saddlebum

Sorry to hear about your dilemma Jack. I hope and pray that with time and proper care things get a lot better. Both my brothers felt like you described and ended up with bypass surgery, that was less than a year ago and today they are feeling like their old selves. So keep your chin up and think positive.

I am sure every one has their personal reasons as to delink or not to delink.All the bikes I have ever ridden had independent front and rear brakes so I learned the scary way that my 89 had linked brakes and could not understand why someone would do that. In my case it had to do a lot with how I discovered linked brakes. I once topped a hill only to to be faced with a stop sign. Now usually there is a warning sign indicating stop sign ahead and whether it was there in this case I can't really say, Bottom line was I was now on a paved road coated with loose gravel and sand so naturally I only applied rear brake (or so I thought since at this time I was not aware that the brakes on the venture were linked) next thing I know front wheel locks up and slides out I quickly release the brakes and thinking I must have touched the front brake without thinking I reapply the rear brake. Now this time I am fully aware that I am not touching the front brake yet again the front wheel locks up and slides out. I quickly release the brake and now with no chance of stopping I quickly look both ways, roll on the throttle and scoot through the intersection, something I never want to willingly repeat. I get home and check the bike over to see why this is happening and discovered my brakes were linked so my first thought right then and there was to do something about delinking the brakes. While working out the details as to how I was going to go about this I happend to have a conversation with another member on the sight and discovered I was not the only one who was not comfortable with linked brakes and found out eventually that they too delinked brakes which eventually led me to skydoc and his kits. Personally I am happy and feel safer for doing it, but like I said to each his own.

If you do put new pads on old rotors Also chamfer the side edges a bit but on a flater angle than 45 say greater than 60 deg, you want just a very minor 1/4" wide relief on the side edges, this helps the pad get more face contact with the rotor. Old rotors usually have a ridge about 1/8" to 1/4" wide on the inner and outer diameter. This ridge will hold a new shoe up off the major surface of the rotor until they wear in. by putting a slight bevel (and dont go crazy) on the inside and outside edges of the new shoes the shoe can settle in between these ridges and wear into the rotor faster giving you more initial contact area other wise your only initial contact area will be on these ridges until the shoe wears in.

Here is some food for thought. I delinked the brakes on my MK II. I removed the proprtioning valve completely and connected directly to the master. The pedal is hard and yes to lock up the rear wheel I pretty much have to stand on it. On the other hand If I make a hard application of both the front and rear brakes at the same time on dry pavement, the rear will lock up and the rear wheel will skid sideways if I hold the full application of the brakes. I can only assume this is because with applying the front brakes some of the bikes stopping weight is removed from the rear wheel and transferred to the front wheel. On gravel or wet road I have no problem locking the rear brake. I do believe if you want toucher rear brakes you either need to reduce the piston size in the master cylinder or increase the piston size on the caliper. This may be why 2nd Gen brakes are toucher ( and I am just guessing here) I wonder if they may run a smaller piston size in the master which would increase the ratio difference between the master and the rear caliper or have a longer brake pedal arm.

I definitely second that, not that Annie needs another physical issue to deal with but it is preferable to something worse and for that I am thankful.

I do not have face book so I hope details will get posted here. In the mean time I hope surely hope she was not seriously hurt.

Dunlop makes the Ellet E4 in both 120/90-18 front & 140/90-16 rear. I have them on my 89 XVZ1300 and so far I like them even better than the E3's, I had previously, which I would have bought again, had they not been replaced by the E4's but so far I am loving these tires both for ride quality and cornering ability. Their load carrying capacity is excellent. Also when putting new tires on air them up to max pressure shown on tire side wall rather than what the owners manual states. The reason for this is that the owners manual recommendations are based on the tires that were available at the time. You can always adjust pressure later based on the way the tires are wearing and the handling feel of the bike. Some like the Avon venoms, but many of the 1st Gen owners have experienced tail wag at highway speeds with the Avon's Myself included. I have heard no complaints from Gen 2 owners however who seem to love these tires.

The Second Gen has a Whine . Can't say as I have ever noticed it ...

I wil be camping. Just need to get my site booked.

Good thing you were on gen 1 venture. If any cruiser can handle off road conditions its the venture. @Trader and I once got off track Thanks to a GPS defined short cut) and ended up following a through the woods cow path then back again because though we were within throwing distance of our camp site we were cut off by a railroad track. Kinda reminded me of my old motocross days when we raced through the woods instead of a groomed track in a stadium.

All I can say is is that missing MD again really sucked and these pic's ain't help'n. Dang there nice pics.

Sorry you started out on the short end of the stick on those new hides. if it helps I have been running mine every day and putting them through some pretty testy moves and I got to say so far I am loving these e4 tires.

Yes they are Gen 1 MK-II

@wrscomncents Here is the set up I MacGyered together to bench set my floats a few years ago by modifying an old fire extinguisher and it worked a charm. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?86821-home-made-set-up-for-wet-setting-floats-on-the-bench&p=844346#post844346

Thanks Brother.

