Venturous Randy

There really is more to this, watch this; Randy

Not good, but you were lucky, it could have been a lot worse. I haven't, but I think some used some blue locktite on these screws. Randy

Sent you a PM, Dan. Randy

Beautiful day here in NE TN today. Took a trip over to Winston Salem, NC today to pick up a hood, front bumper and driver side headlight for my Infiniti I35 that got thumped on the 30th. These headlights go for $800 on RockAuto and can't imagine what they go for at the Infiniti dealer. It is supposed to be 68 degrees here tomorrow. I always hope the groundhog calls for six more weeks of winter as he is right less than 40% of the time. Randy

How many years were there between a MKII and a 2nd Gen Venture? Randy

Well, the groundhog predicted six more weeks of winter. Good, since he is only right about 40% of the time. I like going with the 60% that we will have a short winter. For us here in east Tennessee, it will be a fairly mild winter. Randy

Wow, thread is ten years and one day old. I was married and working and not enjoying my job. I am now divorced, retired and have a girl friend. Yep, life is good. Randy

Thoughts and prayers for your grandson and your family. Randy

Been there, done that on the cataract removed. If you have a good doctor, it is a breeze. My first one went great. My second, not so good. I hope it goes well for you. Randy

Prayers up and glad he is doing better. Randy

Hey Woody, that's pretty neat. Thinking back in my 41 years, I can not remember anything my in-laws gave me and I was married to their daughter for 41 years. I do remember that after getting married, she did share that her mother asked if there was any mental illness in my family. I was offended at first until later on I realized she must have been concerned about possible mixing with her families' ........issues. Oh, and have a happy and fun BIRTHDAY!!! Randy

Yeah, after having grandkids, you wish you could have had them first. I got you beat, I've got three great grand daughters. Congrats puc and tippy, I hope if my grandson has anymore that they have a boy. Randy

Yeah, that's a little problem I have with Linda, she's a very good cook and I don't want to hurt her feelings by not eating everything she cooks. Randy

That rings a bell on the 4163's, but then again it might just be my ears ringing. Randy

We have had the warmest January I can remember here in east TN and it is again supposed to be in the mid 60's today, but winter is coming back after today. We will be going from about 15 to 20 degrees above normal to about 15 degrees below normal. Monday, while coming back from NW SC, we saw a red bud tree that was fully budded out. You all are in my thoughts and prayers and I wish you all the best. Randy

Wow, I can sure understand this situation. Year before last, I rode about 250 miles after making a bunch of upgrades on my 83 and did not even start it last year as I could not get the battery to charge. Linda and I took the little Miata down into South Carolina Sunday and Monday and on the way home we came back thru Lake Junaluska, near Maggie Valley and up 209 to Hot Springs, NC. This is always a nice curvy ride, but it has been repaved and now it is perfect. As I was riding along enjoying how the Miata handles, I really started missing my Venture. I have been thru there many times on the Venture, but this time, with the new smooth pavement, it was almost overwhelming. I got to thinking that I knew I could get the bike in shape to safely ride, but could I get myself in shape to safely ride. I know that the things I would need to do to ride again are exactly the things I need to do anyway, but I just can not seem to make that commitment. I can surely identify with how Ed feels and it is very difficult to make the decision to step back from something you have loved for such a BIG part of your life. I have put about 150,000 miles on the 83 and about 8,000 miles on a 850 Yamaha Triple Special that got me back into biking. In all these miles I have been extremely lucky. In the few times I have been down, all were just tip overs when almost stopped. There have been many other times that were down right scary and could have easily been deadly. Again, I was lucky. Using good judgement is real important on a motorcycle and that includes knowing when to step away from them. Yes, I would have liked to have tried a trike, but for what a nice trike costs, I could almost buy a new Miata and I am not sure I would enjoy it as much and more important, how much would Linda enjoy it? Could she sit back there and doze off, like she did on the Venture many years ago, and like she does in the Miata now, or would she be constantly be scared? I wish Ed well and Earl, I appreciate you posting your feelings and you are absolutely correct in your comments about knowing when to call it quits, as it is not easy. Randy

For the 150,000 miles I have put on my 83, most all of the miles were with cheap Autolites that I got from Advance Auto and they do have a plug specific to our Venture. Yes, I have used some fancy plugs, but always went back to the Autolites. Also, they are so cheap that I changed them out every couple years. I have had the bike 21 years. Go buy a set and change them out and see if it fixes your problem. If it doesn't, you have a problem somewhere else. Randy

