saddlebum

I am not certain as to what all the differences are and if I am not mistaken those differences can vary from year to year and is mostly based on extras such as the class air ride system which on some standards only has front and rear shrader valves to manually adjust air ride and I believe that may not hold true for every model year as well. Also I think the std my not include the cb radio. Other than that I really am not aware of other differences. I have 1 86 and 2 89's all three are royales. I parted out an 88 std and it had no class system, no CB and no sound system other than that I saw no difference between it and my royales. Others on the site who actually own std's could probably tell you better than I can.

Hi @CALEDON these are really great bikes I have had my 89 since 2006 and I just love this bike. The engines on this are about as bullet proof as you can reasonably get and probably can probably claim some the of highest trouble free miles of any motorcycle out there, providing they are reasonably maintained. When I say reasonably I mean simply good old basic TLC. They do not need to be babied, and you do not have to go over every nut and bolt like some bikes. Mechanically they are very hardy machine and will stand up very well to less than ideal riding conditions like getting onto some off road tracks (not that you want to make a habit of it). I don't think there is a more comfortable bike out there for long hours on the road and the bike handles curves amazingly well for such a big bike. Small crawl speed tight turns take a little more practice to get the hang of then with some bikes but not impossible to learn. its just a matter of getting used to how you sit and balance the bike which can be a little different than other bikes with a lower center of gravity. But once your up over a couple KM/HR right up to beyond highway speed this bike handle beautifully and without that heavy front end feel you get with many other bikes specially at slow speeds. Acceleration is amazing and more than adequate for a none sport bike. And don't be afraid to feed the RPM's to it because this bike loves to rev out. As @cowpuc can attest as he has probably but as many if not more mile on these bikes as anyone For the most part you can expect lots of enjoyable miles on this bike. If you do end up purchasing this Bike I highly recommend you become a full member here as you will find more info expertise and well informed help here than anywhere including most dealerships. The membership here is full of down to earth friendly people who will go out of their way to help each other whenever possible.

Thats how I ggot out of ever having to cut the grass. I did such a bad job I was told never cut the grass again fron now on she will do it. I walked away with my head hanging in shame ------until I rounded the corner of the house whooppee!!! Not sure if this helps but at one time many years ago there was this thing called a picnic basket. I am sure there is still a few around to be had if you look. Could always give that a try. Just say'n

What Marcarl is probably saying is the terminals inside the connector are in bad condition resulting in poor connection. When a lot of currant is passed through it, it will heat up thus indicating the poor connection. Checking a connection like this with an ohmmeter is not always a reliable test because the ohmmeter draws very little currant and as a result may indicate an OK connection when in fact it is not ok because under a heavier load than that placed on it by an ohmmeter it can still fail. There are better ways for testing for a bad connection than using an ohmmeter in a case like this but because of the time and amount of set up involved your just as well off to either replace the connector or just cut it out and hard-wire it as Marcarl suggests. Keep in mind here that depending on the condition of the wire they can sometimes be difficult to solder properly since they need to be clean and free of oxidation for a good solder joint and use rosin core solder not acid flux. If soldering is not working out use un-insulated butt connectors with a good crimping tool and double wall heat shrink tubing with sealer.

I did post it because of the chorus but then when I listened to it there was a line in there about going separate ways which was not what I had in mind so I deleted it but I guess you got it any way because I did the @ thing. Anyway the intent was to get back to being peaceful friends and accepting our differences.

Apparently there's no cure for that either:confused24:

https://www.bike-urious.com/april-fools-2020-in-motorcycling/ Apparently an April fools announcement

Bummed out is an expression a lot of us are getting very familiar with. Unfortunately no one has a real handle on this covid thing. Caution right now is the only real defence . Whatever you do assuming your married or equivalent DO NOT use the phrase {{what to do with myself that week}} out loud or someone is bound to offer suggestions

Ok you do realize SD can be translated in many ways from the very nasty to the very complimentary. So depending on @Marcarls mood this could be wide open to translations of all sorts.

All these people getting rid of their bikes or converting to spyders. Is this an indication that we are becoming a vanishing breed or worse getting old.

I am all good with the play it by ear / wait & see strategy Does this skill come from years of stake outs not to be confused with steak outs the later being more of a retirement thing I would guess. Being in a tourist area may effect how this plays out as well and then for us Kanuckians (as cowpuc likes to refer to us) there is the cross border issue that may or may not play into it.

OLD HATS are hard to forget---of course your remembered. Have wondered were you vanished too though. Nice BBTW.

Hey it's all Patch's fault He be the one that steered this thread into the compression thingy. Just ask cowpuc

and we know who don't we @Flyinfool

Prayers sent

For anyone in ontario the Snow birds a planning a province wide fly over today weather permitting. see attached: https://www.todocanada.ca/canadian-snowbirds-cross-country-flyover-schedule-operation-inspiration/

