Seaking

True indeed! This forum is one of the best I've frequented over the years for various bikes I've owned, the only one I had to gladly pay for.. Just reading some of the anecdotal stories that people post sometimes gets you thinking about your own bike and gets you checking things out and sure enough, if it happened to one person it might happen to you..

The check list is long and storied.. usually from lessons learned by personal experience, some from others mentioned through this board... Preventive maintainance is easier than finding yourself stranded on a road trip..

Arriving at the pumps recently, I had trouble removing the gas cap.. Turns out one of the two screws holding things together decided to go explore the bottom of the gas can, making the the retraction of the pawls difficult, as the remaining screw was also loose.. A replacement screw fixed it all up but I shudder to think what might have happened if that last one also fell out into the bottom of the fuel tank (it was loose as well..). I mentioned this to another RSV rider and he checked his, and he also had one of the screws loose.. Something else to add to the check list of things to periodically check...

You can also try a sheep skin.. more comfortable for heat and cold, and with trial and error positioning you can get to the market without crushing the eggs..

Fuel filter, mine sits same as yours.. its relatively the same area as on a Vstar so why couldn't they do it for the Venture? Hang it by a string, build a bike around it.. yeah, that works Almost like the aircraft industry.. The third pic, ouch.. Ever see that spray on black rubber sealant "as seen on TV" where they spray a screem door with it and use it on the bottom of a boat to show how water tight it is? Wonder if they make something similar for these kinds of boots? Spray a coating over them to seal up the air leaks and away ya go until you can replace them with proper boots.. at least it would tell you if the boots were leaking or not.. Just a thought, dunno how practical it would be..

Its possible that the front end of the pipes being so hot tend not to stay wet long enough to rust, while the rear of the pipes are cooler, being nearer to the rear wheel spray while riding in the rains, and sit low so all the water drips down and collects near them when you've pulled over.. Hmm I'll have to pull mine off this winter to inspect them this winter..

Some of the most impressive scenic bike routes are located around here.. probably the highest rider population per capita in Canada.. Drop us a line if you come out this way to visit.. Drop me a line if you need to know more about the VMax rear diff.. Cheers

US Gallons indeed.. If those numbers seem the same as you're getting on your stock bike, that's awesome but for what ever reason, mine never got good mileage regardless to what I did to the bike or how well I maintain it.. That same run would have usually gotten me around 36 to 38 mpg instead of the 41-43 mpg (or better) I see now. Much of it I would think is the winds and terrain we have out here.. When ever I get west of here (NB or Maine and beyond) my mileage improves due to the relative flatness of the terrain in other areas.. Ever notice sometimes that certain speeds puts your bike in either too high a gear (lugging) or too low a gear (higher revs)? The rear diff swap gives you more flexibility.. Its hard to explain but running at 3800 rpm at various speeds with the vmax rear feels different than running that rev with the oem diff.. more pleasant, easier and comfortable... Overall it makes for a better ride.. YMMV

(short version of this in last paragraph to save you some reading...) I finally managed to complete three highway runs to see how the fuel mileage stands after installing the VMax rear.. Interesting results as previously I thought my mileage sucked bad.. and now? "wow".. 2006 RSV Midnight, with K&N filters, RK pipes, recent oil change and valve check adjustments, new spark plugs, burning premium gas, E3 tires at 38/40 psi. Travelling the whole test run at roughly 75 MPH (120 kph) on the speedo, turning 3,800 rpm. According to GPS this was actually 70 mph (110 kph) which is the legal speed limit on our twinned highways here. The entire highway route was done in 5th gear. Headwinds in the range of 15 mph, long inclines on the route.. Carrying a small 1.3 gallon (5 litres) gas can in the saddle bag, I ran the bike until reserve was reached. F countdown timer and reserve came on within a minute to 3 minutes of each other, depending on the incline and curve of the road. Reserve was switched over at around 170 to 175 miles (280 kilometers) at these speeds.. Now for the fun part, running the bike dry to finally find out how far can I go on reserve at highway speeds.. Bike shut down at around 222 miles (357 kilometers) on the ODO. So that gave me roughly 47 miles (75 kilometers) on reserve before running out of fuel at highway speeds.. Adding the 1.3 gallons to the tank, the bike ran with the valve off reserve for another 5 miles before having to switch it back to reserve to next gas station 8 miles down the road from where I had topped it up on the side of the road.. At the pumps, added 4.4 gallons (17 litres) of fuel.. add that to the 1.3 gallons already in the tank, less what I burned to travel that 8 miles.. 5.7 gallons.. Manual says the tank capacity is 5.9 gallons, so with what I burned to travel the 8 miles and the unusable portion of fuel, that comes close in numbers...? (something tells me this is off by some margin though...) Next fuel run tests... back roads, 4th gear, 45-60 mph speed range to see how far the bike goes before reserve and running dry.. Should be interesting to say the least.. So the short version of this long story is that traveling at 75 mph on the speedo in 5th gear, the bike goes to reserve at roughly 175 miles with at least 40 miles on reserve after that.. which is a lot better than I had been getting at slower speeds on the back roads before putting the VMax rear diff on the bike.. Previous runs from gas station to gas station showed the bike doing anywhere from 43 to 45 MPG on the highway..

