Daveand Barbie

ATGATT - all the gear, all the time. That #4 grit sanding belt below my tires is not inviting, thank you very much. Then again, I am used to full nomex underwear, driving suit, FC helmet, balaclava, gloves, and boots in the car, so this is only a minor inconvenience.

I have one old laptop with WinXP that dual boots to Ubuntu. Moved from designing with pencil, a box of plastic shapes, and a sheet of graph paper to a Mac decades ago. It changed my productivity more than I could have ever imagined. Recently, I hacked my EEEpc netbook from WinXp to OSX and love it. Built an Intel Dual core and loaded up OSX there as well. I bought the lovely Barbie an IPad for Christmas and it was on from there. She insisted that I had one too, so I said "Yes dear", just as I did when she said we needed a touring bike with a nice seat for her. Wimmin are great for those kinds of things........

I have a couple of mid 80's I4 Hondas that have a 2nd gear problem as well. It may or may not be a similar situation, but this is what I have learned from riding them and discussing with others. Preload the shifter(put some pressure on the shift lever with your foot) then pull the clutch and make the shift. I have learned to do this and find the shifts to be very smooth and positive.

Ken, It is a Yamaha Venture Line backrest that came on it. It would be my impression that it is a factory piece or dealer installed option, but who am I to know......I am kind of new to this one. My experience is with Bultacos and older Honda inline fours.

We are located in Fairfield, which is midway between Cincy and Dayton. Where is the rally in Indiana? Maybe I should look at the calendar section here and learn about it.

If it;s pictures you want, then it's pictures you'll get! I took a couple of quick shots with my not so wonderful camera and uploaded them. Rode a little over 100 miles today and enjoyed even more.

Thanks to everyone for all the great comments. To add to the information..... - Date code indicates 2008 manufacture - According to records I got with the bike, installation was 4/2009 - comparing tread depth from center to side, tires are at about 75% - durometer indicates nothing abnormal from side to center - I can feel no cupping or flat spots on the tires - I weigh in at 190 pounds and the lovely Barbie is 115 - I couldn't discern any play in the steering head bearings in any direction,however I will check carefully and repack when I change the springs I have past good experience with Dunlop trials tires but no street experience. I will order up some Avons and will mount them when I change the springs. Two of our other bikes have Avons on them and I am really pleased with them. I was just concerned that there might be a wheel bearing issue and wondered if there were any thoughts about this particular tire. We are both completely taken with this bike and every time we take it out, it commands lots of very positive comments. In fact, we were at the flood wall murals in Portsmouth, Ohio and a gentleman walked by and said "best touring bike ever built, hands down" and walked away.

We bought our '90 Venture about 8 weeks ago and have already ridden nearly 2000 miles on it. After reading many of the discussions here and getting more "in tune' with our bike, I decided to add the heavy fork brace and the Progressive fork springs to help cure the somewhat "flexy" feel in the front. Last Friday, I ordered both from the classified section here from the members posting them. I received the fork brace yesterday! all the way from California to here in Ohio. I just couldn't wait, so I installed it and went for a ride. What a difference! I began wondering if I needed the springs, but they are going to be installed before it is all over along with some new fork gaiters which are split in multiple places. Since the bike has only 12,000 miles on it and it spent a number of years on the center stand, the springs aren't that critical this week. One issue that I am puzzled by is the sound that is generated when I get the bike leaned over much more than about 70 degrees. There seems to be a bit of a "roar" from what I believe are the tires. It has Dunlop 404 tires on it at about 75% thst were mounted at the same time. Is this characteristic of these tires, or is there something else like a bearing bad? I don't have any experience with Dunlop street tires, all my other bikes have Avons on them. We are both extreemly pleased with this bike and want to have it in the stable for years to come so anything that might need to be addressed needs to be done soon. I appreciate the thoughts and wisdom of the group.