bongobobny

Interesting question Carl, so I will help you a little with your research... https://www.google.com/#q=What+reflects+light+better,+white+or+silver? There seems to be quite a variance of opinions there, and the real answer is in what you are trying to accomplish! In the old school trick of tail light reflectors, as far as diffusion vs projection, the answer lies in the fact that a tail light reflector is a parabolic dish and will reflect all light into more of a beam, making it APPEAR brighter to someone directly behind you. With the front rubber bezel on an MK1, the shape of it is somewhat in the form of a parabolic dish, but not quite. I wish I could find those old pictures, they showed which headlight APPEARED the brightest. If you remember we both had Silverstar Ultras installed and there was the third bike in the picture which had stock lighting, I think it was Wayne's. There were a lot of both Ventureriders and Venturers attending that night, and yes, I do seem to remember Run in bare being there, and Gambler, Will Burke (from Venturers) and quite a few others!! I remember back in the mid 80's our company spent a good sum of money to change all of the fluorescent light fixtures from white to silver, and everybody immediately noticed that the work area seemed dimmer after they installed them! Yes, we will always be friends in spite of differing opinions!! PS I just remembered there being a 4th bike, an MK2 in the comparison, and I think it was Ben's...

The oily carbs are pretty characteristic of overfilling the oil when you change it. With the bike level and straight up, AND cold (not been running for around a half day minimum) the oil should be between 1/3 and 2/3 on the site glass. Any more and the oil just gets blown out the engine as blowby and up in the carb area...

All RSV's from 1999 to 2013 are all the same bike!!!

Piggybacking on Micarl, in the past, mostly with cars, I have found I sometimes got a little better average MPG going from 87 octane to 89 octane, but when you did the math for money per mile, it was always more expensive regardless of the one or two MPG. I may or may not have noticed any difference in throttle response going from the two. On my 1st gen, running higher octane eliminated spark ping under a load such a going up a hill towing a trailer, etc, but with my 2nd gen there is no noticeable difference in performance. A long long time ago there was some truth to actually doing some damage to an engine using higher than needed octane, but that has been long since eliminated...

Ummmm, buy better-looking ones off of ebay?? As far as what's on the bike, you're in for a whole lot of sanding and polishing to return them to looking good again. You could have them bead blasted and powder coated to any color you think would look good...

Does this help you? Look in the lower right for the cruise control unit wiring... http://www.venturerider.org/wiring/86-89%20Yamaha%20Venture%20Simplified%20Circuit%20Diagram%20Rev%20D.pdf Here's a link to the downloadable service manual from the 1st gen tech library... http://labs.trunkful.com/vrmanuals/index.cfm What kind of problems are you having?? the usual issues with the cruise control are the switches on the brake and clutch handles, more specifically the brass pivot pins wear out giving slop to the handles causing the safety switches on said levers to cause the cruise to kick out...

OK, Pucster, I am a little corn-fused about just what it is you are really trying to say, but if you want to install a LED in place of your OEM headlight, here is what you have to do to make all gone with the RLU!! Step 1, unplug it, throw it away (or sell it to someone who needs one)! Step 2, jumper the Yellow wire to the Yellow/Green wire. These wires are the high beam wires. Step 3, jumper the Green wire to the Green/Red wire. This is your low beam circuit. Step 4, remove the irritating white "headlamp fault" lightbulb. It is called the "reserve pilot light" on the schematic and only lights up when your low beam or one of your tail lights goes out if memory serves me correctly. Yes, even one of the two tail lights going bad can trigger it... Now, it's been a while, but I think on the CMU there is also an LCD indicator for the headlights as well. I'm pretty sure connecting the Yellow to Yellow/Green in step 2 handles that... Besides the safety feature of the RLU automatically switching the high beam on if the low beam blows, The RLU is IMHO kind of moronic! A good rider checks all of his lights prior to setting out on a ride, and if you are riding at night and your headlight goes out, you're going to know it immediately!! As far as daytime riding for safety, well a pair of driving lights pretty much overcomes that need too!!! Another thing I want to mention about the MK1 headlight is to paint the black rubber bezel around the headlight WHITE!!! It makes a world of difference!! Last I checked, it is scientific proof (No, not the liberal's alternate scientific facts...) that white reflects all light, and black absorbs all light! Now silver is actually a variation of gray, which is part black, and I don't care how shiny you make it, it does not reflect light quite as good as white! So, using metallic tape over the black rubber does not work a good. This is a very old "old school" motorcyclist trick to make your tail light more visible at night, paint the silver reflector white...

Wow, Bubber, believe it or not, I WAS just thinking about you a few minutes ago!!!

Huh! And I thought LOL was "Laughing Out Loud"

I actually had one of mine have a direct short and it immediately blew a fuse!! No problems whatsoever with warranty exchange...

Ummmmm, maybe somewhere along the line somebody took your thermostat out??

I'm gonna go against the grain and vote for the WV Rally one...

OK stupid question, how much air pressure are you running in the front shocks?? Try around 4 to 6 psi, and make sure that both sides are at an equal pressure. As far as warped rotors, heck, any rotor can get warped. How new are the pads?? Are the pistons on the calipers free?? When is the last time the brakes (and the clutch for that matter) were flushed?? Another crazy question, are the front tires cupped?? How old is the tire?? The last possibility, maybe it's time to replace the front wheel bearings...

Actually, I think the "shotgun" method was invented by the VMax crowd and will indeed work with a 1st gen...

