CMIKE
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Everything posted by CMIKE
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Being visible is what it is all about on a bike. People are not acustom to looking for a motorcycle. They look but most of the time they do really do not see US. I have done some studies on this... Of all our senses, visual gives us the most data....most of the time to much data so we learn to filter out what we need to know...is a car coming? We look for a car. For example...you look across a across the room that you see for the first time...you see the floor, the wall, the door, the furniture in the room...but did your mind register what color the floor is and that it is square tile instead of a single sheet of lanolium. You saw the color and the square tile but you discounted it. Our eyes bring in tons of information to our brains... and our brains get the information we want and discount the rest. Watch this example... See attached video on Utube. Count how may times the kids in the white make bounce passes to other kids in white. I counted 4...what did you get? [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HLbC4jB6_k]YouTube- Basketball Test[/ame] IT is simple...folks do not look for motorcycles on the road. Did you see the Gorilla walk across the screen? Most folks don't cause they are looking so intently at the kids in the white shirts to count the bounce passes they make. Did you notice the S wrote on the wall in two places? You saw it but your brain filtered out just like a motorcycle is filtered out in traffic. WE have to learn to look for things other than cars or trucks that can kill us while we drive cages. I wear a vest like the photo below to try to wake them up to see me. It does not look COOL but I had rather be alive than COOL. http://www.olympiamotosports.com/nova/nova01.jpg
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Well that would help but what about when you turn them back on? The load runs through the key switch "ON" position all the time when the key is in the "ON" position, not just when you are starting the bike. Many of us believe the load of the passing lights accelerate the key switch failure if they are running through the "ON" position of the key switch. Mine comes straight from the battery and at first...the key switch only turned on a Relay to handle the load. LAter I went back and bypassed all the load from the bike thro another relay. The relay does the work instead of the ON contact of the key swith that has failed for many folks here.
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I too drilled out my stock exhaust since I had to be the first to start. The other brand bikes always made it where I could not tell if mine was running. I actually released the clutch once to pull out in traffic and the bike was not running. Since I have drilled mine...it covered some of the whine up and I can tell mine is running around those other brand bikes. I may go to bubs or Krome works in the future, maybe when the funds are availble.
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All I can say about the 2010 venture...is at least it is black. Those decal of the tribal flames just don't do it for me for some reason. Hey it don't say midinight on the bag hinges? Maybe it is not a midnight. So it is a detuned RSV midnight for 2010
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Engine Guard flexing w/Kuryakyn Longhorn footpegs
CMIKE replied to bamico's topic in Royal Star Venture Tech Talk ('99 - '13)
yep...They are not real sturdy protection. I dropped my bike as I was turning it (MAybe 3 MPH) around right after I got it...bent the left side bad. On that other venture site a couple of years ago...venturers,org. I found a post were someone took a steel flat bar and a P clamp to brace those bars back to the cast iron support for the floor boards. I built me a set of those after that first incident dropping the bike and seeing how flimsy they were. I would send you a link to the post but this work computer says that site "May damage your computer" So I can't get there right now. I do not have a good photo of them but look at this...you can see the P clamp on the chrome bars and this is attached to the cast iron floor board support by one 3/8 SS bolt with a nylon lock nut. Sorry I do not have a better photo right now...Thrusday I will be home and can take some better photos -
WOW...REminds me of those pictures from Apollo of the MOON...
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I do not know all the figures on reliablity of the belt drive motorcycle...but I do know every time my buddy carries his other brand motorcycle to get the regular service ( that cost a bunch of money) they adjust and inspect his drive belt. He has never so far had a belt failure. Seems to me the shaft drive is the way to go on the new design 2011 Venture...I believe it is less maintenance for a shaft drive and as Brake Pad kinda indicated...I have never heard of a GW having dirve pin or needing to grease thier drive splines to quiet it down. But neither have I had to do it on my 08 Vstar custom. I also hear the new KAW tourer has a Carbon fiber or some kind of super belt for the drive...I heard they had some issues early on with belt squeeking as you slow down. I think they may have that issue resolved now. I think I would prefer a shaft drive on the new design...but if it has a belt...I will probably learn to adjust/inpsect it on a regular basis. I think if Yamaha will built it...folks will buy it...BUT there must be jobs and money left over from the inflation that is coming to buy the newly designed bike.
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In my experience with less expensive aftermarket lights...($15-25 pair) verses the expesive stuff ($50-100) which I have yet to buy but always wanted to... They usually have a very cheap bulb in the from the factory. I usually mount a pair of 55 watt driving lights under the back bumper of my truck that I can use to see where I am backing or connecting trailers and such. Just about always they first bulbs do not last that long. I put some on my tractor and the same thing happend...first bulb did not last long. Lot of virbration and bouncing around here... I would try buying a good quality bulb for these lights to see if they hold up. That way you will have the extra light you wanted in the first place without all the extra components that could fail. The pulsating you talked about kinda worries me some...may have recitfirer or something on the edge of going bad.
