camos

OK, you got it. PM me your postal address. I'm at work right now so can't confirm the year but I'm sure the manual said it was for a 1983.

The Super Brace that I saw advertised was 1 1/2" thick and mine is 3/4" thick otherwise they looked the same. Mine is not a casting.

I recently came into possession of an 83 Owners Manual that is in very good condition. The manual is probably for a Canadian Venture because it also is in French. If anyone is interested in this item let me know... it's free.

Hahahaha... No Rick the cash back is electronically credited to my CC account. There is no need to actually touch any "money" these days.

Perhaps Rick needs to feel something in his pocket. I have a $5 bill in my wallet. Think it has been there for about 6 years. My CC gives me cash back on purchases and does the math for me. Win - Win.

No, I never knew who made them. All I can say is the brace was made from aircraft aluminum and fit perfectly. I've seen this type of brace on several member's bikes. Condor made a brace for a while that was similar but better looking, a bit more curvy.

Another thing, use 2nd Gen gaskets rather than 1st Gen gaskets because the former have little tabs on them which make it easier to adjust the fit of the gasket into the slot. Maneuvering the cover into position without disturbing the placement of the gasket can be a real trial. Once the cover is in position be sure to check the joint all the way around for any indication the gasket is not properly aligned. A good flashlight will be necessary for this.

Good idea. The use of Teflon tape in hydraulic systems can be problematic. When applying to a bolt or adapter the first thread or two should be left bare and the tape must be wrapped in the correct direction or there is a risk of a small piece of tape getting into the system and causing a blockage. The threads of fittings used in hydraulic systems are normally tapered pipe threads or if straight cut they would normally use an o-ring which would be quite different from a bolt with an o-ring.

I wonder if allowing cyclists on the road without a test and licensing contributes to their apparent feeling of entitlement?

I bought one like this a few years ago. It was about half the thickness of the Super Brace and about twice the thickness of the OEM brace and cost about half of what the Super Brace did. The OEM brace is anaemic and the Super Brace is excessive while this brace is just right. That's my opinion at least.

Quite so. When I bought my 89 I got $500 off because there was virtually no brake pedal action but the right front brake worked fine. After a 15 minute bleed job all brakes were working perfectly.

Fuel tank? No Radiator? Yes, but not out just loosened. I'm sure there is a reasonably good write-up about this job in the Tech section.

Great idea, get one for the bike so there is a 1/2 mile dead zone around it.

I agree with that statement but there must be a condition where air can act like a vapor lock or something. Perhaps at the master cylinder or at the calipers. The front brakes on the Virago are very simple, one line split into two with no other devices inline, and yet that woody feel did happen so something caused it. The lever felt solid with no sponge at all but no matter how much force was used there was little change in braking power. After bleeding again, they worked perfectly. So I can only suggest that if you are experiencing woody feeling brakes, check that the pistons are not jammed somehow and bleed it again.

Not saying there could not be some serious issue but usually there is some previous indication that something is not working properly. The first thing I would do is put some oil on the shifter joints. When they dry out a positive shift can be difficult if not impossible. Worth checking before tearing expensive stuff apart.

Not only is it possible to miss the adjuster but it is also possible to drop the headlight. Was that you as well? It's pretty hard to miss the adjuster slot when putting the headlight back in but it is definitely worth getting that feature working if ever wanting to ride two up or doing a Costco run.

Not necessarily Gary. I remember getting the same thing many years ago when replacing the front pads on my Virago. I did the job at work one night in the parking lot during breaks and it was the very first time I ever done a pad replacement. It is my opinion a wooden feel can be the result of an improperly bled system although it could possibly be due to sticky pistons. I remember the pistons were very difficult to push back into the calipers. It took me the whole night using the various "tips" from the forum, not this forum, to get enough pressure on the brakes to attempt the ride home in the morning. It was that experience that made me decide to figure out how to properly bleed brakes. Since then it's been a piece of cake.