Curious to know if the OP pulled the plugs at least to check them.. I had a similar problem with another bike and it was one of the spark plugs.. basically missing parts of it.. Idled and low powered ok.. but couldn`t make power or speed.. needless to say the engine required a rebuild after that.. ergh (hoping this is not the case for the OP)

The idea of having that little extra safety margin of fuel capacity is well warranted but as with many, the prospect of punching holes in the filler neck poses a couple of problems. The risk of sending sparks above a fuel tank not withstanding, there is also the problem of losing that fuel expansion air space. Hence why you would only fill the tank to the max when you know you're getting back on the road right away and burn off that excess fuel before expansion becomes an issue. But it may happen that you might forget or miss the proper fill line when fueling before putting the bike away etc.. To get around the issues presented with punching holes in the filler neck, I carry a short length of copper tube in the tank pocket pouch. Large enough diameter to allow good air flow and shaped like an upside down candy cane. With a tether attached to it in case I drop it into the tank, I slide it down the neck and as I'm filling up with fuel, the air escapes through to top of the short end of the bend in the tube inside the tank, allowing me to fill the tank to that max capacity as needed. And if I'm fueling the bike before putting it away after the last ride, I know I won't accidently over fill it leaving me without the expansion space.. Cheap and easy to make and use..

Brakes... The throttle cables run through a round 'gizmo' down under the left side of the bike, below the tank, it allows the cruise control cables to join up with the throttle cables etc (two sets go in, one set comes out). If these are slack or loose, it makes it harder on the cruise control system to do it's job properly.. There's an article somewhere on this site that explains it all a lot better than I could.. with proper nomenclature

The droop you experience could be result of the cables being on the loose side. I tightened mine up and its less noticable but still there.. but it did cure the cruise control drop out when hitting big bump or heavy wind gusts.. Once the slack in the cables is gone, the whole system works better.. Something you can also try to avoid the droop is that when you select "Set", immidiately press 'ACC" twice and you should notice little to no droop at all.. (select down once, then twice upwards). Or simply hold the throttle until you feel the bike's cruise control catching up in few seconds... As for the inadvertent twisting of the throttle, all I could suggest is perhaps you may have to tight of a grip on the bar, or you're holding your wrist too high which would cause acceleration when ever your wrist drops with bumps or such.. (you should ride with a flat wrist..) One of these might be the issue.. You can safely ride a bike with a less than firm grip as long as your hand is wrapped around the grip. This allows you to steer the bike yet not induce unwanted twisting of the throttle.. I've never experienced this issue on my bike.. Since installing the VMax rear, I've found the cruise control more reponsive than before due to the revs being higher. Makes for an overall better ride on those long trips.

Yes and it's easy peasy to do, see reply to other query article.. I'll take a pic next time I have the seat removed..

The process is simple enough. You have to remove the filter from it's holder on the frame. There is enough fuel hose on the downstream side of the filter to allow you to pull it up out of it's miserable oem location and rest it up on top of the frame under the seat, there is space there, just have to fit it in properly... You will then end up with excess fuel hose on the upstream side of the filter. You can coil this up or cut it to length. When doing this relocation, be sure to check that the hoses are not pinched or crushed or kinked. When all is said and done, all you'll need to do next time is remove the seat and voila, a fuel filter easy to reach and change. The downstream length of hose has hard bends manufactured in it, but there was enough length over all on mine to allow this relocation without kinks or pinching the hose. I subsequently replaced it with a proper length of fuel hose.