I started doing leak down tests back in the seventies when just an apprentice before I even knew such a test existed. I came up with the idea when doing compression tests on 2 stroke Detroit diesel engines. The procedure on these to do a compression test was to replace an injector with an adapter which in my case I made up out of an old injector, a 1000 PSI gauge and check valve. You then reassemble the engine and get a compression reading while the engine was running on the remaining cylinders which would be at approx 600 psi running compression as per spec. You had to repeat the entire procedure for all each cylinder which depending on the engine could be 4, 6 or 8 cylinders (more if you worked on stationary engines). This got to be tedious and you still had to isolate the source ofthe leak if you found a bad cylinder. I came up with the idea of connecting the shop air line directly to the adapter and with the piston at TDC listening for air leakage. Since there is always some leakage I would listen for differences between cylinders, the bad ones being more pronounced than the rest. I would then listen to see if air was loudest coming form the intake, crankcase or exhaust pipe which would tell me the root cause of compression loss. I later started using it on all engines and found I really no longer need to use the compression gauge. If air came from the exhaust I had bad exhaust valves. If it came from the intake I had bad intake valves and if I could hear it in the crankcase I had bad rings. Of course I should explain with the Detroit leaky intake valves never occurred because the Detroit did not have intake valve. so if you heard air coming out of the intake on a Detroit you had bad rings because the piston itself was the intake valve. The only down side here is that in a 4 stroke a compression test can indicate bad valve timing were a leak down test cannot. Later I got more sophisticated and made up a tool with dual gauges separated with a re-stricter in the line between the two gauges. you set set your air pressure to 100 psi on the 1st gauge and read the pressure on the second gauge the difference is your percentage of leakage. less than 20% difference is acceptable. the difference is the result of air leaking out faster than it can move through the restriction hence the difference in pressure. You can also fabricate a simple one with a single gauge and a shutoff valve after the gauge (My 1st fabrication) you close the valve, set to 100 PSI, Open the valve and note the difference.

Actually based on the position of the sensor you will see it gets its signal from the pinion gear which turns faster when you change the gear ratio in the final drive. The drive shaft and pinion then does more revolutions per mile, hence more pulses per mile sent to the speedometer. This translates into the speedometer indicating that the bike is moving faster than it actually is. This because the V-max pinion gear has fewer teeth than the venture pinion gear.

Its always been my experience that checking compression just for the heck of doing it when there are no other symptoms is just less time spent riding. Now if you happen to have the plugs out to do a spark plug change, and you are curious, well then it won't hurt to do a compression check at that point if you felt the urge (and I did say Urge not need) to do one just to satisfy your curiosity. though the odds of finding poor compression on these bikes is pretty slim (not impossible But pretty slim) and there again, if there is a compression issue, you usually will notice something off in the way the bike runs, which BTW is more likely than not, because of issues other than compression. Now to really throw a wrench in the works if I was looking into a compression related issue, I would be more inclined to perform a cylinder leak down test than a compression test because a leak down test tells you so much more than a compression test will as well as doing a better job of pin pointing the root cause and source of any compression loss should such a condition exist.

Hey who are you calling old :backinmyday:I won't be 67 for another month and 6 days

Good point Patch and those could go back to something as simple as poor/dirty connections including bad grounds. Don't trust an ohmmeter here for testing grounds and other connections. They are fine for locating open circuits but not poor connections. Ohmmeters draw very little currant and may indicate a good connection were voltage is concerned but that connection may fail once a load is requested to pass through. A better method is to use a voltmeter and a bulb such as headlight builb with a pair of wire attached. take a voltage reading at various test points and then while watching the voltage connect the test light to the same points your volt meter is connected while watching the volt meter. If the voltage only drops a volt or two when you connect the bulb your ok if it nose dives by more than a volt or two you have a bad or weak connection. Another method is to use a test light (this needs to be one with a normal bulb not one of the LED types), Use the test light to bridge connections while the circuit in question is under load. If the light stays off that connection is OK. If the light glows (and the brighter it glows the worse the connection ) this indicates the currant is using the test light as a sort of detour or added bridge so to speak and than you have found a bad connection. (Think of it as only so many cars able to cross an intersection because there is a problem at the intersection and the test light is offering an alternative route for the remaining cars, so they can all get to the other side (the test light glows) but if they can all get through the intersection nobody uses the alternate route in this case the test light will not glow)

It probably wasn't. when you change the gearing the tooth count is different. The speed sensor probably gets its signal from the number of teeth translated as pulses per mile. Change the gearing changes the number of teeth which then changes the pulses per mile. Which you then have to correct for using an add on device as metioned earlier.

Yes Just as Patch said. Also there is no fuse to the large posts on the solenoid it just goes from one post directly to the battery and from the other post directly to the starter and so if you bridge those two cable with something like a screw driver even with the ignition off the starter should turn over if your connections are good. Also the statment you made about tapping the solenoid pretty much indicates that the contacts inside have pitted and partially welded together so for sure you will have to replace the solenoid. If you touch the two large wires together and the starter cranks the engine over (and yes you can leave the key off the engine just wont start) your starter is ok Provided it sounds healthy and strong. If not than either the starter is bad or there is a bad connection to the starter (which is not likely but possible) So then just run a cable from the battery directly to the starter If it now cranks check your cables if not starter is pooched. BTW make sure in either case your ground connections are all good. The starter may have been on its way out for some time based on the fact that you said it cranks slow or not at all specially when hott and is Ok once cooled down. this usually will indicate worn starter bushings and/or bearings. As a result the starter then draws higher than normal currant causing arcing across the solenoid contacts, eventually causing pitting and finally partial welding of the contacts. So if the starter is bad or on its way out even though putting power directly to it seems to indicate it may be ok, it will eventually destroy the new solenoid. My advice here is remove the starter stick it in the vice and test it in the vice if it zings over nicely its probably ok but if turns over and sounds sluggish or growly then it faulty. If it does sound ok since you have it on the bench I would probably open it up and check it internally It would be a good time to clean up the armature and check/or replace the brushes. If its bad you wil get a nasty smell the minute you open it up.

I figure learning curves come around often enough, even the ones you don't want

Boy all I got outa all that @Marcarl, is that you just been behind the meat counter for far toooooo many years. Plus you made me hungry.