Know that feeling brother, was on my way to MD, left the house packed and ready and Aaaaaa %%%% no brakes. Turn around and like you played Solitary MD in my own garage and worse yet none of those Flyinfool rum balls to ease the pain.

So June 17th this year was not only Fathers day but my 65th birthday as well. It actually started the day before when my wife kidnapped me for what she referred to as a little pre-birthday thingy. So in the car we go headed for what I assumed would be a family breakfast at Cora's which is a bit of a family tradition. When suddenly I realize Marita just pulled a Marcarl, missed the turn and of course we all know about the U-turn that inevitably follows. Wrong again unlike Marcarl she actually seems to know where she is going and so now I am scratching my head. Next thing I know we are pulling into the parking lot of BBQ's Galore, and there in the middle of the lot stands my Kids and Grandchildren. After a bunch of hugs, they proceed to escort me inside and tell me to choose a BBQ of my choice. The next day Sunday the actual day of both Fathers Day and My 65th Birthday Marita sends me out on a length errand, from which I return to find again my entire family with the addition of my Mother, Brothers and their wives plus my Grandchildren, Nieces and Nephews. So here is a cool pic drawn by my Sister in law. The horse was my old horse Snort, I had for 18 years and the dog is my Airedale Rio. Plus the BBQ in action

Ok now enough horse'n around ---we need to get back to serious business here........Sooo about this here CAKE were's my piece cause no one offered me any cake when I renewed?

I carry a couple tents that I use most often. I use them backpacking, canoeing and to venture rallies and I love them. No problem standing up either.....You just crawl outside the tent. Of the three A Eurika an MSR and a Big Agness only the Big Agness is three season rated the other two are 4 season rated and tie down well in heavy storms. everything including my clothes, cooking gear and sleeping gear pack right on the bike. I do feel though that its best to spend a bit for quality as I have bought cheaper tents from places like Wall mart and ended up drenched.

Well put Don and I agree One was no worse nor better than the other. Dan just put himself out there a bit more with all the ribbing and bantering etc. But Kevin was there when the need was felt and it looks like he is now needed elsewhere. May God be with you Kevin and peace and comfort with your family.

The shop were I work we used to use glass beads a lot but have stopped and resorted to a wheel spin balance machine. We found although they did often work there were quite a few cases were they did not. Why I have no idea although we did notice if the air put in the tire had moisture in it the beads would kinda bunch up. In the end we did find the wheel balance machine resulted in far fewer comebacks when it came to vibration issues. My suggestion dispense with the beads and get a proper tire balance performed. BTW you would have to make sure all the beads are removed from the tire. Oh and also I checked my E4 tires and did not find any marks at all with regards to locating the valve stem.

I work 3:30 to midnight so the same goes for me - all gone beddy bye.

Being somewhat old school and of a somewhat basic nature I tend to often demonstrate a dislike for the computer era and the control it has taken of our simpler and less stressful life style of the past. However even I have to admit despite all my ranting and dislike of the computer age, had it not been for the internet I would not have many of the benefits it also provides. Carl,s opening praise of this site is an example of one of them. The friends I have gained many of which I have become very close with and count them among the best of my friends, the knowledge I have gained both technical and otherwise. Sights I have seen, that I would not have otherwise even thought about, thanks to organized Rallies, organized by the outstanding members of this club, (The trains I still get to complain about for keeping me awake all night in Galena ) LOL. Marcarl put it all very well, this a great site with great members. When you see the never ending scathing personal remarks and vulgarity of many other sites, I like the fact that we have excellent moderators that do a great job in keeping this site clean and non-controversial. Yet not so much that we can still indulge in some light hearted bantering. The overall camaraderie and willingness to offer assistance among members on this site is overwhelming. Freebird your efforts to run and maintain this site are greatly appreciated and I for one am proud to be member of venturerider.org

Hey cowpuc If you remember in Grimsby my tire side wall weren"t to good so I spooned on a new set of Dunlop E4's and (yes they now make a front tire for 1st Gen's). Anyway so far I am loving them. So quiet and smooth and laying the bike over in the corner's is sweet. front was 120/90-18 65H @ $179.89 and the rear 140/90B16 77H rear @ $190.39 (Canadian $) As I said so far I super love the ride and handling. I have not had them at highway speeds yet or on wet roads, but on my way home from work after midnight i did use the dotted lines on the road like slalom course and weave back and forth through the spaces at 65 mph /100 kph and I found the handling superb. I went through 2 sets of E3's and I got the same millage out of them. I actually did not wear them out the 1st set I changed because after 25,000 the rubber got too hard and would no longer hold the corners and the second set at 20,000 started to develop some heavy weathering on the side walls (in fairness to the tires, the bike is almost never covered except in winter and sits outside all year round). As noted earlier I now have a set of E4's on the bike and time will tell bt so far I really like them

yup now to try to get some riding in to make up for lost time