Freebird

Very nice. I really look forward to meeting you in the spring. Should be a great time for all.

I've been using the Edsets for most of the summer now. I admit though, my riding is way down this year. Just too much going on. I still say though that they are the best headsets I've ever used. I've used the best J&Ms and the best from AirRider and with both of those, I still listened to the stereo through the external speakers because the sound from the headsets just wasn't very good. With the Edsets, I've found that I finally prefer the headsets to the external speakers. My only problem now is that I haven't yet bought a set for my wife. She is still using the AirRiders so when she is with me, I still have to use the external speakers because she doesn't like the sound through her headsets. If you are just looking for something for communication then anything will be fine. Even the cheaper J&M units are plenty adequate for communications.

OK...looks like I am certainly in the minority here. Maybe I should not have responded so quickly. In my Clearview shield, I have both types of vents. The Goldwing style in the middle and the round vents on each side. When I bought my Clearview about 9 years ago, it did not come with the vent. I installed the Goldwing style vent a few weeks after I got the shield. I think I bought the vent from JC Whitney. It has never been smooth to open and close and finally the spring and little ball bearing popped out and I lost them. It will now slowly open back up when I close it. It is very possible that Clearview is using a better quality vent than what I bought. I agree with you guys, I would NOT want a shield without a vent. To be honest though, I really don't feel much if any air even with all three of mine open. I DO like the fact that it seems to break the "dead" area behind the shield so that you seem to get some air circulation. That is why I figure the round vents would do that just as well and be eaiser to clean and operate. With the new shield, I have installed only the round vents and I really haven ridden enough since doing so to have offered the opinion that I did. I THINK I will like them better but should have waited until I have put some miles on it before saying anything.

I don't profess to be an oil expert but I did a bit of searching and came up with a link for you. I understand that Quaker State also sold a motorcycle oil but it has been discontinued. http://www.pennzoil.com/products/outdoor/motorcycle.html

I admire his talent but am not really a fan of his designs. I will just have to be un-cool.

It's working fine for me and I can see all your pics.

No, I put a restriction on the size of the signatures. Some folks were taking up half a page with their signatures. There used to be a restriction and then it got lost at some point and I put it back. I have posted about it a couple of times. Signatures should not take up as much space as they were starting to. It just eats up bandwidth and makes the pages load slower.

All done.

I'm not sure that I like the fairing. It sort of reminds me of some of the old police bike fairings. I like a lot of things about the bike but am glad I am not in the market right now. I didn't expect Yamaha to do anything for the '09 model but I really expect them to for the 2010. We'll see. Here is what the fairing reminds me of.

hmmm.....very interesting. The system is supposed to automatically change all caps posts. Don't know why it doesn't always work but I'll check it out.

Looks like it's missing a CB and Intercom. Probably an option but I'll be it's an EXPENSIVE option.

I really like it. Anybody seen a price anywhere? Not that I can afford one.

Sorry about the delay. Things are a little crazy here right now. Eileen and I did get a pretty nice ride in the other night with the new shield. So far, I've found no negatives. Now I had the older Clearview and it didn't slant back either but I never had any problems due to it not slanting back. Also, mine was a tall shield, as is this one, so buffeting has never been an issue. Now everybody act like they don't notice that my time stamp on the camera is off just a bit. Sorry, I wanted to install my round vents before taking pictures but....I can't find my hole saw.

HEY...I may be buying a '78 with less than 9,000 miles later today or tomorrow. I saw it for sale in front of a house today. Pretty nice condition and appears to be 100% original. Price is right, I just need to hear it run first and the owner was not home. It WILL be for sale though if I buy it. I've owned 4 of these previously, including the full dressed Hondamatic that I had last year. Some of you saw this one at my Maintenace Day year before last. The one I'm looking at now is the same color but not an automatic and without the fairing and luggage and it has spoke wheels.

No problem at all. Just wanted you to know that they didn't get where you intended.

The reports on the wobble are for the first gen Ventures only. '83-'93. I've seen no such reports in regards to the RSV or RSTD. Also, I would kindly suggest that you fill our your profile by clicking on UserCP. Makes it much easier for folks to respond when we can easily tell exactly what bike you are riding.

They sell the vents but do not currently have them pre-installed for the RSV. I have emailed them about pricing and the option of tint. Don

No vent and no tint. I really don't care about the tint. My Clearview was tinted and to be honest, it wasn't a big deal. You really can't even tell unless you put another shield right against it. That being said, I would have gotten a tinted one if available but it's just not a big deal to me. As for the vent, I will not buy another shield with the Goldwing style vent. They are VERY hard to keep clean as the bugs and grime get between the vent flange and the shield. Plus, mine stop opening and closing correctly a couple of years ago. I will use the round pop out vents from now on and would just as soon install my own. It is very easy to do.

