Venturous Randy

Things were going pretty good with various family get togethers and meals, opening presents and everything. Went to sleep on the couch and Linda fell asleep in her recliner and when she woke up and with it a bit dark, going to the bathroom, she fell. She landed on her left side and broke her arm where it connects to the ball in her shoulder. She is now in the hospital and they may be able to operate tomorrow. Dr said he will have to attach it with a plate and screws and we are looking at several months of recovery. Randy

When I converted my 83 to MKII forks with R6 rotors, I considered making a mod to powering the anti dives. Given the amount of power they take and the inadequacies of the MKI charging system, I bought a couple of small 12 volt timer relays. The way they work is when you close a circuit, like putting on the brakes, the relay will supply power to the brake electric solenoids. With the timer function, the power would only last as long as the timer is set and I think these are adjustable from one to ten seconds. This means that for a hard stop, the solenoids would get powered for ten seconds, then power would go off. If you put on the brakes as to coming to a stop at a red light, after ten seconds, if that was what you had the timer set, the timer would break the power circuit and no more load. You could sit at the light as long as needed with no load unless you let off the brakes and then put them back on again and then the timer power would restart. In the vast majority of our riding and using the brakes, the anti dives are not needed. It is that panic or hard stop where they can be beneficial. But, when all was said and done, I never did power the electric anti dives as I quit riding the bike. I do remember that with the progressive springs, when I did make a hard stop, I never encountered the forks bottoming out. Randy

Are you also going to convert the electric anti dive set up from the MKII to the MKI? If you have not done it already, I suggest highly that you install progressive springs in your keeper. Randy

One of the things I just could never understand is the attitude that academia has always had toward the military. If it were not for those that were willing to stand up and say NO, you are not going to take away our freedoms, there is no telling what evil dictator would be in control. How much academic freedom would there be under a severe dictator? One of the things that we always have to keep in mind about being a soldier, somebody's gotta do it. There is no alternative. Randy

When I came home in 72, I found that the enemy was...... me. Randy

When I came home, I found that the enemy was me. Randy

To add a little more on this carb issue, the correct vacuum to each individual carb is absolutely required for the carb to function correctly. To have the correct air/fuel mixture thru the various ports in these carbs, the system reads off various points. This entire carb/intake system is very balanced and any mods anywhere in the system usually is not an improvement. As far as air getting to the breather with the cover on, it gets all the air it needs. Just look at the size of the actual inlets at the top of the air box. They look way under size for the best performance, but they were designed to create the best air flow and proper vacuum for the deign of these carbs. If you want the best performance, the best idle and running characteristics, along with the best fuel mileage, keep EVERYTHING exactly as it was designed. I have messed around with these things for almost 25 years and I have not found anything that is an improvement on the original designed system, period. I am glad you finally got the carbs seated correctly in the boots and if you have any other problems, we can try to address those. If you do want to check for any more vacuum leaks, spray a little starter fluid under the air box and under the carbs and see if you get any response. Randy

The first thing you need to do if fix the problem you know you have and that is the carbs are not seated correctly in the boots. This could very well be a hot cold issue where the carbs seal just a little better when cool, but as everything heats up, you may have much more of a vacuum leak. There is no use chasing your tail on problems that may not exist until you fix the problem you KNOW you have. Randy

What year bike and how much have you aired up the rear shock? Randy

There is probably very little variation on tire size as far as width versus height ratio unlike car tires. The problem with a 1st gen, and probably all, is that you can not just put a bigger tire on the bike because the tire is so close to the driveshaft housing to begin with. What are you trying to accomplish? Randy

In the last couple years we have added SC to our driving as we have worn out the roads around the TN/NC mountains. There are a lot of nice places to ride and camp in SC. On the down side, even though SC has usually got the lowest gas prices, they need to raise their gas taxes and spend them on their roads, especially the two lane highways. Whether in the SC mountains or the mid-state down to the coast, some of the two lanes are terrible. We were down at Hunting Island, near Beaufort, SC a couple weeks ago and did a lot of two lane riding in our Miata and it about beat us to death. Randy

Could that tube be one of the overflow drain lines that run from each carb and down the back of the engine between the exhaust and fuel tank? That is the only way I can think of fuel being in any of the lines. Randy

We hit a high of about 90 today, but our humidity was in the 30's% range here in NE TN, according to the Weather Channel. Wasn't too bad, just really, really dry. Randy

As far as cam swaps, what you are looking for is more bottom end torque. To go to a higher lift, longer duration cam profile, as is a Vmax, you may even see a bottom end reduction in torque. That type cam is more for higher RPM usage and I don't think that is what you are looking for. It may help to know what the final drive ratio is on your trike and maybe see if a lower gear ratio is available. It sounds like you are lugging a bit with the extra weight and running gear. Randy

