Semi-retired

Can I cut to the chase? (I don't THINK this is as "sensitive" as comparing paycheques.... :-)......so, I'm wondering if any Canadian Venture owners are willing and able to publish the name of their insurance company and the amount of their premium. I'm currently with The Personal and they just bumped my cost up 20%. It WAS $802.......it's going up to $960. Any Canadians doing better than that with some other company? Thanks for any info. (I've got 8 days to find a better provider.) Cheers, Michael

Love it! I'll be down. :-) (May just vote, as well, while I'm there!)

How do I get one of them-thar Kentucky driver's license's up here in Ontario-ari-ari-O?

WHICH, when you think about it, is pretty much the way anyone who actually walks the streets these days OUGHT to behave, whether living in Canada or any of the 48! Cause ya NEVER know!

I picked up a box of 200 pairs of squeeze-to-insert, 32db, commercial-use earplugs from a local "cleaning products" wholesaler who has little shop in a nearby industrial mall. Bought the box 4 or 5 years ago.....and am still only about half-way through it. Wifey and I use them for both sleeping AND riding and they are excellent. My cost was, I think, SEVENTEEN BUCKS......Canadian (about the same in US back then), so do the math: about 10 cents a pair. How can you beat that? (btw, sorry if my pics make you drop your computer from trying to get them "upright". Tell me how to rotate them and I'll do it!!)

OH YEAH! And they even circle overhead when riding the bike. (Long lasting aroma, I guess). :-)

Most people say to "learn to live with it"............"suck it up"........etc. I thought that was all BS in my early ownership days.................but now I find either I've mellowed, or the bike has settled in to MY rhythm. Not sure which is the case....but we seem to "get along" much better now. The sound doesn't drive me crazy, and/or she doesn't seem to be making quite so MUCH of it! :-)

So, Gary.......ARE there two different ways to wire these things? One way that has the light work as a brake light.....and a different way that lets it work as ONLY a running light? I'm going nuts trying to figure out where I thought I was the two different techniques. If I recall correctly, one of the setups called for the soldering of a 100 ohm resistor onto the end of one of the wires......and then it was just left to swing in the breeze down near the battery box. No? (or have I been smoking the cheap stuff again!?!? :-) Thanks for any info. Mike

Can anyone point me to the thread on wiring up the "OEM" trunk wing/light? I know it's in the forum SOMEWHERE......cause I read it here 150 years ago. (Well, OK, a COUPLE of years ago!) I seem to remember there are at least two ways to connect this baby (other than the way mine is now.....with all three(?) wires dangling in space under my seat.) One way has the light function as just a running light, the other makes it work with the brake. (I think there might be a little resistor involved on the end of one of the wires for THAT set-up.) Anyone? Anyone? Thanks, guys. I promise to bookmark it this time! Mike

I hear ya! My local dealer (Clares) did mine and for the $250 I paid, all I got on my invoice was "within limits". So, not only do I not know what my clearances were... I have no clue as to the appropriate time to look at them next. Shameful, I thought.

Really? This page says 4-6 weeks. (http://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/passports/information/processing-times.html) Or, 8 business days if you pay the extra 60 bucks!

THAT......and an extremely good sense of balance AND patience in order to wait in line, sitting on their bikes for an hour or so, waiting to be processed by CBSA. :-) Any non-long-weekend would be better, and of course, arriving slightly before and departing slightly AFTER the weekend would achieve best "results" at the border. Good reminder on the passport, btw!

Our only advice is that ALL long weekends are a bear for traffic; the July 1-4 one would be the WORST possible one with half of each country's population crossing the border sometime during the weekend! (Our 2 cents)

Hey there.......watch that "ad nauseum" stuff, buddy!! We knew you REALLY meant "ad excitum!" (We say nice things about YOU!) :-)

I hear ya...........and my BACK hears ya! Good luck with the new one.

Hey, Ron. Just wondering if you ever got a chance to proceed with your repair/paint job? Asking for "compassionate" as well as "personal" reasons. Wifey backed into Big Bertha early last Summer while in a hurry to get out the driveway (no, I wasn't parked RIGHT behind her....but, close enough apparently...so I took PART of the blame :-)......so we've got some scuffs on the fairing and the right hand bag as well. Being a cheap bugger, (not to mention totally UNtalented in the painting department) I always figured I'd go the Maaco route IF and WHEN I even bothered doing the fix. We were all waitin for (ugly) before and (glorious) after shots. Do you have 'em? Cheers, from Canada Eh! (P.S. Nothing but respect intended by the way. If you're from Stevie Ray Vaughan's home state, you MUST be a good guy!)

Looks like no one else is awake yet, Nanci...so I'll add MY two cents worth here first. I'm sorry to say I don't have any experience with the "auto clutch" thingy you mention, but to at least temporarily and partially take some of the load off your clutch hand, practice NOT USING the clutch at all when shifting from 3rd to 4th and from 4th to 5th. I know it's not a HUGE relief, but it sounds like your thumb/hand would be thankful for ANY relief at all. This is a maneuver I've performed for years, mainly since I'm an old motocross racer, a type of racing where the clutch is never used AT ALL...for upshifting OR downshifting between ANY two gears. Once the racers are away from the starting line (where, yes, they DO sit with the clutch pulled in, in first gear, waiting for the gate or the flag to drop)......but after that, there's no clutch involved in the entire race....you just back off the gas a bit and kick that gear lever up or down to where it has to be next. With our big cruisers, downshifting is a little tough/clunky to perform with no clutch....and even on UPshifting, the lower gears can be a bit clunky. BUT there's no reason at all to use the clutch when going from 3rd to 4th and 4th to 5th, as I said. Just put the tiniest amount of toe pressure (or heel...I'm not sure if the RSTD has a heel/toe shifter or just a single lever) when you're about to shift up, then as you back off the throttle, the bike will decide for itself the exact right time to change gears. It'll do it "almost automatically" when the revs of the engine are at the perfect speed to match the revs of the gearbox. It's a kind of "natural" synchronization......which is sort of the task your clutch performs but over a wider range of revs. Until you get your "auto clutch" gizmo, try this method and see if you can't at least REDUCE the amount of hand squeezing required in the higher gears. I PROMISE you, it does absolutely no harm to your gearbox. Good luck with the technique, your hand, and your search for the ultimate solution. Best, Michael

Yup! I'm thinking we've all had ONE version or another. (Thank god they don't come that frequently....or with big audiences most of the time!) My worst one (for viewers/bystanders) happened not long after I acquired Big Bertha and I was starting her up in a crowded coffee-shop parking lot (Timmy's near the Blackberry offices in Waterloo, for all you Canucks reading this....so you KNOW the place was crawling with engineers enjoying their large, double-doubles in the parking lot on this nice sunny afternoon!) Well, my bike was equipped with a Gorilla motion/touch sensitive alarm....and holy crap, there must have been a short somewhere. I couldn't get that sucker turned off for love nor money! Finally just drove away with the alarm screaming and some pretty distraught looking adults showing signs they were uncomfortable as hell about "not doing the right thing"......and CHASING me down in the parking lot or somehow cutting me off at the exit. Talk about "ride it like you stole it!" That's precisely what I did...to the nearest abandoned warehouse I could find where I promptly parked, got out my pocket knife and started cutting through the five-wire harness until peace was finally restored. Gained a whole new level of respect for car thieves AND heart attack victims that day, just from learning the effect of Adrenalin being pumped into a human body in sudden (over)doses. I've never reconnected it.

Thanks for saving me all that ink! That's exactly what I would have said.....with maybe the inclusion of one more: GRAVITY! :-)