DragonRider

Thanks Puc and Tip, I posted this to my niece. Brought tears to my eyes.

Update 3/29/18 Please continue praying for the Larson/Cramer families. Cole has gone to be with our Lord and Savior on 3/28/18. He was surrounded by most of the family, church congregation and close friends when he passed. Cole will live on and save several lives of others suffering, Cole organs were donated so others may continue to live. Cole was special, he was born with a severe handicap that affected his vision and sight and learning, but he soldiered on and lived a wonderful life surrounded by 5 doting older sisters. Cole was also active in Scouting and was leader of his Pack. Everytime I saw a picture of Cole his smile was the biggest of anyone around him, he brought much joy and laughter to his world. https://www.youcaring.com/colelarsonthelarsonfamily-1147992 Would appreciate prayers for my neices youngest. His name is Cole Larson and is 12 years old. He is currently in the hospital in Houston Tx. He was taken there by ambulance Monday after having a nose bleed, fever and then lost conscientiousness. He is now in icu and on life support due to a bacterial infection in his brain. The doctors said the only thing would help him would be a miracle. He is the youngest of six and the only boy. Please if you would keep Cole and the entire family in your prayers, they need all the help they can get. Thanks, I know we have many prayer warriors out there. Cole is my brothers only grandson and he is taking it very very hard.

Dan, cutting out the diet sodas and all carbonated beverages is the best thing you can do when you diet. I cut out all of them last year and when I started that diet I weighed 241 lbs. I changed my eating habits too and that helped. No seconds and smaller portions and cut way down on the sweets. It wasnt all that hard, but needed to do something after my heart episode that really got my attention. I now weigh 185. I would like to get under 180 but if I dont I am still very happy to be where I am at. My waist size went from a 42 to a 34. My shirt size went from XXL to L. Good luck with your diet, you can do it!!!

Craig, I am so sorry to hear about this, just reading it now. I had a call from Eck and he told me about your situation and it floored me. You have done so much everytime I put something up for St. Jude and it saddens me that you have now fallen to this awful disease. If there is anything I can do, if you want to talk, I am here for you. Charlene and I will be praying for you and your family during this difficult time. God bless you Craig.

I checked out those sites when I did the other XJ's, Forgot about them, I will use that as a resource and source for parts. Thanks

And that exhaust on you 750 was no worse than some Hardley's I have ridden next too........................and it wouldnt have been so loud if it didnt have those extra holes in the mufflers that you had to stop and fix............LOL.

Yes, it is a 4 cyl. the XS was the twin and the XJ's were all 4 cylinder. I had an 81 XJ550 when I first started restoring bikes when we moved here from La. They are great bikes, after I had the XJ550, I found an XJ750 and redid that one too, rode it for 2 years, it had a tour pack on it. Very nice bike and ran fantastic. Sold it to move up the the Venture's.

Shoes are new front and back, it is the hub lining. I totally disassembled both brakes and cleaned everything off with Emory cloth so every thing works smoothly and freely now. Appreciate all the feedback. Some things I do by nature others I need to be reminded. This is the smallest bike I have done and the easiest. All the others 20 or so were much worse off and took some time but I also paid a lot of attention to appearance as well as mechanics on those.

Thanks for the tip Puc, I will check those things out before I turn it over to him. This bike was used as a race bike for most of it life till the previous owner got too big for it. I was sure it would smoke a little when it ran, but not a trace. Its got a new carb., new brake pads, new front brake cable, new footpegs, new petcock, and a few other things. The one thing I didnt notice till I rode it was the back brake wasnt stopping it like it should, so I pulled the rear wheel off and found that the lining on the drum hub was really worn, the brakes hardly contact it when applied. But it will stop ok using both brakes at the same time, and wont be ridden very fast for a while till my grandson gets a little older. He is only 8 now, so he has a lot of time. Also while watching some vids on facebook today a video clip came up from the Terminator and it was the chase scene where young John Conner is being chased by the Terminator cop and the kid was riding an identical bike as this one. Was sad to see it get crushed under the tires of that wrecker. In a few weeks I will start tearing into the Maxim and see what awaits me. Luckily the bike was stored with a dry gas tank and carbs, the tank is spotless on the inside and no rust to be found anywhere on the bike. That little 100 has a lot of pep even with me on it.

