V7Goose

Yup, that price was outrageous if they didn't mount it for free! Goose

Well, my 07 RSV is gone - new owner rode it home today! Told him all about our site, so hopefully we'll see him on here soon. Time to put some more miles on QuickSilver! Goose

Man, you must have at least STARTED this post on Friday the 13th, cause I can't think of any other possibility for someone saying a Venture with Brickstone tires handles better than any Venture with ANY other tire! In fact, I can't grok any of the differences you mention between an 01 and an 07 RSV, except possibly a difference in engine noise (and that wouldn't be specific to the year, just an individual bike thing). For example, to my knowledge, the shift and brake levers are identical on all RSVs? If that is right, how could they have different ergonomics? I guess the tin foil on my head is not working - now gonna have to get some foam to smother the smoke coming out my ears form the internal melt-down you started! Goose Please ignore any high pitched buzzing you hear - it is just my brain going into a high-speed wobble!

No, I no got da pen, boss. But I DID leave you a six-pack shaped blue ice in the freezer. Use it in good health! Goose

I am going to need a new rear tire long before I need a front - probably about the time I get back from the Canada Rally. I normally order my tires from SW Moto Tires and get the free shipping when I buy a pair. But I only need one now, so . . . Anyone in North Texas need one or more new tires? I'd like to combine an order and get free shipping on my one. I'm not in a super hurry, but I'll order as soon as I find someone to share with. Thanx! Goose

OK all, I now have about 5,000 miles on the Pirelli MT66 tires. Just looking at the rear tire, I'm pretty sure that it will not last as long as the Avon Venom. Sooo, I think the Pirelli is an average tire. It handles OK, but not as good as the Avon. It is reasonably quiet, but not as quiet as the Avon. It has an acceptable load rating (same as stock), but not as high as the Avon. It is cheaper than the Avon, but won't last as long, so even that is not an advantage. At this point, I see no reason to recommend the Pirelli MT66. I won't recommend against it, like I do the horrible Brickstone, but I cannot see any reason to buy another one either. I'm glad I tried it, but now I know. I guess you can tell I am missing my Avon Venom tires... Goose

Man, you pegged that one right on - and the sweat never stopped on that trip! You shoulda seen me bending over all those danged hot engines syncing carbs all day Saturday - or changing tires. I couldn't drink fast enough to keep the water in me! Goose

Hey Giga, you want me to bring your shirts back from the rally? Goose

The SilverStar is a great bulb, but do not buy the standard one - make sure you get the SilverStar Ultra - it is designed to last longer in vibration situation. Goose

The mind meld is gonna be tough when passing someone going in the opposite direction, but I am willing to try it if you are! Goose

Holy Butt Burn, Batman, you buy those things by the CASE?? No wonder they won't go away!

I made my own beads for the seat and love them - won't ride without them summer OR winter. With stock pillow-top seat, 600 miles is about max I can tolerate in one day, but with the beads I have done several over 1,200 mile days with no significant discomfort on my back side. I do not slide around on them at all. For reference, I am 6'5" and currently weigh about 230 lbs. I personally find nothing of value in the sheep skins. Goose

Well GeorgeS, I understand what you are saying, but then again, I don't. I got what I got today because I don't needlessly waste stuff I don't have to, whether it be gas, water, food, money, etc. If I can save money without materially impacting my experience, why wouldn't I?? To answer your question, at 36MPG, the trip would have cost roughly $331 in gas alone; at 40MPG, that cost is $298. If I was walking along and found $33 lying on the ground, I'd pick it up, wouldn't you? And yes, I too often ride around aimlessly just to enjoy the ride, but if I can do it for $11.50 instead of $12, I will. BUT, the bigger point of my post, besides maybe giving folks some ideas about how to save gas if they wanted to, was to help people understand WHY their gas mileage might be different from one day to the next, or different from someone else when comparing numbers. Goose

I sent you an email yesterday, but I think I forgot to mention the sleeve. Anyway, here it all is: 1 Large, 1 XL, both black and long sleeve. Sorry for the delay. Goose

Hey, I warned ya it was long, TWICE! So don't come whining to me about that. I find it quite interesting that your words per minute goes down when you sit more upright - mine usually goes up! But I am quite concerned with your productivity - do you have to sound out a lot of words? If it takes you two to three minutes to read this reply, I'm not sure how you got through my original post in less than a day! :rotf: Read on friend, but you might want to save some time by not looking at the quoted parts of the replies - after all, you already sounded all them out!

Yeah, but mine was there first, you slacker!