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Cool looking lights..I like them. I have been thinking of installing some that Custom Dynamics sells. A while back a buddy of mine was rolling through Baton Rouge LA just before dark one day. A state trooper zoomed in on us and pulled us to the side of the road. We both pulled over cause I did not know what we were doing wrong or which one he was after. He was running Blue LED lights on his crotch rocket. He got a ticket. I really do not what all was said...I was just gald I was not the one he was focusing on. He did not seem to be concerned wtih the flash patterns just the color blue. He said nothing about my strobe tail light (REd) that strobes 3 times when you press the brake. So be careful if you are in this area...not sure how others area will respond to the blue color. They still look really cool.
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I have not been riding as long as many of you have here but... My rules for riding... 1. Try not to ride at night at all. Leave early in the morning...and find a room or the destination before dark. Probably getting tired after a full day of riding anyway and you start making mistakes if you are tired. Way too many deer, coons, amadillas, possums and other stuff that can get in your path very quickly at night. I have worked away from home close to 29 years and travel a lot in a cage to work (300 plus miles from home). I have dodged and run over a number of things on the road that was a surprize to me and I do not believe I could have survived on a bike. :whistling:Tanker hoses...a 1/2 dozen steel car wheels once...6x6 4x4 timbers...ladders...pallets....ice boxes...boat motor...chains and binders...trailer axles...cars upside down in the road...and many many truck tires, peices and some with wheels still in them. Good headlights help but what can happen will happen. We are all getting older...You really got to be alert at night due to limited visiblity and over driving your headlights. If I take the bike to work...I spend an extra night to make sure I travel in daylight. 2. Try not to ride in the rain unless I have no choice. Never ever ride at night in the rain. My risk tolerance is not that high. Reduce speed and try to get on 2 lane roads if I must ride in the rain in daylight. Do not like interstate highways in the rain. Traffic travels faster than I want to go and could get run over traveling below posted speed limits. Bad visiblity for the cages in rain...they may not see you. 3. Always keep good rubber on the road. I never run tires to their wear indicators...change tires often before they get worn below what I consider safe limits. I do the same for my cage tires...I pull tires off way before they are completely worn out...Heck some of my buddies take my used truck tires and put them on their trucks to run them a year or so locally. You can tell when they just do not seem to have the traction they once had. Some call me crazy but as long as I can afford it...I am gonna have good rubber. Always check tires and pressure before and during trips. I am anal about the condition and pressure of tires. I hope and pray I never have a blowout on either wheel of a bike. Chances are it will happen one day. We all have different levels of risk tolerance. We all take risk just getting on a bike. Traffic, road conditions, the other guy trying to run over you at every intersection and lane change... these are risk we are willing to take. Anywhere we can eliminate just a little of that risk is always a good thing. I guess I do take a little more risk riding one up that with my wife on the back. I try not to scare the women or children. Too bad the guy let his trial membership expire to get answers to his questions... I just hope he comes back full time.
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Wonderful NEWS...Welcome Back Home. I am so glad you are safe and back where you belong. Thanks so much for your service to our country. :clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2:
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Check out these threads on the Mets...seems some folks really have bad luck with them... Better yet just search "Metzler" http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=37295&highlight=Metzler http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26036&highlight=Metzler http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=20628&highlight=Metzler Thats enough to scare me.
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Several years ago...my dealer could not hardly sell a street bike...I went down once and he had 3 in the shop. Never saw more than 3 there... All the rest were dirt bikes, ATVS and Rhinos running out the door. So many you could not walk in there. Then the gas prices went up high. He started selling a few street bikes...more and more. Still selling the hell out of Dirt bikes, 4 wheelers and Rhinos. Now he has some street bikes and a few Dirt bikes but his main thing is 4 wheelers and Rhinos. He sells the crap out of them. Dirt bikes kinda fell off some due to a lot a tracks closing due to the fuel prices. He can get anything you want...RSV, Strats, crotch rockets...it don't matter and he will sell it to you but he keeps and sells in this order...#1 4 wheelers...#2 Rhinos...#3 Dirt bikes then all the rest if any at all. He has 2 big warehouses full of 4wheelers and rhinos and dirt bikes and a few street bikes on the show room floor. Yamaha is focused on what sells. RSVs and RSTD's collect dust at his dealership. He does not get to excited about a street bike cause he don't move them. Sure once in a while he as a fool like me come in looking for something and he will find it and sell it to me for a deal but he does not keep them to sell off the floor. I hope they put the new VMAX motor in the 3rd generation touring bike...but am very afraid they are gonna short cut due to the touring bike sales numbers and load up the Stratoliner with a trunk and put it out there for their touring bike. Good bike but why waste all that expensive R&D of the new VMAX engine to use it only in one bike. . I guess we will just have to wait and see. IF they do put the new VMAX detuned engine in the 3rd gen touring bike...I will probably trade unless it looks like the Victory Vision...I am sorry...
