BigLenny

Now that's crazy! That thing looks like it might be a bear to ride. Maybe not though. Makes me wonder what that final drive configuration looks like. Big Lenny

Hi Yama Mama, Long time no talk to. I miss our late night sessions in the chat booth. I certainly understand getting to a place in life where a change might be made. 2 and half years ago, Teresa and I sold our RSTD and went for something more stable. We bought a Can Am Syder Touring Tryke. After many years of riding together, Teresa was beginning to have some concerns with getting on the bike. 3 wheels has been a wonderful answer for her concerns. We are both absolutely loving riding again. Age and life events bring changes. It’s a fact that most of us aren’t gonna be able to avoid.

Hi All, Been a long while since I checked in. Sold the RSTD back in 2020, and switched to a Can Am Spyder for safety's sake. It's so good to see some of the familiar names still here! And dang grateful there are quite a few new names. WOWZY WOW WOW WOW!!! I noticed ole Puc is back! Last time I checked in on the site he had taken a sabbatical. It's not the same place without the Pucster. Don, I read where you are dealing with cancer again? Well, I'ma slide you into my morning prayer sessions. The Big Guy upstairs will take care of that for ya. I seriously don't know what the heck I would've done without this site during the 12 years we had Ole Red (RSTD) Y'all saved my butt many a times with fixes and ideas, and general good ole encouragement. Skydoc saving me with a clutch spring kit right before we were to head out on a 2 weeker comes to mind. Oh, and some of you taught me what a helicoil kit was, and talked me through fixing a stripped out fork thread just a few days before another two weeker we were about to take. I could go on and on. Just seriously thankful for the Venturerider site. I do most of my forum looking now at the Spyderlovers site, bein's we own one now. Nice folks, but its not VR. I'll do my best to start hanging around more. Your Friend, Big Lenny

Hey Gang, Back a few years ago I faced this same decision of epoxy coating, or snap together tiles. After spending some substantial time doing research, I decided to lay snap together tiles. There are two main players in the garage floor tile world: SwissTrax, and RaceDeck. I decided to go with RaceDeck because their pricing was considerably less than SwissTrax. NOTE: SwissTrax has an excellent floor layout design tool on their website. I used their design tool to configure my layout, but wound up buying RaceDeck. I have never regretted going with the tiles over a floor coating. Very durable product, and withstands jacks, and jack stands excellently. As far as oil spills, I did have a substantial spill when I accidently dropped a drain pan full of oil on the floor. It was a large spill. I cleaned up the spill with oil dry, and Oil Eater. The tiles looked great afterwards. I suppose there was some oil that might've seeped into the seams between the tiles, but it never left an odor, or showed up later. Either option is costly (coating or tiles). But, the tiles give you the potential to make some cool designs. We sold that house a couple years ago, and have since moved about 40 miles down the way to a new house. I am already starting to plan for installing tiles in the garage of this new house. Big Lenny

Hey Gang, It just dawned on me that I never posted pics of our new ride. So, here it is.

The new low forecast for Monday here in Little Rock is 0 degrees. They need to STOP IT with the new forecasts.

Squidley, 12 degrees in Houston really is crazy. Its supposed to be 2 degrees here in Little Rock, Arkansas Monday night. Somebody up north left the gate open, and let the ole Frosty head down south.

Hi All, It has been a looooooong time since I've been on the site here. Teresa and I have had some crazy things come up in our lives the past couple years that have taken our focus off of riding. We have occasionally gotten on the bike for maybe a short ride to go eat or something here and there, but probably haven't put more than a couple thousand miles on it the past couple years combined. IN the past couple years, we have dealt with: Me having 2 heart events that required hospital stays, and surgeries. The last one this past June 2020 was an event that happened while I was playing golf. My heart went into ventricle tachycardia, which resulted in my heart stopping, and me having to be carried to the ER, and hospital for a weeks stay, and a defibrillator installed. We're also dealing with two ailing mothers,, one of which we've had to move into our home to live with us. This has taken up great amounts of our time, dealing with selling my moms house and property and all of the work to get that completed. As well as Teresa having to go stay a day or two per week with my 93 yr old mother in law to help her. The list goes on and on. It has been a strange couple of years for us. We still have the 2007 RSTD that prompted me to become a member here way back in 2008. She's still a beaut, and runs well after all these years. She has taken us to 37 states over the years. Buuuuut.......We have been kind of losing interest with riding, due in large part with my heart health issues. With the defibrillator installed now, we have a concern that if we ever did go down, it could be a serious situation with the electrical connections and such with my heart and the defibrillator. We are getting to the age where going down just isn't something we want to deal with, or at least we want to reduce the chance of it happening as much as possible. However, we both agree that we aren't finished with our desires to drink the wind, and experience the therapy that we all know comes with riding out in the open air across this beautiful nation of ours. So..........this past October 7th, we purchased a brand new 2020 Can Am Spyder RT Limited. Big beautiful red/black machine that has completely won our hearts. We purchased it on October 7th, and two days later, put it on a trailer and towed it to Flagstaff AZ. Left our truck and trailer at an RV park in Flagstaff, and rode the new Spyder on a 1250 mile loop around northern AZ, southern Utah, and eastern NV. Took me a few days to get used to the thing, but now we are flat out excited to have it! It runs and rides smooth as a baby's behind, and has all of the fancy dancy thingamabobbers you can get on bikes nowadays. And, it comes with a far more secure feeling of not having to worry as much about going down. I know the rule; I'll post pics soon. I just wanted to jump on and say hi to all of my old friends, and say hi to a lot of new names I haven't seen before on the site. Please accept my apology for taking a loooong break. I'm baaaack! Big Lenny.

