camos

I've been thinking of doing the same to my 90 Venture. Did a search for bikini side covers but none of the posts found contained any pix. If you can find them, it would be nice to see what you did. Thanks

I have heard, although not yet sorted it out for myself yet, with the newish blended gasoline many now have, reading the plug ceramic insulator is no longer accurate due to it being mostly white indicating a lean condition when in fact it is not lean. Apparently it is often necessary now to read the rim of the plug body depending on the gas mix that is being used.

I'm new to this site so I've been cruising through some older threads that catch my attention. Pulling a plug after a normal ride won't tell you very much about how the engine is running other than at idle. If you really want to get an accurate plug reading you need to do a chop test at idle speed (OK that's easy), midrange (3000 or so) and WOT (5000 +). Essentially testing each fuel needle/jet range. A chop test is accomplished by running at the desired RPM for a few minutes ( 10 or 15) then pull the clutch and flip the kill switch coasting to a stop. Let the engine cool down a bit before pulling the plugs. Having 4 sets of plugs here is a good thing. Label teach set and take them home to compare to a plug chart that can be found on the Internet. There are quite a few charts littered about but here is one that I happened to have bookmarked: http://www.dansmc.com/Spark_Plugs/Spark_Plugs_catalog.html Any time you re-jet or shim the plugs should be read to determine proper flow rates in the fuel systems. This may not be very scientific but it's cheaper than dyno testing.

When you find SeaFoam, make sure you get the gas treatment not the tranny treatment. The two kinda look the same but different if you can guess what I mean. Don't follow the instructions which are focused mostly on maintenance. Instead, put in 1/2 the can to a full tank of gas, run it out, put the other half in, fill up and run that out. Doesn't have to be done in one day but should not be left to sit for a month. If the bike hasn't been ridden for a while (Shed Queen) don't be too concerned about a lot of white smoke to begin with as that will clear up. When it comes to trouble shooting/fixing it is my policy to always do the easy stuff first.

Have you tried oiling the cables and the actuator mechanism? Initially try WD 40 up the cable from the carb end and unless the actuator is really gunked up some WD 40 might clean it up enough too. The effects of WD 40 don't last very long so apply a better grade of oil or lube. Good maintenance procedure is to oil all cables once a year using 30w engine oil.

I haven't done a search of the forum yet but I have some floorboards that I want to mount forward of the stock footpeg position and of course move the controls forward to match. Anyone know of any threads on this mod?

About 3/4 of the way up the site glass is where the oil level should be on a Virago. In fact if you can still see the level line in the upper part of the window that still OK and is probably the best place to keep it. The light will rarely come on at that level. If you start the engine while on the centre stand and look in the window you won't see any oil at all. That's normal too. When checking the oil level always wait at least 5 min, even 10 minutes for the oil to drain sown from the engine or you might just over fill it.