Max

Agreed, a little too pricey for a darn steel washer .. 'supply and demand' with no supply. I'm going to steal a less rusty washer from one of the spare bikes for now and have skydoc fabricate a couple of SS washers. Not what I was hoping to hear. The inner/upper fork tubes look/feel ok. No obvious burrs or scratches, but I realize it only takes a micro defect. Checked both bushings, they look new, but again, not to say they don't have wear. I'll replace the seals,upper washers, spit and polish the entire fork assembly and hope to heck it works out for the remainder of season.

Well, the summer wouldn't be right unless there was a hiccup with the ol'87. Found about 3-4 oz of fork oil on the floor left side only. Rebuilt both forks 2 years ago with all OEM parts and no problem till now. Dissapointed it failed after only 2 years, or maybe that's not unusual. I suspect the problem was caused by the metal washer that rests on top of the seal. There is heavy brown corrosion on both sides. The rust grit has been flaking off and the fork oil feels like sandpaper everywhere between the weather seal and top of the oil seal. The right side washer and oil is clean. Condition of drained oil was ok both sides. Everything below the seals looks like new, so will replace seals and those washers above seals only this time round. No problem ordering seals, but the washers appear to be out of stock and discontinued by all distributers. PN (26H-23146-00-00 , washer oil seal) As a temp fix I might use the washers from part bike, although they are starting to corrode. Maybe give the washers a heavy dose of steelwool and hope for the best. Anyone know where to get these washers? Welcome any suggestions.

First year in 74' worked for Ma Bell in N.Ont., there was actually 10 houses / line with 5 different ring codes on each side of same line (- +) in the rural areas. A nightmare for us repairmen considering same lines were miles apart. Sort of a modern day 'party chat line' . We were way ahead of our time.....

Good advice mr, just ran Panama City FL to Biloxi (via Alabama I-10) this morning. It was unbelievably hot. Lots of sunscreen and water onboard. It's actually been unbearably hot for a week along the panhandle. The Gulf shore is around 85f. That wasn't too hard to take. I also apologize for not taking the southern guys seriously who suggested A/C as a touring option. Now I get it.

Replaced mine this spring and found them a tight fit. Applied a light film of dielectric grease to new front grommet front and rear rubber frame mounted grommet. Made installation a lot easier.

lol, misread the original title, thought you were enroute. Yeah, I agree, any roads adjoining BRP are good rides. We did T of D last year. It was ok. Able to say 'been there dunnit,. Not in the cards this trip. Taking a couple of down days to recharge.

mr1300, if it helps at all, (short version) we just completed the BRP yesterday, over three days, north to south. IMO, the top end from Waynesboro to Daleville turn off is a mint ride. Newer pavement and comfortable 40 mph average. (not towing trailer) The rest of the asphalt was in fairly good condition. Had a couple of rough patches, a few lumpy creek bridges, some of the top layer of asphalt was separating but easy to avoid, and the odd small 6'" sinkholes that hadn't been patched yet, also avoidable. There is a road closure (looked long term) just north of Boone with a decent detour. Lowlights.... saw a few deer roadside, had one bolt close enough in front for a near miss. Also had a tense moment with some spilled loose gravel just north of Roanoke. We had torrential rain in Cherokee last night which could wash loose road gravel. And then there's the stunning blue mountain views. Lots of pull-over lookouts. Have a great trip.

Just a new Garmin over this way, this old screen is kinda scratched up and hard to read. And after the line-up is done ... oops dropped my list

Had same CMS light with rear brake a few years ago. Some members onboard helped with fix (BobNY?) The relay inside the float post was stuck (open?). Because it`s encapsulated there is no way to get at it for repair. Bob gave me a spare but after a short time same problem. Final solution, cut the 2 wire connection at the resevoir and twisted the ends together to extinguish light. Check fluid level routinely , no issues with it to date.

Tooch Went Boom ... Thanks for the write up. Man, my blood pressure went over the top reading this post. Caution factor just elevated a notch, having run the 87' on the 407 in rain (not as severe) a couple times. Glad you came out unscathed!

that is one beautiful piece of work.

