RedRaptor22

Pure snake oil for street applications, absolutely no real benefits if you actually ride your bike and drive your car. Pressure should be checked regularly reguardless if you have No2 or regular air because screws,nails, wood staples and sharp rocks could'nt give any less of a crap what you put in your tires. I'm guessing not many people actually keep tires long enough to see any benefits of the reduced oxidation either, the most I've ever gotten out of my bike tires was 12k on a front and 8k on a rear and those were dual compound touring tires. The truck usually gets a new set every two years, not nearly long enough for tires to rott from the inside out. On the bike I NEED my tires to heat up quickly and stay there for traction purposes, with cold tires painted lines and tar snakes may as well be pea gravel.

Webbikeworld.com has reviews and comparisons on pretty much every helmet worth buying which is tons of them, their usually pretty dang accurate with their reviews and they don't hold back when it comes to bad features and designs, it makes for a good research tool when helmet buying. But really you should find a shop to try them on also to get an idea of the sizing and fit because even the best helmets are pretty useless if they don't fit correctly.

I've used rotella in almost all of my wet clutch bikes since I can remember with no problems, even in my motocross bikes I've never had to change a clutch. Once had a slippery clutch because of synthetic oil and a fresh oil change with rotella cleared it right up.

This one should work, comes with hall effect sensor, temp sensor and a magnet kit. $129.95 http://www.trailtech.net/product8157.html Can add this for warning lights $49.95 http://www.trailtech.net/022-PDA.html Says it comes with 8 icons for the idiot lights but only 4 places for them, you could probably locate any additional ones you may want somewhere else....or modify the yamaha rhino dash kit with 6 lights to fit your needs. $99.95 http://www.trailtech.net/75-RH-01.html Could probably find that stuff cheaper on ebay or something.

Thats actually a pretty common swap for the SV, they even make an SV specific kit that comes with a new temp sensor and speedo sensor. Any hall effect type sensor like the second gen's speedo sensor can be used for the swap, along with 4 small magnets. The most common way we do it is to make a small bracket to mount to the front brake caliper and epoxy magnets inside the brake rotor rivets "assuming you can space them 90 degrees apart that way". The rest could probably be done easy enough with some time, test light, solder and shrinkwrap.

A guy in my neighborhood wears a scorpion leather suit on his M109 and it looks like a perfect match with the bike, not sure about the venture though. I'll be rocking my usual stuff that I wear on the SV, a fieldsheer congo sport jacket with icon carbon knuckle gauntlets, icon shorty boots, knee/shin guards and my full face helmet. Thats about my maximum amount of gear but it's also the minimum I'll get on the bike with.

Yeah but mines missing a shard about 3/4" by 2.5" so if I get rained on the bulb is definately going to blow. If I were a crack I'd just epoxy it and never worry with it again lol.

Thanks for the links, I actually have a spare cafe headlight like the one on my Sv that should fit in there that I'm working up the nerve to cut apart and put in an HID from a bmw. http://i43.tinypic.com/334ue1e.jpg I bought it new from delkevic for $54 because I did'nt want to screw up my only round 7" light. May just end up with an HID on the venture, the lighting sucks but I really don't want to go sticking fog lights all over it.

The Mr. Gasket fuel pump was around $45 at autozone off the shelf, you may want to get a regulator too "hanging right next to the fuel pumps", at first when it primed fuel belched out of the drain hoses so I thought I blew the carbs up but my floats were stuck. Once I tapped on the bowls with a ratchet extension to free them it ran fine. I doubt a typical pump is going to have all the trouble that crazy yamaha design has with all of the exposed wiring and contacts and stuff lol.

I bought a Mr. Gasket fuel pump from autozone the other day, it's a 4-7psi universal one and it's working great. I had to buy a few 90's and a straight peice about an inch long so that I could route the output side in a "U" shape so that it would fit behind the side cover and I just zip-tied it in place. Have'nt put any miles on it yet but it's got about an hour of run time with no problems.

Thanks!

My lens is cracked and I can't find just a lens for sale anywhere, the only way I can see to buy it is the whole assembly with the mounting flange and adjusters for like $125 at the cheapest. Anyone know of a place that sells just the glass? or have any cheap alternative to replace it? Would it be possible to just use a plain sealed beam headlight even?

