grubsie

No need to measure the preload when disassembling the forks. The sonic springs are shorter and come with washers and a spacer. Unfortunately, they still don't ship a long enough spacer to be cut and used for both forks, but you can simply go to your local hardware store and buy a piece of 1" pvc tube for your second spacer. Sonic states that you need 1/2" of preload. The fork caps are very close to 3/4" so that means that the spacers including the 2 washers should be 1/4" below the top of the fork tubes when they are fully extended. Assembly=spring, washer,spacer, washer. All done dry for spacer length measurement. Just finished installing my second Sonics on my second RSV. You are going to love the ride.

That's why I live by the motto: It's easier to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission. It's worked for 39 years so far.

I wouldn't buy it without a test ride. It would have been a perfect day for one in that balmy -20 degree weather. Oh and what were you doing going the the bike shop? Don't you have some cement cutting and jack hammering to do?

Couldn't agree more. I have 5 of the Battery Tender Juniors. I use 2 of them switching back and forth between various bikes every couple of days during riding season if they haven't been ridden for a few days and in a matter of hours they go from the red light (low), to the green light (charged), including the RSV. During the winter, I keep my lawn tractor hooked up constantly in the cold barn when not in use. I pull the batteries from all my bikes and store them in my warm basement. They stay on the tenders all winter until spring unless I pull one temporarily for the particular bike I am working on. I even have a few batteries that I double up in parallel with the Juniors because I don't have enough of them and they keep both batteries up to snuff over the winter. Been doing it for years and have never had a problem with the batteries or the Juniors.

Ah, so it's actually real. So it's called a "Hydro Blaster" This must be the machine that you use to point all over the US this time of year that cowpuc keeps talking about! So does that mean everybody is safe until you get your problem fixed? At least this Sunday anyway.

Your thinking so hard that it's making my brain hurt. 1st, Why 5ft lengths of 4" PVC? Is that the max length you can use in the area you are working in? 2nd, If it was me, I would 1st try feeding 1" pvc just to see if you can get 60 ft of it through. If you can't at least you know where the clog is. Worse come to worse, you would know where to start digging. The 1" PVC may also be a better option to to poke holes through the clog and loosening it up. Plus, its much easier to cut up the 1" on the way back out and not wasting 4" PVC. 3rd, I highly doubt that the 4" PVC will push through whatever is clogging the pipe. Even it it did, the material in the clog could clog the 4" pipe. 4th, Once the clog is cleared, you could then run the new 4" pipe as far as it needs to go. 60ft is a long way for sewage in a 4" pipe though. 5th, There's always the option of empty drywall buckets until the weather gets better. Wish you lots of luck on this adventure.

2 different animals. The length and diameter are different. Also the travel/stroke is different. The RSV shock has shortest stroke of any shock I have ever seen. You could probably make the Roadwing fit in the RSV, but you would most likely have to make some custom dog bones to make the bike sit at the right height. The problem would be the longer stroke of the Roadwing shock would cause the rear tire to slam into the underneath of the fender well before the shock bottomed out. Not a good thing. This kind of math and geometry is way above my pay grade. The Roadwing is an amazing shock. I installed one on my 2008 RS. It's like a whole new bike. Mine has the additional RAP (Remote Adjustable Prelode) installed. The RAPS come from BMW Shocks. I can dial it in, in a matter of seconds whether riding 1 up or 2 up while riding down the road. Gold Wing Shock with a BMW RAP. Don't know who first figured it out but it was a brilliant idea. Wish there was such an option for our RSV's.

I'm the one that taught his grandmother that trick.

Wow! So your battery is almost 100,000 miles old? You have to send me a link to that battery.

Just adjusted my valves on my 2008 @ 23,700 miles. All the valves were out of spec except for 4 of them. 2 of those 4 were right at the minumum. Both #3 and #4 cylinder intake valves were way below limit at #3 @ 6mm & #4 @ 9mm. The bike had several in between size shims in it like 282's, 278's etc. Of the 4 that were in limits, 2 were just above the minimum so I was able to replace those shims with some "in betweener sizes" to to get them either mid to higher end of the limits. "Randyr'' sent me the sizes I needed to do the job, including "in betweeners" along with a few extra sizes after I sent him the list. A big kudos to him! Now all the valves are measuring in the mid to higher limits, with most towards the higher limits, so I should be good to go for a while. A little curious though if others had a wide range of, or as many "out of limit" measurements on their 1st valve adjust. Most were slightly under the minimums while a few were considerably under the minimums. I measured each valve 4 different times before I sent my list to "Randyr" and they never changed. I also measured them twice after swapping shims before I buttoned it up. In my mind which is a scary place, I am justifying this by thinking that maybe the valve seats needed to settle in from manufacturing? Some more than others? "DMW" Nice link for shims. Got it bookmarked for the future for that "just in case".

