vzuden

My father died of a brain tumor at age 37 when I was in high school. Mother is in a nursing home with Alzheiners and incoherent for the past 5 years. Now not to go all doom and gloom because I have great wife, four wonderful kids, and five fantastic grand kids. That whole group is what keeps going me going and looking forward to every day. And those dats are even better hittin the open road on my RSTD!

George, go to to the tech section for 2nd gens and check out the procedure for installing leveling links to raise the rear of the bike. From the sound of what you have done on your bike so far you should be able to do this. I made my own links and the handling is much improved. I don't know if it will increase your ground clearance enough to avoid scraping the center stand but it should help some. If not, you will still have a better handling bike. Some have been concerned with increased seat height so if you are "in seam challenged" take that into consideration before raising the rear.

Go to the VR Tech section. There are wiring instructions there that should help

Try this guy. He sells on eBay and I believe they are $100.00 or less. Nothing fancy but it works for me. http://www.grasshopperlimited.com

Try this place. I have been using one on my 07 RSTD for a couple years and have been happy with it. http://www.grasshopperlimited.com Not fancy but it works

wide open throttle

Don't feel dumb. Many of us have been there

Four hours for me. I will plan on it!

We use it as an addition to cable and have only used it for Netflix. It is great for that

maybe...... They would PAY me to take it off their hands?

When inspecting and cleaning the connections I always add a little dielectric grease

Yes. 4 - 5 MPH higher than actual

Skydoc, Do all of your suggested maintenance items and the frequency of each apply to both first and second gen? Particularly the valve adjustment?

I took mine out, cleaned, and repacked them this spring. It was the better part of a day's work. They had a fair amount of grease from the factory, unlike the swing arm bearings which were almost dry.

"Don't have to.... she has them hanging from her rearview mirror." She has mine hanging from the receiver hitch of her truck:confused24:

I got my idea from Cadillac, where they ran fiber lines off the signal lights up to small fins on the top of each fender. Those were the indicators.. I think it was the same model that had the auto-dimmer on it??? In the '60's or maybe the '70's most of the luxury model GM cars had fiber optics than ran from the rear light assemblies to a plastic block above the rear window. The driver could see in his rear view mirror if he had light out. Worked well as I recall and now that the thought was brought up here I would think it should work well for our bikes.

You do not have a separate reserve tank. It is all one tank. the petcock valve has a high suction and a low suction. When it is in the on position it is taking a suction on the high suction tube. When the engine starts to sputter the fuel level is below the high tube. When you shift the petcock to reserve, you are taking suction on the low tube near the bottom of the tank. this will give you about 1 gal. of gas to get you to a gas station. This the best explanation so far. But I might add..... I always turn the fuel off when parking the bike. If one of the float valves sticks open it will drain the tank through the carb/float bowl into the cylinder and cause hydrostatic lock that can destroy the engine. I know it is rare but it happened to me once and that was one too many times!

Forget drywall. Just put up melamine. (I think that's what it's called). It's basically sheet plastic. Assuming you aren't looking for a complete perfect finish like an inside room. I think melamine is that fibrous hardboard with a plastic coating, isn't it? If it is what I am thinking of, it will blister and flake when wet repeatedly in wet environments. FRP plastic is the best, in my opinion.

I use that model of Tourmaster on my RSTD. You will like it. From experience - don't trust the tie strap on the bottom of the rain cover. It's no fun chasing it down on the freeway in traffic with a rainstorm beginning. Once I retrieved it and put it back on I wrapped it with bunge straps wih no further problems and everything stayed dry

i just bought a Wolo at O'Reily Auto Parts today. $27.00 and some change which was about $10.00 cheaper than Harbor Freight. Sale at O Reily ends Aug 27. A quick online search yielded $5.00 plus shpping more than what I paid (all were the same model) Tonight I ordered the mounting bracket and wire harness for it from member Carbon One. You can find his ad in Member Classifieds. I could make them myself but I have seen his products and they are first class and it saves me some time.

I like the sound of that also. Please keep us posted

good experience also with Jake Wilson for my tires

Glad to see this was resolved and sorry to hijack the thread but wanted to share a story. I lost the same part on my bike last summer just before a trip to Sturgis. I installed a bolt with washers from the local hardware store to make the trip. On Monday morning in Sturgis I stopped at the the Star tent to browse and saw a large display of chrome accessories. A young lady asked if she could help me and while I wasn't really looking for this part I mentioned I was missing one. She went to another guy working the tent and he came over to be sure he understood what it was I needed. After I explained he replied that Yamaha has never done a good job in supplying the mounting hardware for their accessories and there was no part number for these. BUT he offered to make a phone call to someone in their warranty department in California to see if they have a broken package/returned item or similar. The result was that yes, they did, and it would be shipped to them in Sturgis by that friday. I thanked him and said I would be back. On friday I was back at their tent but the part had not arrived and after calling CA it apparently was delayed. He took my address and phone number said he would ship it direct to my home. A few days later I got the package, installed it and everything was fine. Now the good part - all of this was at no charge. He wouldn't accept payment in Sturgis and I didn't have a way to track him down. My payment for this great service is to share this story with anyone who will listen. Thanks

This was my first rally also and am looking forward to the next. The bar was set high due to the hard work of the committee so hopefully all future rallys can follow their lead. Thanks to all

Great job! Really enjoyed it and don't be afraid to share some of what you edited out! Thanks