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Venturous Randy

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Everything posted by Venturous Randy

  1. Venturous Randy
    Thanks for the help Rocket. Joel, first of all, this is not the end of the world on your bike. It takes a bit of work to fix it, but it can be stronger than new, unless it was just plain rusted out. I had this happen over two years ago on my 83 and I have since put about 15,000 miles on it and feel it is doing great. As I noted, it is a bit of work on the way I did it, but by turning it upside down, you can get to everything a lot better and pull things back in place better. If you drain the engine oil and the radiator reservoir, I believe you can diassemble the rear end of the bike, rear wheel, swingarm, seat, mufflers, gas tank and remove rear frame assembly. I then rolled the bike over backwards and sit the handlebars on 4X4's and strapped it on a trailer. I have more pictures that are in other posts or I can repost them. I was lucky in having a welder friend that helped as most any welding business would not want to take on the liability. I remember sitting on a picnic table looking at my beloved 83 thinking that it was history. After I fixed it and repainted it, it ended up being the January bike on our 07 VentureRider calender. I will try to answer any questions and would love to help you fix it, but CA is a long ride from TN. RandyA
  2. Venturous Randy
    Very well said Ramano, we should all keep this as a special day. RandyA
  3. Venturous Randy
    Good question Thom. One of the things I have wondered about is using the coil pack that sits on the spark plug like many cars have. I wonder if they could be interfaced with our TCI and trigger mechinism? And, there is the concern of space. Hope you get some good answers. RandyA
  4. Venturous Randy
    I just pulled you up on the Weather Channel to see where you are. First of all, you are getting ready to get a hard rain in the next few minutes and you are not that far from Oak Ridge. I went by your way this weekend on a round trip to Nashville from Johnson City. I just told Laura that I want to ride the area around Oak Ridge. We need to get together for a M & E sometime soon. BTW, you are in the hi def area on Vertual Earth on the WC and if you bike had been parked outside when the picture was taken, I could have seen it if I knew where you lived. RandyA
  5. Venturous Randy
    How about the Better Business Bureau? Is there any help there other than lodging a complaint? RandyA
  6. Venturous Randy
    While you are checking things out, under your left side panel you will find a wire set with three whiteish wires going through a quick connect on wires coming up from the bottom of the engine. Check the condition of this connection. If it is loose or burned looking at all, cut the wires and solder each wire together and by-pass the connector. This is fairly normal on these old bikes. I agree with the battery comments and I bought a PC680 from Summit Racing for $131 including shipping. It really did help my bike. RandyA
  7. Venturous Randy
    Being involved in Quality Assurance in industry most all of my work life, it is amazing how predictable statistics are. Most people probably do not realize how stastics involve our lives, from what our insurance rates are to many other things. One other note, if there are going to be 3 deaths in 5,000 riders, there are a lot of riders out there and it does not have to involve us. We have had four deaths locally this year and only one involved another vehicle. The rest were people loosing control of their bike and running off the road and hitting something else, usually from speed and/or alcohol. RandyA
  8. Venturous Randy
  9. Venturous Randy
    Speaking of Biltmore wine....I think mine got consumed at our picnic table at the campground. Did anybody see where it went, I mean the wine, not the bottle. I ended up throwing an empty bottle away. RandyA
  10. Venturous Randy
    I was not able to sleep in this morning worrying about you guys. RandyA
  11. Venturous Randy
    Thanks for this post mike. If there is any single suggestion that can be a big improvement on a motorcycle, it is a real loud horn. I have had a set of air horns on my 83 for at least ten years. There is NO doubt that they have saved me from serious injury or even death. There have been several times in the last 96,000 miles that someone was absolutely committed to take my space and if I had not had loud horns, it would have been a crash. I could not have avoided them. Air horns do not have to be expensive to work good. For years I have had horns from Harbor Freight that cost about $10 when on sale. They include the horns, compressor, wiring, relay, hoses and instructions. The only downside is these come in red, but I just pull the bell part out and paint them gloss black. On a 1st gen, they mount nicely under the fairing. Given I have replaced them a couple of times over the years, I now have a separate compressor for each horn and there is plenty of room in each fairing for the compressor. They are designed to have two horns run off a single compressor, but a compressor for each horn makes them even louder. We need to put some kind of program together to help those that want to put louder horns on to get it done. Maybe several of us could show some pictures on how easy it can be. It could truly save some lives. Just keep in mind that when you pull your bike out on the road, you are the last thing on someone else's mind. With windows up and A/C on along with music blasting, cell phones and text messaging, you must have something that will get thru all that. Again, thanks mike for sharing this and your enthusiasm. It might motivate someone to get some horns that may save their life. RandyA The only thing I suggest is this post be moved to Watering Hole.