Can't add much about the other symptoms except about how you describe it feels like it's running out of fuel. I experienced such symptoms on my own after I bought it used. Only had 20,000 miles on the 2 year old bike. When I would get down to about 1/2 tank it would act like it ran out of fuel.. fill the bike up and she would run reasonably well. Turned out to be a super filthy fuel filter that had never been changed by the previous owner. The fuel pump couldn't pull the fuel through the filter with a lot of head pressure of a full fuel tank to assist in pushing fuel through the filter.. Once I changed the filter (and relocated it for easier access) the bike ran super fine.. Unfortunately, after having to overwork pulling fuel through the dirty filter for so long, the fuel pump slowly but gradually bit the dust later that same year. Start with the easiest and work your way up from there, give the fuel filter change a try and see if that improves things, and see what happens.. Best of luck!

Must be some heavy duty heavy weight antennas on that bike to be able to do that! impressive.. however, if you have the means to raise the front of the bike off the ground, you may want to check your neck bearings in addition to the recommendations of the other responders. (if you don't know what to check for, you will be checking for any clicking / clunking in the neck as you pull forward and backwards on the tire, if it clunks, it's loose and needs tightening. There are several write ups in the tech library how to check all of this and the fixes etc) If such is the case, the quick fix is simple, the big fix is more involved.. but still easily done at home.. Best of luck.

For your needs a VMax rear and Barnett clutch system (steel, friction plates and heavy duty springs) do a great job.. I found the PCW clutch system leaves the friction zone in a weird place for my riding style. Both are easy to install and well worth the coins.

Oddly enough, when the bike falls over past the guards and rests against the front fairing, it's rather easy to pick it up back to the 'guards' position.. it's getting it back up past the guards that takes a lot of effort.. We recently ran an Advanced Riders course and a gentleman dropped his bike over a couple of time and once it ended way over.. (not a pretty sight for a RSV) Luckily no damage.. I helped him get his bike upright and it like I mentioned earlier, once you grab a handle bar and pull up on it, the bike will flip over onto the wheels, resting against the guards with a lot less effort than you would imagine..

Hi Bob, sorry to hear about the drop.. its not like it's never happened to any of us before.. (some more often than not..). Just going out on a limb here, but did you compare the fluid you discovered with that from your radiator reservoir? Its possible that some coolant leaked out of the reservoir tank (sits under the seat behind the engine) and dribbled down to the dropped side of the bike.. Hopefully it's nothing more than just that and yer good to go... (good time to check reservoir levels etc)

