LilBeaver

Very nice...

Cool cool. With the shape that many paint booths are in they are not anywhere close to having ideal shop conditions either :-P. I actually saw him (literally, drove bye) last time I was up here... I was out for a drive along nw marine drive (I think that was the road) along the water front by UBC and he was going the other direction... Traffic was ridiculous that day... I suppose we have nearly successfully hijacked the thread now... Sorry

Rick (SilverT) I had glanced at it while talking with MurrayD and you at some point. From what I saw, It looked good and had a nice finish on it too . I meant to take a closer look at it because it was towards the end of the conversation that I found out that you had repainted it but we ended up saddling up and taking off. The main thing that made it work out for you would have been the 'real' base coat followed by a properly applied clear. Both of which of course was of an appropriate grade for the application. From what I read on a post that you had a while back explaining your preparation work before the actual painting, everything that you described was done appropriately. Without proper prep work, it doesn't matter what kind of paint anyone uses it will either not look good (cloudy, textured, etc) or the paint will not stick (either immediately or will peel) or numerous other problems that I will not get into right now... When a paint shop bottles the paint like that it is a different mixture (paint, hardener, reducer, etc) than what you would get if you were to just pick one up off of the shelf. When done the way you had it done, the only difference between shooting it out of the can and shooting it out of a spray gun is the propellant (and of course certain tuning you can do with the gun that you cannot do with a hand-held spray can). If you would have applied the base coat with a spray gun you would have taken near the exact mix (depending on temperature and other enviromental factors that you would account for when doing the final mix before you pour it in the gun) that one would if they were going to pour the paint in the gun's cup and spray it on that way. The other major thing that you did right was apply a 'real' (again for lack of a better word) clear coat after your base. The clear (as you know) is what gives the depth, clarity, and gloss/'the wet look' to the paint job (as well as color longevity protection from the elements). So if one uses a clear that is not of an appropriate grade it will not maintain the look nearly as long and in some cases it will get 'mucky' or yellow (as goose described) and likely peel. So, by waxing after one applies the paint (after you give the paint a few weeks to fully harden/cure) you are essentially giving yourself an extra layer of protection from the elements, scratching and most importantly the sun.

Yes sir! No doubt about it Looks like you were one of the lucky ones too!

Keep in mind that as soon as you put this spray stuff on if you take it to a body shop they will actually have to strip off what you put on there in order to do it properly which means more time/labor and more money... The reason that it has to be stripped is simply because when the shop would prep your part for paint, they would sand the paint that is on there for the adhesion of the new paint. Out of the several hundreds of cars that I have painted everyone that had some sort of spray paint out of a rattle can (even the stuff that claims it is automotive paint) it melts while you sand it, gums up the paper, and if you just paint over it anyways you get a horrible finish. Bottom line, it will likely cost you much more to have it fixed/painted after you put this rattle can stuff on it than it would if you took it to them now. Now, sometimes the rattle can stuff works fine and realistically as long as you keep a good healthy coat of wax over top of a high quality canned spray stuff it is likely that you will not have a problem with it fading right away. Goose said his did it within a year. I have seen cars come in the shop that I worked at with spray stuff on it that was horrid within a week and some that until we started sanding some parts of the vehicle we did not realize that it was touched up with it long after it was done (this we found common among people that bought a used car from a used car dealer and then wanted to change the color). Personally, I would never use a rattle can paint on any of my vehicles but that is just me (I also have the equipment to do it with a regular paint gun though...). Like I have said already some people do and it looks fine and some people do and it does not. From the pictures I see here the bike looks great!!!! Keep it waxed to protect that finish though

Terrific! Thanks for the update

Haha, yup - and after all of those bugs pile up I didn't even notice the little bubble! (Thanks again - it was great)

