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V7Goose

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Everything posted by V7Goose

  1. V7Goose
    What tires came on the bike? If it has the horrible Brickstones, dump them NOW for some decent tires - you won't believe the HUGE improvement in handling! I know it is hard to accept spending money on new tires when the ones you have are still brand new, but it is REALLY that important for someone new to the RSV. With Avon Venoms, you will swear the bike lost 300 lbs. If you got lucky and it came with the Dunlop D404s, go ahead and use them up before you spend bucks on better skins. The 404s are just average tires that do not handle near as well as Avon Venoms or Dunlop E3s, but they are still an order of magnitude better than those horrible Brickstones. Goose
  2. V7Goose
    Your bike was two years past due for this very important maintenance. Goose
  3. V7Goose
    This information is ABSOLUTELY INCORRECT. All new batteries MUST be given a proper initial charge at the specs given by the manufacturer. Failing to do that guarantees that the battery will NEVER reach its full capacity, and its life will be shortened. Goose
  4. V7Goose
    It works just fine on a 2nd gen (but not for changing tires). I use a maintenance stand very similar to that. Goose
  5. V7Goose
    I can absolutely confirm this problem with the Stop & Go plugs. I have been carrying one for years, and I was initially impressed with the product; I did several test repairs with no problems. But now I know it is dangerous. Earlier this year I found a small nail in my rear tire (a Dunlop E3) - straight through the center of the tread, so it was a perfect candidate for repair. thankfully, I found this while at home. I used the Stop & Go plug gun - first pug inserted perfectly, but when I pulled on the stem to ensure the mushroom head was properly seated inside the tire (per the printed instructions), the stem popped out and the tire went flat. Comparing the stem to a new plug, it was clear it had broken off at the base of the mushroom head. I was sure I had not pulled too hard on the plug, but I was still willing to accept maybe I did make a mistake. So I carefully inserted another plug, and this time I made darned sure I did not stretch the stem more than 1". The plug held, so I assumed everything was fine and just went about my business in the garage. Approximately 20 minutes later I heard a "pop" and the tire went flat again. The SAME thing had happened - the stem came off the head of the plug and blew out - only this time I wasn't tugging on it with pliers. In fact, the bike had not even moved an inch since I had finished inserting the plug!! Like Leland, my plugs were several years old, but still in the plastic bag and coated with the original lubricant. They felt just as soft and flexible as they had the day I bought the kit and tested it. All I can say now after this experience, plus reading Leland's experience, is that I am absolutely certain that this is a VERY BAD AND DANGEROUS PRODUCT! I strongly urge anyone who has this kit to never use it! Goose
  6. V7Goose
    You should not run the rear wheel under power when it is hanging free in the air. The noise you probably heard is simply the wheel bouncing back and forth in the final drive lash (total space between the drive shaft splines, final drive gears, and wheel drive splines). This happens because there is no drag to ensure all those mating surfaces stay in contact on the same side. When you run it with nothing to hold the rear wheel back (the drag I mentioned), then every power pulse causes it to slightly over-run the speed of the drive line, then is begins to slow down just as another power pulse slams the drive line together again. Just a VERY LIGHT touch on the rear brake will simulate the road drag and cause the noise to go away. The noise gets less at higher RPM simply because the power pulses are closer together so there is less time for the wheel to slam back and forth. Goose
  7. V7Goose
    The final drive is a sealed uint, and there is no way it could be damaged inside from leaving anything at all out of the wheel and axle assembly. I have no way of knowing if there actually were/are metal pieces in your rear end, but this is extremely uncommon on this bike. I would suspect a lie. But you certainly should have drained the oil again by now to check it yourself. When the axle is properly torqued, all of the pressure is between the axle shoulder on one side and the nut on the other, and there is a complete metal-to-metal connection between the axle shoulder and the final drive through the side spacers and the sleeves running inside the bearings. If the axle is torqued down with any of these parts missing, the swing arm will deflect to take up any slack, and depending on the part missing, either the swing arm will bind up against the wheel or the bearings will be mashed together - either situation will virtually freeze up the rear wheel. If your rear wheel is turning freely by hand when torqued at 110 lbs, then all the parts are in there. I do not know what is causing your noise - there are lots of possibilities at this point. Ordinarily it is nothing more than just dry drive fingers, but with all the issues you have raised, who knows? I would not be able to diagnose it without a personal inspection. I hope you get it sorted out, Goose
