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Venturous Randy

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Everything posted by Venturous Randy

  1. Venturous Randy
    Thanks Peggy, this is getting more and more difficult to understand. About the only thing I feel for sure is that girl was not ready to be driving a car. RandyA
  2. Venturous Randy
    Very well said Dennis. RandyA
  3. Venturous Randy
    I have to agree with Freebird's concern, when I read Gary's son's comment about her stopping and then thinking she saw a signal light, I did wonder if she could have posibly confused the two. Obviously she should not have pulled out, even if there was a clear signal light, especially on a motorcycle as many do not have a self cancelling feature. I have never considered putting a modulator on my bike, but I think the vast majority of the time, they are real good to have. About eleven years ago I did install a set of strobes in the headlight bucket. I also transferred them over when I changed from the 83 to 86 up headlight assembly. In fact, I have two sets of strobes, with one being much stronger and one being weaker because I also run my strobes day and night. But, I usually just leave the stronger ones on all the time. I also have strobes installed in my rear trunk lightbar and inside the tail light cover that are hooked up to my brake light. They do seem to get people's attention when I am stopping or slowing. RandyA
  4. Venturous Randy
    When I looked at the picture blown up, I have to say it is truly a miracle that Gary survived the impact. Once that I read that the girl stopped, was not on a cell phone, but made a conscious decision to pull out while seeing a modulating headlight, I am even more frustrated. It is bad enough to be careless, but to consciously make that decision. RandyA
  5. Venturous Randy
    I work 2nd shift and while at work this evening, I was looking at some e-mails and run across one that was sent to me by Sherry(Ladyrider). It was dated July of last year. In it she commented about hoping to take two weeks and ride with her husband TomE. She talked of how much she enjoyed riding. As most of you know, Tom was killed on her bike after this. I could not delete this e-mail. Like many of you, I rode as a teenager and then a little over 12 years ago picked up a bike. My wife Laura and I enjoyed it and then found the 83 Venture. In the time we have had the 850 and then the Venture, we have put about 95,000 miles on them. We have had some close calls that could have been deadly and like the one I posted about last weekend in Gatlinburg, TN, that one could have got us hurt. My biggest fear, and I do think about it often, is in hurting Laura. I know that as we have gotten older, that it may not take as much to hurt us or even kill us. I also know that there are more distracted drivers out there than ever before that are doing everything but driving and this scares me to death. But, like many of you, being a motorcycle rider is part of who I am. Many people at work identify me by seeing me on my bike and talk to me about riding, even if they have never owned a bike in their life. I, too, have had some serious thoughts about when will I be able to get off the bike and say it was fun, but the time has come to quit. My heartfelt thoughts and prayers go out to Gary and Leslie and to their family. RandyA
  6. Venturous Randy
    It bothers me that a shop will see 3 out of 4 plugs looking good and not investigate why the 4th one looks bad. It looks bad for a reason and it is telling you there is a problem related to that cylinder. RandyA
  7. Venturous Randy
    In my entire life, and I turned 57 about three weeks ago, the worst I have ever been hurt was hitting a dog on a 125 Ducati at about 40mph. I was going into a right hand curve when a medium size dog ran out from behind a hedge row and I could not miss him. He ran right into my front tire. I had a friend on the back and we all went down. I was about 15 at the time and got road rash all over. RandyA
  8. Venturous Randy
    Laura and I took a ride to Gatlinburg today and it was a beautiful ride. It got up to about 80 degrees as we got there. We came in thru the east end that comes from I40. We had a good meal at Legend's and walked around and did a little shoping. The sidewalks were about full of people. As we were leaving. I moved over into the right lane that goes up the hill as you are leaving the main drag. I was getting a bit irritated because I had a large Chevy pickup or SUV following me real close. Just about the time I got to where the big parking garage was on my right, a car in the left lane going the same direction as me allowed another big SUV to turn left in front of him, right into my path. We were in just a few feet from each other when I saw her and she saw me. When she got stopped, she was over halfway into my lane. Fortunately, with the traffic, I was not moving fast, but if I had hit her, we would have gone down. I was able to brake hard and move to my right. I don't know how the truck behind did not run into me unless with him being higher up, he was able to see what was going on before I did. Anyway, it was real close and it sure made me think about some of the crashes we have had with this group this year. It can happen real quick. RandyA That should have been "Close call in Gatlinburg today"
  9. Venturous Randy
    Another area of concern is the metal tube across the front of the engine. I have heard several state having a problem with it getting stopped up. Another thing to do is turn the hex knob 180 degrees and you should see water flowing thru the radiator even with the engine being cool. RandyA
  10. Venturous Randy
