Great White

Your call bro. Personally, I'd leave the cruise inactive until I could figure out a way for the front brake to cancel the cruise.....

No worries my dear. The bandana look is in these days and hair will grow back. Hair even covers over any scars that may be left afterwards. No one will ever know after a couple months.

Hmmm, I'm not picturing how you would keep the front master in the circuit if it doesn't have the 4 wire switch. But here's a solution that should work: use the brake light trigger to also trigger a 12v relay (pins 85 and 86). Then take pins 30 and 87 to trigger the brake signal to the cruise circuit. http://autoacrepairs.com/RelayWiringGuide.jpg Now your brake light will control the cancel for the cruise by activating the relay with the brake light. A little bit more cumbersome than just using the integrated front master switch, but much safer than not having a cancel signal from the front brake master cylinder. There is a small added bonus that you can buy those relays anywhere should you be away on a trip and one craps out on you. Incidentally, that relay scheme is how I'm going to wire up venture cruise in my 89 FJ1200. That way I can continue to use the OEM brake switches (front brakes, rear brakes and clutch) and still trigger the cancel in the cruise circuit. Of course, the entire wiring harness in the cruise circuit is going to be custom built too since the FJ1200 never was offered with Venture cruise. Good thing the 85 system I'm using can be made to work as a stand alone system. Man, I wish I wasn't stuck in this bed right now but I just can't risk the steps. I'm sure the 4 wire switch will just swap over.....if only I could get to the garage to look at those parts......

I've always said If I get that "friar tuck look", "solar panel" or the dreaded "comb over", I'd just give up the fight and shave it all off. Have a couple friends that fought it and finally went "full monty". Looks much better than bits of hair here and there. balding heads make a guy look prematurely old. Bald heads are just, well.....bald. And it actually looks better/good on some guys. Just not this guy!

In that case, I would buy a cheap Vmax rear diff and swap the gears over to the speedo sensor capable case. Couple handfulls of shims and some measuring equipment and get 'er done. Having a lathe makes building any special tools I might need a viable option. From what I've seen on a few sites, there's only one special tool you may want and several work-arounds that I can think of that would get that particular job done. Some time, a couple files, a little steel and a little care is all it would take. You probably could get away with just swapping the pinion, but better to swap the gearsets as a worn pair rather than piece meal it. Now, that's what I would do. Probably beyond the skills/confidence of most back yard/weekend wrenches. So maybe an FJR rear would work. But I've never looked too closely into that one because I've never had to. Should work, 'cause as I understand it the offset is in the rim not the diff housing. Failing those options, buying a ready made one from one of the guys who build them would be the next option. All the other Yammy rear diffs (viragos, XS, etc) I've looked at are the same as the stock venture 10/33 vice the vmax 9/33, so no help there without swapping gears. I'd rather just use the Venture speed sensor capable housing to start with. Patience, luck and being in the right place at the right time is still a factor in all those options....

Being "hair vain" myself, I understand the don't want to be bald thing. But hair grows back. The military taught me that...... Small price to pay for good heath and quality of life into the golden years.....

I shopped around and kept an eye on ebay. Snagged one for 70 bucks (plus shipping) with the driveshaft. I had to clean it up and respray it, but otherwise it's fine. A "good price" is often a combination of patience, luck and being in the right place at the right time....

It's been a while since I looked, but I'm pretty sure you can just swap your 84 brake switch on to your 87 master cylinder. Or I might be thinking the 85 switch and the 86+ compatibility. Check it out and see if you can just transfer it over. I'd walk out to the garage and check (I've got an 83, 85 and an 86 master cylinder out there) but I can't really walk right now so I can't go check. But if you can swap them, problem solved. If you can't, I'd just leave the cruise control inactive. Of all the things you definitely want to cancel the cruise, it's absolutely brake activation. I'd have to dig through the wiring diagrams to say if your scheme even has a chance of working. I would say if Yamaha could have made it that way they would of (IE: less wiring, less cost). By rigging something up, you could be risking blowing a controller in the cruise circuit. Again, I'd have to get down into the wiring diagram to say yes or no either way....

First bike? 800+ lbs is pretty heavy for a first bike. They're also reported to be top heavy (although I can't imaging it being more top heavy than my 83!), not a good mix for a beginner. I would suggest a MSF course for basic handling and the little things like sidestand/centerstand/low speed turns/lifting a fallen bike/etc and then lots of practice in an empty parking lot before getting in any kind of serious traffic....

