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timgray

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Everything posted by timgray

  1. timgray
    I am thinking of replacing the clutch, from all the documentation with the bike It has the clutch that came from the factory in it. If I change the clutch out, is there a better brand that will last longer? is there any upgrades that I should look at that will make it so I never have to replace the clutch again?
  2. timgray
    Mine has that punch and it "skips" in second gear. so it's not a real indicator.
  3. timgray
    It's great until you discover that it's actually huge. 6" wide 3.5" tall 2 "deep. plus no back ipod/audio in so you have ot have a cable dangle across the fairing to the ipod. I had one of these in my hands to put on my 1st gen. I sent it back and used a car stereo mounted sideways.
  4. timgray
    I'm most of the way into the painting. It's going really good and the new lacquers are incredible. HOK took lacquer paint and made it as durable as the new stuff. I took a test panel and dumped gasoline on it and it acted like my car paint, just sat there and took it. unlike my buddies 1979 yamaha that looks like the paint is going to come off when he spills. I also changed my color again after the HOK paint supplier showed up at the shop with a example panel and convinced me that I should change direction. It's going to be a cinnamon Firemist color with a mile deep shine and color. It almost looks like the paint is incredibly deep when you look at this new stuff. I'd say the color is a golden orange big flake metallic.. The wife was not too happy about the color change until she saw the example panel. I've only seen a paint like this on the showbikes and showcars... I'll post photos as soon as we got color shot and the graphics taped off. Having a blast doing this. He's letting me do work on it as well... Sanding, the sanding never ends. I have at least 60 hours in sanding everything, then after solving a pinstripe glue issue from the old paint, sanding again to make everything perfectly smooth, sealer, more sanding, etc... and he tells me I get to enjoy even more sanding as soon as the final clear is all done on the bike. I'm surprised that most painters don't have arms like body builders.
  5. timgray
    The pin-striping that Yamaha installed 25 years ago... well it's glue penetrated the plastic and causes major issues when I sprayed a primer coat to smooth a bit better. I had to switch to a non reactive nasty cynocryalate based sealer to bury the mess that the pinstripes made in the plastic to make it go away. The problem happened on every location on the bike where there was a pinstripe. IF you leave the pinstripes there and are fine with a bump under your new paint this will not be an issue, but I wanted it right so I razored off all pinstripes, sanded everything smooth and started the painting. ugly crinkles appeared, reappeared, reappeared until I found something that would not react and bury it. now the parts are as smooth as glass and ready for paint. Oh another note: most of the emblems on the bike are there to hide major ugly casting marks when the bike parts were made. if you want everything smooth, you have to use flexible plastic filler to fill them and make them disappear.
  6. timgray
    any tips on where to find the progressive shock? and is it a simple jack everything up, remove the old and install the new? or is it very involved to replace that shock.
  7. timgray
    The link to your Ad to buy them does not work. It says that the "ad does not exist" I'd like to buy one can I simply give you my address and then paypal you?
  8. timgray
    Anyone have any info on the upgrade to the 83 standard that involves getting a royale shock and a progressive spring for it to upgrade and tighten up the rear shock? I'm putting in progressive springs in the front of my bike this winter, and was thinking of doing that upgrade in the back while everything is completely apart.
  9. timgray
    do the bunkhouse campers support more "full sized" people sleeping on them? Most I have looked at seem to be designed for 100 pound waifs and not filled out and rounded geezer glide riders.
  10. timgray
    http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-bin/store/commerce.cgi?product=CAR the 1156 and 1157 http://www.superbrightleds.com/store/html/images/1157-xLX3.jpg BA15 3-Watt LED bulb These are what I use in my car and they are blindingly bright. at least 2X brighter than the regular bulbs and 20X brighter than any other LED replacements I have found. they fill the light in the lens as well instead of being a point of light like the other types. When I can look in my review and see the faces of people in cars being well illuminated by my brake lamp or turn signals I'm really happy. My car I have tinted the tail light assembly so they are not as blindingly bright as I have 4 of them for brake and 2 for each turn blinker. On the bike though I want them as bright as possible so that there is no excuse of "I did not see him stopping" as they come on really quick and are really bright.
  11. timgray
    I have some 3 watt LED amber turn signal lamps that are insane bright that I use in my sports car. I wanted to upgrade the bike to use them to help get more attention from cagers. I tried the just put them in and see what happens, the bike does not like them as expected. These things are far brighter than any light bulb, and come on instantly which is startling which is the effect I am after.
  12. timgray
    Internet trouble... double post oops!
  13. timgray
    While the bike is apart this winter I want to upgrade the flasher to a modern flasher that can handle LED lights. I see that the flasher needed is a 3 wire type but I'm confused as to how the canceller works. What signal does the canceller send to the flasher? does it send it a +12V when it wants to cancel the flasher? does it ground it? I have the wiring diagram but it does not explain how the flasher system works at all. I'm trying to figure out what kind of flasher to buy that will go in place and support LED turn signals and still retain the bikes functionality. What speed does the flasher cancel trigger? How to I make it more reliable as it sometimes does not cancel and sometimes it does. Thanks!
