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Venturous Randy

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  1. Venturous Randy
    I agree with these comments, but I would not sell the bike until I got a resolution. Most lawyers will draft up a letter letting them know you are going the legal route and a lot of times that will get something done. There is absolutely no reason you should not be compensated for what you have gone through. You sure are a lot more patient than I am. RandyA
  2. Venturous Randy
    On a 1st gen, the headlight goes off when the starter is engaged, does a 2nd gen not do that? RandyA
  3. Venturous Randy
    Hey Roger, I bought an extra set of side panels off ebay for less than $10 each, so I still have all my original stuff. On the bottom of the panel, I cut it just past the rubber band clip and used a heat gun to roll it into a point. I then used the Devco Plastic weld to fill in some. On the top portion, I cut it to allow some plastic to be folded in some which I again did with a heat gun. I cut the top section of the panel to match up with the bottom edge of the top fairing. If you blow up the pictures I posted above, you can tell better what I did. Once you click on the small picture and it comes up, click on it again and it will get bigger. Some that have done this mod just cut it off to be a blunt, square end, but I wanted to enhance the "V" as much as I could. Thanks for the comments, I appreciate it. RandyA
  4. Venturous Randy
    Nope, was sceered to. Actually, we went down I 26 to the other side of Asheville then west toward Brevard then dropped off the mountain into South Carolina. This ride was to go to places we had not ridden before. About the only road we rode twice was the I 26 section. RandyA
  5. Venturous Randy
    Would you believe we came down 178 to the Cherokee Foothills Scenic Highway 11 Saturday near you? We ended up going back up on the mountain to see some waterfalls and to Brevard, NC. We had to go to Hendersonville to get a motel room as there was a music festival in Brevard and everything was booked up. I would have loved to have met up with you and we could have swapped rides for a while. I wish I could give you some good suggestions, as I am sure it is aggravating. The only time I have ever noticed much heat on my 83 is when it is hot and in congested traffic and I can feel the fan turn on occasionally. RandyA
  6. Venturous Randy
    An 84 is an MK I Not that all have the 2nd gear problem, but 78,000 miles is well within the range there may be a problem, so it may have been fixed. Most gauge problems are associated with connections and ground problems. The gauges actually do well for the years and miles. A lot has to with general preventative maintenance, such as keeping things lubed and how the bike is stored, more than how it is ridden. This is like any other 25 year old vehicle, whether it is a car, truck or motorcycle, there will be things to fix. The main thing is whether YOU have the ability to work on it. If you are the kind of guy that takes everything back to the dealer for warrenty work, you don't need an MK I. Oh, one thing you will need if it is a good running MK I is a good pair of handle grips so you can hang on for dear life on those 8,000 rpm WOT screaming runs thru the gears. RandyA
  7. Venturous Randy
    I suspect that it is a combination of contributors that up to a point were not enough to matter, until you installed the Avon rear tire. There have been several of us 1st genners that were generally happy with the handling of our bikes until we installed Avons and were very happy with the handling until about 70mph and on. What I encountered was a "tail wag" that was so bad at 100mph that it scared the crap out of me. Last summer I installed an Elite III on the back and this year I put an Elite III on the front. My bike does not have the feeling of being as agile, but it feels ALOT more stable. When I saw your post, my question was going to be; "Do you have an Avon tire on the back?" You answered that. Randya
  8. Venturous Randy
    Is the connector still plugged up? There is a relay in that system and you may need to start tracing wires and see what has power and what does not with the switch turned on. You may need to unplug your headlight to conserve power. RandyA
  9. Venturous Randy
    Gregg, thank you very much and for sharing the experience, as you saw the invincible attitude first hand, right in front of you. I really do try to pay attention and routinely ride with my finger on the horn (loud airhorns) button. I would rather be guilty of blowing at someone that acted suspicious, than missing one that would get me. I don't want to get to the point that I am so paranoid that I can not enjoy riding, but so far, that extra bit of being on guard has saved my butt more than once. If you look at the many auto crashes, you will see people do some pretty stupid things and sometimes it kills them and innocent others. We had a local 37 year old woman that turned in front of another car (red) on a clear road in broad daylight this past week that killed her and severely injured two others. Her thinking about things other than driving ended her thinking, period. Maybe that is a good saying; "Thinking about things other than driving, can end your thinking." For some reason I feel many motorcyclist are a little timid when it comes to using a horn. We need to be aggressive about "this is my piece of road and don't come into it". RandyA
  10. Venturous Randy
    Art, I know what you mean, but sometimes "A man's gotta do, what a man's gotta do". I hope you can enjoy yourself. RandyA
  11. Venturous Randy
    As I posted earlier, we took this week as vacation and planned to leave out Tuesday. But Sunday night, by breaker box in my house decided to short out. We called the insurance and they said to get an electrician to fix it. That worked out well with us getting a new box and a outside disconnect that was needed, but I was going to have to pay a $500 deductible. With all that was done, we did not have the inspection sign off and official power until about Friday noon. When the city inspector came over to sign it off, he took a good look at the box as he wanted to see if he could figure out what caused the meltdown. The main breaker was already off, but as he was pulling the rest of the breakers off, when he came to the one to the A/C-Heat pump, it was burned underneath, even though the outside looked fine. At that time I told him I had the system replaced 14 months ago due to a lighting strike. He then told me that they should have replaced my breaker box also as that was what actually caused the rest to finally meltdown. He also told me I should advise the insurance company of that and he would tell them that it should have been part of the original claim and the original deductible. I gave them, Farm Bureau, a call and they also think it should have been part of the 1st claim, so I may have saved the $500. With all this done, Laura and I decided to take off yesterday down into the mountains of South Carolina and do some riding and spend the night. So, it comes down to getting about a two day vacation, but we had a great time and rode some roads that made the Dragon look like an interstate, they were so curvy. Given there were some times we were in some very desolate areas and I have encountered some electrical glitches on my bike lately, the thought was there, but the bike ran absolutely perfect for over 400 miles and about a million curves. I have attached a couple if pics of the box and some waterfalls. RandyA That 1st waterfall has got a drop of 411 feet by the time it gets to the bottom. I did not try to hike down to get a better picture of the whole thing. The 2nd waterfall is actually two falls coming from seperate directions and meeting up together, part way down.
