Venturous Randy

Friend of mine, Steve Neal who used to be on here years ago, has a 2nd gen Venture that he bought from Rooster on here. He went thru over a year not starting his bike and after he retired recently, he decided to try to get his bike going. It will start and idle roughly with full choke, but as soon as he starts to move the choke off or give it any throttle, it dies. If he lets it idle for a long time, he can occasionally get it to rev some, but roughly and only at full choke. My question pertains to the similarity of 1st Gen and 2 Gen. I ask this because I have been thru 1st gen carbs several times, but never 2nd gen. I want to help him get these carbs cleaned out, but no sure if I can do the 2nd gens. For the carb gurus on here, what do you think? He did do a dose of Barrymans with some fresh fuel, but so far it is not getting better. Randy

You keep riding and squealing and you will be looking for another speedometer, soon. You need to unplug it or take the cable out. Randy

It is funny how these things happen in the middle of nowhere. I was riding down a road near the Inner Banks of North Carolina in the backwater area one morning a long way from home and then all of a sudden, as been noted here, the sudden noise scared the crap out of me. I had no idea what caused it, but when I pulled over, it stopped. Now I was really confused. The crazy thing about this is it is so loud that it is difficult to tell where the noise is coming from. It may have not done it again on this trip and I did finally figure out what caused it. I took the speedo out and put grease down in the inside around the sleeve/bearing and was ok for a while. I later on did the screw on fitting with the grease fitting and have had no more problems. I think this is the best way as it forces grease into the area between the bearing and the housing. Randy

Wow, from what you have gone thru, almost anything has to be better. And for sure, coming to east TN is a lot better and we are just about neighbors. As has been said, many here are glad that your life has begun to turn around and we are all rooting for you. Randy

I like the style of it and to me I see little things that resemble am MK1 1st gen. The pointy side bags with the very similar paint scheme as a MK1 and the sides of the fairing also, at least in this picture and from the angle taken. I still have to say that the 30+ year old styling of the MK1 was way ahead of its time. Randy

Well, I am still at least one of the 23. Randy

It is supposed to be down in the 40's tonight here in east Tennessee and our daytime temps are 10 to 15 degrees below normal. This is normally the time we enjoy camping, but it is going to have to warm up first. Last year we camped almost a week down at Hunting Island State Park, north of Hilton Head, SC, in early October and it was hot. Then a week later Hurricane Matthew came thru and tore it all to pieces and looking at the early tracking of Irma, it may be on the same track. But. I guess there is not a good track for Irma unless it takes a sharp right turn and heads back out in the Atlantic and it does not look like that is going to happen. I hope everyone stays safe and I will quit fussing about it being too cool. Randy

2nd gear? Randy

Just got my Rider Magazine today with a long article on the 3rd gen Venture. All in all it was a pretty positive story with a lot of good comments. Randy

We started our Vogal trip a couple days early and camped south of Tellico Plains, TN and was in the 100% zone. It got pretty dark, but with us being in town, I did not notice much temp drop. This is my second total eclipse as the 1st one for me was in eastern NC while in the USAF in 1970. Randy

Linda and I made it home a little earlier. We had a great time and yes, we did see if there is any interest in Asheville and right now, Skid is suggesting August 15th, 2018. Randy

Yeah, and some of us ain't getting any prettier either. We had a great time and I am glad to be home. Randy

The camper is loaded and now we will be loading the car top carrier and the car. Linda has got stuff everywhere to go and I have no idea where we will put it all. But, we usually manage, but she always takes stuff she won't use and gets mad if I start culling stuff. We are hoping to get out of here around 8:30 and go by her pharmacist, because we missed it by ten minutes of it closing Saturday. I am dreading the traffic as we head for Hiwassee park, east of Cleveland, TN, right in the middle of the eclipse. Randy

Hope you have a fun and safe trip Skid. We are hoping to get out of here at about 8am in the morning to head toward Hiwassee Park, which is east of Cleveland, TN. Kinda dreading it because there is no electricity at the campsites and it is going to be hot. From the weather report from Blairsville, it doesn't look like it will be very hot down that way and night time temps look like they will be around 60 degrees and I am sure it will be cooler at Vogal. But, I may also be setting up my camper in the rain. But, the main thing I am dreading is the traffic. We are heading right into where the center line of the eclipse will be. Randy

How would you be camping? Randy

Earl, I hope it works out as I would love to see you. Okay, I have been able to add one more day to my reservation. I now have Wed thru Fri night, but I had to give up my 40 ft site and go with a popup/tent site, but I still will have electricity for the central air. Not sure what we do for Sat night, but things change all the time at these campgrounds. Randy

I may be there Friday night if I can not get a site at Vogal. Randy

Hey Yammer, if you still want to have some fun before you get too old to enjoy being out and riding around, you really need to think about getting a Miata. First of all, you can pick up a decent Miata for what a nice 1st gen costs. Miatas are tough little cars and very dependable. They are easy to work on and new and used parts are readily available. They are a lot like a trike, just one more wheel and very stable, and a hell of a lot cheaper. They are fun to drive and I have a feeling that the only problem will be that you will have to get the Warden one also. They are like 1st gens, they are contagious, we now have six of them in the family. I could probably sell mine for twice what I paid for it, as I looked around and found a great deal. Yeah, I know, they are made in Japan, but so are Ventures. Randy

Hey Woody, for the 23rd and 24th, they have my little camper in a 40 footer. Not sure about what I am going to do for 25th as we may move to Seasons Inn. It aint gonna be like it was two years ago where we had the run of that end of the park. Hell, this year there aint even room for any bears. Randy

I have to say that over the years we have had a really good time at the Asheville rally. From the beginning, the intent was for it to be a laid back, fun, get together. It is a beautiful place for motorcycles and the campground and cabins have been a wonderful place for us to spread out and build a little village. I have to say though, that a couple of months before last years Rally that I was very close to saying that we should just call it off. There did not seem to be much interest with very few responding. But, I made the decision that we were going to be there, even if we were going to be camping by ourselves. But, it all came together, we had a good turnout and we were able to spend some time with some very special friends. I do have to say though that I am disappointed that there seems to be very little interest from our newer members in getting together for these events. But, even though I am no longer riding my Venture and I did not do the trike thing, being in my Miata riding with the group has been a lot of fun. Randy

Anybody staying at the Seasons Inn in Blairsville? We may have to stay there Friday night. Right now, they do have openings. Randy

OK, got a problem. Vogal is booked on all campsites for Friday night. Wed/Thur is open and Sat is open. I just booked Wed/Thur and hope that Fri may be open with a cancellation, The thing that frustrates me about Vogal is you can not reserve a specific site like everywhere else. In TN, I am reserved at Hiawassee State park on the Mom/Tue and I know which spot I will be in. Last time at Vogal there were plenty of sites open and we were able to stay across from Woody. This time there is no telling what we can do. I know I should have booked earlier, but I figured after the crowd left after the eclipse, there would plenty open. So, we will just see how it goes. Randy

OK, so does this mean a couple are to bring a $20-$25 gift each? As tight as we are going to be packed in the Miata, it might have to be a gift card for McDonalds. Randy

Are you going to be in a tent? We have not made reservations yet. I just hope the eclipse crowd leaves by Wednesday. Randy

I think this is a good idea. I started the first ICE (In Case of Emergency) list at the first Asheville Rally due to a wreak and misunderstandings at the prior Vogal. Fortunately, we have not had another crash, but we did have a breakdown at Asheville and the list came in handy. Randy