  14. timgray
    ALL GM vehicles with the 3400 engine came with bad intake gaskets. And the fun part is that GM will NOT fix it as a recall. They will gladly charge you $1000 to fix it though as it's a bugger to get the intake off to change that gasket. Every single Grand Am, Aztek, Venture, etc that came with the 3400 engine in it had the evidence of the bad gasket on it... I have not looked at the newer ( newer than 2004) vehicles to see this problem, I'm assuming it's still there. GM does not like fixing major problems when they can save $1.25 a gasket by continuing to put on the china junk.
  15. timgray
    I found ABS pipe solvent to work fantastic. it's a slower cure time so you need to hold parts together, but when it dries it's welded the abs plastic back together. I had a mounting tab break off one of my fairing halves. Plastex did not hold it on more than a month. The ABS solvent held so strong that I discovered a new crack as it cracked there and not on the glue line. Although I did doscover it will not work if you tried another product first. you have to get all the other glue off and then clean it really good with the ABS solvent cleaner before it will melt the two pieces back together.
  16. timgray
    Mine is not. The same key that start's the bike will open all bags and remove the trunk. but I have a completely different key to unlock to remove the side bags. It's a completely different key more like a padlock and nothing like the ignition key. They all have the same plastic head and YAMAHA markings. Only the ignition key has the Venture logo and part number.
  17. timgray
    Being a Guy that works for a Home automation/ high end theater company I'll give you some tips. (We do only $20,000-$180,000 and up theaters and control everything in the home) Tv's mounted above fireplaces die earlier than others. They are not designed ot handle that kind of heat and fireplaces without larger mantelpiece will kill the set. NEVER run it and the fireplace at the same time if you can feel heat rolling up to the Tv set when the fireplace is on. I have one client that we replace their Panasonic 52" every year because they have their set above their fireplace and their fireplace has no mantelpiece. So when they fire up the fireplace heat rolls hard into the set. now their TV is inset in the custom brickwork AND we ran 2 cooling fan ducts up to help the situation. but when you get 200+ degree heat rolling up the face of the TV it warps plastic, shortens the life of the screen and in their case causes a yellowing of the screen light color. No it's not a coating on the screen, it's heat damage. If you never use the fireplace, then this is not an issue for you. Finally when buying a flat panel TV. If you are going to be sitting 10+ feet away, buy a 720p and ignore the 1080p sets. you will never see the difference if you set more than 8 feet away from a 42" Set Our eyes cant see that kind of detail that far away. Plasmas last longer but use more power. LCD's use less power but the backlight will die in 4 years. If you have lots of ambient light in the room Plasmas are better to watch in a bright room. LCD's are better for even or dim lighting rooms. Quality Plasmas have no glare as they will have anti glare coatings on them. Cheapies do not and reflect a lot of room lights. I've only dealt with 300 of these things this year so my experience is not extensive. I'm the programmer of the systems and not the installer, but I get to listen to the customers complaints and go along on the repair jobs. the ONLY Panasonic sets we have fail are above fireplaces. We have had no other sets die over the past 3 years ... Except for replacing a customers off brand like vitzo or westinghouse. Those tend to not last a year no matter what. LG sets also tend to last a long time. But we standardized on Panasonic due to never having one fail in a normal setting. That said, I have an RCA in my living room. $499.00 for a 50" was a deal I cold not pass up. I'll throw it away in 2 years for that price. NOTE: buying an off brand and warranty. the warranty does NOT cover getting the set off the wall, packed up and taken to the repair shop where it will sit for 30-60 days returned to you and back on the wall. Every service call will charge you $200.00 for removal and reinstall of the set. You will have to get it down and cart it to the service center in order to not be charged. Several customers have told me the horror stories of the Best Buy extended warranty.
  18. timgray
    I have 18-22 inches of snow on the ground here. It has not stopped snowing for a week now. we typically get from 49-60 inches of snow by the end of the winter. Then my friends in Marquette,MI they typically get 12 feet or more. Having a giant lake next to you feeding the snow machine from November to April just does not help. That said, most everyone here can drive a compact car through 1 foot of snow easily. we get at least 4 ice storms a year, I guess we are really used to it. I just wish it was still legal to run studded tires.
  19. timgray
    I love that most are missing one of the rare parts of the toolkit. the Yamaha Plastic Air gauge. I have mine I'm missing the "official" case for it, but I've expanded mine by adding ratcheting box end wrenches.. Those things save sanity.
  20. timgray
    Paypal is safe IF you never EVER click on a link to get there but you type www.paypal.com by hand in the address-bar of a fresh browser window OR follow it from a real ebay listing you won from your my.ebay.com page. Also get the security dongle they offer. it makes it impossible for someone to get into your account without it. Finally Paypal will never send you an alert like that. you always go to the paypal site directly for anything like that. I also do the same with ebay. I ignore any email I get from ebay and only go through the ebay control panel at my.ebay.com.
  21. timgray
    They cant get younger riders to get on a harley until they offer a bike that is far cheaper. Kids ride the crotch rockets because they are dirt cheap. It blew my mind how a new "ninja" and other crotch rockets are only a little more money than a large moped. remember the young barely have 2 twenties to rub together. They cant afford a $11,000 hardley retro bike.
  22. timgray

