Venturous Randy

My suggestion is to do a good carb sync. Randy

What ever you shorten the center stand will reduce the rear tire to ground clearance by about double. Take a 1/2 inch from the stand and the tire is almost 1 inch closer to the ground. I took 1/2 inch out the legs on mine many years ago and it made a big difference in putting the bike up on the center stand, especially if I was running only about 25 psi in the rear shock. Another trick I did was to install a steel wheel on the outboard edge of the right leg of the stand that is about 1/8th inch lower that the foot. By doing this, when on smooth concrete like my garage, my 12 year old grand daughter could pull down some on the trunk and spin the bike completely around. I could pull the bike straight in, spin it around or spin it part way around to give more room for parking the car. Randy

Wow, I don't think that's gonna buff out. You two sure have been thru a lot lately and it looks like her angel is still looking out for her. Yeah, tomorrow might be a bit tough for her as she is probably gonna feel like the truck ran over her. Our thoughts and prayers are with you two as Becky is a very special lady. Randy

Joe, are you coming to Vogal? Randy

Do you have a site picked out yet? I liked it as it was last time, but have no idea what site I was on. We should be leaving Hiwassee Ocoee State Park, Delano, TN on the 23rd and be in Vogal that afternoon. Randy

Hey Woody, when are you planning on getting to Vogal? Randy

Lewis, I am very sorry to hear about what Charlene and you are having to go thru. I also know how much it pains you to have to think about cancelling Vogal. At the present we have reservations at Hiwassee Ocoee State Park in SE TN to be near the eclipse for Mon and Tue and were going to Vogal from there. We have a couple of options here in that for those that were planning on coming, we could still have the event, even if you could not make it, or you could do a visit. The other option would be to see if anyone would like to make the get-together in Asheville. Last year I almost cancelled Asheville due to the lack of interest, but before it was over with. we had a very good turnout and a great time. If you do feel you need to cancel Vogal, I can see what we could put together. Randy

I am not trying to make this political and this is true, around here for a long time these are known as Obama cans. Randy

Years ago my son Brian had an FZ1 that had some tuning and exhaust upgrades. I rode it several times and I have to say that it was the adrenalin rush from hell. I found my self just looking for a place to crank it on, even just for a few seconds and a few seconds was all it took to get going really fast. It was one of those bikes that at about 6,500 RPM's you had to be careful, or you would be looking at the sky, even when you did not want to. Randy

Bob, Linda and I will keep Becky in our thoughts and prayers for everything to be OK. Going thru the maturing process of life can be tough. So far, I have been pretty lucky, but with my weight and diabetes, I know I am on the wrong side of having a long life span. Fortunately, when I was in my teens and all my friends were starting to use tobacco, I never started. Now, most of those friends are having serious problems related to a lifetime of using tobacco. Randy

Well, Linda is doing good and went thru the procedure just fine. They did find two small polyps, which they removed, but don't suspect them to be a problem. I read her the comments as we were eating a late lunch. She was a little...uh...surprised that I posted this, but I just reminded her that we are just a big family here and it was OK. Randy

My Lady Linda has a colonoscopy tomorrow afternoon and we are about half way thru the delicious fluid intake part. I am trying to be supportive, but about the only thing I could think to tell her was one of my mom's old sayings which was "This too shall pass". Randy

Ditto on the bypass valve. That is the plastic hex nut below the radiator. When you are looking at the hex, the tops of the letters should be pointing toward the 5 o:clock position. You should at least eliminate this first. Randy

For your best gas mileage, RPM's are not as important as throttle position. An example of this is if you are running in 5th at 2,500 RPM's and without changing the throttle position, down shift to 4th and the bike speeds up and you have to reduce the throttle position to maintain the same speed, then 4th gear with higher RPM's will give better mileage and this also works from 4th to 3rd. I have also done the washer adjustment that helped both gas mileage and the fuel smell at idle. My best mileage was on a trip from filling up in Asheville, NC to Cherokee, NC across the Blue Ridge Parkway and then back to Asheville on I40, filling up at the same pump. On that trip, I got 50 mpg. On that trip, I made a special point of not lugging the bike and running in a lower gear while pulling the mountain with as little throttle as I could use to maintain speed. I have routinely run from 45 to 48 mpg.s two up, even when I dogged it some. I have gone as far as 230 miles on a tank and still had gas left. I have also run on the interstate at 90 MPH trying to stay a head of a bad storm and my mileage was probably closer to 30 mpg. Randy

We love our Time Out Camper with the queen size bed. Easy to set up and with putting a car top carrier on it we have plenty of storage room. We picked up ours off the Craigs List search engine for $600 from a listed yard sale just below Myrtle Beach, SC. The guy I bought it from had got it from an estate sale and did not have a title. He said he had used it a couple times and then put in storage. I went thru the title process here and it appears it had never been titled. It had the Time Out tag frame in it and it also had never been mounted as there were no holes for the tag where the tag light is mounted. We also found a new 5000 BTU A/C unit locally for $60 that works very well. I have not pulled it behind my Venture, but it weighs less than the old Travel Lite camper that I did pull. I now pull it behind my Miata. I recommend the Time Out Camper highly. Randy

How long did you have your 83? I have had mine for 21 years and put about 150,000 miles on it. Last year I did not even start it and sitting on the carport covered up is not helping it. If you want something that is not expensive and easy to work on, and a lot of fun, you should consider picking up a 90's Miata. We have a 90 and a 96 and I have put over 30,000 miles on my 96 in about two years. We also pull our Time Out Camper and it does great. Randy

With buying my dads house from siblings at his death with a lot of stuff, some of my son's stuff and stuff Linda brought with her when she moved in, along with my stuff, I barely have room to get my Miata in my two car garage and can't even see the pool table downstairs with all the stuff piled on it. Randy

I hope his trike doesn't have any lean on it. I guess he could run the right rear wheel up on a brick. Randy

Beautiful bike. Did you put all the bling on it, or did you get it that way? I have four 1st gens here that I seriously need to think about getting rid of and a nice 97 1500 Goldwing that needs a starter gear. Randy

Great looking bikes and great looking weather. It is 51 degrees here and a bunch of rain. They had to postpone the local Bristol NASCAR race today and scheduled it for 1pm tomorrow. Right now, the forecast for next weekend is almost 90 degrees. Randy

This is why we had to move up the Vogal Ralley for a week. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?128151-Attention-new-date-for-vogel Randy

Yep, gonna have to put up with me for another year. Randy

Boat, a hole in the water you pour money into. Randy

Just wait till you get older. About all the words are elusive. Randy

I am sitting in a motel in Columbia SC after spending four days in Beaufort, SC, enjoying top down weather in the Miata. As we got closer to Columbia, SC, needed to make a pit stop and get a bite to eat and stopped at a Chinese restaurant in a shopping center. Weather started getting worse so I pulled the car up under a walkway near a closed Piggly Wiggly and went back in and finished my meal. When it let up a little I thought I would try going home back to NE TN and when I backed out in the rain, I had no windshield wipers. It is not the fuse and I have power on two of the four wires going to the wiper motor and looks like a good ground, so it may be the motor. Not supposed to be raining here in the morning, but it is at home. Well, this is a problem I never had on my Venture. Randy