When I went down to NOLA a couple of months ago to deliver a bike, I also brought back a couple of bikes with me, One was a XJ650 that was garage kept for 14 years, all original and a Honda XR100 that was given to my son that had been sitting for about 2 years out in the open. He was trying to fix it up for my 8 yr old grandson, but just couldnt find the time to get to it, so I brought it back to Newnan to play around with it and hopefully get it back in running condition. Pretty rough to begin with missing a few parts which were easily sourced either through ebay or amazon. Finally got all the parts in and it started on the 3rd attempt. Didnt restore it to like new because being his first m/c that isnt electric it will go down a few times I am sure. But it turned out pretty good for a freebie. Have yet to start on the XJ650 yet, that will have to wait till Charlene is out of the hospital for foot surgery and she is able to be up. Next 2 months I will be her full time nurse, again.

It is with much sadness that Ventureriders have lost another member. Joe Buttice passed last nite while awaiting heart surgery. Most will know Joe and Mary from Vogel. They started coming to Vogel in 2011 along with my cousin Jerry and his two cousins. His wife Mary tagged us as the 5 crazy cousins, all riding trikes. Joe was always fun to be around and always up for a ride anywhere. I have only known Joe and Mary for around 8 years but felt a closeness to them from the beginning, I guess thats what riding motorcycles is all about. I would ask that you keep Mary and the rest of their family in your prayers during this difficult time. I will have to find a picture of Joe for the memorial wall.

So what kind of court will His Honor be presiding over??

Happy 70th Evan........

This years fundraising for St. Jude Children's Hospital is over. This year due to the low attendance our fundraising was not up to our standard as was the case in previous years where we had a Vogel event. Those that attended were very generous in their giving. Also thanks to Bongobob and the WNY rally attendees donation and the St. Jude auctions we at least have a nice amount to send to the "Kids". The auctions were not as good in the past, but in the end we are making a contribution. Many many thanks to everyone who participated in all the events that generated these funds for the "Kids". I am sure things will pick up in the future. Our grand total this year is.......$1221.55 :clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2::clap2: Thanks again and God Bless!!!!

OK, with all the talk about superman and bubba, at the next Vogel our Saturday event at the shelter will be a costume event, everyone will have to be dressed in some sort of costume, (being dressed as a biker will not count) and we will have a voting contest for best costume and give away a nice prize, so start thinking about that, you have plenty of time to do it.

Rdawson.................t-shirt.................Priority mail Videoarizona............t-shirt.................Priority mail Craig Englehart........2 t-shirts...............Priority mail RockinRobin............2 patches...............Snail mail The Tooch.............1 patch/1 t shirt.......USPS International mail All shipped 9/22/27 Thanks again to all for supporting the "Kids" at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital!!!

Here are the winners from this round of auctions................ Rdawson.................t-shirt..................Paid Videoarizona............t-shirt..................Paid Craig Englehart........2 t-shirts...............Paid RockinRobin............2 patches..............$11.00 The Tooch.............1 patch/1 t shirt......$20.00 Robert Scharf........1 t-shirt................$11.00 Sylvester.............Backrest RSV...........$63.60 Thanks to everyone who bid and supporting the "KIDS" at St. Jude. Payment can be made to PayPal at this email addy. partin_guy@yahoo.com Please remember to include your shirt size if you won a shirt and your delivery address to speed things up. Thanks again!!! Lewis

Dont miss out on your last chance this year to score a Cruisin' for St. Jude t-shirt, patch, or the Diamond R backrest that are being auctioned off, the auction will end tomorrow, just a little over 23 hours left to get in on the action. Remember, "Its all about the "KIDS" :clap2::clap2::mo money::mo money::thumbsup2::thumbsup2: :Venture::Venture::Venture::Venture:

Had an appt. with my primary care physician for tomorrow, but got a phone call this morning, the Dr. was reviewing my file before my visit and wanted me to go to the ER to see if I had a blood clot, the ER was the last place I wanted to go, but in the end it cost me less to go there than to the DR, who would have sent me to an imaging facility to get x rays and an ultra sound, that would have been expensive even with my insurance, but at the ER one co-pay was much less than the other way. X rays were negative and the ultrasound was negative for blood clot. They weren't sure if it was a hematoma or an abscess so they tried to aspirate it to see what came out. Being a smart ass that I am I asked "what if nothing comes out", they laughed and said they would be dissapointed, guess what, first time nothing came out, so tried again different spot and finally got a drop of very dark blood. He decided to go a little deeper so stuck me 3 times with deadening agent and went really deep, but still not much. So patched me up, gave me a pain script and antibiotic and sent me on my way. And this is the way I spent 3 hours on my birthday!!!!! High point of the day was picking up my grandsons and ,taking them to martial arts and out to eat, that was definitely more enjoyable that the start of my day.