    DUI

    timgray replied to FROG MAN's topic in Watering Hole

    You know the DUI is enough in most courts eyes to cut his visitation down to supervised with no overnight if you are worried about the kids safety. I would seriously look into it.
  23. timgray
    It amazes me how many young riders dont end up dead. I see a lot of them riding wheelies down the highway, standing on the seat. and other really stupid things. One group of youngins last summer were swerving at cars on the highway. Some crashes are unavoidable. taking a off ramp and discovering at the last second it's covered in sand. do you try to slow down on the tight curve and have the rear come out under you or do you ride a straight line off the shoulder and try to stop in the grass. My only big crash was at 16.. racing friends through the woods on my 250 and going between two trees that were closer together than my handlebars. dont remember the crash, just waking up with a massive headache and my mouth full of teeth and blood.
  24. timgray
    It looks like Yammer Dan wins... I sat down with my friend paint expert and It's going to be House of Kolor Metal Flake blue with purple peralized with custom texture called "frottage" in the center of the tank color and on the luggage. looked at a sample panel and pretty much drooled. He said he would convince me to not paint it silver.. Did not expect that. Note, Why is it that Lacquer paint looks so much better than the urethane junk on cars today. that test panel looked like it was still wet!
  25. timgray
    The youtube video is certianly a fake. What gives it away to me is the video stability when they are "running" and the audio. no camera on the planet can shoot as stable as that. it's on a tripod on the ground. yet they shake the video to make it look like they are "running" or moving. Finally the audio is too clear for a camcorder recording. I shoot with a pro camcorder and a $800 microphone and I cant get it that clear unless I have a audio guy with a shotgun in a zepplin at the end of a fishpole. Video fakes like that are easy to do on youtube because it's bad quality hides a lot of your editing and fakery. It's handy to be a video and photography pro. If you want to see some awesome stunt pilot stuff, I should dig out my footage of the National Motorcycle hill climbs or the bubba blackwell stunts. Amazing things in the air without an airplane. Finally there are 2 planes that can fly and land missing a wing or the entire tail section. F-14 jet can fly and land without a wing. This has happened several times during the life of that airframe from combat damage. and the A10 worthog. That plane I think can make it back to the ground safely if it's missing most of the tailsection and if it's missing up to 45% of it's wings. I have seen photos of those safe on the tarmac that barely look like a plane anymore. One had one engine twisted at 16 degrees and the tail section bent over more than 30 degrees and a wing blown off.
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