  8. V7Goose
    The fact that you got the big oil leak immediately after you changed the carbs is almost certain proof that you did something to block the breather hose that connects between the top air boxes. And when you say there are now other gaskets leaking, and you had pressure inside the case when you opened the filler cap, that just reinforces my belief that the first oil leak was NOT coincidence. And NO, this is not a common thing with the Venture. In fact, I have never heard of it happening. An engine should never have any pressure inside it - never never never NEVER. All crankcases must be vented, one way or other. Without a vent, just the act of the pistons pumping up and down would rob power and blow out gaskets. Long ago, the vent was just an open hose hanging down towards the road, but for the last 50 years they all have had some form of PVC valve venting into the intake tract to allow the oil fumes and blow-by gasses to be sucked through the combustion chambers and burned. Goose
  9. V7Goose
    12.4 volts is below 50% charge for a VRLA battery (the type of battery used in the RSV), so if a fully charged battery is already below 50% in one day, that is totally unacceptable. A Lead-Calcium battery should take EIGHT to TEN MONTHS of sitting to discharge that much! It seems that your best course of action is to replace the battery, and now start paying attention to the resting voltage to detect problems with keeping your battery at full charge that will destroy it long before its time. Good Luck, Goose BTW - since your bike is only a 2010 model, it may be worth your time to tell your dealer you expect this to be taken care of under warranty (note that I did not say "ask"). If you read the actual wording of the warranty, the only exclusion for the battery is if it is stored improperly (just going from memory here), so you have a very strong argument that there must be something either wrong with the original battery or the bike for it to have failed so soon. Update: Just went and checked the exact wording - the specific exclusion is: "Battery deterioration caused by improper storage or maintenance." And by their actually including this exclusion, they prove that ANY other battery problems ARE covered under the standard warranty. If they try to weasel out of it, they have to prove that the problem was caused by "improper maintenance or storage."
  10. V7Goose
    As you already know, the problem was a stuck float, so my reply is simply to clue you in to a couple of other things you should know. First, periodically starting your bike but not riding it for over 10 miles is the WORST think you can do to any vehicle that has been sitting. In this case, that practice directly contributed to your stuck float. This practice is ALWAYS bad, and it is REALLY REALLY bad in the wintertime. Old gas turns to varnish and gum quickly - with the poor fuel formulas these days, this problem starts in as little as a week and gets progressively worse the longer it sits. If you are not actually RIDING the bike at least a couple of times a month, you should always use a fuel treatment. Every time the bike is stopped, fuel starts to evaporate from the carbs. I do not know for sure how long it takes for all the gas to evaporate (leaving behind lots of gum and varnish), but a few weeks of sitting should do it. Once it is all gone, the carbs won't get any worse, no longer how long it sits. But EVERY TIME you turn on the key, the carbs get floode3d with more gas to evaporate, so each cycle just messes them up more. That is not even the biggest reason why you should NOT periodically start your engine, but it is significant. After the period of time you described, along with your poor practice of regularly starting the engine, your carbs are now a REAL mess inside. Even if it seem to be running, you still have problems that need attention. A shop will probably charge you several hundred bucks to remove the carbs and clean them. Even if you never started the bike after it began sitting (so the carbs would be relatively clean inside, the old gas sitting in the tank and fuel lines is a big problem after six months or more. It will not burn well, and the varnish and gums in it will clog your fuel filter and damage your fuel pump. After letting a bike sit so long, ALL the old gas should be drained before making even one attempt to start the engine. I hope you get it sorted out, Goose
  11. V7Goose
    Highly unlikely that you will be able to tell the difference between links by measurement - the difference between measurements at the center of the holes is only 1/4". The best way to tell stock links is by the factory markings. I am not looking it up, but I think the number stamped on them is 4XY. Leveling Links or any home made links have nothing stamped on them. Goose
  12. V7Goose
