Cdnlouie

Hey Bongo I would be happy to help anytime. We are pretty close neighbours once I looked up where you are. We should connect up some time here or there. I actually scoot over to Buffalo a fair bit to pick my grandson up at the airport and bring him up. I have not been able to meet up with any fellow Venturers and would love to do so some time.

When I first purchased my 85VR, I replaced my original fork springs with progressives. The spacer length is a key part of tuning your front suspension. I followed the recommendation supplied by Progressive in the information provided for the Venture Royale and ended up with setting the plastic spacer on each side to 1.25 inches. I prefer to use the "oil height" measurement method since you never can tell just how much oil has really drained out and you really want to end up with an accurate amount of oil in each tube since it does seriously affect ride quality. To set up your forks this way you need to take the weight off the front end (with a floor jack under the front of the engine). There is an excellent article in suspension tuning by Jack Chalais showing all the details of getting things out of the way to access the fork tubes. The "oil height" measurement must be done with the forks completely compressed and the springs removed. You can block under the front wheel to compress them, I prefer to take the wheel off and compress each one much more easily while still in the triple tree. Now the setting for the oil height following the Yamaha specification results in a 5.5 inch air space from the top of the fork tube to where it first touches the oil. A simple tape measure works great for this job. Just shine a light down the tube until the end of the tape hits the oil and check your measurement. When you're done, extend the fork tubes and install the springs. This makes the fork cap install easily, as there is very little pressure on the springs at this point. You only need to lightly tighten these caps as the pinch bolts lock these in very tight (Don't try to remove them without loosening the pinch bolts first). Put some silicone grease on the o-rings to keep a good air seal. Now the results of all this setup proved disappointing. Everything was set to spec but it rode very harsh and did not turn into corners without significant pressure on the bars. I even removed the air line from the compressor and left it open to the air so there would be no residual air pressure at all (the system retains some minimal pressure as long as it is hooked up, you can only get zero air pressure by removing it from the compressor). I decided to put a few miles on with these settings and next fork oil change do some tweaking. Before my ride to the White mountains this summer I drained the fork oil and set about reducing the plastic spacer height from 1.25 inches to 3/4 inch on each side. Others have used this setting and seem to have achieved a more comfortable ride quality. In addition to cutting the spacer I felt that I would also reduce the amount of fork oil in each tube. I put in about 375cc which resulted in an "oil height" of 6.5 inches, an inch lower in each fork than the recommended amount (400cc). I used 10wt Belray fork oil as my own personal preference. Dropping the oil height increases the depth of compressable air in each fork which changes the compression rate of the air shock effect. The net effect is you have a softer ride with the lower oil height. This is something to consider for anyone who is complaining of a harsh ride on the first generation Ventures. It would be good to know "how low you can go" to maintain adequate damping but 25cc seems to be in the safe zone (I put 4000km on through the Adirondacks, Green Mountains and White Mountains fully loaded and the VR handled like a sport bike). Now, I tested the bike with these settings (for the record I am an 185lb rider) and noted that it rode like a cadillac. No more bull riding with the Venture, hitting raised pavement at highway speeds (100km) no longer created bone jarring reverberations. Now, I anticipated that loaded, I may be a bit too soft for good stability, so I hooked up my front air line to the compressor again and left the setting at the normal residual amount just in case I might need some air when riding two up and loaded. The results this time were fabulous! Riding two up and fully loaded I never added air to the front more than the residual pressure in the system. The suspension was compliant and comfortable at all times, what a treat! Cornering was a whole new experience, as the Venture would fall into the corners through the White Mountains of NH with minimal effort and stand up coming out of a corner by simply rolling on the acceleration of the great V-4. This is the way a motorcycle should handle! I can't guarantee that this will work for another Venturer's bike, but when using progressives I highly recommend using the 3/4 inch setting to start and reduce length for soft or increase for hard. If you are still too harsh reduce you oil level (by the oil height method) and see if that does not put a smile on your face. If you're going to ride, it might as well be a good ride!

Just got back myself from an awesome trip through the Adirondacks (NY), Green mountains (Vermont) and White mountains (NH), and all the way out to Prince Edward Island, man what a great time. The old 85VR performed flawlessly, I think she will like her new pipes. Payments in tonight! It sure didn't take long to get this bandwagon moving. Kudos to Condor and everyone helping each other get a nice set of pipes! This is going to be fun! CdnLou

I'm in! The old girl will love to get a set of these. Been dreaming about them for a while. Way to go

Hey Hotrod, what kind of pipes are you running now? They look rather interesting. Lou

Sometimes we get a nick in the metal fork tube (chrome) and it can cause a fork seal to be torn and eventually leak after replacement. You really do not want to replace that expensive tube and the good news is, you might not have to. For a nick in one of my tubes, I followed a similar procedure desribed here: First, sand the rough edges of the burr with various grits of wet sandpaper, perhaps starting with a 220 grit and going up to a 600 grit. Anything not handled by these sandpapers may need a careful touch with a fine file, just to take the high impacted (raised) metal down. The nick or pit (in the case of rust) should be cleaned of any corrosion and again sanded on the edges to eliminate roughness. Then a dab of epoxy (J.B. Weld Kwik) which sets in 5 minutes may be added to the nick. Afterwards, you can sand the epoxy level with a sanding block conforming to the tube shape. The epoxy should be sanded until it is not higher than the rest of the tube and not really noticeable to the touch even. If it is still lower (concave - needing to be filled) add another layer of epoxy after the first sanding. If you get this right, you will have a durable surface that will not leak or tear a new seal and without replacing an expensive fork tube. You might want to rotate the tube so it is not readily noticeable somewhere near the back for the best aesthetic appeal. Hope this makes someone else a happy camper too, Louie

I recently saw a demonstration by a woodworker who was showing how to strip motorcycle pieces at the Toronto Motorcycle Show. He sold a simple buffing arbor to which he attached flexible sandpaper strips (about 120 grit) and that attaches to a drill press, hand drill, etc. and it removes the clearcoat pretty slick. They are very pliable and wrap around the fork leg real slick cleaning off the clearcoat in no time. He mentioned that the stripper leaves a chemical residue in the metal and the sandpaper is a superior stripping process (and of course, who am I too argue that point with him). You can use sandpaper to take out nicks etc (not too coarse because it takes time to get those grooves out), and then work down to about 600 (wet paper is the best), then switch to a buffing wheel and at least a coarse buffing compound and then finish with a red rouge or the white compound that gives the ultimate shine. P.S. I don't know how anyone who has ever done this work can look at a piece of aluminum the same way again, and think such things as "Gee I really want to clearcoat it again."

I love my accessory plug which I wired up to lighter socket in the fairing panel. I upgraded the fuse and wiring so that it will handle higher wattage. I added an accessory plug socket to my float battery charger and actually move it back and forth between my two bikes. Just plug it in or out with no removal of parts. I added a plug-in socket to my electric gloves and plug them in as well. Much quicker and easier to use than all the hardware that comes with them. I also welded a nut on on the battery cover bolt so you don't need a wrench to unscrew it, easy access. I love the inkjet bottle, got one of those too. Life is good when it is simple, Louie

I almost laid down my smaller Yamaha Vision a couple of years ago from cold tires. I went back and checked the road and then it occurred to me that it was 40's and I was one mile from home. Ever since, I have put a few miles on my tires before any drastic change of direction or accleration. You need enough time to warm the tires to proper internal operating temperature. Running time = maximum amount of traction. You may get away with a lot and then one day you may get a surprise. Great thing to keep in mind about motorcycle tires and the change in seasons. Get ready for the cold spring stuff now, Louie