Well straycat they don't call them accidents for no reason, their called that because no matter what you may think you have absolutely no control over them regaurdless how defensive or safely you ride. I've had one 45mph crash that was completely my fault and almost felt it coming but I had gear on and was completely unharmed. And during my daily commute I've avoided dozens of really close calls with cagers I simply could'nt have ever expected...those times are the times I wear my gear for, and the one that actually gets me. If you really want insist that caution is a replacement for preparedness I can let you talk to my uncle who's now disabled thanks to a left turning driver and he can tell you all about his fractured skull, crushed pelvis, ankles, shattered elbows and wrists, not to mention the massive amount of rash he got...He's pro gear now that he's too broke up to ride but it's kinda late for him. Or my friend that was run off the road by a lady in lincoln town car a few years ago, took on some trees at around 65mph, did'nt have a helmet on so his brains ended up on the outside of his head and his face was off somewhere else but he just was'nt skillfull enough to keep that lady in her lane while she was digging in her purse.... a helmet would have at the very least allowed him an open casket feuneral.

After attending the Louisana state motorcycle awareness and safety rally this morning and seeing all of the rash laden 50 something guys in cut-off t-shirts holding soup bowls for helmets hobbling around with their women dressed in clothes fit only for back yard shenanigans I could'nt help but think about my mangled and dissabled uncle and the names on the list of 60 odd dead riders who passed since the last rally so I decided to steal a post from another board I attend and spread it to the others I attend. Enjoy and ride safe. Riding Without Gear - A Personal Choice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Riding without boots and crashing might cost you some road rash or foot mash or even in an extreme case might lead to amputation. You might never walk without a limp. You might battle a weight and fitness problem for the rest of your life. You might never walk with pain. But it probablywouldn't kill you. Riding without gloves and crashing might cost you some road rash or a Munched hand or the severe, excrutiating pain of mangling a body part rich with nerve endings. Or you could lose a finger or two. It could cost you the ability to play ball with your son, to properly feel the gentle curve of a womans breast, or to hold a beer. But it probably wouldn't kill you. Riding without at least an armored jacket and leather trousers or full leathers or an Aerostich or even just a leather jacket and jeans and crashing might cost you serious road rash. You might grind off a nipple. You might embed gravel in your elbow. You might get beef jerky all over your back. You might grind off your kneecap or have a scar resembling Australia on you calf like a friend of mine does. You would be scarred for life and not be able to walk on a beach shirtless without feeling self conscious. You might end up like Kevin Spacey's character in "Pay It Forward" and have to deal with the same awkward moment every time you remove your clothes with a new lover. But it probably won't kill you. Riding without a back protector and crashing in all but rare crashes would be inconsequential. However, there are so many variables out there- curbs, fenders, poles, guardrails, debris in the road- any one of these could be the golden BB that nicks your spinal cord in just the wrong way and leaves you in a wheelchair for life. Or, maybe you just have constant sciatic pain in one leg. Or you can't move your legs. Or you have to wear diapers for when you @#%$ yourself, and/or a colostomy bag you have to pull out of your pants leg and squeeze your waste out into the toilet at a bar like a guy I know. Or you can't move from the chest down. Or from the neck down. Are you good at working joysticks with your mouth? Or maybe you might need a respirator? Or 24 hour care? Certainly, there are impacts that are completely forseeable that would permanently injure you even with the best back protector in the world. But there are crashes and subsequent impacts that even mediocre back protectors can make that little bit of difference in- the ones you get up and walk away from, sore all over, but *walking*. Do you want the last time you walked to be when you walked out of 7-11 with a pack of smokes and then got on your bike? Those precious few steps out the door and over to the bike to be the five steps you remember the rest of your life because the next time you were off the bike you were lying strapped to a backboard staring at the headliner of an ambulance, tears running down your face because you couldn't feel the little piggies and you were almost ready to vomit at the stench of your @#%$ because you lost control of your bowels? Riding without a back protector and crashing might not make a difference, or it might make all the difference in the world. It might not kill you, but it might make you wish it had. And, finally, helmets. Riding without a helmet and crashing might be of no consequence. You might never even touch terra firma with your head. Or you might give yourself an asphalt facelift. You might get a concussion that results in only a bad headache the next day. You might get a serious concussion that lands you in the hospital for endless CAT scans and MRIs, and for the rest of your days be plagued by migraines. You might fracture your orbital and lose your vision. You might fracture your skull and end up fully functional but with a horrible Frankenstein like scar and a metal plate that bothers you on cold days and sets of metal detectors in airports. You might have a closed head injury from which you don't awaken from for hours or days or weeks or months- all the while your mother, father, sister, brother, children, workmates, and/or riding buddies come a visit you, filling an utterly depressing hospital room into a gauche jungle of flowers and bright card saying "get well soon!" that you never see or smell. Sure, you might awaken completely normal besides the hole drilled in your head to reduce pressure. Or you might awaken a little fuzzy, unsure who these people are. Or you might awaken and have to re-learn everything it took you all your life to learn, eventually returning to normal or even better like Harrison Ford in "Regarding Henry". Or you might awaken a man-child, drooling and laughing as you try to stack blocks, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt signed by your mother, father, sister, brother, children, workmates, and/or riding buddies- which you will never read. Or you might have an open head injury, from which the "you" you know will most likely never return. The rest of your life -be it a day, a week, a month, a year- will consist of feeding tubes, the endless beep and whoosh of the heart monitor and respirator, and the drip-drip or IV fluids, catheters in your rod, and feeding tubes. Of course, you won't mind all of this, you'll be in a dream land no one knows about. Your body will waste away and atrophy. Eventually, the shell that used to be you would give out, and your loved ones would have to make the most grueling decision of their life. Or, you might die on the road, fluffy gray brain matter mixing with blood and cerebro-spinal fluid. Perhaps you last ride would be twenty miles an hour down the street by your house combined with an impatient young driver and an ignored stop sign. Or perhaps it would be a ride on the freeway and a pothole denting your rim and popping the front tire off the bead sending you into the guardrail. Or you might go out in a blaze of glory qith a 100 mph wheelie ending the wrong way. Whichever way, would make maybe a 10 second news story depending on where you live, maybe a paragraph buried on page 32B of the paper. Riding without a helmet could be of no matter- or it could mean the difference between going on as you are now, or having life taken awy from you as if God flipped a switch. I can live without toes or a mangled foot- but I choose to try and prevent that. I can live with a hand that looks like a burn victim's and maybe relearn to write with my left hand- but I choose to try and prevent that. I can live with a scar in the shape of Australia on my calf- but I try and prevent that. I can live with road rash on my torso and arms- but I try to prevent that. I could live in a wheelchair, agonizing through every day, but I chose to try and prevent that. I can't live as a man-child. I've already played with blocks. I only drool when I sleep. We all make choices. Gear can't always save you. All the best leather, denim, Cordura, Kevlar, fiberglass, and plastic is useless when fate throws the Immovable Object or the Irresistible Force in your path. But I choose to stack the deck in my favor. If it all ends up for naught and the stacked deck and the cards up my sleeve end up losing to Fate's royal flush, so be it. But I'll try.