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I do not think you are gonna have a problem running out of sidewall tread on the E3. I think you will be so far over your bars will be dragging first. I was concerned about that also when I removed the stock 404s from my bike. It has been to the dragons tail and they did just fine there. I have 8700 miles on mine so far and they are holding up real good and handle 100% better than the stock 404s. I think you made a good choice in the tire selection... I will go back with the same when these are gone.
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What?...I ordered some of these that were supposed to fit a RSV and it did not even come close to fitting...it was made for a harley..so I paid to ship them back cause them crazy folks told me they were for a harley only...
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I had talked to Troy Savoie about building some of these for my bike...he is a member here. He talked like he could build them fairly cheaper that that other website listed with a pouch for a water bottle and another pouch for sunglasses or a paperback book. He disappeared for a while...then got back with me and he had been in the hospital with gall bladder surgery...said it was gonna take him a week or so to get back on his feet and back to work... I have emailed him a few times after that...and had no reply...concerned about him... he still has some stuff on ebay...fairing bras and saddle bag covers...but no water bottle bags http://www.tscustomleather.com I do not know what is going on..he is a very talented individual...and could make some money with the folks on the site for a water bottle bag.
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Yes...purchased all my LEDs from Custom dynamics. When I first purchased the tail light it was a 30 LED and this link is to a video of the 30 LED tail light with a strobe unit connected. [ame=http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=32917]LEDs and Strobe - VentureRider.Org[/ame] I have since sold the 30 LED unit and purchased the 100 LED unit. Both are very bright but the 100 LED is exceptional. I have LED turn signals and other LEDs on my bike from them. Very very pleased with them. See my album for more photos http://www.venturerider.org/forum/album.php?albumid=276
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Don't discount that old terrible looking peice...it could be a real jewel if you could get all that old paint/varnish off it...this will do it.
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That is great news... Thanks again for your sacrifice for our country. :clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2:
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My dad who passed in 1993...used to collect a buy old fireplace mantels, rocking chairs, china cabinets, beds and wardrobes. Basically these were antiques that looked like hell. Something you would not put in your house due to what it looked like...Some may have been in a fire. Some of this stuff would have 3-8 coats of 6 different colors of enamel paint or the varish would be beaded up over the stain. At first he used all the toxic strippers and would work days on a single peice and get most of it off. Then he found this old guy that told him about Baking Soda (Arm and Hammer) and Agricultural LIME. (not pickling lime) It will probably mess up laminated wood or ply wood. Most old pieces do not have this laminated or plywood. I would not try it on a newer peice of furniture. Ratio is 4:1 but I cannot remember which is the 4 part but I think it is the baking soda. Mix it up into a paste with water...little thicker than pancake mix where it will stay where you put it...Do it in the shade so it will not dry quickly. Take a brush and rub this paste on the finish of the old furniture. Keep it wet for a while by rubbing more on it...then hose it off with a hard spray...not a pressure washer. Repeat this as many times as neccessary till the paint or varnish is removed. You may have to take a paint scraper or nail to get the already loosend paint out of the cracks or grooves or around the bottom of the spindles of chairs. Many folks around here are taking old external windows from houses that are being torn down and hanging them under their porch. These have so many layers of paint you could never count them. This removed all that paint. I have even seen it work on the old rought iron beds with multiple coats of paint. Take your time and it may take many coatings but it will get it off better than any toxic stripper we have ever seen. I have seen my dad work on a big fire place mantel for a week. It is in my mothers house and it a marvalous peice of workman ship with lots of detail. My aunt's house caught fire...she had a cedar chiffarob in it that belonged to her great grand maw. The fire blackend the varish in places and boiled it up in other places. This 4:1 baking soda/lime removed all that old vanish and it was re-vanished like it was brand new. I did that job myself. The cedar down here in the south is red and white wood with a strong smell...keeps the moths away. Not like the cedar you buy for a fence that comes from the north. Try it...it works amazingly. See photos...the china cabinet belonged to my wife's grandmother...it had screen in the doors where you sit pies to cool. It had about 8 coats of emamel (or something) paint green, red, yellow...more green ect. My dad put glass in it and replace the worn out hinges. The bottom doors were torn up so he repalced them. The chair belonged to my grandpaw...it sat on his back porch and had 4-5 coats of paint on it. It had a raw cow hide seat. He used it every day to put his boots on. It is a small chair as he as only about 5'2" but a very big man in my eyes. Worked me in the ground many days while he was in his mid 70s and I was 15-16. We hauled pulp wood and loaded it by hand no matter how big it was... in the summers I was out of school. These are not the most beautiful peices he has done...but the most cherrished ones. Most all the really pretty stuff is at moms house.