OK folks, I had mentioned in another thread about a new windshield that I was going to try on my bike. I had heard about this company from Bob Dakin but knew nothing about them. A few days ago I got an email from the owner of the company asking if I would be willing to test their new RSV shield and provide feedback to him and to our members. I told him that I was willing to do so but that he needed to understand that my report would be 100% honest and I would NOT support a product that I didn't believe in. Now it turns out that F4Customs is only about an hour from my house so I took a drive over there and picked up a shield. They offer it in 3 sizes. 14.5", 17.5" (stock height) and 19.5". The 17.5" and the 19.5" are both available in stock width or 4" wider than stock. I went with the 19.5" shield in the 4" wider size. This is about the same height as my Clearview shield. The Clearview shield was also wider than stock but this one is a bit wider yet. Now I want to say here that I was NEVER unhappy with my Clearview shield and have recommended them many times here. It is now about 9 years old and is still in very good shape. I would not have been in the market for a new shield at this time. There are a number of claims that F4 makes about this shield. It is scratch resistant, no optical distortion, they say it is very slick and really sheds water well. You can use Rain X on it and they actually recommend that you clean it with windex and paper towels and you will not scratch it. The RSV shield is new but they have made shields for other bikes and Nascar for some time now. I understand that they are a very popular brand with the Goldwing riders. I have no reason to doubt their claims but it will obviously be a while and many miles before I can fully verify them either. What I can say is that the shield fits well. All the bottom holes are actually holes and not slots as Clearview and the stock shields use. There seems to be substantial material to hold the shield if a screw or two get loose. The holes were all drilled properly and lined up as they should have. It is a bit wider at the bottom than my older Clearview shield. One thing I did notice is that the wider part of the shield at the bottom sweeps back a bit. The Clearview shield was pretty much straight in line with the chrome strip. To the point that you actually had to flex the shield back a bit in order to remove the chrome. This one sweeps back probably an inch. Not saying that is a good thing or a bad thing, just a difference that I wanted to point out. Also the bottom of the wide part of the shield angles up just a bit. Where the Clearview shield is pretty much straight across where the width extends at the bottom ... aligns with the top of the fairing...this one angles up maybe 3/4" or so. Again, not saying that is good or bad but a difference. I THINK I actually like the Clearview better in this one regard but this is something that F4 could probably tweak if it turns out that everybody feels the same way that I do about it. After I put a few miles on it, I may end up liking it this way. We'll see. Anyway, this is my intial report. The shield is well made, fits nicely, secured very well with all holes and no slots. As for it being highly scratch resistant and shedding water so well, only time will tell. They did show me a demo of a shield with a windshield wiper wrapped in steel wool. He said they had run the wiper for over 100 hours with the steel wool scrubbing the shield and it was not scratched at all. It IS a very clear shield and I've noticed no optical distortian at all. That wasn't a problem with my Clearview either but some with the new swept back version of the Clearview have complained just a bit about it. I will report further after I've put some miles on it. If you want to know more, the F4 Custom website is: http://www.f4customs.com/

Well, I finally broke down and called the power company this morning. They told me that my power should be back on by Friday at the earliest and Sunday at the latest. Then about 1- minutes later, the power came back on. We ended up being without power for right at 36 hours. I really feel for those down south who are going to be two to three weeks with none. They say that the winds here were sustained at around 40-50 MPH with guests close to 70.

Yea, I could do that. It would almost power the entire house but WOW...the propane it would go through. NO NO NO......Can't happen......I think I would just run away. Yep...this is strike two on the Gazebo. Not in the pond this time. I had it anchored down very well. Just pretty much destroyed the light gauge aluminum frame.

I guess what is remaining of Ike blew through NE Ohio last night. We had winds exceeding 50 MPH and lots of trees down in the area. Our power went off around 7:00 PM and is still off now. I drove into town to get a WIFI connection and check my email. Hopefully things will be on again soon. No real damage at our house...well...except that Eileen's gazebo is pretty much trashed.

As far as I know, it was not deleted. I don't even remember seeing it and I get emailed a copy of every post made. Not sure what happened but I can promise that I didn't delete it. The other moderators typically email or PM me before hard deleting anything. Sometimes they will soft delete something until we can discuss it but I don't even see anything soft deleted.

I agree 100%. I don't even own a filter wrench. I use a large pair of Channel Locks pliars to remove the old one. Put a bit of oil on the new filter gasket and screw it on until it seats and then about 1/2 - 3/4 turn more by hand. I've never had one leak doing it that way. If you didn't lubricate the rubber gasket first, you may have torn it. At any rate, something isn't right if it's leaking.

and now even THIS is turning political. Please let it go folks.