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pegscraper

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Everything posted by pegscraper

  1. I say it is. And almost every motorcycle and ATV suffers from the same condition. It is kept small to keep intake air noise down, government regs and your average customer and such things. But if you don't mind a little sound of performance under a heavy throttle, easing the restrictions in the airbox and rejetting to match generally gives a good performance improvement. And BTW, easing the restrictions in the airbox does not mean simply installing K&N filters. Doing that by itself helps nothing because the airbox itself is a much bigger restriction. This is why you will read about people who have put the K&Ns in and didn't have to rejet, or otherwise felt no performance increase. Easing the restrictions in the airbox means increasing the cross section area through the whole intake path, and streamlining or even reducing the number of turns and twists through the intake path. I don't know what the 1st gen air path looks like, but I know that the 2nd gen airboxes and ductwork are a convoluted mess.
  2. Because of the wet clutch, you won't want to run anything that says "energy conserving" on it, which includes today's car oil. The slick additives in that stuff will eventually ruin a wet clutch. I don't even use car oil in my cars anymore. My favorite oil is Shell Rotella T 15W-40. While you're looking at other options, ditch the Fram filter. They make the worst filters on the market. If you ever see the filters cut open you'll understand why. Their construction and materials are terrible. There are pictures of them in here somewhere, as this has been discussed in the past at length. The Supertech ST7317 is as good as anything going, and the price can't be beat.
  3. Dragracer, you have mail.
  4. Yes, Diamond R and Utopia are a little too proud of their backrests. There a real nice one from Custom World International too, but it's even more. This one has a lot better price to be sure. I'd like to see more pictures of the thing, one from the back. It doesn't look like it's adjustable either. But I suppose once you bend the bracket or space the pad to where you want it, it doesn't need any more adjustment anyway.
  5. That's what I keep hearing about that brand. Less money to get up front, but mileage is lousy. More expensive in the long run. But sometimes there is no other choice.
  6. Any news on this seat from Dan or anyone else? I'm anxious to hear how you like it.
  7. How many miles did you get on that tire?
  8. It can't be done? I'm pretty sure I did it once, but it's been a while. I made someone's profile picture show up in a post using the [] brackets somehow. As I remember it took me a couple tries to get it to work.
  9. Yes, it's probably somewhere in those seven pages. For a little easier to find answer - the V Max has a 9/33, and all Ventures are 10/33.
  10. Check out any of the pictures in my gallery.
  11. So is this gas mileage calculated with Yamaha's short miles, or corrected/actual/GPS miles? It will make a difference. Amazingly wide range here. That won't give a noob much of an idea of what to expect.
  12. Check my carb swap article you hosted for me and it mentions how to read the LEDs. As there is some wire soldering to do when swapping the carbs, I mentioned that in there to check that the wires were connected right and the thing was working.
  13. Gas mileage that bad almost sounds like the part throttle spark advance in the ignition module is not working. Is yours stock or do you have the D3K? I don't know of any way to check the stock one other than to hook up a timing light. The D3K has LEDs on it where you can check its operation.
  14. What other parts can we swap out for performance? This has been discussed at much length here in the past. One thing I don't know though, is whether the V Max carbs will fit in the 2nd gen Venture. I've tried to stuff a set into my Royal Star, and I don't know whether I can make them fit yet or not. It will take some heavy redesign work. But I haven't given up yet. But it's also my understanding that the 2nd gen Ventures have a bigger frame and more room under the tank. It might be easier to get a set in there.
  15. That's the funny thing. The difference between old tires and new is so great that I'm not sure I feel any real difference in the one brand change that I've done. I ran one new set of Dunlop 404s, and for the next set I went with Avons. Having new tires felt so much better that I just can't say it was due to the brand. I'd have to compare new tires of each brand on the same bike. I actually didn't mind the D404s at all. I thought I'd try the Avons at least once kind of just for the sake of it. My local dealer told me the D404s are junk and wanted to sell me a Metz, which they have in stock. I told him that I've seen too many pictures around here of Metzes coming apart, and that I didn't really have any complaints with the D404s. He did tell me that he'd order anything I wanted.