OK, I am not sure what you mean by the front brake thing but you can try to retorque the steering head bearings as they are known to get out of adjustment and be loose. The usual symptom for that is wobble at different speeds though. As far as the throttle bogging, well don't drive a Venture like a Harley V-Twin, our 4 bangers like higher RPM's!! Don't even THINK about being in 5th gear below 60 MPH!! 1st gear should be up to around 20, 2nd gear to around 35, third gear around 45, and 4th to around 55 MINIMUM! They will go a lot faster in each gear, to give you an example, 3rd gear will take you up above 90 MPH before the rev limiter kicks in! These engines will bog down at lower engine speeds, they actually like to be in the 3500 to 5500 RPM range normally. They top out at even higher RPM range. I will say, though, that proper carb synchronization and fresh plugs can and will affect performance as well. Also, make sure you are indeed running on all 4 cylinders as these bikes run surprisingly well and smooth on only 3 cylinders. You should be getting around 40 MPG when running right. There must be a bazillion mods performed on these bikes through the years and they are all up to your personal preference and riding style!! One of the first things that come to mind is to change out the anemic stock horn with an air horn, either a Steibel or Wolo Bad Boy. You need to add a relay to power the horn but you can use the existing horn wires to trigger the horn. Member Carbon_One sells a bracket and wiring kit. Another thing which helps out with the Venture's lack of low-speed handling manners is to go to a smaller front tire, a 130 series. There are a lot of other things you can do to help out but that is the simplest one. Swapping out the rear differential with a VMax differential gives you a lot more bottom end and throttle response, and makes 5th gear a little more effective at 50 - 55 MPH but at the sacrifice of top speed and a little less MPG's. If you do 2 up riding, the trunk can be moved back about an inch as there are two complete sets of mounting holes in the trunk, which helps out your passenger with a little more room. Just keep reading the forums for more and more ideas, or attend Freebird's Maintenance Day in Oberlin Ohio next month and just look at all the bikes, or any other meet and eat through the year...

I had an issue a few years back where it was only running on two cylinders, and it turned out to be a plugged up carb vent hose, probably from an insect. I have forgotten, though, if it kills either the front or rear carbs, or one side, but it is an easy check. Locate the two vent hoses, black rubber hoses around 1/4' diameter, and simply disconnect them and try to blow through them. The vents for the fuel bowls are combined two into one and then to atmosphere. What happens is if the vent becomes clogged then as the fuel bowl empties air gets into the bowls. When fuel tries to fill the bowls the air can not escape and it builds up air pressure and prevents the bowls from filling with gas. No gas in the bowl, no fuel to the cylinder, so no explosion and no heat... If your issue is no spark then the plugs from the two dead cylinders should be soaked with gas when you pull them, especially immediately after shutting off the bike before the gas has a chance to evaporate!

Yah! That other valve, I forgot what it is actually called, only effects the front. It is just a simple orifice and rarely causes problems, but I suppose it could get clogged too...

All very wise information!! It is especially important for us to ALWAYS be a defensive driver, especially on two wheels!! I personally expect EVERY driver to do something stupid, and more and more I find I am right about that assumption...

No, the proportional valve is connected to the rear master cylinder and is just a spring loaded valve that delays the fluid going to the front brake by a few milliseconds to prevent the front brake from locking up before the rear brake in case of slamming on the rear pedal. There is also an inline orifice valve to the front brakes near the steering neck that limits the volume of hydraulic fluid to the front brake only...

What VideoAZ said! You can see the reed switch that generates the pulses on the white housing of the instrument cluster enclosure that generates these pulses. As I mentioned before, I am not sure if it is the speedometer OR the odometer that has the magnet that actuates that switch and if, as you mentioned, your odometer is not working then indeed the cruise will not work either! As mentioned, the brake and clutch switches disengage the cruise, and a simple continuity check will tell you if they are at fault. Unfortunately, you need an oscilloscope and the front tire moving to detect the timing pulses, or at least a drill motor turning the speedometer cable to generate the pulses. As VidAZ mentioned, you also need to check the vacuum line and the mechanical linkage. It is also important to know that no cruise control on either a motorcycle or car, will work under 25 MPH...

I need you to be a little more specific, are you telling me that, with the fuses removed and the battery disconnected, you are seeing zero ohms to ground on both the Brown wire as well as the Red/White wire?? If this is the case, then, in theory, you should see zero ohms across the Brown wire to the Red/White wire as well! We need to start unplugging various connectors to isolate the issue. If you are confirming to me that you are seeing zero ohms to ground on both wires WITH the fuses removed and the battery disconnected, then I will give you a list of everything to unplug... You need to disconnect the battery when measuring with an ohmmeter, especially to ground, as any voltages that may be present will cause the meter to give you an erroneous reading...

OK, I will try to help you out analyzing the issue. Here's the first step. Remove the signal, ignition AND the headlight fuses. All 3 have the same feed to the "input" side of the fuse. Then, with an ohmmeter, I want you to measure the resistance to ground on all 3 fuses, both sides. The battery needs to be disconnected for this test. Get back to me with the results, try to tell me which color wire is on each of the fuses. All 3 are fed with a Brown wire. The signal fuse has a brown wire on the other end, the ignition fuse has a Red/White wire, and the headlight has a red/Yellow wire...

Possible clogged proportioning valve...

What is it?!!? Probably the best rally of the year!! Read all about it! http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?125386-Western-NY-Northeast-Regional-Rally-2017!!-August-17-August-20

Yup, hauling around that extra 300 lbs as a trike doesn't help the clutch out much John! That, added with towing a trailer, shortens the life! I replaced everything and put in the PCW spring and so far so good, but if I ever have to do it again I think I will go with the Barnett setup... I also recommend replacing that half clutch with the full sized Heavy Duty clutch Yamaha offers!