LilBeaver

We (my family) has run a body shop for years and it took us a while to find a good striper to do any of the complex stuff that we needed done (or when we got busy we even had him come out for the gravy jobs - which they could do with amazing speed and accuracy). Thanks to the handful of 'pinheads' (your words, not mine) we lost a lot of money sometimes having to go as far as to repaint panels due to the gross neglegence of particular 'professionals'. Now I have never seen your work and I have no reason to believe that you do anything that is not of exceptional quality, so please do not take that the wrong way. But this does reinforce the contacting of a local H-D dealership, hot-rod shop, or even a regular ol body shop (or contact several) to get reccomendations for a striper. My guess is you will find that you [frankc] will end up with the same pool of few folks that do terrific work. If you decide to go that route and pick one to go talk with ask to see some samples of some work they have done and have a REAL conversation with them. If you like what you see, great. If not, thank them for your time and try someone else. Remember, this is YOUR bike and YOU are the one that has to live with it every time you see your bike or pay to have stuff repainted, etc. If you are not exactly sure what you want or if they make some suggestions, certainly listen to what they have to say but do not let them talk you into what they think you will like (unless that is what you want, or they show you a sketch and you like it too). Not everyone will look at the same design and have the same feelings about it. I would challenge anyone to go through a new car lot and try pick out the cars that have painted pinstripes and the 'cheap ones made for kid cars'. Now, I realize that to a trained eye once you get up close or put your fingers on them, it can be pretty easy to tell (especially if the stripes are applied poorley). What you will find is that a good majority of them are stuck on by the dealership (or A dealership at somepoint). There are some obvious exceptions to this but again the majority of cars are done that way. Now, I realize that we are not talking about CARS we are talking about BIKES. So, anyone with a two-tone venture, go out to your bike and take a look at where the colors come together, what you will see that is a 'cheap' stuck on pinstripe put there for the explicit reason of hiding where the two colors meet up. This is done to allow for a very clean transition between the two colors and can often add a very pleasing accent to the overall image. I will let a reader draw their own conclusions from this point. frankc: I will agree 100% that if you find a really good custom pinstriper the painted designs will certainly maintain their quality much longer than the stuck on type. When you get close enough the painted ones will certainly look better as well. Certainly the more complex of a design you are going after the more likely you are to have a better finished product with paint instead of the stuck on type. You could spend 10 bucks and do it your self, or you could spend more than that and have someone else do it. There are advantages and disadvantages to each but do not be mislead by 'Patrick46's comment; stuck on stripes CAN look good if done properly. And do not be fooled, it is not difficult by any means to stick these things on. The process can be very tedious and will take a lot of patience and a very carefull eye to make sure that it looks good when you are done BUT it is not difficult.

Or one could just shimmy around in the grass like the animals do. That way you don't risk the harm caused by the non-biodegradable plastic bag being disposed of improperly and all of the polution created during the production of the TP. If you would prefer the more refined method of grabbing some of those leaves that tends to be a little easier on some parts. The atlas is handy at this point because it gives you something to read allowing you to be efficient and plan the next place you would like to go. :-P

I know your question was just where can you get them but I figured I would toss in a little more information too... Make sure when/if you do this yourself you make sure the area that you will be applying the stripes to is very clean of everything, including wax or polish. You can get a bottle of degreaser for painted surfaces for pretty cheap. Most of the stripes you will find can be put on dry or wet. What I have found to be the easiest is to start your application by lightly misting the surface with a water bottle (this allows you to easily slide the striping around a little bit when placed on the surface as well as smooth out any air bubbles or wrinkles that will occur during the application). Take your time and apply one piece at a time and when you are done with an area, take a step back and look at it before the water dries. If you are unhappy with an area wet it down and if you are careful you should be able to move the stripe. Once you are happy with how it looks press along the stripe in the direction of which you applied it with a small squeegie to dry the surface, ensure that the adhesive on the back of the stripe will bond to the surface, work out wrinkles and any remaining air bubbles under the stripe it self. Then dry the rest of the area with an appropriate towel. Give the stripes a day or two to finish setting up (and to make sure you are happy with it) then wax/polish your bike. This will help protect them from fading in the sun as well as cracking and peeling. Most importantly it will replace the wax/polish that is removed when you applied the degreaser (And you will have a shiny scoot - which is always good) Be patient with this, if you get frustrated or whatever, finish up the one you are working on or pull it off completely and take a break and come back to it later. Sometimes these things can be a bit of a bugger, especially on your own vehicle. I am sure that there are many others with suggestions on how to do this and maybe it is appropriate for a different thread - I just figured I could share some of my experience in hopes that you may find it helpful. Good Luck and have fun!!

+1 to that or any other automotive type store. Unfortunately buying them by the roll is about 2 or 3 times as expensive as it is for a body shop/customising place to get, but you aren't going to be paying someone a few hundred dollars an hour to get them put on either. Painted stripes of course will last longer and in some cases end up looking a bit nicer (especially if you want something that is rather complex or has a lot of curvature to it). Have fun and don't forget pictures when you are done!