Here's what I can say from personal experience with my 2006 and the new VMax rear in regards to riding at 70 with the OEM gear in 4th and the Vmax in 5th gear. Other people's experiences may differ, but it will give you an idea why the VMax rear diff is so appreciated. From what I understand, the VMax rear diff has one tooth less than the OEM rear diff. This means that you climb into the speed range quicker (more giddyup and go), reaching the rev limiter like there's no tomorrow.. wow.. Cruising at highway speeds is where this Vmax comes into the light nicely. With the OEM rear diff, traveling at 70 mph in 5th gear, my tach shows me at 3,000 rpm. In 4th gear, I'm turning close to, if not slightly over 4,000 rpm at 70 mph indicated on the bike's speedo. When in 5th at 70 mph turning 3000 rpm, the bike is just out of that powerband zone and any amount of head winds or incline causes the bike the bog down some and burns more gas.. However, in 4th gear at 70 mph and turning 4000 rpm, the engine is really responsive and smooth, but for me it feels like it turning way too high for that speed and the fuel mileage is somewhat similar to being in 5th gear.. it's not lugging and burning gas for nothing, but it's turning faster and burning more fuel for that speed, which basically equals out to be around the same.. You can run these bikes at 70 mph in 4th all day long with no problem or causing harm to the bike.. but like I said, for me it feels like its running at a slightly too high a rev in 4th at 70 mph.. With the VMax rear end, traveling at 70 mph in 5th gear, the tach shows around 3550 rpm, where the bike doesn't show any sense of bogging down and doesn't feel like it's turning too high.. and it's quite smooth and nice. Big head winds do not seem to affect the bike like it used to before, and I can climb inclines at highway speeds with just a slight twist of the throttle.. she's got guts now.. the bike's engine feels like it's just in that sweet spot of the powerband where you have lots of power yet not burning a lot of fuel for it.. Highway riding is sooo much more fun now.. you hardly notice the inclines anymore and the headwinds are no longer a bother.. Now, when you run the bike at higher speeds, this is where I find where you have a bit of a trade off.. Showing 80 mph on my bike's speedo is actually closer to a real 72 mph (verified by GPS and spotting car). Running the bike at a true 70 mph (around 80 on the speedo), the revs are now up around 38-3900 rpm and there is a slight hit on the gas mileage.. Oddly enough, running 4000 rpm with the VMax rear diff feels very different than running at 4000 rpm with the OEM rear diff.. though turning higher revs, it really doesn't feel all that bad.. actually quite nice.. smoother.. even more responsive on the throttle but doesn't feel like it's turning too high like before at 4000 rpm.. hard to explain, you have to experience it for yourself to know what I mean. So for me, that trade off isn't a bad thing.. to get the better mileage on road trips, I now feel I want to keep it at the posted speed limit (true bike speed vice bike speedo indication) and in the long run should keep me of the radar gun.. this suites my riding style just great! However, regardless of how high the revs are, running the bike with the VMax rear diff and turning 3900 rpm gives me about the same fuel mileage I was getting before riding in 5th on the old OEM diff.. I tended to ride a little faster as this brought the revs up more and made the bike smoother.. but now, I can ride in that sweet spot all day. Back roads riding. Well that too was something tht was easy to get used to.. in order to get max range I would have a tendency to ride it as low rev as possible and shift a lot to keep it out of that bogging down zone.. Now I find I can ride the bike in the 3000 to 3200 rpm range (in any gear) and still maintain better fuel mileage and stay within the powerband to climb hills and such.. Need a little more power, drop a gear and rocket past the obstruction on the road. Wow. A much smoother and easier ride than before. With the VMax rear you can get up to highway speeds from a full stop that much quicker and then settle down for a nice cruise (think climbing curving on ramps...) wow is all I can say.. Doing tight curves on the roads seems more effortless as you have the power now to engage the curves with power on out of the curve (slow in, fast out after the apex) For my all around riding style, this mod fits the bill and then some. My mixed mileage (back road and highway) went from 38 mpg to 43 mpg without concentrating on fuel management. Once I get some decent weather, I'll be doing range testing to see how much longer I can go before reserve on the highway.. The way the bike is resonding to the VMax rear diff, I'm anticipating quite a bit more.. Keep in mind that for some people, their numbers will vary, their experiences will vary but thus far, everyone I had contacted about this mod had nothing but super positive things to say about it.. and I have to agree with them all. Its an easy mod to do, and the best bang for the buck..

Welcome to the Max Club lol.. yes, it's quite the impressive mod, best 'bang for the buck' upgrade available for the bike. I do mostly single up riding and prefer twinned highway rides so the VMax rear really makes a huge improvement on the ride. And oddly enough, improved my fuel mileage by a noticeable amount.. as long as I keep it within the 70-75 mph area.. once i get into the 80 mph range, then it goes back to the normal fuel mileage. (keep in mind that though the bike's speedo shows 70 mph, the bike is actually doing anywhere from 8 to 10% less in real speed, as verified by GPS and tag along car for comparison) The 'giddyup and go' of the bike has also significantly improved, it took me a bit to get used to it after installing the mod.. it puts the giggle back into riding. Its like getting a whole new bike all over again..

Many thanks for the info! Much appreciated.

Greetings, does anyone know what is the size of the nut on top of the triple tree? Thanks in advance..

Ok I follow you now.. what you ran into is why I used the 9v battery method to find the correct wires.. once the wires leave the connector and head to the rear of the bike, it's a mess.. Did you connect the - neg of the 9v battery to ground to close the circuit when testing the + pos on the wires? Here's a pic of the connector I made the connections to.. Of the three bikes I installed the amp on, I think only one of them didn't match the wiring of the others..