Freebird

Well folks, I do not have any more at this time. I am undecided if I will make any more or not. The problem is that I have to have the brackets fabricated in lots of 30 and don't think that I can find 30 first gen stands to use all those brackets. I will also warn you. There have been a couple of reports here of the Rivco stands breaking and people dropping their bikes. I don't know if Rivco has corrected that problem or not. Diamond R used to make a stand and may still have a few left if you are interested. You will have to contact Allen to find out. He is also considering a new design based somewhat on the one that I build. Nothing firm at this time though. I really think that the one I made was the best out there in regards to strength.

I've tried YamaLube. Tried it ONCE in my '88 and ONCE in my '99. Will never use it again. I found that it seems to break down very quickly, especially when it's really hot outside. I lived in Texas at the time. Within less than a thousand miles I found the engine to be very noisy and it became hard to find neutral. Sorry, I'll never use it again.

Here is the official Avon site. Maybe he can find the info he needs there. http://www.avon-tyres.co.uk/motorcycle/?page=tyres&method=listtyres&cat=2

Cleaning and Repairing a First Gen Tape Deck Thanks to Red Baron for this excellent article A few weeks ago I did a tour of the northern US and put about 7000 miles on my 1990 Yamaha Venture Royale. During this tour, my tape deck "ate" one of my tapes. I like to listen to the tapes while on the road when out of range of local radio stations. I have several tapes of classical music as well as my favorite vocalist, Babs, Barbara Streisand. Not being able to determine the cause of this failure while on the road, I waited until I returned home to affect a repair of the unit. I inquired of this group for advice. Thanks for the responses. Most of you thought it just needed cleaning. I went a little further than that. Since the unit was 18 years old, and I use it often, (I have 82K miles on the old girl) I suspected the belts may be worn or had failed as well as needing a good cleaning and lubricating. As I do all my own maintenance, with the help and advice from this and other web sites as well as service manuals, I thought you might be interested in a short "How to" of what I did. This unit now seems to perform as it should, i.e., doesn't "eat" tapes anymore. First thing I did was research belt availability. I found belts on the web at a place called Vintage Electronics in Corvallis, Oregon. I needed three belts. Part # SCQ4.0 --- $3.10 Part # SCQ6.5 --- $2.10 Part # SCQ10.0 --- $2.55 I ordered them, used PayPal to affect the payment and received them four days later. Great Service http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image001.jpg Next thing I did, after receiving the belts, was to remove the unit from the bike. The tape deck can be removed from the radio/tape deck holder by removing one hex nut from the bottom of the unit. You will also need to unplug the power cord. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image006.jpg After freeing the unit from the holder, remove the top and bottom cases. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image009.jpg After removing the cases, the belts can be seen. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image013.jpg The "V" shaped piece must be removed to expose the belts for changing. This can be accomplished by removing three screws and lifting the "V" shaped piece very carefully. There is a spring on the right side that will impede removal. Just lift around the spring leg. It's easy. You can do it. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image016.jpg OK, you're there. Remove all three belts. You will need to remove the large wheel on the left to access the belt beneath it. Note their position carefully before removing. A sketch may help. Now, before installing the new belts, lift the large wheels straight up and put a drop of oil on their shafts. They will lift straight up and out of the unit. Just one drop of light oil is all that is needed. 3 in One oil or equivalent. Reinstall the shafts/wheels into their respective positions. Now install all three new belts. The belt under the left wheel will have to be installed before reinstalling that wheel. When satisfied that all three belts are tracking correctly, reinstall the "V" shaped piece with the three screws removed earlier. Turn the unit over. Now we want to clean the rubber wheels and the pickup "head". I used a cotton swab dipped in rubbing alcohol to affect this cleaning. Dip one end of the swab in alcohol and use it to carefully clean the head and wheels. Use the clean end of the swab to wipe off residue the alcohol loosens from the wheels. Remove any excess oil from the ends of the shafts oiled from the other side. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image020.jpg Now we can reinstall the top and bottom cases. http://www.venturerider.org/tapedeck/image023.jpg After installing the case pieces and making sure that all the screws are secure, install the assembly back into the radio/tape deck holder and reinstall into the bike. Unit should function like new. No more "surging" from loose or worn belts. No more tape "eating" caused by dirty drive wheels. Hope this has been of some value to anyone doing their own maintenance. Red Baron Addendum: Do NOT over lubricate. ENSURE that "belts" are NOT "twisted" . If the belts are "twisted" the speed will not be correct. These are square cross section belts and MUST have the same "flat" of the belt touching in the groove on the wheels. Just look closely at the belt. If there is a twist in the belt between wheels, it's not going to work correctly.

I KNOW we don't have the money required to pay somebody to keep up with THAT guy.

Now here we have some confusion. The hot wire to a switched ignition source is only applicable to some bikes. It was not necessary on the Royal Star Venture. Are you SURE you needed to do that?

I'm running curve 3. I don't think I've ever tried 4 or 5.

If you haven't read Lewis's post about the ride to St. Jude, please do so. This will be a great experience for anybody who can make it. As some of you know, or Tail of the Dragon rally that has been organized Lewis for the past 3 years has always served the dual purpose of not only allowing all of us to enjoy getting together, riding and eating but even more importantly, to raise money for St. Jude's. The amount of money has grown each year and I am very proud to be a part of any group that is a part of such an event. It would be great if as many of you as possible could join Lewis at St. Judes to present them the money that was raised. Not only would we be very proud to have any of you there to represent us but you will probably get MUCH more out of it than you can possibly imagine. It truly is an opportunity that you will feel good about afterwards. Please see this thread for all the details. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=14760

Thanks to a great idea by Eck and his willingness to manage it, I am pleased to announce a new topic area dedicated to free or cheap parts for all our bikes. Please visit the area and read the sticky post there by Eck. Please note, it is a read only area in order to keep the parts lists organized. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=101

I'm not sure but it looks more like the Tow Pack....