    I think we need to make a distinction here between Locktite brand products and thread-locking products. "Locktite" is a brand name, and they make numerous products, including a super glue. But when most of us say "Locktite", we simply mean the common thread-locking compound. Locktite was the originator of this product, but there are now a number of competing brands of thread-locking compounds that are virtually identical. All of them cause plastic damage. This thread is specifically about thread-locking products, not all "Locktite" brand products. Goose
  13. V7Goose
    This warning about Locktite is posted here periodically, but since I just worked on a bike today with massive ABS plastic damage due to stupid Locktite use, I thought I'd start it again. The bottom line is that Locktite is known to damage many plastics, and ABS is one of them. We often caution people to never use Locktite on any screw that goes into plastic, but the problem is much worse than that. NEVER use it on anything that is even near ABS plastic! Every once in a while someone gets a bit uppity about these warnings and tries to say it is BS if a screw/bolt is going into metal, but I will give you first hand information about how much damage can be done by ignoring this warning. Had a guy come by today with 2nd gen trunk where all of the mounting points inside the lower trunk for the latching mechanism had busted loose. This just does not happen on this bike, so I was puzzled by why it had happened to him. The initial examination looked like maybe the plastic was defective from the factory. I have 100,000 miles on my RSV, most of which have been with the trunk over-full, and I have never had any problem, so why did his all break? Well, it became obvious while we were fixing it. Turned out that the plastic all around the latch mounting points had just disintegrated - no clean breaks at all, just crumbling plastic. And when I was removing the mounting bolts, I was struck by how tightly they were frozen into to the tinnerman nuts that fit over the plastic mounting tabs. These bolts should easily unscrew, but not his. Closer inspection showed that some poorly informed person had used Locktite on each of these bolts. Although these bolts do not directly screw into the ABS plastic, the tinnerman nuts clip over the plastic tabs so the bolts fit through a hole in the plastic, and the Locktite fumes damaged all of the plastic around the bolts. So the standard warning remains as strong as ever - NEVER use Locktite anywhere near ABS plastic! Goose
  14. V7Goose
    Local tire shops will often take them. For me, I used to take them to a recycle center, but then I found that Pep Boys welcomes anyone to bring a reasonable numbers of tires in to add to their recycle pile. I surprised them once when I bought in enough to fill the entire bed of my pickup, but they still took them. Now I take 'em in before the numbers get that high! Goose
  15. V7Goose
    Aren't opinions great? We each get to have one, and there is absolutely no requrement for me to agree with yours, or vice versa. Furthermore, we are all free to share those opinions with anyone who will listen. I just hope that people do not blindly accept your opinion. Or mine, for that manner. The important thing here that that they learn how to monitor their own systems and know how to interpret the information they should be gathering on their own. That way it does not matter who's opinion is "right" - they can simply avoid problems by just monitoring the facts. I do, however, think that you do the readers a disservice by claiming that the manufacturer's published information about full charge voltage of the battery in the RSV is incorrect. 12.9V is not "an ideal number that would be very difficult to find on a battery that had a few months and miles on it," it is THE factual number published by the battery manufacturer. If you find a battery that cannot hold that voltage at full charge, you have simply found a battery that has been damaged as I described. But again, I suggest any reader do their own research instead of accepting either my or your opinion. Even though I disagree with your opinions, I do appreciate your sharing them here - maybe you are right, maybe I am, or maybe it is still something different - but that is the best way to make sure that all sides of a subject are available for each reader to evaluate. Ride safe, Goose
  16. V7Goose