On my 89 Mk II I pulled the forks, re-packed the head bearings, changed the fork oil, added a pair of gators and bled the brakes. Well, it was two weeks ago but I needed to test things for a while. This was not an afternoon job for me. The whole thing took me 12 to 14 hours over the course of three days. There were, relatively minor, mistakes made that caused redoing some stuff. The biggest mistake was to forget about ensuring the brake lines were routed in front of the lower triple clamp while re-installing the forks. It was for this reason I needed to bleed the brakes after removing the lines from the calipers to re-route them ahead of the clamp. Some things to note: When removing the top fork plug cap, that's the 17 mm one, loosen the top triple clamp bolt first. (I used a 5/16" bolt as the 17 mm driver for the cap.) The manual says to do this and several members have also reiterated the same thing but I found a number of references to not do this. I can't remember if it was on this site or elsewhere but if the clamp is not loosened the threads on the cap will be damaged to some degree if not destroyed. Before doing this job I talked to a few people about alternatives to using fork oil because it is unreasonably expensive. There is apparently no standard applied across manufacturers to the weight of various oils such as transmission fluid, fork oil or generic hydraulic oil. There is, of course, a standard applied to motor oils but I decided the risk of various additives was too great to consider them. I ended up choosing to use AW32 hydraulic oil which can be found in most hardware stores for less than half the price of fork oil. The main reason why I decided to test drive for a while before reporting was to compare the ride quality with the previous fork oil. I have no idea what oil was used in the forks but it was blueish and might point to a particular brand. The ride with the new oil was the same as it was before, not bouncy, not shuddering just comfortable and no excessive dive on braking. This was with no air added to the forks. Some things of interest to note here, stock springs with just under 40K miles, no spacer, the guides were missing and 5 1/2" of oil measured from the top with forks compressed and no springs. I was quite surprised with this. Is it possible my 89 is one of only a few with the anti-dives actually working? The gators I chose to install were Rancho RS1952 from amazon.ca. They were a perfect fit. The top is slightly smaller than the diameter of the fork tube but can be easily stretched to fit snugly. The bottom skirt is split so the outside edge hangs down and the inside edge folds over the fork brace.

Well, no surprise here, I only half remembered. For clarification, a 5/16" bolt head is 17 mm. The 5/16" nut is 9/16". Speaking from experience, it is my recommendation to use a 6" long bolt rather than a 1 1/2" bolt for this purpose. While using it, the short bolt can easily fall out of the socket whereas a longer bolt can be held and can also substitute for a ratchet extension. Of course a bit of tape would also have prevented the small bolt from falling out.

Very good FF. These commands come from WordStar which was the very first commercially successful word processor program released in 1979. They are still very handy today. Ctrl-Z = undo last command Ctrl-A = select all Ctrl-X = cut Ctrl-C = copy Ctrl-V = paste

When the grommets are pulled from the case you should see a groove around the mid-point. The groove should be cleaned out if necessary. Before putting it back together pull the wires in towards the stator about 1 inch. Clean the wires with brake cleaner and after drying, lightly coat the wires with RTV then pull them out again so the RTV is inside the holes. Put a light coat of high-temp RTV in the grommet slot. It is best to do all of this just before mounting the case before the RTV has a chance to set. I have only replaced a stator three times but none of them have leaked yet.

If you are then you will be back to an RSV in no time at all. Life is a circle eh.

Seems like you are turning the engine over enough to warm it up enough to start in this warm weather. Good chance the choke is not actually working. Being that it is not a choke but an enricher which adds extra fuel into the system so it is pretty much another name for a simple carb. Could be plugged up as suggested for the pilot jets. Seafoam would be a good place to start as long as at least some treated fuel can get through the ports.

Second Flyinfool about long sleeved cotton shirt to keep cool and not get a sunburn. Choose a light colour. Wear a mesh jacket for impact protection over the shirt. That's for your basic summer setup but for extreme heat there is specialized gear available that will help to keep you cool and hydrated.

Made a new modification to the layout of the rt dash panel that works much better by switching the power point and the volt meter positions. I'm at a loss as to why this did not leap out at me in the beginning but anyway.... Due to the nature of the LED in the volt meter, it was difficult to see in the sun particularly due to reflection on the white LED lens and also due to the angle of the meter. The first part of the solution was to create a new mount that positioned the meter with a more direct viewing angle. Doing that was quite simple. First thing to do was mask the meter threads and face edge using a cellophane tape such as clear Scotch tape. The translucent type may also work but I'm not certain it is actually cellophane. Also mask the dash panel around the mount hole leaving about 3/16" clear around the hole. It is a good idea to mask any of the surrounding area where an inadvertent slip might gob up other parts. Once masked the meter was placed in the original hole at an angle. Give the perimeter of the hole a dribble of MEK from the needle applicator to soften. Then using a gob of ABS/MEK putty, form it around the exposed meter threads and let it set for a few hours, overnight or for a few days depending on how soft the putty mix is. When the putty has firmed up the meter can be popped out and the masking tape can be removed. Put the meter back in the hole and squirt a little MEK around the base and apply some pressure by hand, holding for 5-10 minutes just to make sure the new bezel is firmly attached to the dash panel. A utility knife and a file can now be used to shape and clean up the new volt meter bezel. The bezel still needs to be polished up a bit but I'm not sure how to go about doing that yet. This is the new panel layout. It's much more useful than before. I have talked quite a bit about the method I use to do plastic repairs so I won't repeat it again here but if anyone has any questions I would be happy to answer them.