Hey 40, You are going through the exact thing I've been dealing with the past few months. Woke up from a nap, and my neck and across my right shoulder, and about half way down my arm were in so much pain I couldn't stand it. I was delirious for 3 days, with no sleep, and constant excruciating pain. I couldn't function. Stayed immobile. My right arm was buzzing, and my hand was tingling, and weak. My wife convinced me to go to a good chiropractor that she goes to. After 13 visits over 5 weeks, the pain was way better. Actually, it was getting where the pain was almost gone. But, I still had the buzzing in my arm, and hand, when I turned my head, and kept it in a certain position. The Chiro had taken X-rays the first visit, and had stated it appears to be a bulging disc, along with some degenerated discs, that were narrowing done on the nerve. But, the Chiro, after 13 visits, suggested I go see a specialists, and have an MRI done. I did that, and it showed a bulging disc between the C5-C6, that was pushing against the nerve cord. The specialist gave me 3 options: 1. Give it some time and see if the nerve gets used to it, and the bulge may work its way back in. 2. Get an injection in my neck that would deaden the nerve. 3. Have a discectomy surgery, going through the from of my neck, and replacing the disc with an artificial disc, and fusing the two vertebra together. I chose the give it some time option, since the pain has subsided. I have been 3 months since the ordeal started, and the pain is gone, so I'm not having to deal with that, but I still do have the arm buzzing, and hand tingling when I hold my head in a certain way. It's getting more livable. Tomorrow, I am gonna pick up an over the door neck traction unit that Chiro is wanting me to try. Hopefully, that will assist the disc to ease back into its place. We'll see. At least i can deal with it now, and get a full nights sleep. I hope you get better. BigLenny

Pucster, Thanks for all that cipherin that we didn't have to do. You Da Man!!! Polaris has a bike habit that I would bet they support with their sales of side by sides, and 4 wheelers. They sell a bazillion of those each year. Like you said, I'm glad they're in the market, and taking a whack at the establishment. It only makes for great products for us all to choose from across all brands. Big Lenny

OH, MY HEART ACHES!! Bob was truly a legend around here. In 2012, Teresa and I had a 2 weeker planned for an out west ride, and 2 weeks before our leave out date, while taking the front axle off to change the front tire, all of the threads in the left axle came out when I unscrewed it. I was in a full blown panic. The shop that I had taken it to to have the tire changed the last time, had not put anti seize on the threads. I immediately started having visions of having to buy a new fork, and all of the mess it was gonna take to get that fixed before our vacation. I jumped on the site here, and voiced my predicament, and it was BongoBob who responded, and urged me to calm down, and trust the knowledge of the people on this site to help me rectify the situation. Bongo immediately recommended a helicoil solution (I had never used a helicoil kit), and he encouraged some others here on the site to chime in on whether that would be a good idea or not. He basically took my situation to heart, and ran with it. Well, the helicoil was the exact fix that was needed, and we wound up having the best motorcycle vacation we've ever had. He even kept checking with me to make sure it was still doing good on the ride. We are still riding that bike with the helicoil fix. Bob was a special human. And, I love the fact that he was not shy about his faith. Words can't express how much he will be missed. I will continue to keep his family in my prayers. Rest in Peace Great Man!

I gotta question... My wife has a training she has to attend in San Mateo, CA the week of July 14th. She wants me to go with her, and us spend her off time seeing points of interest in the area. We'll probably go a few days earlier, and stay a few days after. If I go, and we rent a bike from Eaglerider, or some place like that, and we ride a couple days, can I technically count that as California being a state we have ridden in? Or, does it have to be on our own personal bike? Opinions??????? Big Lenny

Hi Status, I'm super excited you and your bride are gonna get to take a good long ride. I bet its gonna be a great trip. The Kentucky Horse Park is great! I noticed you said 800+ miles from Hannibal to Lexington. Google Maps shows it to be 453 miles. Are sure you have that correct? 800 miles is a lot to cover in a day. Big Lenny

Hey Skydoc, I hope you’re doing well. I bought the clutch kit from ya several years ago, and now I need to do it again. Please contact me and lets work work a deal. Thanks, Big Lenny

Hi Condor, Not sure what year model your Titan is. Those dudes used to be gas suckers, but Nissan completely remodelled them in 2017, and they get a lot better mileage now. 2017 is the model year I have, and I just looked at the avg MPG before I came in the house and jumped on the forum. It says its averaging 17.9 on this tank of gas. But, I've been running quite a bit of city stuff the past few days.