    Many people regularly destroy a battery long before its normal useful life - ESPECIALLY with motorcycle batteries. And almost nobody has any idea this is happening. With proper care, a modern battery should easily last AT LEAST five years. For example, I have a seven year old battery from my RSV that I replaced over a year ago when I was troubleshooting other problems. The battery showed no signs of weakening at all, but I replaced it just as a precaution. That battery sat under my work bench for a year (with only one or two regular charges to keep it up), and now I am using it in my lawn tractor - still going strong as it approaches eight years old. But with the typical use of many bike riders, a battery can easily die in only three or four years - even sooner in severe cases. Here are some of the typical problems: First, many batteries are put into use without being properly charged first - this is a BIG mistake, as it will never reach full capacity after that, nor will it last as long as it would have if properly charged first. Many people think that the initial dry charge, coupled by the vehicle charging system is all that is needed, but this is not correct. Second, many bikes sit way too long between rides. This has a cumulative effect of shortening the battery life by letting it sit for long periods below full charge. Third, unless you regularly ride 100 miles or more, your battery is rarely being brought up to full charge. This is the BIGGEST problem for most people. Riding 20 miles in a day is absolutely not sufficient to maintain your battery. Depending on the electrical load in use and how high your average RPMs are while riding, 20 miles is often not even sufficient to fully replace the drain from just one start of the engine. And if you make one or two stops in that 20 mile ride, the problem is even worse! So over time, the cumulative effect of each day's use (or sitting) builds up, and your battery can literally go months, and even years, without ever being fully charged. Once it is down to around 12 volts, it will still seem to crank the engine just fine, but the bike will need at least four or five hours of steady highway riding to finally bring the battery back to full charge. And on a bike with limited charging capacity, if you are running driving lights at all times (even the stock 30W lights for the Venture), you might not even be able to get it to full charge in that amount of time. So what I am trying to say is that often the "sudden" failure of a battery to start the bike is not sudden at all - it has been close for a long time. Your best protection from this type of problem is to have an accurate volt meter installed and watch it carefully before every ride. This battery is not fully charged unless it is showing 12.9V AFTER SITTING FOR AT LEAST TWO HOURS. The voltage right after you shut the engine off means NOTHING, so get in the habit of looking at it BEFORE you start the bike, and know that if it is regularly below 12.9V, you have a problem developing. Goose
  17. V7Goose
    Re-jetting is neither needed nor advisable IMHO. But the high altitude does have the engine running a bit rich. So tuning the carbs can help. Generally, popping or banging on decel is caused by some problem with the ignition or mixture. On these bikes, the most common problem is a vacuum leak form the vacuum port caps or damaged vacuum hoses on the other two ports, so always best to check those out first. The caps on the two vacuum nipples will get hard and crack in about two years, so start by replacing them. Another common problem is an exhaust leak at the Y joint; this is covered in numerous older posts. After making sure you do not have any vacuum or exhaust leaks, it is time to tune the carbs. Remove the anti-tamper covers from the mixture screws and carefully start to turn each one in until the RPMs begin to drop - this verifies the low-speed circuit is working. Now open the screw to reach the highest RPM, and repeat for each carb. After you have completed this process, if you still have problems with afterfire, you will need to check out other things that affect the combustion process. Good luck. Goose
  18. V7Goose
    Your tire numbers look right to me - both companies make tires in stock sizes for the RSV. Where are you in Texas? If it is North Texas, I can help you with both issues - even have a couple of tires sitting here. I guarantee that proper repair of whatever broken plastic you have will be every bit as strong as new. Either PM me with your phone number or look up my info in the Community Member List and give me a call. I am in the DFW area. Goose
  19. V7Goose
    I do not want to disagree too strongly here, but I believe the cautions posted by cabreco are MUCH more reasonable than what painerman67 said. I just went out and full soaked a bit of rag in Goof Off, then rubbed HARD and fairly long on an RSV lower fairing. It took quite a bit of time before there was even a hint of paint color on the white t-shirt, and since the bike was silver, that could have simply been imbedded dirt. The paint on the fairing looked untouched, but there was just a hint of tackiness to the surface. As stated by cabreco, I do believe Goof Off will damage the paint if left on for a prolonged time, but if I had other paint on my RSV that would not come off with other products, I would not hesitate to use Goof Off carefully to clean it up. I would expect the foreign paint to come of quickly and easily - long before the underlying factory paint could be damaged. The label does state that it contains XYLENE and "Damages many plastics and some automotive finishes." Note the words "many" and "some" instead of "all". I stand by my original advice - use with caution and test in an inconspicuous area first. It is a good tool to have, but any tool can cause damage if used carelessly.
