tv5150

WOW!!! Sounds like your Harley was a great bike to take a vacation on...WHILE YOU WERE ON VACATION ALREADY...you have alot more tenacity than I do to have kept it as long as you did and for that I do give you a tip of the helmet...Glad you finally got something you can actually ride and enjoy knowing that once you leave home, you'll probably make it back home without major interuptions Y'all Ride Safe Now, Ya Hear?

This might not make me an expert on this subject, but I've owned every model GW since Apr 75 (BTW, I was 23 at the time I got my 1st Goldwing---(does that make me an "old man" before my time???), one of each size CC through the years. 11 years ago I owned a 1997 Valkyrie and a 98 SE Goldwing. I went to the Yamaha dealer to test ride the New Venture (I've owned 4 1st Gens through the mid 80s thru the early 90s). Anyway, I took the Venture out and when I got on the freeway to accelerate I was totally disappointed in the bike compared to the 1st Gens I had owned earlier. I couldn't get off the freeway fast enough and high-tail it back to the dealer to retrieve my Valk, thanking the salesman, hoped on my Valk and "hauled butt" out of there. When the new 01 Goldwing was released I traded both my Valk & my 98 SE for a new 01 Pearl Blue Goldwing without even riding it. I got to the dealer early the morning of the un-crating and final delivery, the whole time thinking to my self "have I made a major screw-up, trading my customized Valk and totally decked-out SE for this new model?" Well, after all the paperwork was done and they handed my the keys to the bike, I hoped on and after the 1st mile I was thinking to myself "Valk & SE Goldwing?---What Valk & SE Goldwing?" It was without a doubt the best thing I've ever done as far as trading for another bike. BTW, I've owned 5 GL1800s over the last 10 yrs and 2 1st Gen Ventures in the last yr and I'm keeping the 87 I just acquired (the bike in the middle) with 24K miles on the clock until they pry the handlebars out of my dead hands!!! YOMV

Hope things work out and you have a Merry Christmas Scrat sends you & your pup a high 5

Do you have the thermostat housing and the neck on top of it for the 87 engine that you have the lower half of??? Thanks, Tom

OK, here I am, getting another 1st Gen Ven delivered to me on Friday (feel like a kid waiting for Christmas) and having owned 4 1st Gens back in the day. Now for the serious part. Has ANYONE been able to come up with fitting a CT on the 1st Gen. It had been so long since I'd been exposed to one, that when I did the research on R&Ring the rear wheel, I pretty much decided time to break-out the CT. It's not like changing the rear wheel on a GL18, which is like an afternoon in the park on a sunny spring day in comparison. That's some serious work, getting the 1st gen changed out. I want to do it once in a looooooong time and having already ran a CT on a GL18, I know the results if you get the size right the 1st time. Anyway, I'm here to stay with my newly aquired 89 Venture. Any and all info regarding the "magic number" for the tire size would be greatly appreciated. TV