  12. Venturous Randy
    Just looking at the weather channel and it looks like Hanna came a little more westward rather than on the coast. Looks like you all are getting a lot of rain and winds around 50mph. I hope everyone is doing ok. RandyA
  13. Venturous Randy
    Try going into a curve and pulling the clutch in and let it go back to idle. This may isolate the noise more, and I suspect tires also. RandyA
  14. Venturous Randy
    Adjusting the idle should not change the sync. Also, another helpful hint when adjusting the idle is to to give it a little throttle to take the pressure off the screw itself. It makes it a lot easier to turn. RandyA
  15. Venturous Randy
    it can make for great riding. The views just seem more vibrant than normal. But be very aware, you can be at a dangerous disadvantage in traffic for cars pulling out in front of you. We had a crash about 1/4 mile from my house yesterday where a motorcyclist topped a hill and was coming down a long slope coming to an intersection in the late evening. The sun was very low and a car pulled across in front of him because with the sun directly in her eyes she was looking and did not see a car coming, so thought she was clear. It cost the 59 year old motorcyclist his life. What can also make this even more dangerous is having your headlight on, especially on bright. The headlight just washes out the silhouette of the bike and blends in with the sun. So, if you are riding in an area where you have the sun directly behind you, you had better pretend you are invisible, because to many you really are. RandyA
  16. Venturous Randy
    I could not attach pictures to your message, so I will try here. I took a piece of steel tubing that was the same inside diameter as the steel wheel and used the outside diameter to determine the hole size needed in the stand foot. I put the sleeve in and welded is so it is still as strong as before. I placed it so the wheel is about 1/8th inch lower than the bottom of the foot. I then used a grade 8 bolt thru the sleeve and wheel. I can take two fingers and with minimal pressure on the side of the trunk, I can spin the bike around on smooth concrete. RandyA
  17. Venturous Randy
    I think what Iowa was saying as to stay in the same line as the bike. When you are sitting straight up and down with the bike either stopped or going in a straight line, you will keep this same relationship with the bike when you go into a corner. If the passenger tries to stay straight up and down with the road when the driver is leaning with the bike, the driver will have to lean the bike even more to compensate for the passenger not leaning and this is NOT and good thing. Just pretend you are a mounted stuffed animal and just lean as the bike leans. Got it? On the helmet, I also can not stand a full face helmet, but some people swear by them. I use what is called a 3/4 helmet as it covers the ears, but the chin is not covered. I hope this works out for you and your husband as it will definately enhance his riding experience to be able to share it with you. RandyA
  18. Venturous Randy
    The dampener works with the shock to restrict fluid movement, therefore making the shock stiffer. The air pressure adjustment is like adding another spring giving the shock more lift. RandyA
  19. Venturous Randy
    Lew, you are going to fit in fine around here because there are a lot here with A LOT of FORCE. So, welcome and let the force be with you!!! RandyA
  20. Venturous Randy
    On my 1st gen Venture, I have pulled my camper for many miles. It weighs about 450 pounds when fully loaded. That is a bit more than I want, but so far the bike had done great. It has plenty of power, but remember it is a 1200 1st gen, but I would hate to have to make a panic stop at speed. I put EBC HH brake pads on it and that really did help a lot. Also, most of my pulling was in the mountains. RandyA
  21. Venturous Randy
    This last fall Laura and I spent four days in Hilton Head, SC. While there, we toured some condo units. I asked about the problem with hurricanes and was told that due to the lay of the land that hurricanes do not cause a problem with Hilton Head. I said, "Do what?". Yep, I was told that they do not have hurricanes there. I don't wish anything bad on Hilton Head, but that is about the least bike friendly place I have ever been. Many of the areas you could not get into if you were on a motorcycle. Talk about a bunch of snotty people. Anyway, the one I am waiting on is going to be called "Laura", which is on the list this year. That one is probably going to be a doozy. RandyA
  22. Venturous Randy
    The reason I suspected the shaft breaking at the nut first was if this happens, the output shaft is still contained and the u-joint coupling splines will contain the driveshaft/u-joint coupler, but what you end up getting is a lot of meshing on the two 90 degree gears. After a while it will get so bad that it tears up the teeth like yours did. Remember, what keeps the gear mesh in the correct range is the nut on the u-joint coupler. If the nut breaks, you can still ride the bike for awhile, it will just get more and more noisy until the gears or bearing fails. It appears you rode it for a while with severe gear mesh problems, with the nut broke off. Again, the nut breaking on the output shaft is not a real uncommon problem. It is just most will hear the increased noise and investigate it before more severe damage is done.. RandyA
  23. Venturous Randy
    This may be a chicken or egg thing. I suspect the shaft broke first at the u-joint causing the rest of the damage. This happened to several members a while back. RandyA
  24. Venturous Randy
    The headlight swap from an 89 to an 84 is a great swap and big improvement. You will need to swap the headlight bucket, frame that mounts the dash, the left side frame that holds the upper fairing, the adjustment assembly, the small bracket under the headlight that holds the split fairings together and the ring around the headlight. This is one of the best improvements from an 83-85 to an 86 up. RandyA
  25. Venturous Randy
    Dunlop used to make the Elite II in the RWL. RandyA
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