I did not go any where exotic like the mountains, out west or the north pole but I did want to share a few pictures from my last trip. In between traveling for work I spent 2 weeks on the road (only put on 4600 miles). The main purpose for my trip was to visit with family. My sister just had another baby (boy) so I wanted to spend some time with her and the newest (as well as spend a little time with my niece (child #1)) So that was a stop in Illinois for me. While I was up there I figured my family in Michigan is not that much farther away so I hopped on over there to see my parents and grandparents. My parents have not taken a vacation in about 6 years (not even a weekend getaway for them) and they have been really stressing lately, courtesy of the terrific economy especially in Michigan. So I talked them into taking a two-day 1 night all expense paid excursion with me. My dad's sister lives in Traverse city and my wing is in my parents garage (both of my parents have ridden bikes all of their lives) so we took a nice and leisurely trip up to traverse city (via a very scenic route along the eastern side of michigan) and visited with my aunt and uncle. The next day we headed out just after sunrise (and one heck of a breakfast... My family LOVES to eat; if you couldn't guess we are a family of bikers) drove around traverse bay and followed the coast all the way down south of Muskegon where we picked up the highway and headed back east to Brighton. We all had a great time and boy my parents complain a lot! In fairness we spent about 15 hours from when we left my Aunt's house that morning to final arrival in Brighton. Total we put on about 800 miles between both days. A few days later I spent some time with my grandparents (mother's parents). My grandfather has ridden motorcycles all of his life too (him and my grandmother toured together until he had a stroke at age 75 and was told he would never walk or use his left side again). 8 years later he is walking (he does have limited mobility of his left hand and he cannot bend his leg very far) and doing much better than the doctors told him he would. My grandma told us that once he was able to move around on his own, he would go out to the garage and sit for hours - really upset that he would never drive a bike again. Well, 4 years after his stroke him and I were talking about some of the riding I had been doing (I had just rolled over 8,000 on my GS750 since I had gotten it) and he said that he would like me to take a look at his bike and take it for a ride (he had given all of us grandkids many many many rides on his wing - and thanks to him I developed an addiction to bikes). It took a while, but between me and my dad's brother we pulled it apart, rebuilt the carbs, and did a lot of other work to get it going (since it sat for so long without being ridden). So I took it around the block and when I was going to put it back in the garage for him he said that if I took care of it I could keep it. I'll stop yammering now and get to the point. The next summer I was visiting them and we were talking bikes and he had mentioned that he had never ridden on the back of a bike and would never want to. About 15 minutes later we were out in the driveway and I had managed to talk him into letting me take him for a ride. Now a last week ago when I was up there the first thing he did was ask where I had parked my Venture then went to check it out. So, I asked him if he was interested in going for a ride and his response in about 1/2 a second was . So I took him out for a 45 mintue or so cruise through some reasonable curves aournd there. He enjoyed it. The next leg of my trip was supposed to be a run to the HUB to meet up with the group with a stop in Louisville and Nashville, TN (for more family visiting). But thanks to the flooding in louiville and a few things that came up with my family while I was visiting I had to put those plans on hold and miss the HUB. Overall we had a great trip. The ONLY rain I hit was a 15 minute sprinkle (and I could hardly call it a sprinkle) going through Kansas. The 1st day was HOT (100s+) but it is the summer so that was expected. The last 2 days were hot, humid, and unbelieveably windy (20-40mph). Outside of that I couldn't have asked for better weather (every day was somewhere between 50 and 80 and mostly sunny). Anyways - I included a few pictues here with explanations above. Enjoy!

Very cool! One thing I never liked about mountain climbs like that is dealing with the cagers going the other direction since many of them either go way to fast so they use the whole road (especially around curves) or they don't care so they use the whole road (especially around curves). BUT they are ALWAYS worth the drive Thanks for sharing

Oh hey, I just saw that you were in Texas... I know Texas is one of the bigger states and all but we do have members all over. If you are close to someone you may be able to arrange a meet up to take a look and see what you think (if someone has a set on their bike that is near you). If you are anywhere near Lubbock I would be happy to meet you somewhere when I am back in town. Just a thought!