I know this has been a rather long adventure, and I must say that you are doing good. With all you have done, you are going to have a fun bike that will be a great performer. I put 150,000 miles on my 83 and it was a really big part of my life for a long time. If I had known how dedicated you were going to be with this project, I wish I had sold you mine. Mine is still sitting on the carport covered up. I do suggest you put some highway miles on the stock final drive so when you do put the VMax drive on, you will be able to tell the difference. Then, you will really get to enjoy that "Hang on for dear life" feeling as you are screaming up through the gears. Randy

I have been dealing with type 2 diabetes for the last 40 years. My last A1C was 7.7 and the thing that has helped the most is getting the Dexcom 6 meter that uses a stick on sensor and transmitter for the unit. It takes a reading every five minutes and you can set low and high limits to warn you where you are. It will also warn you if you are dropping too fast, even if you are still in the good range. This is not the Libra unit you put on your arm and have to manually push a button and put the receiver next to it. This one you just need to be within 20 to 30 feet for it to read. I am not suggesting you need one of these units right now, but just to tell others about the Dexcom 6. This is also covered by the VA if you use them. As far as smoking, I am currently working with a very close friend of 40 years with lung cancer. A year ago he was very healthy feeling and now he can barely walk hooked up to an oxygen tube. Of all my vices, I am so glad that tobacco was never one of them Randy

If you have an 86 that you plan on keeping as a parts bike. Move all the stuff that is needed to put the entire headlight assembly on your 1st gen. This is a big drawback on the early 1st gens and the later headlight is much better. That was another improvement I made on my 83. Rand

What people don't realize about Tennessee is from where I live in NE TN, I am actually closer to Canada than Memphis. Randy

Good for you and I don't know what my son is going to do with this place when I die, there is so much stuff. Going to throw out the invite to north east Tennessee. We are surrounded by mountains and have many great lakes, rivers, camping and within about an hour of the Blue Ridge Parkway. We also have no state income tax. Randy

If you put a Vmax final drive in your 87 with a stock transmission, all it will do is lower the gear ratio about 10% in all gears. What I posted only applies to the transmission out of a 2nd gen when comparing it with a stock 1st gen. When Yamaha went to the 2nd gen, they put in gear ratios that were much wider spaced with each other and because of this, many were disappointed with the power the 2nd gen had at highway speeds in 5th gear because it was geared so high. There fix was to install a Vmax final drive that dropped all the gear ratios by 10%. The only thing that made this not a simple change over was the 2nd gen final drive has the speedometer pickup in the final drive housing and to go to a Vmax final drive, the housing had to be machined to accommodate this. In the case of the 1st gen, the speedometer is run off the front wheel. Before I replaced my engine with one that had only 30,000 miles on it, I ran the Vmax final drive for a while with my old engine and it was a hoot. It was surprising how much quicker it was out of the hole, but it suffered at interstate speeds. Talking about wanting one more gear. Before I put the low mile engine in my bike, I replaced the transmission with a 2nd gen one. In my opinion, that is the set of gear ratios that the original 1st gen should have had to begin with along with the Vmax final drive ratios. What you have to keep in mind is the 55mph speed limit ran from 1974 to 1995 and that was during the time the Venture was originated, so the stock gearing was good. Running at 70 to 80mph as most do on the interstate now for me was irritating and bumping up the 5th gear ratio made a lot of difference. Randy

I am really glad you have finally reached this point. You will find that these are strong bikes and love to rev. Once you have some seat time, you need to do the next step and get a VMax final drive. This is directly related to you using a 2nd gen transmission. Otherwise, you are going to feel the bike is underpowered as it just does not have enough torque to pull the bike in 5th gear and to some degree, even 4th gear. Comparing the 2nd gen setup transmission with a VMax final drive to a 1st gen setup with a stock final drive you will have; 1st gear 10% lower 2nd gear is 5% lower 3rd and 4th gear the same 5th gear 5% higher. What you will have is the bike with a VMax final drive, compared to a stock setup, will be even quicker out of the hole and will also be more comfortable running at interstate speeds without that constant feeling that you need one more gear. I know that I loved that setup on mine and this was after I had put about 140,000 miles on it with the stock setup. Randy

Ok, I downloaded this and the videos and pictures are working, I am just having to redo some of my passwords. In fact my name and password has been a problem on here everything I try something. I'm still learning and again, I appreciate all the help. Randy

I want to thank everyone for the responses and your suggestions. For the time being I think I am going to be running chrome for a while. Right now, I have a tag that says imported from edge for my favorites, but it is only part of them. It looks like I may have to update some passwords also. Again, thanks for all the help. Randy

All the repair directions I have found say to go to Apps and features and click on Microsoft edge and go to the repair feature. The problem is, I have no listing for Microsoft Edge. How do I find it? Randy

Ok, I have hit upon something. I normally use Microsoft Edge as my browser as that was what it came with new. I do have Firefox and Chrome installed and when I went to those browsers everything works as it is supposed to. Now, how do I fix Microsoft Edge? Randy