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Sounds like you got a plan...Expect the unexpected and plan for those also. You be careful with that wonderful bike... Good luck to you...I hope it all goes smooth...sounds like a lot of fun. Oh yeah incase nobody has told you yet... :TEAL: Let us know if we can help...
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I understand the concern about someone hacking your account...tie the Paypal to a credit card then you have the protection of the credit card with the protection of Paypal... Also I would highly recommend one of those dongles that Paypal offers...it is free and you can use it on ebay also. This dongle has a 6 digit number that changes every 30 seconds. You put in your password and then the six digit number on the dongle to get into your account. It is solid security. Also it is a good idea to have a password with a combination of letters and numbers with some of these in the password...!#$%*(). Never have part of your name in the password and make sure it is 8 or more characters. There is software all over the internet that can break passwords...and most of the you simply put the ID or a name in and press enter...it will come up with the password in 30 seconds. The dongle uses those 6 digit numbers along with your password as your password...it changes every 30 seconds so it cannot be hacked. But the down side...if you do not have your dongle or leave your dongle at work ( in another state like I did this week along with my keys) you cannot get into your Paypal account with out jumpng through hoops and have a hard time convincing Paypal you are who you really are... I will either have to call my work and let them read the numbers to me as i put them in as my password or wait till I get back to work in 3 weeks. I had a crook break my Ebay Password and was selling 5 used cars on my ID.
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+1 on the find a local leather shop and make sure it fits. If I were you...I would ride over to Gatlinburg...there is a leather shop there downtown that has some good prices on chaps...and they have all kinds of boots and jackets you could try on. Also there is one in Pigeon forge that has more stuff there...try them on...touch them smell them... But I did order one from JakeWilson.com for my son...River Road...heavy and thick leather...really nice...for a good price.
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Rerouting throttle cable
CMIKE replied to venture101's topic in Royal Star Venture Tech Talk ('99 - '13)
It is possible to get it so the throttle is smooth at full lock to the right. I pulled the fairing and redid mine about 5-6 times till it worked... Keep at it you can get it. Just work till you get it to go the shortest route with no hard kinks when turned all the way to the right. You got to hold your mouth just right and it will come together. -
Sorry to rain on your parade...10-15 years ago it would be a great trip. But now...not so sure You maybe a Victim, by Choice... I got this in a email Thursday from one of the instructors of a school I attend on a regular basis concerning a request from his daughter to go with a friends parents to their vacation home in Mexico for a couple of weeks during the holidays...they have not been down there in a couple of years. He said there was no way he was gonna let her go and advised the parents of her daughters friend also. This is why... "I reviewed current State Department, as well as Stratfor, advice with regard to foreign travel, specifically in Mexico. News is not good! Mexico's economy relies expectantly on tourist dollars, and therefore Mexico's government heavily influences local media to downplay dangers to tourists. However, the depressing truth is that vicious drug-gangs operate freely everywhere in Mexico and are successfully challenging the 'legitimate' government for control in large areas. Widespread, endemic corruption within police and local governments adds to risks for foreigners. In addition to illegal drugs, kidnaping is a growth industry, as is white-slavery! Friends at the State Department inform me that, in view of the foregoing, none would ever go to any part of Mexico right now, for any reason, nor would they allow family members to do so, not even a short sojourn in a border-town! Comment: Never apologize for taking a direct role in looking after your own best interests and those of your family. "Prepared" is present tense. "Victim" is past tense. "Justice," is also present tense. Justice can never be reconstructed. It does not exist in past tense. Never has! I can also send you some photos of the aftermath of some of the shootings or maybe a better word for it is BATTLES that take place down there on a regular basis. I will not post them here cause they contain rather bloody corps and brains of folks spead all over the inside of SUV's. Lots of automatic weapons and lots of Dead innocent folks caught in the cross fire... I would highly advise you to stay away unless you are trained by BLACKWATER USA or the U.S. Training Center on Tactical/Urban warfare and are very very well armed with plenty of ammo. The only thing I could tell you to carry is multiple weapons with AMMO, if you can get them across the border going south without getting arrested. One more thing...you need to be as alert as a CAT 24/7. I think you need to rethink this...