Having a blood vessel blow is not a good thing. I had one blow up in my right eye after picking my bike up off the ground several years ago. I had a massive vitreous hemorrhage that turned into a detached retina and then other blood vessel problems. Now, I have virtually no useable vision in that eye and usually wear a patch or sunglasses blacked out as the light I do see out of that eye does not align up with the vision out of my left eye and it is very irritating. When you have had diabetes for a long time, you do not want to take a deep breath and then hold it while exerting yourself. It is not good on your eyes and probably other things. Randy

When I got my new laptop for Christmas, it has MSN as the homepage with Windows Edge. I have left it, but I also have Foxfire loaded with Comcast, as that is where my Email is. MSN has a lot of stories as you scan the homepage and some are interesting and many are auto related with stories from Hot Rod and others. But it is routine that on many of the stories about something, the original person or picture in the headline is never in the story. The other thing is the overwhelmingly left slant on about everything. If there is any story that they think may make Trump look bad in any way, they are going to post it. It is actually ridiculous. Randy

It has been in the mid 60's here for a couple of weeks and will start cooling off back to normal next week. I expecting our trees to start budding out any day now. Ramdy

A 65 with the L79 350 horse 327 as a factory option is pulling in some big bucks now. It is amazing what the $60 extra bucks would bring now. When I was 17 in early 68 I bought a 64 Chevelle 327 4 speed and it got me thru my senior year in high school, a quarter of college, four years in the USAF and a couple years working before I bought a 65 body and transferred over all my good stuff from the 64. I had also installed the L79 cam in my 64 and also a 3:31 short 12 bolt rearend. I got it from a guy where I was stationed at that built these old Chevelles as short track cars. I went to visit him one day and he asked me if I knew where he could get some SS flexible fuel line for his race car. I stopped by the hydraulic shop on base and asked the guys there if they knew where I could get some and they asked me if I had a work order. I told them no as it was for a buddies race car and they said "What size and what length do I need?". He ended up giving me that rearend as I needed it because I was loosing the spider gears in my 10 bolt. On the 65 body that I bought with no interior, engine or transmission, it did have a beautiful white body and a 4:10 posi 12 bolt. It was amazing that I ended up with two of those short rearends as they were very rare. GM made the rearends longer for the 67 Chevelles and they would have been too long for the 65 Chevelles. I had put a compete interior in my 64 out of a 72 Gran Prix that was white with the high back buckets and when I put all that in the 65, it was a beautiful car. I later on pulled the engine and trans out of the 65 and sold it for $125. I later on put the 327 in my 240Z 72 Datsun. I used to have some cars I wish I still had. Some great memories. Randy

and it is a major rain event and flooding. It has been raining up to 4 inches per hour. Man, that's a lot of water. I hope everyone down there is OK. Randy

You're making me happy and you making me proud of you Puc. Just be careful. Randy

I love Barrett Jackson and Mecum and when I see some of those beautiful cars, it amazes me what some of them sell for. There are also a lot of them that go for a lot less than it cost to restore them and you know somebody lost a lot of money. There are also some of those that I passed on many years ago that are pulling in some pretty good bucks now, like Grand National Buicks, especially the GNX versions. Another is a 1965 Z16 Chevelle. To introduce the Chevelles that came out in 1966 with the 396, Chevy made 201 1965 Chevelles with the 375hp 396 and all were loaded to the max. 200 were hard tops and one was a convertible. They had some unique trim changes on the rear and interior, like a 160mph speedometer. I could have bought a complete unmolested one sitting in a field for $800 back in about 1975, but at the time I had a built 1965 Chevelle and was going to college on the GI Bill. A guy bought it and a short time later sold it for $3,000. The next guy cleaned it up and put a clutch in it and was going to restore it, but got an offer he could not refuse and sold it for $54,000 to a guy in Ohio. These cars were used as promo cars and one was given to Dan Blocker of Bonanza as Chevrolet was their major sponsor. I saw where one sold at Barrett Jackson a while back for about $420,000. The one convertible was supposedly bought by a Chevy engineer and was mostly drag raced. There is no telling what that one off GM car would be worth now, but no one knows what happened to it. If you are curious, Google Z16 Chevelle. Randy

In looking at ad blockers, I am having a problem with using MS Edge. I did a free install of Ad Remover that worked OK, until they came back and said it would cost me $39 a year to keep it. When I look at the AdBlocker sites, they do not show it available for MS Edge. After I did not continue AdRemover, now I am getting popups from hell and I have the popup setting blocked. I can not imagine how bad it would be if I did not have that set. Any suggestions? Randy