  12. Venturous Randy
    Try loosening the clamps on your forks and see if it will twist some. Does your bike have a fork brace? If so, you will need to loosen the bolts on it also. RandyA
  13. Venturous Randy
    Hummm, this is not a political thread is it? RandyA
  14. Venturous Randy
    Great job, opened right up for me. Once it opens, you can go to top of page and blow it up and drag it around to see different parts of the page up close. Thanks for doing this. RandyA
  15. Venturous Randy
    The first time I put the engine back in, it took about three of us struggling. The second time I put it in, I did it by myself and never broke a sweat. What I did was to use my floor jack, which is one of the bigger ones, not the small one you can pick up easy with one hand. I had about a 12 X 12 X 2 wooden block that I could bolt to my floor jack after removing the rotating cup that I used when removing a car transmission. I used a spare oil pan as a templet and cut two pieces of 2x4 to make a nest for the pan to fit in. I mounted them to the wooden block and then used a hoist to pick the complete engine up and set it into the nest. I then used some tiedown straps to hold the engine on the jack. With the sidebar off the frame, I was able to roll the jack/engine in place to start a couple of motor mount bolts. Once I had a couple of bolts started, I loostened the straps and lowered the jack and pulled it out. Very easy and no staining. I will try to take a picture of the set up when I get a chance. And I could use the same set up to remove the engine by myself. RandyA
  16. Venturous Randy
    Let me throw you another curve. How old are your spark plug caps? I ask this because I spent a good part of a day tracing down a miss on a friends 89 and it ended up being a corroded resistor in the spark plug cap. RandyA
  17. Venturous Randy
    I think what would be more appropriate, in this line of thinking, would be requiring people to not have to wear their seatbelt in a car if they have adaquate health insurance. They are not requiring health insurance to ride a motorcycle, but to ride without a helmet. I am not sure where it was, but I have heard of that law before. RandyA
  18. Venturous Randy
    Thanks Bobby, I really appreciate that. As a general rule, I am not a real anal kind of a person, but I do have a thing about symmetry. I have never liked the way that the 1st gens look when looking at the engine from the side. On the early bikes that did not have the louvers in the side panels, you could see part of the rear head and some of the front head in front of the lower fairings. On the later bikes it is even worse. So my attempt was to be able to show the "V", but also open it up to be close to symmetrical on both sides, and actually, it is still not as symmetrical as I would like. I am happy with the rear area with the side panel coming to a point, but the area near the radiator does not match as well as I would like. There are advantages for me in that I have highway pegs on top of the engine bars and before, the downward part of the lowers hit me in the side of the lower leg and was not comfortable. Now, that is not a problem. I am now a bit more exposed to rain and spray off other vehicles when it is wet, but I can also tuck my feet in close on the engine and it is almost as good as before. Personally, I think the bike looks lighter in the front end by not having all the plastic between the fender and engine. It also seems to cause some of the Harley type to take a second look because they usually think it is an old Goldwing, but they see the prominent "V" and that kind of throws them. It is also a bit confusing because I have almost all the emblems off the bike. I have the Yamaha emblem under the windshield, but that is about all. I just think it looks a lot cleaner. RandyA
  19. Venturous Randy
    Have you ever addressed this with the Veterans Administration? My wife's cousin, who spent four years in the USAF gets a $100 check each month due to some hearing loss that was diagnosed. RandyA
  20. Venturous Randy
    Bob, as I noted above, I have never felt it increased any heat concerns and that is with me wearing shorts most of the time when it is hot. As far as the lower fairing, the 83's did not have a lower chin like the later MKII's did, so I can't compare any handling differences, but I could not tell any difference on my bike. RandyA
  21. Venturous Randy
    Here is a couple more pictures from a long time ago. RandyA
  22. Venturous Randy
    I have had the lower fairings off for several years and I ride with shorts on most all the time. That being said, I have never felt the bike was hotter with the lower fairings off. And, this is with a lowered Corbin seat, which was not on it in that picture. That picture was the one used for the January 2007 Venturerider calender. RandyA
  23. Venturous Randy
    The electricians are installing a new box at this moment. They will probably have it in this afternoon at the rate they are going. But, it will probably be tomorrow before it can be inspected and the power lines to the house hooked back up and be turned on. Nice way to spend a week's vacation. But at least the house did not burn down. RandyA
  24. Venturous Randy
    I believe most on here fill it to about the bottom of the threads. I think that is what I did. RandyA
  25. Venturous Randy
    I have not modified the upper fairings, but I have the side panels and removed the lower fairings. This opened the engine up more to see the "V" better. RandyA
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