Three types of operations scare the bejesus out of me: Spinal, joints and brain. Spinal because of chance of paralysis, Joints because once they go in it seems they're never the same, and brain....well, brain speaks for itself. That "opening the base of your skull for more room" doesn't sound like fun at all! I'm not a religious man, but sending you my best wishes for a successful procedure and a speedy recovery.

so, saw the doc today. Had to use the walker to get to the van. Collapsed in screaming pain twice. Got to the hospital and I said I'd walk in on my own two feet. If i get the balance right, i can do it. But I collapsed halfway across parking lot in screaming pain again. Nurse and attendant were mortified, my wife is used to it now after the weekend. I finally broke down and they brought a wheel chair out. Sitting is also really painful, but was the only way I was going any further. My nerve indications confused the heck out of the doc. Both legs showing signs and each different signs. So, they shot me with a mean mamma jamma anti inflammatory (toridol?), sent me home with oxycet, diazepam, and naproxen. Toss that on top of the mix of Wellbutrin and Ramipril I've already got running around in me. By the time I left, I could walk. Slowly, with the walker and the back threating to turn me into a writhing pile on the floor all the way to the van, but I walked on my own two feet G-Dammit. I'm stubborn in case you can't tell........ Sending me into the city on Thurs for a CT scan. The put me off work for the week and my wife also so she could watch me while I'm on the narcotics. I think mainly so I don't fall on my face and get stuck there during the day. She's also my escort into the city on thurs. Hmmm, I wonder how much fun a whisky chaser would be right now?

Yammy beat 'em to it in 1988: http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/JetV_zpsbz0dxfuf.jpg But the project was shelved due to spiraling costs and a depressed market. It also had a tendency to melt car noses, burn the paint off hoods, suck out taillights on acceleration and neighborhood cats started disappearing at a disturbing rate....

Once my v-boost manifold shows up I'll measure it and you can compare that to the ID of your 3/4 copper. Should give you an idea of where you sit. The only big unknown with your system that I see is synchronizing the carbs and how it will act with those "always open" 3/4 interconnects. Even the Mighty 'Max synch's it's carbs with the vboost closed. I'm no VMax or Venture expert by the way. Just a solid mechanical background and a willingness to learn. I'm working my way through this stuff too, but I'm a quick study.

Argggghh! 2:30 in the morning and wide awake! Frigging flexeril has my sleep pattern all buggered up!

No road imperfections to worry about, but thermals and turbulence would be a biatch.....

Interesting. The purpose of the vboost is that over approx 6000-6500 rpm, the single 35mm carb throat becomes "restrictive" Ie: the heads can flow more than the carb can provide. By opening the the vboost, the single 35mm carb becomes essentially 70-ish mm and the heads continue to build power, limited only by valve and port size/design. Below 6000-ish rpm there is no real advantage as the single 35mm carb has plenty of flow capacity for the head demands, so the Yammy engineers keep the vboost closed until 6000-ish to maintain intake velocities for lower end torque (imp on a street ridden bike). Intake velocity is king when trying to make torque. I personally have never liked the "Jason mod". All its doing is leveraging the YICS architecture in a way it was never designed for. I personally think it just buggers up carb balancing. Same reasoning that carb balancing on a vmax is done with the vboost closed. But people see what they want to see so no sense telling them different... Yours sounds more like it's simulating a smaller vboost setup that is always open. Might yeild some results at the magical 6000 rpm and still be small enough not to bugger up low rpm running. Dunno, you're off in the outfield somewhere with this one. Although some of the vboost theory would seem to apply.