    Cruising around on a motorcycle at 14 was why I never started smoking. A gallon of gas and a pack of cigarettes cost about the same(and they still do). I had a lot more fun on a gallon of gas than a pack of cigarettes. Now it's getting, as my dad used to say, "It is like shooting pool with a rope" RandyA
  11. Venturous Randy
    1st of all, if you have the sync out enough, you can have what feels like a cold cylinder(exhaust pipe) unless you rev the bike up. 2nd when the plugs were changed, did one of them look wet, oily? If a shop changed the plugs and did not look at them, that's not good. 3rd did you change the spark plug caps? These caps have a resistor in them that gets corroded and will not fire. 4th what does the bike do when you take that sparkplug wire off? 5th these bikes can run suprisingly strong on just three cylinders, but its a lot better on all four!!! RandyA
  12. Venturous Randy
    Camp other than campgrounds? Are you talking about in back yards or what? I can tell you some cheap, less than $20 a night campground places that are nice and have hot showers that are within a short distance of the parkway. Are you looking at camping the entire trip? RandyA
  13. Venturous Randy
    Take the trunk off and on the rack that it sits on, put some 1/2 inch inside diameter by an inch or so long pieces of hose on where the rubber pads are on the underside of the trunk. Just slit the pieces of hose lengthwise and wrap them around the rack. When you put the trunk back on you may need to wiggle it side to side some and pull backward. Once you get it on and locked, it will be nice and snug!! RandyA
  14. Venturous Randy
    Man, ya mean it's been ten months since my bike came up??? Congrats man, Just too much fun!!! RandyA:sign isnt that spec
  15. Venturous Randy
    The reservoir level light is for both the front brake lever reservoir and the rear one. The reason the light may come on when the brake pads get worn is because the level in the reservoir will go down from when it was full enough and the pads were not worn. Worn pads in themselve do not have an indicator to trigger the light. RandyA
  16. Venturous Randy
    My son called about a half hour ago to make sure we were home. He had just passed a crash out on the highway and could not tell what kind of bike it was, but he said it may have been a Harley bagger. As a follow up on this one, it involved a 53 year old guy and his 57 year old wife. It appears he was passing a Semi and clipped the left rear of the trailer. He died on the spot and his wife died the next day. This kind of stuff can happen real quick. RandyA
  17. Venturous Randy
    You are in our thoughts and prayers. My son called about a half hour ago to make sure we were home. He had just passed a crash out on the highway and could not tell what kind of bike it was, but he said it may have been a Harley bagger. I went for a 150 mile ride thru the NC mountains yesterday just for fun with a friend that has an 89 Venture. It was on roads with a 55 mph speed limit that you could not maintain anywhere near that if you were a good crouch rocket rider. I have to admit that more and more the thought crosses my mind when I am climbing on my bike if this may be the last time I get on it. I have tried to be very defensive with strobes and loud air horns. Yesterday after coming off the Blue Ridge Parkway, we were following a car that decided to turn into a gem mine place and he started to turn right in front of another car that was coming from the other direction. Finally at the last second the squalling tires from the other car got his attention and he finally stopped with just barely enough room for the other car to get by. I hope someday soon you will be able to get back on another Venture. Please do keep up informed of your progress and your thoughts as we really do care. RandyA
  18. Venturous Randy
    Of all the "earth" programs I have looked at for my area, all appear to be from 5 to 8 years old. Weather.com now has an interactive program that also includes satellite pictures and it is even that old. I wish they were a little more current. RandyA
  19. Venturous Randy
    Kewl Skid, I also love to fly. RandyA
  20. Venturous Randy
    As trucker noted, they are different. The trick is to find a set of lower front forks from an 86/93 and change them out. Then you can go with later rotors, calipers and even with R1 calipers if you want to. You would need to wire up the anti-dives, but they would have to be better than the ones on the 83/85's. RandyA
  21. Venturous Randy
    I think I made my first note in the bike journel at about 39,000 miles on something strange happening on the bike under wide open throttle in 2nd gear. It was about 48,000 miles when I went in to it and done the undercut on 2nd gear and 5th gear. RandyA
  22. Venturous Randy
    I really did not have any shifting problems after I did the undercut on 2nd gear. I was beginning to have some gear rattle at idle when the bike was leaned over on the side stand. It appears the changeover to the 86 gearset has eliminated the rattle. RandyA
  23. Venturous Randy
    Did I see on the weather channel this morning that it was 24 degrees near the border. We still have a week of summer left. RandyA
  24. Venturous Randy
    I also have four good rods out of the 86 engine. At the moment, I do not know what the guy plans on doing since I was asked by his friend about parts for one of these engines when he saw my Venture. I gave him my cell number and he has not contacted me yet. Thanks squeeze for the info. That makes sense to me. RandyA
  25. Venturous Randy
    Another easy thing to do is replace the spark plug caps. They have a built in resister that can get corroded and cause all kinds of problems. It also helps to cut about a half inch off your old wires when you screw in the caps. This is about a $20 investment and fifteen minutes time. RandyA
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