Venturous Randy

Thanks for the update and we hope he stays safe and brings home many pictures and stories. RandyA

For a while now, I have been having some issues with my right shoulder and now, my right hand. My shoulder problems has been limited range, especially behind my back and over my head. There are also times that it just hurts no matter how I try to lay when trying to sleep. I have had x-rays on my shoulder and I do have some osteoarthritis, spurs, tendinitis and just getting older. I did go through a series of physical therapy sessions at the VA, but did not have a lot of improvement. One area I do have a lot of discomfort is when trying to sleep. No matter how I try to lay with my arm, I am not comfortable. I do take Alleve sometimes and it does help. The one position that is the most comfortable is when my arms are outstretched when I am riding my bike. The thing that has become the most aggravating is my right hand. I am at the point that when I try to make a fist, I have a gap of almost an inch between my fingertips and the heel of my hand. I have also lost most all of my grip, even in the working range that I have. If it were not for the throttle rocker on the bike, I don't think I could ride the bike very far at all. I asked the doctor if this may be carpel tunnel and he did not say for sure and this is why the MRI was ordered. So, if I can get some good diagnosis of my problems, maybe I can get some fixes and be able to have a good riding season next year. I appreciate any comments or suggestions. RandyA

During my physical, my doctor asked me about my daily activity level, and so I described a typical day this way: "Well, yesterday afternoon, I waded along the edge of a lake, drank eight beers, escaped from wild dogs in the heavy brush, marched up and down several rocky hills, stood in a patch of poison ivy, crawled out of quicksand, jumped away from an aggressive rattlesnake and took four "leaks" behind big trees." Inspired by the story, the doctor said, "You must be one hell of an outdoors man!" "No," I replied, "I'm just a crappy golfer." RandyA

Sounds to me like you got a set of 83 carbs. The smaller nipple is for the boost sensor and it is taking vacuum from a diferent place than where your 85 bike does. BTW, how about adding your bike to the header so someone does not have to go to your profile to see what year your bike is. RandyA

May need to do another Lynn Cove type viaduct. Yes, been through there several times. That would be a weird feeling to look back and see the road is gone. RandyA

There has not been an indication of any fuel or coolant in the oil or any coolant loss. On all the times that this has happened, there has been a short period of time before there were repairs on the bike. I did not pull the plugs and see if any of them were wet, due to all the plastic that had to be removed. In hindsight, maybe I should have. RandyA

I have a friends 96 Goldwing in the garage that appears to have had events of hydro-locking. On two occasions he blew that starter solenoid when the engine locked up and then he broke the gears that interface with the starter. I am getting ready to pull the engine and the cover from the broken gears and see what will need to be done to fix this. I was just wondering if anyone has encountered this on a wing? I am going to have the carbs rebuilt at a shop once I figure if this is fixable. RandyA

Over the years, I have had to some degree a problem with my bike when it gets wet. It does not like to go in the rain and will miss and backfire after I have washed it. Several years ago I moved the TCI to the wall under the left side near the radio and finally this last year I moved it to the top of the air box. That did not help. Another thing I did was to clean and seal the wire connection up near the seat from the igniter's. This last weekend, after riding Saturday on some damp roads, I decided to stop by the car wash and rinse it off. I was very careful that I only rinsed the bottom part of the bike off and did not even get close to the spark plugs. Since I have the bikini side panels, everything is open and it is easy to tell what got wet. I had a hard time getting the bike to start and had to run miles down the highway before it finally cleared up. The only thing I can figure is if I get any moisture around the bottom of the engine and maybe where the igniter wires come out of the side cover, it is causing an electrical breakdown. Has anyone else encountered this problem? RandyA

Since the battery is going to be replaced, have them put a DEKA battery in it. You should get years more life from it. RandyA

Hope everything goes good for you. I also hope to see you and Alan when you come back across the big pond. As I have said before, if you make it thru east Tennessee, you have a place to stay. RandyA

Does it have a cassette player? RandyA

If you have gas in the oil, you need to change it very soon. RandyA

The rain has stopped here and this is what it is doing now. RandyA

I recently encountered a problem with the spring that holds the detent linkage breaking and I had a problem with it coming out of gear, but it was usually 1st or 5th. When you shift, do feel the positive notching into gear? It is rare that the MKII transmissions have many problems other than the pin problem and that is not the same thing that the earlier 1st gens had with 2nd gear. RandyA

How far are you from the river there in WV? It looks like you are getting a lot of rain there also. Hope you and Skid are ok. RandyA

Karl, not sure about your area, but here in east Tennessee, Straigh Talk uses Verizon towers and the service is exactly the same, even with the slight dead spot south of Bristol Motor Speedway. You may also have the same service in your area. RandyA