  20. V7Goose
    Well stated, Kirby. It is important to realize that we are talking about motorcycle tires here, where the power to weight ratio is very different than most other vehicles. That is why bike tire wear is so significantly affected by riding style. ANYTHING that reduces the amount of slippage between the tire and the road will have a huge positive impact on tire wear. This means that added weight WITHIN THE LOAD RANGE OF THE TIRE has fairly insignificant negative impact on wear from the load (compared to other causes of bike tire wear), and a huge positive impact by reducing the slip. If we were talking about trailer tires, the whole discussion would be totally different. Trailers do not exert acceleration or deceleration forces on the tires (ignoring trailer brakes), thus the only real factors that affect wear are alignment, inflation and weight. In that application, if we assume alignment and inflation are correct, that leaves only the load as a significant factor over similar road surfaces. But to restate the obvious - we are talking about bike tire wear, not trailer tires. I only brought trailer tires into the discussion to help illustrate how important it is to focus on the application instead of a generic imagination about tires. Goose
  21. V7Goose
    There are two products that should work: Goof-off and Goo-Gone. You should be able to find either of them at most hardware stores. Goof-off is specifically inteded to remove some types of paint. I THINK they are both safe for our factory paint, but I cannot guarantee that, so best to test them on some hidden spot first. Note that the fuel tank is the only part of the bike that has a hard coating to help resist solvents such as gas, so test somewhere else, like the back side of a saddlebag. You might also ask at an auto-parts store - I'd think this would be common enough for them to have a solution. Goose
  22. V7Goose
    Personal attacks do not in any way increase your credibility. Please stop such unacceptable behavior on this site. Goose
  23. V7Goose
    You think I am wrong, and I am positive you are wrong - I guess we'll have to just agree to disagree on this and let the readers decide for themselves based on information provided and their own research. Goose
  24. V7Goose
    I have to quibble on a couple of points. Most importantly, "contact" does not equate to "friction", nor does it cause friction. If you set a brick on your desk, there is no friction, nor any wear to either the brick or the desktop. If you SLIDE the brick on the desk, you get both friction and wear. Now a rolling tire is not like a flat brick - we all know that, but the principle is similar - the more perfectly a tire or wheel rolls, the less friction. That is why higher air pressure (aka harder tires) increases fuel mileage. It is the slipping caused by both acceleration and deceleration that causes most tire wear. More weight on the tire reduces the slipping. Note that the "slipping" to which I refer is rarely obvious as spinning tires or locked brakes - all changes in speed between a road surface and the tire surface will try to generate some slip. Even if the weight is enough to almost totally prevent surface slip, the flexible rubber will deform against the road surface while the tire tries to change the speed, and then as it reaches the edge of the contact patch the rubber will loose grip and be scraped briefly as it snaps back into its normal position. Under-inflated tires wear faster primarily because they flex a lot when they are in contact with the road surface - the flexing causes the rubber to slide and scrape. Heat in tires is mostly caused by two things - the flexing of the carcass (exacerbated by under inflation) and the movement of the air molecules against the inside of the tire as it rotates - since that air is trapped, the heat cannot be blown away. Finally, if the load is within the rating of the tire, and the tire is properly inflated for each load (light load or heavy), then the contact patch is not significantly different, nor is the flexing much different. As a side note, the suspension of a vehicle can have a HUGE impact on tire wear, and wear cased by poor suspension design can be massively exacerbated by additional weight. On a motorcycle, the tires always move in a straight line with the axis of the bike, so the biggest impact the suspension can have is if it is not properly tuned for the weight of the vehicle. The compliance of the tire with the road surface over bumps will change the perceived weight between the tire and the road; then contributing to more slip. A three or four wheeled vehicle has many more suspension issues to deal with. Poor suspension geometry will destroy anything. Cheap independent suspension designs often have the axle attached in a fixed position to the control arm, allowing the tire to move in an arc around the control arm attachment point. This could be easily seen on old Volkswagens and Ford Escorts, where a loaded vehicle would look like the tires were splayed out on the bottom and leaning in at the top. This type of suspension causes the part of the tire in contact with the road to constantly scrub back and forth (sideways) with every bump, scraping off rubber at an amazing rate. In contrast, better suspension designs keep the tire vertical with the ground as it moves up and down, reducing this type of wear. Goose
  25. V7Goose
    Heat makes rubber softer; therefore, it will wear faster. I have no information on how much faster, or if the difference is even significant. Weight, on the other hand, generally makes tires last LONGER. By increasing the tire contact with the ground and resisting even minor slippage, there is less friction to scrape off the rubber. I first saw this information from one of the motorcycle tire manufacturers (Continental), and since it both came from a good source and makes logical sense to me, I believe it. The biggest variable beyond personal riding style (throttle, clutch, shifting, brakes) is road condition, including surface type and how curvy. Some surfaces that have a rough texture will chew at the rubber as it flexes over the sharp edges. Long distance riding often equates to faster tire wear simply because it often results in many more miles in a straight line - thus wearing out the center of a motorcycle tire more with every mile. Think of it this way - if you get 10,000 miles from a specific tire riding only straight, you could theoretically get 30,000 miles out of the same tire if you rode 10,000 miles one direction on a race track oval, then reversed directions and did another 10,000 miles on the same oval before riding your last 10,000 miles in a straight line. Goose
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