (and what can't be researched while it is illegal) is how much these kids take drugs as a part of their rebellion to show their rejection of their family's and school's values and how much the drugs skew their judgement and values. Setting age limits would not stop teenagers getting hold of drugs, but making an adult a criminal without good reason is wrong. If it had any effect, I'd err on the side of protecting the kids, but criminalising soft drugs just makes them seem more 'bad boy' and attractive for (certain) kids to try out, so on balance I have to say decriminalise and allow responsible use without people worrying about the police (which would help their relations with the public too.) I still won't try myself, though.

Well you can take the cams out - I can't think of anything that would stop you and that's 'normal' on bikes, but whether you can do valve springs as well depends on your compression tool that you said holds the valve pneumatically. It would certainly be fiddly, so it would be up to you if the work you saved by dismantling less and not having to replace gaskets was balanced by making the job a PITA. Your fingers may be skinnier than mine though..

I've been watching that walk-through on the robolinux page - it's long at 24 minutes and I've taken a break (g/f wants the telly on..) but I really do like the idea of those rotating desktops - I keep losing projects for weeks or months once they're not live on the screen anymore. I'll have to try it and see if it makes the computer stagger having multiple desktops open, but if they're not active in the ram, hopefully they're not.

I did like the look of that tilting/rotating set of window options - being able to have a number of programmes open that I can see are separate - work, bike, g/f etc would be nicer than tiny tabs along the bottom - so I'm not a complete dinosaur. I'm thinking that any new OS is going to have a hill to climb in terms of learning how to do things, but Windows keeps insisting on taking its best features and removing or at least hiding them and replacing them with gimmicks. The only positive thing about W8 is that it still has windows explorer, which they would love to get rid of, but presumably have finally come to understand is that that component is the only thing that makes windows work. They haven't made it that visible though and instead of opening into a sensible window, they've tried to make a desktop like a mobile phone - like trying to make a top of the range model look like a cut-down moped because they sell well with kids... What's wrong with W8 could surely be easily remedied - a way to by-pass the android screen (good on a phone, bad on a desktop) and a proper programme menu. They could do that anytime they sacked the developer/executive responsible for the mess and just pressed the button - I bet the functionality is there. So should I just wait for them to eat humble pie and fix their system, upgrade to W7 or try Linux.... At the moment the machine just gets used for Candy Crush and as a hub for the printer to connect to (I can't access the scanner properly through W8 because it doesn't have a proper programme menu, though maybe I could manually make a desktop shortcut if I dig into the programme directory..) Good thread. No drift at all.

Er - actually changing the seals without tearing everything down, but you do have to separate the forks and slider. The only question is whether you can undo the locking nut for the damper unit easily. If you have the bike SECURELY on the centre stand with jacks under the front of the bike (or strapped on a proper bike lift), then you can try and undo the allen bolts from the bottom of the fork legs with the springs still in place. Sometimes this is much easier than reaching down inside the forkleg with a home-made socket to hold the nut in place from the other end as the spring pressure can help stop it spinning. If it doesn't, then you are no worse off and have to buy/borrow/fabricate a long tool. Obviously you'll find it easiest to unbolt the front wheel & mudguard etc, but you can do the job with the fork legs still in place. The bike just has to be somewhere that no-one else will go near until you have finished because those dampers are fragile. Just remember that both the chrome on those fork legs and the new seals are easily damaged. Soak the new seals in oil and put something over the end of the fork leg, such as the cut-off finger from a latex glove or cellophane, otherwise in some incomprehensible way the seal can get damaged as it brushes past. Mind you, if you haven't done many fork seals before, you are likely to find it easiest to take the fork legs off and do it on the bench. Just don't hold the fork legs directly in a vice and mark the chrome...

It does look as if it would shortcut a project for fuel injection. Switching to one fuel input will surely not improve power, but with my bike and sicecar (and trailer tent) I'd like better starting, cleaner cruising and, most of all, better mpg while pulling hard at 60-65mph. If no-one has done this on a Venture yet, has anyone done a report on a [cough, spit] GW or anything else ?

It's all hard to say. I may not be the person to comment as a friend twisted my arm into changing the fan/cooler on a netbook and now that won't boot (maybe another thread coming...), but if you can post the motherboard spec/part number we could check that the RAM is compatible - Kingston is usually pretty reliable (did it come unopened in the plastic packaging ?) though where a MOB has more than one spec, sometimes they guess the wrong one. (I had this with Crucial a few months back). And post the spec of the RAM too. I'm presuming that you're posting on a phone or something now, so searching for yourself is a bit of a pain.

I couldn't find exactly the same kit as I bought, but it is similar to this one http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CAR-AND-VAN-TYRE-PUNCTURE-REPAIR-KIT-WITH-15-STRIPS-/140586300652?pt=UK_Cars_Parts_Vehicles_Wheels_tyre_Trims_Trims_ET&hash=item20bb98b4ec except mine came with a tube of vulcanising gloop. It might not be needed, but it doesn't seem to hurt and maybe lubricates the needle as I push it in. It has been pretty good and I treat it as a permanent repair. there's no point sharing the pump I bought as I finally got a high spec pump when it was available at Lidl or Aldi and I don't think you have them in the states.

I worked for a local authority a few years ago and came across an IT policy that said everyone had to change their password every month and that it had to have three out of capitals, special characters and numbers, no recognisable words or number sequences and no sequence from a password that had been used before. And not be written down. And you could do no work without the password and contacting IT to reset it would mean a day not being able to work. Needless to say the policy was completely ignored, except for when the system forced a password change, when we would all know where each other's password were written down in case we had to answer queries for colleagues who were out at meetings for the day. Some attempts at security are just completely self defeating.

They are quite simple switches, usually with a couple of brass tabs that slide over a brass/copper ring to make a contact, so don't expect them to last forever. Yamaha ones last longer than pattern ones of course, but they're not expensive when you do have to replace them.