Brilliant idea. I never would have thought of that. Thanks for the tips. I have my bike torn down right now waiting on the shim kit to arrive from a member here. Would be a good time to tackle the latch relay setup. Pucker factor is an understatement. Scary to say the least. Funny story, but scary.

Glad you are OK. Nobody wants their bike totaled, but better the bike than you. Hopefully now you get a free pass with many trouble free miles.

Curious how you did this. Is it a manual thing or is it automatic? My 2009 Road Star headlight doesn't come on until the engine is running. There is a relay for the headlight that connects to ECU. I assume that the ECU connects the circuit once it detects that the engine is running. Is there any circuit on the RSV that only turns on once the engine is running?

I'm with you on this except I can't even get it in my mouth. Just the smell makes me to feel like I am going to vomit. If someone else is drinking it and they talked to me face to face, I would have to turn away or lose my lunch. But then again, I don't like the taste of any kind of hard liquor even though it doesn't make me gag or feel like I am going to vomit like whiskey, bourbon and scotch does. Wine makes me tired so the only alcohol I drink is beer. When my brother-in-law drank whiskey or bourbon or scotch, everybody in the family stayed clear of him because he became so nasty. You could actually see his personality change the longer he was drinking it. He was fine when drinking anything else.

I do my own maintenance so I have an excuse to keep my wife from driving me crazy. Or to keep me from driving my wife crazy? If I were you, I would get in touch with Skydoc and give him a piece of your mind. How dare he not have all the shims you need! Just kidding. You can get the shims you need here as a last resort, but they are expensive. https://www.yamahapartshouse.com/oemparts/a/yam/50046873f8700209bc79639f/valve or you can get some from this guy much cheaper on ebay if he has the sizes you need. https://www.ebay.com/itm/25-mm-Valve-Shims-Yamaha-Honda-Triumph-and-others-QTY-3-MANY-SIZES/163416041290?hash=item260c5ae74a:g:vv4AAOSwe9Fb~LNh:rk:1:pf:0

Awesome. Thank you Randy. I Pm'ed you.

Gonna be tearing down the bike sometime after Christmas to adjust the valves so looking for a loaner shim kit. Only the shim kit, I recently picked up the shim tool. In the most recent valve adj thread, some of the members here said that there are some floating around here at Venturerider. Thank you in advance.

I am on my 4th RSV. 1 2002, 1 2006, 2 2008's. Don't ask. Anyway, it seems that the earlier models seem to have more whine the the later models. My 2002 whined terribly while the 2006 although very noticeable, not nearly as bad as the 2002. Both 2008's have had very little whine. Don't know what you are running for oil but it can make a difference. With my 2002 and 2006, I found the only oil that really quieted down the whine was straight 30wt non-synthetic oil. The whine was the worst with synthetics. Seems the thicker the oil, the less of the whine. I wound up getting an I basket from Partzilla for the 2006 and it was almost as quiet as my 2008's. Don't remember the part number for the I basket, so if you have that number, Google is your friend in finding it.

Saw this on another forum. No one can figure out the problem. I am stumped too! https://www.facebook.com/passionmoto...8061594476632/

Never mind using your 4x4. This would be a lot more fun to and from her work. I bet you would look forward to it. All you have to do is spend all day tomorrow studding your tires.

Did anyone let cowpuc know about this? I hope so so we can get his followup video on this after he investigates this phenomenon.

I was thinking the head gaskets or a seal. As far as I can figure, those are the only 2 situations where you could possibly get oil in the coolant. I read and re-read Larry's original post he did not mention any seals so I think you are right about seal on the driven shaft.

I got lucky and scored the whole passing light setup, passings lights, turnsignals and bar from John Furbur from RMSportMax off facebook. Got it at a great price too! I will hopefully get it this week. Not that it matters all that much if I do get it soon since mother nature is bearing down with the cold, so very little, if any riding left this year anyway.

I agree with you and Edbo. On my 4th RSV. 2002, 2006 and 2 2008's. Both '08's have/had the pillow seat. I have owned a lot of motorcycles in my 50 years of riding and nothing even comes close to the pillow. I even took the pillow seat off my RSV and "jerry rigged" it on my Road star to see how i liked the ride. It changed the whole feel of the bike. Usually after a couple of hours on the Road Star with the stock seat, I can only last a few hours before I am squirming. With the pillow seat, I could ride comfortably all day. Now I just have to figure out how to get a pillow seat to fit and look right on the Road Star and my riding life will be complete. My previous 08 RSV was similer in color to your 06. It was fast, but the metallic gray one I have now is definitely the fastest RSV I have owned. Enjoy your new ride.

Finally found and purchased a used passing light kit complete with the passing lights, turn signals and bar. The passing lights are Led's. Should I or do I need to run them through a relay since they are Led? I used a relay on my last RSV, but the passing lights were the old standard lights that drew a lot more power.