I received the following email. "Hey Anybody know of someone losing their leather in Sauk City? A notebook has some addresses from NY and CA. Please contact me @ Sauk Prairie Harley-Davidson. It also has A couple of pins from venture mc, Honorable DC from US Navy Poppies. Thank you Maggie Connor 608-643-3735"

Buy it, you will love it. Plus, look at the family that comes with all Ventures sold.

No problem about posting in the wrong place. We all do it from time to time. As for the lights, there are several rear light bars that folks here have used and I'm sure that some of the members will jump in with their recommendations. Another thing that some of us have added is an assembly for the Harley Road King. Here is a thread on it. Looks like it was MADE for the Venture. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=3768

I'll be checking with my bank tomorrow to find out why the fee was so high. Maybe because it was a non-USA bank. I don't know if that makes a difference or not.

Yes folks...I should have thought it through more before I posted. Money orders, cashier checks, etc. will always be welcome. I realize that not everybody uses PayPal.

Well, I just don't think that whoever gave me this check had any intention at all of it bouncing. I know I'm a sucker sometimes but I would prefer to continue giving people the benefit of the doubt. As part of my REAL job, I sometimes have to do collection calls on folks that owe the company that I work for money. This past week I was in southern Ohio for just that purpose. It is a part of my job that I truly hate. This particular person had written us a bad check for over $800.00. Now to show you how much I try to work with people, it was written in early January of '97. That was about 10 months ago. I left the person MANY messages on their answering machine because they would never pick up the phone when I called. I still didn't give up to the moment that I arrived at the cities police department to file charges. I truly did not want to file charges against them. I called last Monday morning as I left my house and left a message that I was on my way to file charges. This happens to be a felony due to the size of the check. I called again an hour later letting them know that I was approximately two hours away and so they still had two hours to call me. Never heard from them. I called again from the parking lot of the police station but again got the machine. Now this is a place of business and I know that somebody was there. So I went into the police station and filed the charges. Very nice detective asked what I wanted and I told him that I just wanted what we were owed. He told me that he would go by and pay them a visit and tell them that they had until Friday to pay before he would file the felony charges with the court. On Thursday we received a money order for the full amount. To this day I've never received a call back or any communications from them. It's like they blame ME for their refusal to pay. Now bear in mind, we are a wholesaler. These people made about a thousand dollars on the $842.00 that they paid us. I know that they got paid because the officer told me that they had actually done a job for the city and it went very well and they WERE paid. Go figure.

I love the truck. I used to have a '53 GMC. Great old truck.

OK folks...I want to thank all of you for your suggestions about the type of contest to hold but I have made a decision and it starts NOW. As you know, we are presently seeking photo submissions for the 2008 VentureRider calendar. So, each of you who submits a picture for the calendar will be entered into the drawing to win a $100.00 gift certificate from New Enough. You can go there now and be deciding what you want to spend it on. http://www.newenough.com/ Here is the thread that explains what type of photos needs to be submitted and how to submit them. No whining about "I don't have a digital camera" and etc....if you don't have a camera, I'm sure that somebody you know does. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showpost.php?p=134864&postcount=12 This contest will run until October 14th which is the deadline for submissions.

No, I promise I haven't forgotten. They were out of them but are supposed to be getting some more. I went into two other stores and they didn't even carry motorcycle parts. I PROMISE I will find you one though.

Folks, this is a hard thing for me to even mention here. I am NOT mad. I understand that bad things happen sometimes to good people. I just want to mention it though because I can't handle this too often. I got my bank statement today and found that a check that one of you sent to me got returned for insufficient funds. This is the second time this has happened. I never mentioned it the first time because I really just hate talking about this kind of thing. It has to be said though. I'm not even sure who the check came from. I will contact my bank on Monday and try to find out. I THINK it was for a donation to the site. While I know it was made with good intentions, the bottom line is that the donation ended up costing me $60.00. That is what my bank charged me for the depositing the bad check. I think it is nuts that my bank charged me $60.00 for a bad check from somebody else and rest assured I will be talking to them about that also. I'm sure it will do no good though. The other one was a couple of years ago but the end result is that I've lost $120.00 due to these two checks. I'm sorry to say that I will probably no longer accept checks for any donations, patches, parts, anything else. It's just not a chance that I wish to take any longer. Sorry it had to be said. I know that the person who sent the check certainly had the best intentions and would never have let it happen on purpose.

Mike, I agree that it feels small compared to the RSV. I think it would be comfortable with some highway pegs though. As for the Streetglide, one of the guys that rode with us to Fort Collins this year was riding one. It was a rental due to a charging problem with his Valk on the morning that we were leaving. He really liked it. It seemed especially small to me though.

Ken, Did you check with Hale's in Mansfield? I've never bought from them but have heard good things.

I just tried it also. Opened right up for me.

Thanks for the warning. I had looked and almost bought those a couple of times. Sorry it didn't work out but thank you for warning the rest of us.

Mine had a red and a blue wire also. One was for running lights and the other for brake lights. I wonder if the one that you got is different and is for running lights only? Check the lamp sockets to see if they are dual or single element.