We have a lot of roads and schools closed here in the Johnson City, Bristol and Kingsport area. We may have up to a foot of snow in the mountains around here in the next few days. The biggest problem is we have had a train of rain. The rain is moving north east, but staying in the same track. If we had been about 15 degrees cooler, we would have had close to four feet of snow by now and it is not over. This thing is still extending to the Gulf. I hope everyone is ok out there. RandyA

I also suggest the E-3 and I too had the wobble problem when having the Avon Venom on the back. I also knew several other 1st gen guys that had a wobble when one up and speeds from 70 mph and up. In my opinion, the best handling my bike has ever been was with an Avon on the front and an E-3 on the back before I replaced the front tire. I have put about 135,000 miles on my bike since I have had it and have had most of the available brands over the years. RandyA

They come in Red and black. RandyA http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/624/14854/Motorcycle-Article/2013-Honda-Gold-Wing-F6B-First-Look.aspx

We did have a beautiful weekend here in east Tennessee. I saw 74 degrees both days while riding and for the middle of January, this was record temperatures. It was good to get out and get a little seat time on Saturday with a friend that has just converted from a Goldwing to an 09 Venture. On Sunday, I rode alone and just enjoyed the day. There were a lot of motorcycles out and about everybody waved. The bad part about about having a warm day in the middle of winter is it seems just about every time we have a local motorcycle death. This weekend was no exception. We had a 77 year old man in a Cadillac pulled out in front of two on Honda's and one struck the car and the other crashed trying to miss the car. The 28 year old rider that struck the car died at the scene and the other rider, who is 18, is in the hospital. The only information the Highway Patrol has released at this time is charges are pending. I just wanted to take a moment and say that we all need to be extra diligent when we get out there and take those "off season" rides because many people just seem to forget about looking for motorcycles. The other thing is it seems like after not riding for a couple of months that we always want to crank it on some to clean the spider webs out. Be careful out there. RandyA

Brian, if you are going to be around tomorrow, I may can ride over your way and you can sit on my bike. I have a Corbin seat that has been scooped out. Just let me know. RandyA

Took about a 120 mile ride over into NC and back and it was a perfect day for a ride except many of the roads were wet in spots in the mountains. I saw temps up to 74 degrees. It is also supposed to be close to 70 tomorrow. RandyA

Happy birthday Moped and I hope you will have plenty more. RandyA :Happy Birthday::Happy Birthday:

To me, it did not sound like the Venture was revving very high. RandyA

Calling in sick to work makes me uncomfortable. No matter how legitimate my excuse, I always get the feeling that my boss thinks I'm lying. On one recent occasion, I had a valid reason but lied anyway, because the truth was just too darned humiliating. I simply mentioned that I had sustained a head injury, and I hoped I would feel up to coming in the next day. By then, I reasoned, I could think up a doozy to explain the bandage on the top of my head. The accident occurred mainly because I had given in to my wife's wishes to adopt a cute little kitty. Initially, the new acquisition was no problem. Then one morning, I was taking my shower after breakfast when I heard my wife, Deb, call out to me from the kitchen. "Honey! The garbage disposal is dead again. Please come reset it." "You know where the button is," I protested through the shower pitter-patter and steam. "Reset it yourself!" "But I'm scared!" she persisted. "What if it starts going and sucks me in?" There was a meaningful pause and then, "C'mon, it'll only take you a second." So out I came, dripping wet and butt naked, hoping that my silent outraged nudity would make a statement about how I perceived her behavior as extremely cowardly. Sighing loudly, I squatted down and stuck my head under the sink to find the button. It is the last action I remember performing. It struck without warning, and without any respect to my circumstances. No, it wasn't the hexed disposal, drawing me into its gnashing metal teeth. It was our new kitty, who discovered the fascinating dangling objects she spied hanging between my legs. She had been poised around the corner and stalked me as I reached under the sink. And, at the precise moment when I was most vulnerable, she leapt at the toys I unwittingly offered and snagged them with her needle-like claws. I lost all rational thought to control orderly bodily movements, blindly rising at a violent rate of speed, with the full weight of a kitten hanging from my masculine region. Wild animals are sometimes faced with a "fight or flight" syndrome. Men, in this predicament, choose only the "flight" option. I know this from experience. I was fleeing straight up into the air when the sink and cabinet bluntly and forcefully impeded my ascent. The impact knocked me out cold. When I awoke, my wife and the paramedics stood over me. Now there are not many things in this life worse than finding oneself lying on the kitchen floor butt naked in front of a group of "been-there, done-that" paramedics. Even worse, having been fully briefed by my wife, the paramedics were all snorting loudly as they tried to conduct their work, all the while trying to suppress their hysterical laughter.....and not succeeding. Somehow I lived through it all. A few days later I finally made it back in to the office, where colleagues tried to coax an explanation out of me about my head injury. I kept silent, claiming it was too painful to talk about, which it was. "What's the matter?" They all asked, "Cat got your tongue?" If they only knew!