+1 to that... There are only so many places those wires go -- so if you do not see anything in either of those places, just trace them back through the bike but I suspect you will find the issue there. You could check the socket for corrosion and such too, but the wires is an easy check and probably the culpret. Good Luck!!

Glad you like 'em!

I would believe that. I have seen a lot on the showroom floor that look terrific - Though I can honestly say that I never inspected the stripes on H-D that closely. And the only bike parts that I have painted have been tanks, fairings off of crotch rockets that people abuse beyond belief and a few tanks and saddlebags for some touring bikes (a few 80's wings and ) that were just a color change or a best match to freshen up the look.

I have not checked where these things are all grounded (obviously everything gets grounded to the same place in the end -- but if there are two different grounding points that then lead to the common [real] ground for the circuit(s) this could provide some fishy behavior if some part of the electronics start misbehaving... But I really do think that is a stretch... I'll have to remember to check out some of that wiring (for curiosity sake) when I get home (and get some time).

Possible sure; but boy that is sad that the bike has been sitting for so long... My g/f's grandfather has a 1968 Mustang (I am pretty sure it is a GT500) sitting in his (heated) garage that be bought new that he just rolled over 6,000 original miles on it...

Something else to consider might be along the lines of what it does to the suspension - unless you support the wheels to keep a little compression on the suspension. Personally I would not worry about the 'stressing the frame' since the frame is designed to hold the guts of the bike and the weight distribution across the frame members allowing for the centered lifting point... But I am no expert on materials, just my opinion...

East of Vancouver, BC; Tennessee (Eastern half); Upper Penninsula of Michigan (Specifically the Keweenaw pennensula and anything else along Lake Superior) are the first things that come to mind for me... I suppose I could go on and on with a lot of places that I have ridden and would happily return to ride again as could many people I am sure

Alright! Glad you are in good shape again I am curious about that fast signal thing too. I agree with the other folks about the circuit diagrams not showing anything that would hint that is there but we could have an outdated manual or there is an *gasp* error in the manual! Thanks for the update

You could always try --> Maybe that will flatten things out for you! Seriously though, it is unfortunate that it is so difficult to find a good fitting lid. I settled on a HJC CS-5 a couple years back that was supposed to replace the $15 no-name helmet I got from Meijer when I was learning to ride... I find myself back in my original helmet more and more, just because of the way it fits... I have had my head in a lot of lids and while there are some real high priced ones that feel nice to the touch and work well for some, as you are finding everyone's melon is shaped differently and thats just how it goes. (Some of us were just born with goofy growths on top of our necks) If you are ever bye one of those super-delaerships, sometimes they have huge selections of helmets it could be worth a day drive to go try a bunch on for fitting at least. I realize you have probably thought of this but just in case you hadn't... Good luck!