Not that it helps much at this point, but I had a few spares made by a local locksmith a few years ago. They weren't all that expensive but he did have to order a minimum number of blanks. He crossed referenced the 87'VR key to a older common Susuki bike key. I don't remember what year. The blanks are stamped as - ilco (large lettering) ,and numbers X117, YH48 stamped in the corners. 'USA' is stamped on the flipside.

final touch on the 87 .. it's on !... __87-2011______2011-2014_____ May 2015

Returning from Cayo Santa Maria, Cuba on bus last week and pretty sure I saw .... nawww, must be coincidence.

Glad to hear your ok. At least ok enough to post. Hoping for a speedy recovery.

unbelievable, big fluffys coming down over an hour now.. whatever happened to

I like the idea of a viewfinder. Apparently kit comes with an adaptor for GoPro hardware. Good on em'.

After you get your batteries sorted out you will need to break out BOAT X 2 for a couple of downriggers and outriggers.

I shoot for .033 using a wire gauge with snug .034. Lots of tech reading online concerning pros & cons of over and under gapping.

Good read, could use a set of those trim guards.

Had a quick look at the 84-85 wiring schematic. ( http://www.venturerider.org/wiring/84-85%20Yamaha%20Venture%20Royale%20DL%20Wiring%20Diagram%20Rev%20C.pdf ) Couldn't find a specific CM clock lead. Looks as if theres a 14 pin connector attached to the back of CM that services the clock, stopwatch,gear indicator and a number of sensors. If you haven't found trouble yet, might be worth a long shot looking for pin corrosion inside that connector.

Jason, I think the plug was just plain old defective. The ignition end was black but dry. After replacing the defective plug, the misfire & power lag cleared out. What I didn't mention was when I reinstalled the suspect defective plug to make absolutely sure it was the problem, the trouble returned instantaneously. I had the 87' out shortly after replacing all plugs and it idled as it should and ran like a scared rabbit. Actually had her out today for about an hour and ran & idled fine. Initially, my worse fear was something I`d screwed up during maintenance or one of those nasty troubles I`ve read about here, such as you`ve mentioned. I`m gaining an incredible amount of mechanical knowledge thru VRO members, and any repairs I can steal from the stealers makes me happy. I consider myself lucky it was a simple fix this time.

Revitalized bike from seat forward past 11 days, elbow grease, re-enforcing all cracked plastic tabs, stress points any other such defects with plastic epoxy. Reduced progressive spring spacer from 3/4 to 1/4" and lowered fork fluid to 6.5" for softer ride. Added washers to tighten floppy CMS unit. Found and cleaned a couple of corroded electrical connectors, greased speedo cable .. on & on. So, after a long winter and just shy of a couple of weeks of maintenance, finally prepped and jacked for First Ride. Great, 2 hour window, 50*f, bike starts spot on, idles ok but feels 'off' a bit. It ran rough at all rpm and never did clean itself out so decided to bail. Thinking with all the wrenching over the winter I surely screwed something up. Lucky, it didn't take long to find the problem. With hot engine idling, I'd get this subtle misfire about every 10 seconds. Checked the carb throats and found #3 puffing out vapour bubbles in sync with misfire. Replaced plug and trouble cleared. Sort of a lesson learned, this is the first time in 41 years of riding I decided to re-use plugs consecutive seasons, bad luck eh? So much for NGKIridiums. The business end of the plug was coated in dry black carbon but didn't look fouled. Needless to say, replaced with 4 new standard NGK's this aft (carb sync checked ok) and had a chilly,but good 2 hour run around Kawartha Lakes, and it felt great.

Randy, we ran that trail at the tail end of our rte66 annual in July 2 years ago. You can't go wrong, the views are stunning regardless where your travelling. We had no idea of what we were getting into. The many days travelling on 115*f blacktop and deserted sections of interstate caught us somewhat off guard. A few suggestions from a couple that learned the hard way: I like the idea of the cooling jackets. Lots of spf60 sunscreen. Fortunately we had long white sleeved polyester shirts taped to riding gloves to keep the intense sun off our arms and wrists. Bottled water is a must. GPS was invaluable for finding gas stations, although we did have a few tense moments. Walmarts were best place for on road oil changes. A few friendly words with their mechanic will get you a long way to a loaner catch basin, funnel and whatever else you need to do the job. In hind sight, we probably should have limited our windshield time to the early hours of the morning. I ended up with mild sunstroke twice and was lucky to find air conditioned hotels in time. I'd do that trip again in a heart beat...have a great trip !!