Well that was not mine, since I don't have a plug on my hitch, but I do have a mud flap with a square cut in it for the hitch. My bike was the silver one with the cooler rack hanging off the back parked under the little tree. I get my mud flaps from JC Whitney for about $5 for the pair (front and rear). Goose

When I am riding solo with no one to talk with, my brain starts to limber up and tries to escape. Sometimes all that thinking can be dangerous! On my way home from Don's this week it seemed to me I was getting particularly poor mileage, so I was doing a lot of thinking about it and thought I'd share with y'all. This is gonna be long - I had 3,000 miles to think on this trip! Things that affect fuel mileage, in no particular order (some more obvious than others): How full you fill your tank* Tire pressure Tire size, style, and composition Engine condition Primary and secondary electrical circuits Temperature of the gas when you fill up Temperature of the air Humidity Altitude and barometric pressure Gasohol (but NOT octane) Riding style, location, and terrain SPEED Winds Add-on miracle gadgets from late night TV commercials (I am sure I missed something here) Number 1 doesn't really change fuel mileage, of course, but it sure can throw off your calculation, especially with a small tank. For example, filling up with 5 gallons of gas after going 180 miles will give you 36 MPG (close to my average). But if you happen to squeeze 5.29 gallons of gas into the same tank, your calculated mileage would only be 34 MPG, and if you stop just a little short at only 4.73 gallons, you would be "enjoying" 38 MPG. So less than 1/3 of a gallon difference in our fill-ups makes more than a 5% change in the calculated MPG. Quite a significant change. The trick, of course, is to ensure you fill that tank to exactly the same level every time, and that is not easy. And if you have not vented the filler neck it is REALLY hard if you are trying to get it as full as you can to go longer between stops. I know when I am dinking around with the hose at the top of the tank trying to get the amount to stop exactly on even digits (such as $18.11 or $18.22, etc.) that I can easily put in more than 1/3 of a gallon more than where I already thought was a full tank. That is why I think it is so important to check mileage all the time if you are going to report it or compare with others - just a tank or two is not accurate to me. Tires - they affect mileage by how hard they are to roll. But I really have no idea how big a difference they make in actual calculated MPG, so I won't dwell on them here. Simply said, the more air in them, the harder they are, and the easier they are to roll. In addition, different rubber compounds and tire construction can change the way they flex and make rolling harder or easier. Even so, I tend to dismiss tires as not being a significant part of the MPG equation, but I'd like to hear from anyone who has more information and thinks they are significant. Engine condition is a biggie. If it is not running right for any reason, you get very bad mileage. If you engine is wearing out and your compression is dropping, it may still run fine, but your mileage will suffer a lot. Miss-adjusted or burned valves will kill you (figuratively speaking). Timing being off, fouled plugs, dirty carbs, etc. are all bad (note that the timing on the RSV is not adjustable). The electrical system on the bike can have a noticeable affect, but problems are not common. The primary and secondary circuits refer to the ignition circuit before and after the coils. In short, if you have a weak spark, you may not be getting full and consistent ignition of the fuel, thus causing poor mileage. Temperature of the fuel when you fill up is a big impact, but nothing you can control - just know that it can change the actual MPG by around 5%. Everything expands with heat, and fuel pumps only have to be accurate when the fuel is about 65 degrees (going from memory here). In the summer the fuel is warmer, so 1 gallon takes up more space. That means when the pump says it gave you 1 gallon, you really got less! It does not help filling up in the mornings, since the air temperature has little to do with the temperature of the fuel in the underground tanks. But the WORST time to fill up is in the summer during or right after a tanker has delivered fuel, since the fuel in the tanker is going to be a lot warmer than the fuel that has been underground for a day. Temperature and humidity affect the fuel mixture and combustion qualities of the mixture. Cold air is more dense; therefore, you get a leaner mix. Water compresses much less than air, so it not only affects the mixture, but the way it burns too. But frankly I do not know how significant these affects actually are. Probably not much. Air at altitude is thinner, so you run richer (less air to the same amount of gas) and get worse fuel mileage. The change can be significant in both MPG and power, but I don't know the percentages off hand. You may not know that changing barometric pressure is just like changing altitude. A storm coming in gives you the same affect as going up in altitude. Gasohol at any % is simply a curse from the bureaucrats! Alcohol has less energy than an equal volume of gasoline, so mixing any of it in your gas makes the same volume less powerful and you will burn more to do the same work. Curses!!! Octane, however, has no impact. Do not waste your money putting in any higher octane than your engine needs to not detonate (knock or ping). The RSV is specifically built to run on regular. Your individual riding style, including how much weight is on your bike, stop and go, steady speeds, hills, etc. all have a huge effect on your MPG. The faster you accelerate, the more you have to use your brakes, the more weight you carry all take a big toll on your mileage. Maybe hills don't have that much of an impact, since you gain back on the downhill side what you lost going up. I put speed and wind near the bottom of this list for a reason - they are quite similar and have the single biggest impact on MPG beyond something being wrong with your bike. I know for a fact that my Ventures and my riding style generally average 36.5 MPG combining around town riding and most highway speeds. But if I burn a tank at an indicated 80 MPH (actual 73 MPH) I will loose 3 - 5 miles per gallon. Conversely, just keeping it under 50 MPH for a tank, like riding the twisties in the Ozarks, will easily add 5 miles per gallon. The biggest part of that change is wind drag on the bike. So a 20 MPH change in average speed can swing the mileage by close to 10 MPG! Now realize that riding into a 20 MPH wind is even worse, since the impact of wind resistance is not a straight line - more logarithmic, meaning each additional mile per hour of speed has much more drag the one before it. Quartering headwinds are almost as bad. Tail winds, of course, are wonderful things. The last thing I am going to mention here are the miracle cures that you can find in any auto parts store, catalog, and late night TV commercials. EVERY ONE OF THEM IS GARBAGE!!! The only way any of those things can improve your gas mileage is to lighten your weight by taking away your money. Nuff said. I don't know if any of that will be of value to anyone (and I'm sure there is liable to be a lot of disagreement somewhere), but what the hey - thought I'd type it all in anyway. Ride safe all, and I hope your gas prices stay low! Goose