Actually, shaft is converted to chain on drag bikes to eliminate the power loss of the double 90 degree turn. Same reason on sport bikes (well, eliminate shaft jacking too). Chain is the most efficient way to transmit drive power on a bike, but it is also the messiest. Anything cruiser or tourer gets shaft for that reason. The VMax got a shaft because Yamaha didn't see the worth (ie: cost) in changing the xvz design to chain when Mr max already had 145 hp on tap.....a absolutely huge number for a bike back in 85. Honda made all kinds of chain and shaft v4's. First out of the gate was the sabre and magna v45's, (1982), which were shaft drive and chain driven cams. They got shaft drive for ease of maintenance: sabre was marketed as a tourer, manga as a cruiser. Neither market was seen as wanting the maintenance, mess and fuss of a chain. The v45 interceptor was out the next year (83) with chain driven cams and chain final drive. The interceptor got chain drive because it was a no holds barred superbike and for ama homologization. Vf1000f followed suit in 84. The vf1000f was a poked and stroked vf750f, the sabre and magna v65 were a separate (but similar) design. The 500 v4's (84) were all chain final drive since they couldn't sacrifice the power needed for the 90 degree turn for the shaft. All chain cam drives. The vf500's were actually poked and stroked vf400's from Hondas Japanese model lines. First gear driven cams were in the vf1000r (86). The next year (86) the VF/F interceptor was changed to the vfr750 with gear driven cams since chain drive was seen as the root of the Honda v4 cam problems. Honda blamed a lot of things on the v4 cam problem but the cause was the cam bores not being line bored in previous models. They never admitted it, but once they started line boring the cam journals, the cam problems went away. The switch to gears was as much a marketing ploy as anything to make the public think Honda had fixed the chocolate cam problem of previous v45's. Alas, it was not to be as the Honda v4's had cemented that poor reputation. The v45 wouldn't be redeemed until years of soldiering on as Hondas only v4 model in the sport touring pigeon holed vfr750/800. The vf line was dropped after the 86 (vf1000r was the last vf) and only the vfr750 soldiered on until the ST line came out and Honda began a new dabbling with transverse v4's. Yamaha had its own love affair with the v4. Obviously the xvz line and the vmx12 line (which is actually a pair of siamesed xz550 engines), but they had a whole host of v4 2stroke race bikes and eventually one street model, the rd/rz500. Ah the rd500; such sweet, sweet memories.... Up until Honda jumped in with the sabre and magna, Yamaha actually was the company with the most v4 experience....albiet on the track rather than the street. All Honda really did was give the v4 design a black eye in the early years. I have and 85 interceptor, great bike. But you have to watch the top end like a hawk.....

I'm stuck with ramipril for a while. Without it, I'm in the 145/114 range. With it, 128/89 range. Only time the squirrels are focused is when I'm riding. Busier the squirrels are, the longer/faster I ride. Of course, no riding lately but the pain and concentration needed to stay upright are pretty much keeping them in check! Lol!

Oh I pretty much think my career is over anyways. While my back is a result of my work, so are the loose squirrels running around in my head. The psychiatrist told me "we have the most trouble with you first responders". I never thought of it that way, but I guess I am/was a first responder. Jeebus, when i think about it, I'm a hot mess......broken in body and mind.

My physician didn't say front or back. He said it was inwards into the nerve sheath/tunnel area. I guess you could interpet that as "back". This would be the closest picture to what he showed me with the model in his office: http://www.eorthopod.com/sites/default/files/images/lumbar_herniation_cause02.jpg My bowels and bladder are still working though. He told me if I ever have reoccurance and they stop working to head to emergency immediately...

I better not. It's coming from a Canadian company in Canada. I paid gst on it too. FedEx will have a hard time explainjng any brokerage and/or customs charges on that one....

I'm aircrew. Not allowed to take anything stronger than Adult Tylenol without doc approval. But ibuprofin has helped in the past. It's different this time. Shooting in the legs, pelvic pain and I've never been so bad I've actually had to use a walker....

LOL, no! I'd remember back shots. I've got a herniated disc at L4/L5. It bulges inward so it presses on the nerve bundle when it goes. Came up on an MRI last time. I got it around 2002 during a SAR 200 miles offshore hauling a guy into the helicopter. Acts up every 1 to 1.5 years. Although I've gone 2 years this time. I've got pelvic pain and electric tingling in both legs that swaps back and forth, as well as total refusal of lower back to bear any weight. I was just picking up dog doo in the backyard and off it went. Made it to bed before it all went down the drain on me. Luckily, we just bought a power base for our bed so it functions pretty much like a hospital bed. I usually deal with it by an inversion table. Docs usually give me cyclobenzaprine (fexeril) for it. It's really bad this time though. My disc might have totally herniated or maybe facet joint contact. Dunno, just know it's a painful as all get out..... starting to eat fruit to see if things can get moving. Oh boy, is this going to be fun.......

I can't figgin stand this! My back went out Saturday and I ended up in bed. Couldn't even move without screaming. The missus got me a walker yesterday and after I swallowed my pride I can actually get to the bathroom now. Although i can't tolerate it long enough to do much more than a quick squirt. #2 is going to be interesting when it happens. Which is another area of concern since that hasn't happened since sat either. Woke up this morning hoping to at least be able to get to bathroom on my own. No dice. Need the walker and screaming is involved getting back in bed. Still nothing more than a quick squirt. Yesterday was my 50th birthday. Won't have any fond memories of that. If its still here tomorrow, the wife is going to see my doctor as the only way out of this house for me right now is by stretcher. Guess the Venture is going to have to wait a bit longer for the winter modifications and I'd say my riding season with the FJ is probably over...