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Venturous Randy

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Everything posted by Venturous Randy

  1. Weekend before last Linda and I were in Banner Elk, NC following a truck on a two lane thru a business area. The guy in the truck turned right and an older woman in Jeep Cherokee was coming out of the business and I got a small glimpse of her moving before the truck completely blocked my view of her. I immediate went for the brakes and sure enough, she pulled right out in front of me. I hit the air horns and she then realized what was happening. She did go across the street into another business and I do believe I scared her. I am just glad that I was paying attention or I would have T-boned her right in her door. RandyA
  2. About 12 years ago when I built the 4X8 trailer I carry my bike and a lot of other stuff on. I used the rear suspension out of a Plymouth K-car and wanted to put shocks on it. Once I put it together, I knew I did not have a lot of available travel to work with. I went into a auto parts store and told the counterman I wanted to buy a couple of shocks. His first question was "What do they go on?" My comment was "I have no idea". You can imagine the look I got. I then told him I was building a trailer and needed the shortest shock he had available. Another look of exasperation. About that time an old timer type counterman that had been overhearing the conversation stated; "1965 Ford Mustang front shocks", and that is how my trailer ended up with Mustang shocks that works great. Those days are about gone and now about everything is all computer oriented. RandyA
  3. I ran in to Don Harrell (tazmocycle) and his wife Susan at an intersection south of Birmingham while on a test ride after I had resoldered my CMU. They invited me to a local bike get together and when I did they asked if I was going to Vogal. I said "What's a Vogal?" At the time I was a member of The Venturers. I went to Vogal one and ended up joining Venturerider.org and life has never been the same. RandyA
  4. I just bought a Markland hitch that will fit an 83 that I cleaned up and painted. I also put a new 1 7/8th inch ball on it. Unfortunately, it will not fit my bike unless I take off the current lightbar thatI have on it. I can send you a picture if you want. And yes, they are getting rare. If I don't sell it, I may try to extend it some to get past the light bar. RandyA
  5. This is how I fixed the one stuck float bowl problem in the 122,000 miles I have put on my 83. I just removed the fuel line going into the stuck carb and blew a little air into it and that solved my problem. RandyA
  6. The Progressives raised the front of my bike also. Now I have to be careful of not getting to the point it leans too much to the left. RandyA
  7. Happy Birthday and hope it was a very memorable one. It was great to meet you folks and have you as guests. RandyA
  8. I would want to make sure that the sidecar and the rear bike tire are the same, as in bias-ply. Technically, that are on the same axle. RandyA
  9. Saturday and Sunday, Linda and I put over 500 miles on my 83, mostly two lane back roads thru the mountains and hilly country. On the 1st tank I got 48mpg and the 2nd tank was 46. The 2nd tank was with some steep roads with switchbacks that took me all the way to 1st gear. You should be getting better mileage than what you are saying. I have replaced my diaphragms and reset the needle depths, which made the most difference. I also ride pretty agressively much of the time and my bike does run strong. RandyA
  10. One of my favorite campgrounds is Carolina Hemlocks State Park. It is only a few miles off the parkway on Highway 80 just north of Mt Mitchell between the parkway and Burnsville, NC. Is has great showers, a great swimming area that is also great for snorkeling as the water may be very clear. Several of the pools of water may be 6 to 8 feet deep. They also having tubing and rent tubes there. The only thing lacking is the camp sites do not have electricity, but water is available at various locations. There is some great riding roads around this area and it is also close to Little Switzerland, NC RandyA
  11. One of the biggest problem I have seen with the fan operation is the connection on the temperature sending unit. Usually, the connector gets loose and will not ground, which I believe turns on the fan. This connector is behind the bottom of the right fairing. You will have to take off the crome side cover to get to it. Many times, cleaning and tightening the connetion will fix the problem. RandyA
  12. This is a great time to change your fuel filter. RandyAS
  13. I have not given up on it yet. But, at this moment, it is still tentative. RandyA