Great pics! Thanks for sharing

I've been eying some maps and such for some time now looking to get up there... I am hoping to have a weekend get-a-way in the upcoming couple of weeks... If I do I will let you know what I find!

I am certainly interested. I did not make it to the hub this year - somethings came up...

Nice work!!

I've worn both the cowboy boots and the law enforcement boots (not at the same time of course) :-P My opinion of each. Law Enforcement Boots: I've worn Bates and Rockies with and without the zip up access but all with Gor-Tex (and 6" ankles -- whatever that measurement is called). Pros: Reasonable protection, excellent traction, good breathability, feet stay bone dry when walking through water that do not go above the top of the boot (and they stay just as dry when on the bike in heavy rain) Cons: In my size 14 the boots were quite wide at the toes that I found a little difficult to use on certain bikes (not so much the 2nd gen, but a big problem on my wing); Laces -- any one that has gotten a lace stuck on a shifter or brake lever knows why this is a bad thing (easy solution is to keep those things tied and tucked out of the way) Cowboy Boots: I am on my second pair of Double H 3283 Western Work Boots (my 1st pair lasted me just over 4 years of DAILY wear). After I bought these boots (I had intentions of wearing them just for riding, but they were comfortable enough these are the only shoes I will wear unless I am working out or something). These have a thick rubber sole (but does not look obnoxiously thick when you are standing in them) and a pointed toe. My feet stretch the leather out quite a bit around the toes, but that is no big deal to me. Pros: Comfort, slimmer toe than the Bates boots -- allows for much easier manipulation of the controls on different bikes; Protection -- 10" boots cover ankle very well and up the leg a bit, my jeans never even get close to exposing the tops of the boots so there is plenty of bug/rock/weather protection thanks to those. Great traction, etc. And of course, with a good looking pair of boots you never need to slide on a pair of 'dress shoes' again! :-P Cons: Do not breathe quite as well as the Law enforcement boots; weather protection is not quite as good as the gor-tex boots that I wore BUT my feet still stay quite dry; It was very difficult for me to find a boot that fit my foot well and had the rubber sole - in my opinoin this is a big downside. After wearing both types I will be continuing to stick with the cowboy boots and have no plans to switch that up. To answer the other question you had, with my cowboy boots the heel-toe shifter is LESS in the way, but it still bothers me and my big feet a little. Hope that is helpful. Rick

SteveB: I was thinking about stopping in/near KC for breakfast. If we go on my schedule I will be there by 6 or 630am... BUT, since I have a traveling companion she will ultimately decide the schedule so we'd probably really be looking at 730 or 8ish. I'll give you a ring tomorrow when I make it to Emporia and have a better idea of what kind of travel time she lets me have.

I am headed up to Michigan (to see some family) with a stop in Iowa and Illinois (for more family visiting). http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?threadid=38055

Sounds like a plan guys! I should be arriving in Michigan Tuesday late morning/early afternoon (maybe a little bit later depending on when the g/f ends up getting ready and whatnot). I have stuff planned already for Saturday (late morning through the evening) and Sunday (pretty much all day). There was talk with my parents about taking a ride up to traverse city (actually Kingsley) along the western side of Michigan and staying with some family then coming back the next day. I think that will be a Thursday/Friday adventure, but I do not know for sure yet, that one is up in the air still. Anyhoo, we can figure something out in the next couple of days. I am not sure if I will be bringing a computer or not so I may not be back on to check things out until sunday (When I get to my sister's) or Tuesday when I get to my parents. But I'll keep an eye on this when I can so we can firm something up. Maybe Wednesday the 29th?

BUMP! Alright, since my bike is behaving again and the weather is looking quite beautiful I will be hitting the road before the first sparrow fart tomorrow morning! Keep your eyes peeled for two dorks on a silver/green RSV!! Rick M.

Picked up the regulator/rectifier this morning and installed it. I also pulled the grounding bolt out cleaned it really well and reinstalled it; it had some corrosion and dirt on it but it was not all that bad. Checked the voltage delivered through the battery leads as well as a few other places and it was around 13.6-13.9V as expected (NOTE: The voltage was rock steady after I cleaned the grounding bolt). Rode highway speeds for just about 3 hours, circling Lubbock (it is about 32 miles, I wrote down incorrect information earlier). After about 200 miles I pulled into the garage and everything seemed to be fine. Ran some other errands, filled up and am all set to take off before the first sparrow fart tomorrow morning for my trip. I realize this wasn't a complicated issue but hopefully the information that has been discussed here may be helpful to someone else along the way. Thank you again for those of you that contributed, it is greatly appreciated. Rick M. (well, I suppose is more accurate)

Well shucks... I just checked and the rectifier/regulator is a different part number. Oh well.

There is also a plug under the passenger seat that leads to the radio, this would be something else to check. Well, there are actually 2; one is for passenger communications the other (13ish-pin connector) is for the radio. Good luck.