First let me say that I am not the originator of this information. While at Don's maintenance day, one of our members was running around with a pair of needle-nose pliers adjusting the carb linkage tabs on various bikes. I am very sorry that I do not remember who this was, as I was concentrating very hard on syncing carbs and trying to keep from wilting in the heat! I did hear enough about it while he was working on a bike next to me that I remembered to check my own bikes when I got home. Glad I did. So let's get the real person identified here so he gets proper credit! Background: Our chokes are really just an enriching circuit that makes the bike run rich while the knob is pulled out. If you look under the tank at the choke knob, you can easily see the linkage and how it moves. In this first picture you can see that linkage on the left side of the bike, and just above the throttle spring you can see the tab the goes up to engage a brass plunger: [ATTACH]18696[/ATTACH] Here is a closeup of just that tab and plunger. You can clearly see how the metal tab is touching the inside shoulder of the plunger, forcing it all the way closed when the choke knob is pushed in. This is the correct position for the tab when the choke is closed: [ATTACH]18697[/ATTACH] As you begin to pull out the choke knob, those tabs move through that notch and begin to push against the head of the plungers to pull it out of the carb, activating the enriching circuit and making the engine run better when it is cold. The free play afforded by the notch probably just makes the bike less sensitive to slight position changes of the choke knob. Those pictures were from my 07 RSV, and all four choke tabs looked fine. Now here is a picture of what I found on 3 of the four carbs on my 05 RSV: [ATTACH]18695[/ATTACH] Besides the fact that it is dirty and nasty, notice how the tab is touching the head of the plunger while the choke is supposed to be off. At the very least this is not ensuring the plunger is all the way in, and worse, it is probably actually preventing it from closing. In that case, the result could be poor fuel mileage, rough idling in the heat, fouled plugs, etc. Those tabs are very soft metal, so if any of yours do not look right, just use a pair of needle-nose pliers to slightly bend the tab to rest up against the inside shoulder of the brass plunger when the choke knob is all the way in. If you have the Yamaha chrome carb covers on your bike, you will need to remove them to see all four tabs. I do not yet know how this fix has affected my fuel mileage, but I will report back after I have had a chance to run a tank or two through it on the open road. Goose

Ya see, that's what makes you an amateur - I can even keep the cheap stuff down!

Since I met Eileen for the first time in Colorado last year I have know she was way too good for you - lucky stiff! Some guys have all the luck. And besides Eileen, I really admired what a great son you have. Your family is one to be proud of, and I feel great to have been allowed to share in it even briefly. Thanks. Goose

Training? Yeah, training - that's what I want! Which hand do I hold the scotch in, and which do I use for the tequila? I assume beer is appropriate in either hand, but I could use a verification on that too. Thanks all for your kind comments. The biggest down side I suspect is that I feel a little more constrained now in blurting out my contrarian attitudes. I'll bet that is why Don did this to me! (I'm chafing under the fetters already! LOL) Goose

He won't know how to ride this bike or what it has "under the hood" until he raps it out in second and third gears and hits the rev limiter. But he needs to make sure he has some open space for third - he'll be about 97 MPH when he feels the limiter hit. Goose

You have just described normal operation for this V4 engine/drive train. 2,500 RPM is too low for full throttle operation in ANY gear, but especially the upper ones. IMHO you should never crack it wide open until over 3,000 RPM, and 4,000 is much better! Like someone else said - downshift (two or three times) and RIDE! Quit acting like you have a paint shaker (HD).

I'm not looking at the manual, so beware - I may not know what I am talking about here! But I do not think the file numbering reset you mentioned is the same as the FOLDER name number. But the easy way to check if that could be your problem is to just look at the folder name for the last used one on your memory card. If it ends in all 9s, you may have a pumpkin. I wish I was going to be here when you come to Texas, but I am currently planning to attend an international Honda Refrigerator rally out in Georgia between September 24 - 30 (somebody has to show them a good bike, ya know?). I'll let you know if my plans change; I'd love to get together. Hope you have a good trip. Goose