I just got my 99 running and have'nt noticed any sort of whine, I'm pretty sure it's all stock with the 40k original miles, I used rotella T in it, after ending up with a destroyed clutch do to synthetic I'll never run it in a bike again.

Also, has anyone ever tried to replace the rims with V-Max rims? doing some research on the parts fiche it looks like the rear is a direct replacement but the front may need a spacer, the bearings are the same part# but the V-Max uses a front speedo drive.

I appreciate everyones opinions and sentiment about the bikes but it kind of boils down to a "this is what I have" situation. Even if I were to sell it and get something different I simply still would'nt be happy because for some reason there just is'nt anything built that I would'nt have to go back and do 100 things differently lol. Same reason I bought a fully faired sportbike and stripped it completely naked, it had the makings of something beautiful and raunchy but it was just a bike, not "MY" bike.

Ok then it's a royal star venture, I don't have pics or the bike handy but it's this one right here. http://i49.tinypic.com/dpbat2.jpg It's a bit darker and more purplish in color, complete except for the trunk, basically looking to ditch the fairing, side fairings and air cleaners, and saddlebags. If it does'nt make it go, stop or handle I really don't care for it.

I was gifted a 99 venture royale a few weeks ago by my wifes uncle and intended to just get it running and titled for two up riding since the Sv is'nt physically big enough to do it comfortably, but since I lost my job I have'nt the funds to do so and I really prefer minimalistic bikes I was thinking about stripping it naked to fund the repairs. So here are my questions, are the guages sealed well enough on the back side to use mounted to bars rather than buying a whole new tank and guages from a tour deluxe? Also has anyone removed the big huge air cleaners and radiator shrouds without the tank and airbox from a tour deluxe? Has anyone tried tucking some pod filters inside the steering head covers? I'm hoping to be able to fund this conversion by selling the parts already on the bike since I currently have no income, Thats what I did when I went naked and upgraded to a gsxr front end on the SV, can it be done cleanly with the venture?

Not to mention your electric bill would take a big hit and also your compressor and fan would likely freeze up from pulling all that extra condensation out of the air.

Just looks like metalic paint, if the plastic has any texture to it will probably look like poo, otherwise it'll look like those stickers with the brushed aluminium look to them. You could do pretty much the same thing with any metalic paint and foam brush, chip foose uses plain silver paint and lets his dry first and come back over with a soft scotch-brite pad to get the brushed affect.