Venturous Randy
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Everything posted by Venturous Randy
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Blue Highways William Least Heat Moon RandyA
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Spark Plug Removal???
Venturous Randy replied to Jason's topic in Venture and Venture Royale Tech Talk ('83 - '93)
You guys need to see the MKII that Mick has. It is about as perfect as any I have ever seen and yes, it does have an original complete tool kit. At about any motorcycle shop they sell the spark plug sockets and the one I have fits the plug on one end and has about a 14mm hex on the top. I break it loose with a wrench and then use my fingers to unscrew the socket. That is the best combination I have come up with. RandyA -
I want to truly thank everyone for the great comments and encouragement. But, most of all, I wanted to encourage others to think about their weight issues and particularly with their own look at controlling their diabetes better. And even if you do not have diabetic tendencys now, if you are 50 pounds or more over weight, as you get older, the probably of having type II diabetes goes up a lot. It really did take me looking at myself and realizing I wanted me to be a happier person and to like myself better. Even though I have a long way to go, and it will be a bumpy road, I know there will be good times for me and I want to enjoy them as much as I can. RandyA
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Good luck and I wish you the best. Interesting thoughts on the degree. A little over six years ago I was about ready to take a BS degree off my resume as I was hunting for anything and in a couple of interviews I had, I was told that the job available did not require a degree. But as it turned out, the job I work at now requires at least an Associate's degree, so my BS did help. RandyA
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As I have mentioned earlier, I am going thru a lifestyle change. On Nov 19, I weighed 242 pounds and this morning I weighed 207. In another 35 pounds I will weigh about what I will be comfortable with, even though it will still be above the gov/insurance recommendations. The best part is the change in my diabetes control. My A1C was about 11 then and now it is 6.6, which means I had an average sugar level between 250 and 300 and now it is much closer to 100. I have now dropped my insulin from 46 units a night to 15 while working with a doctor. The most amazing part about this is how easy it has been. The biggest change is simply stop eating all the sweet junk I was eating, and now I don't crave them at all. To be diabetic, I was really abusing myself with what I was eating and drinking. I am still eating about anything I want and really don't think of being on a diet, as I am not. Just eating slower, chewing my food and eating smaller portions. The key to eating smaller portions is to eat slow enough to get food into your system rather than eat faster and stuff yourself and still be hungry. It is also about how much better I feel when I finish a meal and not feel stuffed and have a bunch of indigestion. The main reason I am bringing this up is I want to encourage other's to consider what I am doing. I don't suggest going thru a divorce as I am doing to get you to start thinking about yourself, but in my case it has been a real refocus of my personal needs. I also want to encourage others that are type II diabetic or going to be to consider what you are doing to yourself. Diabetes has a bunch of related problems that comes with it. RandyA
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I heard is was ALL 50 states as Hawaii has an elevation up to 13,796 feet and has snow year round. I am of the opinion that it was easier to drag the groundhog out his burrow that to find Al Gore at this time. He seems to be hiding in his own burrow. Just another indicator of karma, in my opinion. OOPS, got to make a correction, even though that elevation has snow at times, there was no snow on Feb 13th, which was the date noted. RandyA
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Monty, good for you. Now, make sure you get him on here and there are several of us that have done the 2nd gear repair that works good, and is very inexpensive to do, if he can do it himself. The two ways is to use the same gears and do a slight undercut and upgrade the thrust washers and the other way is to just replace the gearset from an 86 up engine. I have done both and even if it is a lot of work, an 83 just ain't a hot rod Venture if you can not 8,000rpm the first three gears at WOT(wide open throttle). These are real special bikes and worth fixing. RandyA
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I looked at the calender a few minutes ago and see that within a day or so, we will be halfway through winter. If I survive this thing, this will be a winter I will never forget. As bad as it has been here in east Tennessee, I know it has been a lot worse for a lot of you. It is right now 20º outside with 20/30 mph winds for a chill factor of 6º with snow blowing sideways and almost a whiteout. Just wonderful. RandyA
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Congratulations on deciding on not wanting to be part of one of the most addictive delivery systems of getting a drug into your body known to man. Keep in mind that smoking is not a natural human activity and you had to make yourself learn to do it. When I was 14, with two parents that smoked and most all of my friends beginning to out right smoke, I got a motorcycle. At that time, and even now, the price of a pack if cigarettes and a gallon of gas were about the same. Now, I understand that anything other than the cheapest cigarettes are a lot more. But, I came to the conclusion very quickly that I could have a lot more fun with a gallon of gas than a pack of cigarettes. I also feel confident that all of the money I have ever spent on motorcycling is less than what I would have spent on tobacco. Keep it up and just remember, you don't need to force your body to get back into being part of the most common cause of premature deaths. And, from what I have witnessed, it is a horrible way to die. RandyA
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1st Gen. Clutch Slave Cylinder.