I put on a set of the Kuryakyn Longhorn offset dually iso 7980 with 1" clamps a few weeks ago before my 4600 mile trip and I am SO glad that I did. I thought the bike was comfortable before, but after I got them on and positioned appropriately (it took a while to figure out exactly where I want them... and I found myself still fine tuning them even after I got back from my trip) I found that it was really nice to be able to get my feet (safely) away from the heat from the motor and out in the breeze. I felt that $130 is quite a bit to be spending on pegs but I read up on them a lot and figured that Kuryakyn must be doing something right with their products and I am NOT dissapointed for the money I paid. (That and I really couldn't find anything else that I was happy with or felt would work and 130 was a bargin compared to what some places wanted for them). I chose the longhorns due to the 3.25" extension allowing for a huge variety of positions. I did find that due to my excessively large feet I had to mount them somewhat high on the crash bars but it works out so that I can rest my feet directly on them (like one would usually use pegs), set me heels on the floor-boards and ends of my feet on the pegs, and lastly lay my feet across the top. I am 5'8 with a 32/33" inseam and I have my offsets mounted so that the bars stick up almost completely vertical. So if I had shorter legs there would still be plenty of room for adjustment. I do not really have a good picture of what they look like mounted or with me on it and my feet up on the pegs to show you how they are (to try to give you a little perspective on what how they actually end up positioining everything). If I wasn't 1600 miles away from my bike I would gladly shoot some of those for you; maybe someone else could do that for you if they have them and you are interested. I cannot really tell from the picture if the offsets that "ablumny" has are the same as what I have or not. If memory serves me correctly you can get a 2" or 4" offset extension from Kuryakyn or the 'longhorn offset' that is 3.25". As others have said, check e-bay etc. I just did a google search for "kuryakyn longhorn offset 7980" and they came up in many places. I got mine from yocracing.com but they have raised the price since I ordered them (they are up to 134 not including shipping) but I found (for me) they had the cheapest shipping around. Also if you use 'star' in their cpn code box it'll save you 5%. A place that I would NOT suggest getting them from would be meancycles.com They offer free shipping and a low price but their customer service was rediculous, communication was next to impossible, and it took a long time to get them. (Medium-long story why I ended up with 2 sets...) Do be cautiouned that many places do not actually keep the the longhorn offsets with 1" clamps (which is what is needed for the RSV) in stock and shipping from Kuryakyn can take a while (to get to the supplier). I did find that my local stealership sold them but I was not willing to pay the 140+8.25% tax that they were charging so I dealt with the wait time. http://www.yocracing.com/accessory_store/store/yoc_viewItem.asp?idProduct=2145 Wow: 128.95 & Free shipping http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1-KURYAKYN-LONGHORN-OFFSET-DUALLY-HIGHWAY-PEGS-7980_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2ec0Q2em14QQhashZitem4a99f46098QQitemZ320410509464QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories Enjoy!

The only others that I have seen on the road were two going the other way on the expressway last week through Missouri and one that I parked next to at a rest area near Chicago (last eastbound exit on 94/80 -- before Indiana). I have yet to see another one in the town I live in (although I do know there is another member that lives not too far north of me and comes to town quite often)...

I have been eying your adapter since I bought my RSV and just haven't come around to spend the money since I will need to buy a jack too... I guess I should not wait too much longer - especially if you decide to stop making them at some point!

Oh yea, don't be afraid to ask anything... There is a search tool on the tool bar up top but there is so much information on here I know I have spent many many many hours searching and searching finding all sorts of good stuff (and learning a TON!) but not necessarily what I was looking for...

This may be elementary but I am going to say it anyway since it may or may not help you out, if you find that the 12V power point (cig lighter deal) is not getting power the fuse for it is behind the front right cowling -- that is the one by your right foot while you are sitting on the bike. You can find instructions on how to take that piece off on here or in the service manual (which is here somewhere) but it is 3 bolts and a plastic retainer that you could easily do before you take off from where you pick it up (if you are riding it back to where you will be storing it). I had a similar problem to what SilverT had except it was my cell phone charger and I guess it was a tad deep for the power socket. My solution was simple; turn off the phone and if I needed to make a call do it on my next stop with it plugged in while I was stopped. (This obviously is not an acceptable solution for your GPS if you are looking to drive with it attached). I am sure you will LOVE your bike. I know that I have certainly been enjoying mine. My only regret about picking up my RSV is that I did not do it sooner!! Keep it shiny side up!! Rick M.

Patrick46: I just took a look at your website that you have noted in your signature and I realize that we all missed an important point here. First of all, I am very impressed with the work that you have pictured up there and I am sure that the pictures themselves hardly do the real thing justice. I will agree 110% that if what is desired is some sort of image, flames, or large scale graphics then having it painted is the way to go, no question about that. There is certainly no substitute for well painted graphics. Before we started offering advice as to what could be done NONE of us asked the question that should have been asked of 'what did you have in mind' especially since the original question was simply 'where can they be purchased?' I, possibly mistakenly, assumed (and yes, I know what assumptions do) that what was desired was something very simple that involved following the lines of the faring, saddlebags or trunk for a simple accent (or something on that level). Which may or may not be what frankc wants.