  16. Dunlop D404s are available in a WW in stock sizes. Avons are available in a WW if you want a narrow front tire. I'm running the Avon WWs right now. I got mine from Southwest Moto Tire. I've seen others; I don't remember brand names though. One of these two would be my pick.
  17. Oh, I hadn't recognized that you were doing so many seat mods for others, as kind of a side thing.
  18. He does a lot more than just swap the rear gears. He carries a lot of other parts and caters mostly to the V Max crowd, but has a few things for Royal Stars too, as he needs our rear gears. Swapping those gears in the housings is not a do it yourself job. One has to know how to set the gear backlash right and have the tools to take them out. That's why he gets an arm and a leg for the job. That is, unless someone (like me) has a mill and can machine the V Max housing out to mount the speedo sensor. Then it can be done for peanuts. Likewise to make the Venture housing fit a V Max, all one would have to do is drill and tap the boss for the rear shock, and make a cap to seal off the speedo hole.
  19. Where does he get the gears? He swaps good used ones from a V Max into the Venture housing, and vice versa. The V Max is geared so low in the transmission (virtually the same as the 1st gen Ventures) that they like to install the 2nd gen Venture rear gears to lower their rpms a bit.
  20. I haven't tried this, although I have felt the firmness of the rubber covers. I've considered the Kuryakyn covers myself. You might try a heat gun to soften the thing, or try prying it with a screwdriver and squirting some soapy water underneath it, or both. Just some guesses for you. Shoot, try a gear puller.
  21. I don't think Rick is a professional upholsterer, and I'm sure not either. I've heard several do it yourself tales of folks putting memory foam in their seats. You just need a way to shape the foam. An electric knife works well for removing big chunks, and a flap sanding wheel in an electric drill works well for fine shaping and smoothing, or for doing compound inside curves, like the tailbone area of the seat.
  22. If I understand you correctly, yes, both pieces of foam and the cover. I took all the pieces off of the Venture pan and put them on a Royal Star pan, which fits my bike's frame better. The Venture pan itself can be made to fit my bike's frame, but it's not as nice of an installation. I'll be interested to hear what Dan thinks of the memory foam seat. I have not sat on memory foam in anything. I slept on a memory foam mattress one night at a B&B earlier this year, but one night really isn't enough for me to know what I think of it long term. That particular night Lori and I had just finished up an 11 hour ride on the bike. I was so beat I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow. I think I was already gone. From the sounds of things so far, I will almost certainly be trying this out. It will be just a matter of time, and maybe money. I priced some memory foam once, thinking about putting some in my seats, and recall it being fairly pricey. But if it makes things more comfortable, it will be worth it.
  23. I put the pillow top foam and cover on a Royal Star pan. (Actually, the seats that are in most of my pictures here are the Midnight seats, as I tried those once too.) I had to add a bit of carpet padding to fill in around the bottom, as the pans are slightly different. It's actually not quite finished yet. I ought to add a vinyl skirt around the bottom of the cover so it reaches down to the pan better. For the passenger seat I simply used the Venture mounting bracket on the rear fender and bolted it up. Myself, I would almost go back to the stock seat, on which I did some reshaping which was a massive improvement, although it's still hard to sit on it all day. But the wife absolutely loves her pillow top pillion seat, hates the stock one, and won't let me use anything else. So I need to find a way to improve my seat.
  24. Interesting, interesting. I may seriously consider doing this to mine. I'm finding that I'm not nuts about the super soft top foam layer. Do you have any pics in progress?
  25. I will also be interested to know if this fits a V Star 1100. My wife has also locked up the rear wheel on hers. Scared the crap out of her, but she handled it well. Better to not do it though.
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