My prayers are with you and your family as well. Gdspeed

Thanks for the suggestions Brian. I did some checking around (yesterday and today) and it turns out that the cheapest place I found (that would get me the unit within a few days) is actually the stealership. So, 9:01 this morning I walked in the door there and ordered one guaranteed to be delivered by 11 tomorrow. This will give me time to get everything back together and take a reasonable length test ride (convenient that Lubbock has a 17.5 mile expressway that traverses the circumference of the city). When I get some time I will crack open the case of my failed one to identify what went wrong with it and satisfy my curiocity of its construction. Normally I would not have questioned the meter but two weeks ago when I was at TRIUMF running my experiment I had some problems with an RF generator unit that took some time troubleshooting. During this process we found that one of the meters that we were using was giving us a bad reading when used with the RF unit but seemed to work fine when used on regular power supplies. By the way, this was an Agilent bench meter. So if I had problems with that one, I figured that it is possible that my own personal one (that is many years old) could possibly have issues as well. I guess a 'flaw' I have as an experimental Physicist is being complete and systematic with my observations and examination throughout any type of testing process; I had also figured that some of the details of my observations may benefit someone else down the road. If not, all that is lost is the few minutes it took me to write up the post and whatever time was spent reading it 'unnecessarily'. For those of you that have taken the time to follow along, offer suggestions/contribute, it is greatly appreciated. Hopefully some day I can return the favor. Now to finish putting the bike back together and try to figure out what is going on with the CB... Rick M.

Brian: Thanks for the follow up. I was being facetious with the 'little'. I was using a basic craftsman digital meter. I am not 100% convinced that it was an accurate reading. I was only probing the power leads that attach to the battery. For some of the testing I had the meter sitting on the right passenger floorboard. For the second round of testing I had picked it up and held it (maybe 1 ft from the bike). I have a few really nice meters at the office, tomorrow morning I'll pick a couple up so I can verify what I found tonight. On one hand I was sortof hoping that after cleaning all of the electrical components and installing the new battery I would get appropriate readings. On the other hand, if I can verify this 17 volt business then, despite the , I will be relieved as the source of the problem has likely been isolated to the regulator/rectifier unit. I will definitely go back and check to make sure that the main ground is secured properly (and not corroded), but I took everything apart that I could see, cleaned it and reinstalled, so unless I missed one (which IS possible), I think that I am comfortable ruling out a lose/corroded ground... But I will look again in the morning with fresher eyes... Unfortunately, it looks like I am going to not be able to take the bike on this upcoming trip, since it will take too long to get one of these silly things I wonder if I could talk the local dealership into pulling a regulator out of the crate of a new bike ... Doubtfull but it may be worth a shot.

After a looooong day at the office I came home and was able to put some more time in working on the bike. I went ahead and wired the passing lamps properly (fused from the battery to a relay that is activated by a switch and the headlamp switch in the appropriate position). I wired the whole setup with 10 gauge wire and a 30 amp relay, mostly because I had some extra 10 guage wire and connectors laying around. I did find that one of my spotlights is burned out so I will make a trip to tractor supply, wally-world or autozone to find a comperable replacement that is gaurunteed to be less that what yamaha wants for a replacement. After finishing the wiring, I put the tank back on and pulled fuses to electrical components that I would prefer to NOT fry (audio system and cruise control) put the rumpus outside the garage and started it up. Unfortunately I do not have a tachometer so this test was mildly inconclusive but yielded some intreguing results which I will outline below: 1) Turn key to on position (read ~13 volts) 2) Pushed starter button (minimum of 12.5 volts) 3) Immediately checked for any sign of AC voltage - This was passed, no AC voltage present at time of reading (implying that the rectifing circuit is functioning properly at the time of the test) 4) 20 seconds after bike started (reading of ~17 volts) 5) Reved motor while watching meter; (I was unable to get a reliable read while I was changing the engine speed - mostly because I only have two hands) 6) Reved the motor significantly and held for meter to stabilize (read 13.9V on first test) 7) Let motor go back to idle (read 13.6 with a 0.1V fluctuation both up and down) 8) Reved the motor significantly and held, waited for meter to stabilize (read 13.8V) 9) Realized it was 11:30pm - Stopped reving motor 10) Took a long measurement while at idle and read a pretty steady 13.6 V 11) Shut off motor (read 13.1 V with key in on position) 12) Let bike sit for 15 minutes 13) repeated 1-3 with same results 14) Let idle and took measurement (read 16.9V with a 0.2V fluctuation both up and down) 15) After ~30 seconds of idle read steady 17.0V 16) Shut off motor, turned ignition off. So, this 17.0V thing bothers me a little... So I guess I need to sleep on this a little bit and maybe try to track down a tachometer tomorrow... Any comments are welcomed. Thanks again for following along! Rick M.

I should be around. Is this your son's first year?

Oh yea, I did take a small screwdriver and bent the contacts within the terminals on the harness so that they would pinch tighter. Good call though, thanks.

Brian: Ha, well I don't know about either of those... I was unaware of that rally, but I think I will definitely stop by for at least one of the days... I will not camp out there since it is just a few miles from my house, but I would like to stop in and see what it is all about.