Venturous Randy replied to MiCarl's topic in Venture and Venture Royale Tech Talk ('83 - '93)
I rebuilt my slave several years ago and thought it was leaking again. It ended up being the hose after I put a new slave on it. Even though I have had the slave out several times in the 14 years I have had the bike, this last time it just about fell out and went in real easy. And, it did come out the bottom. RandyA -
Skid, did you make the Rooster Tail last year at Asheville? RandyA
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It has spit snow all day here. Good for you Lew, even though I will probably be rooting for Payton since he came out of Tennessee. But, I believe either way would be fine with me. RandyA
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First of all Shane, welcome to our little family and we hope you join. The biggie here is that you started with a rusty tank and will have rust particles throughout the plumbing. I did not see where you changed the fuel filter. If you didn't, you need to. It would have also helped to have blown out the fuel lines from one end to the other. As far as the backfiring through a carb, is that with the air box off? These bikes run poorly without the air box. Another thing to check is the diaphragms. Did you look for any pin holes in the diaphragms when you had the carbs apart? Another thing to do is the slide pin adjustment, but it may be better to do that after you get your bugs worked out first. Another biggie is these bikes like clean plugs and the Autolites from Advance Auto work just fine and are cheap. Also, check your spark plug caps. There is a resistor in the cap that can get corroded and make it run poorly. Anyway, there are a few more things to think about. RandyA
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I have at least six pictures across the front of my property and I live on a side street in a town of about 60K people. Google Earth street version will blow you away. It is also really neat to look at some of the ride areas you have been on and where you may want to go in the future. Another neat thing about Google Earth is on many of the interstates, there is real time speed indicated. Evidently there are sensors that transmit speed and is relayed to the system. RandyA
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The Rooster tail is one of those roads that has a beautiful ride beside a picturesque mountain lake to a nice ride up thru a valley to a road with so many sharp curves you might just run into yourself. Curves with vegetation lined banks so close to the road that it would be easy to get poison ivy on your shoulders. A road that is great on a 1st gen where you can come out of a sharp curve and red line it until you have to shut down for the next curve. A road that when you get to the top and swing on to the Blue Ridge Parkway, it feels so good to be able to take a deep breath, as the road literally took your breath away. Yep, that's the Rooster Tail. RandyA
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Sooooo, I bet there will be one story surely to be shared with students. RandyA
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We were real lucky here in north east Tennessee. All this moisture moved past us as rain, but just east and north of us it was just a few degrees colder and it turned to snow. RandyA
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That is why I am no longer going to Golden Corral and guess what, I am not as top heavy as I used to be (middle heavy?). RandyA
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I feel real lucky to have a job, but I never feel real secure. But, after picking up the divorce papers Friday that my wife has filed thru her lawyer, I may be just as well off not having a job if I have to pay what she wants. I now have no other choice than go the lawyer route and to think what I could have done with that money. RandyA
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Think of it as choosing between two women. One is very popular, especially with the rowdy crowd, tends to be high maintenance in cost and can be dressed up very attractively, even gawdy and usually ends up loud. Then, the other is more reserved, unknown to the masses, very comfortable to be around, much lower maintenance with a much longer support function if any problems do occur. Then, there is that sleek, flowing, timeless beauty. And, when you are in the mood to feel that real exhilaration of power, and not just noise, she is there for you, over and over. So, ask yourself, are you looking for that trophy lady or that one that wants you to be comfortable and secure? RandyA
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I had a survey thing pop up years ago about restaurants and stuff and it told me that if I would do the survey, I would get a $50 gift certificate from Red Lobster. After is going on and on, I finally gave up, but I must have listed my e-mail addy because the next day I had over 170 e-mails. This went on for a while until I got it cleaned up. RandyA
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Yeah, I need to update some pictures anyway. RandyA
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I have been type II diabetic for the last 20+ years and have been on insulin for the last 3 years. Three months ago I was taking 46 units of Lantis a night and my hemoglobin A1C reading was between 9 and 11 for an average of between 250 and 300. I am now down to 15 units of Lantis a night and the A1C test I got Wednesday was 6.6. That is averaging just a tad over 100, which is real good. As I have noted in another post, I have made a lifestyle change as part of going through a divorce from a long term marriage. The Thursday before Thanksgiving, I was 242 pounds and yesterday I weighed 209 pounds and still dropping. I know as I continue to drop weight, I will be able to get off insulin all together. One of the problems with insulin is it tends to cause weight gain. There is no doubt that long term diabeties has many effects, and none of them are good. I am fortunate I still have good blood flow in my feet and my vision is still good after I had recent cataract surgery. If you really care about yourself, there are a lot of things that can be done to deal with diabeties and if you are going down the road I went down for many years, it is not going to be a good thing. It is simply a matter of priorties in your life. RandyA
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I ran Amsoil motorcycle synthetic for a while and it did fine except for the leaks I did not have before. RandyA
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Wow, that is absolutely amazing. Not only are the models amazing, but the photography makes it so real. I want to forward this to friends, so is there a address other than VR.org? RandyA