Well its been 10 days since my little mishap at Vogel. Thought that by know the swelling in my leg would have gone down by now, but it hasn't. Keeping it elevated, iced and staying off if it hasn't helped at all. Its not painful, but it is still very swollen and has some redness around it. So on Friday I will be going to the Dr. to see what the heck is going on. Just as Charlene gets good news and released from the doctor the other shoe drops and it happens to be mine................:crying:

Just received my new Cycle World mag and there is an article about the new Venture. Decent read, still dont like it though.

Tom, thank you and all your attendee's for their generosity, it is greatly appreciated by the "KIDS" at St. Jude. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

​It is disappointing that the economy has affected everyone. So much that for the last three Vogel rallies attendance has been lower and lower each time we put one on. This year the attendance was a whopping 19 attendee's. Out of that number we only had 6 bikes that made it to the final day. We had a great time but with lower attendance comes a smaller amount of money to be donated to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. Our total so far for this year is just a few dollars more than our very first donation, which was $500.00. And that amount was collected with 4 times as many people as this years event. The people that attended this year were very generous with their donations and I think that speaks volumes as to the mind set we have for the "Kids" at St. Jude. So with that being said the auctions that are up now in the classified section will be your last chance to get a Cruisin' for St. Jude t-shirt or patch. Right now I have 16 auctions up for shirts, patches, and a RSV backrest by Diamond R.and only 2 items have been bid on so far. The auctions will end on Sept.14, 2017. I will still have some left after these auctions end and I will not put them up on auction. I will come up with another way to distribute them and try to collect more donations for the "Kids". On another note, we normally have a ride in late Sept, or first week of Oct to meet up in Memphis and ride to St. Jude as a group to present our donation and have a tour of this awesome facility. If you haven't been this will likely be your last chance to make that ride. Some people say its depressing to tour the hospital, but ask others who have been and they will tell you its an emotional journey like no other. To see what Danny Thomas has done for these unfortunate children that contract this awful disease. You will come away awed by what you see and what you learn about this "hospital". I wish there was another word to replace that, because most people detest hospitals whether they are in it or just visiting. The smells and atmosphere that you find in most hospitals don't exist at St. Jude. If you were blindfolded and taken into the heart of this facility and not told where you were and asked to guess what it was you would not even think of it as a hospital. You wont see sickly looking people there, but what you will see are kids undergoing treatment to save their lives and they still have smiles on thier faces. It's a happy place for them, they know they are getting the best care and loving attention, and the staff goes out of their way to make sure they are taken care of. I have been there 6 times, touring the hospital 5 times and The Ronald McDonald house once. Last year our donation was small also and didnt get much interest in the ride so I mailed the donation in. So this year if there is enuff interest in a ride I will contact St. Jude and see if we can schedule a ride and tour there on short notice. Therefore I need input from you the members as to whether we ride and tour or mail our donation in. So please, if you are interested in going please acknowledge that in this thread. I need to know by Sept. 16th. Below are pictures of one of the patients we had the honor of meeting 6 years ago while on a tour. His name is Brayden Shields and he is pictured here sitting on his brothers lap. The other picture is Brayden today, he has undergone over 20 surgeries to his eyes. He is quite the trooper, you wont find many pictures of him where he isn't smiling or having fun like any normal kid, except he is far from normal, he is constantly making trips to St.Jude for treatment and surgeries. This young man is my hero, he has tolerated for more than anyone that I know of and still puts a smile on my face every time I see his picture. This is what your money does for not only Brayden, but all the patients that go to St. Jude for treatment. I want to thank everyone who has supported our efforts to help St. Jude. Remember, It's all about the "KIDS"!!!!

Cruisin' for St. Jude auctions are now open. T-Shirts, Patches, and a Diamond R backrest for RSV. Remember, its all about the "Kids".

This was a different cabin not quite as high up as the other one. Aww