  14. When coming home from Freebird'd MD, we were kind of in the middle of nowhere on secondary roads and came to a small town that had a McDonalds. That was a good enough excuse to go in and cool off and get an ice cream. It was also nice that they had wifi and I took in my laptop and looked a little closer at where we were and where we wanted to go. RandyA
  15. Between "Gypsy", my Magellan GPS and Mapquest, I don't think much about looking at an Atlas anymore. And, they take up a lot of room in an early 1st gen. RandyA
  16. Yep, I learned my lesson. Many years ago I had aluminum siding put on my house that had shingles, as many of the local houses in the neighborhood did. A sales rep out of Knoxville, about 100 miles away stopped by and gave me a good deal, as he felt the neighborhood had a lot of potiental for him. He also gave me some addresses of other jobs he had sold. So, I looked at the other jobs and agreed on the work. Then I found out he was hiring local guys and I just happened to know them from high school many years before and did not think much of them then, which should have been a red flag The job was with in a couple of hours being finished, doing some trim work and putting the awning back up and it being Friday, the sales rep asked if I would pay him so he could pay the crew and they would be back to finish it Monday. Due to them not coming back, I ended up calling the office in Knoxville and getting the run a round. Before it was over with, I went to a lawer and had them write a letter stating I was going to sue. Then, the owner shows up and apolgizes and finishes the job himself and gives me about 15% of my money back. He was also mad when he saw the potential in the neighborhood that he had lost out on. I know now not to pay out anything, unless it may be for materials I can account for, until I am completely satisfied with the job. RandyA
  17. If you look at the video, he got stopped at the 8 second mark and was hit at the 9 second mark. That does not leave him much time to put together much of a plan for getting out of the way. Also, the only way he got stopped as quick as he did was he was was paying attention and he had a vehicle with good stopping characteristics. It does appear that traffic in that lane did come to a stop unexpectedly for the location. I wonder how many of us on our Ventures, many 1st gens with minimal braking abilities and 2nd gens without intergrated braking and panic stopping with too much rear, would have slammed into the vehicle in front before getting hit in the rear? In my opinion, he was simply lucky to get out of it good as it appears he did. RandyA
  18. Yeah, I feel that way when I am not in Tennessee also. If you ever make it back down this way, ya know where I live. We would love to have you back again. RandyA
  19. The master cylinder probably needs cleaning, but the best thing to do to get it going is to simply bleed some brake fluid out because it was too full. RandyA
  20. I bought an 85 a while back that has a serial number in the 5000 range, so they do exist. RandyA
  21. I used to bake potatos on the engine of a Volvo many years ago. I never thought about it on the bike. RandyA
  22. I do my initial sync at idle, which is about 750 /800 RPM's for me. When I am satified they are balanced. I will bring the RPM's up to around 3,000 and see if they are still close. I sync at idle because I want to know at that point that I don't have a cylinder starving for air. This is because this is where you are at when you are coasting. To me, doing the only sync at 2,500 RPM's is too high. RandyA
  23. Thanks for the update Bobby and I am glad it worked out for you. I wish you had given me a call as I live about a mile from the Yamaha shop and would like to have met you. It is interesting in the turn around that dealer has made since it was purchased by Jim's a couple of years ago. I used to drive past it and go all the way to Kingsport for about anything I needed. I appreciate you making the positive comments you did and will let Kurt know what you said on here. If you are ever in this area again, give me a shout and maybe we can have a meal or some ice cream together. RandyA
  24. Ray, as noted, welcome to the site. That looks like it would be a little difficult to fix, even if you had the broken parts. They do come and go on ebay and sometimes they go surpisingly cheap and sometimes not. Sometimes you can pick up one with minor damage and with a couple of different plastic repair epoxys available, they can be fixed. Hope you join us as it will be the best $12 you will ever spend on your bike. RandyA
  25. Thanks, spent a lot of time around the F-4's at Seymour Johnson AFB in Goldsboro, NC and Ubon RTAFB in Thailand in 72. Brings back a lot of memories. RandyA
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