luke000

I dont think it is just the HD owners that put them self up on that pedistal. A co-worker of mine bought one of these a few weeks ago and did a bunch of "custom" work to it (grips, seat, and hidden turn signals that you can not see inside of the rear dropouts) and he will not shut up about how awesome this thing is, after all it was only $2500. (I paid $1950 for my MKII at xmas). The co-worker is 39 and I am 19. But this thing is hilarious, It takes him (and i counted) 7 starts to finally keep it running long enough to leave the parking lot, there is welding wire still sticking out of the frame welds, and the decals are not straight plus the tank has some serious body issues that only a photo can describe. And for some reason people will drool all over that bike when it is parked in the shadow of my MKII. And I know exactly how you daughter feels, I got the how is the geriatric gold freight liner doing from that co-worker on his Dong Fang....he had more to say but he was too far behind for me to hear

bought it!

I got the bike running and tested the lights again with the bike running at about 2.5K and the same story low voltage running to the turn signals. I also made my own test with another battery as an external power source for the bike side of the light converter and i would get full power to the trailer. My turn signals work just fine dispite having a little low voltage. So instead of messing with the entire bikes wiring I am just going to spend the money and buy a powered converter with a battery wire. Is this what I should be working for?

Yes because it is us young riders who give bikers bad names. Now if you will excuse me it is time to go pop wheelies and do some burnouts on the MKII. Good thing my insurance just expired and my license was revoked last week for teenage shenanigans. [sarcasm for those who did not catch it ]

Got mine today! Will be on the jacket tomorrow (unless I somehow procrastinate)

Those are ALL other pet peeves of mine, I work at a bicycle shop and there are parents who will give their little kids bells off our shelves and the kids will run around with one in each hand and there are very few noises that make me cringe as that. It will last for minutes at a time and the parents act oblivious.

Like common man, seriously, like yaknow im sayin. My pet peeve is people grouping all young people into the same group of disrespectful, pant saggin', work-ethic-less (if that is a word), dumba$$'s. Don't get me wrong a lot of young people around my age are like that but not all of us. OK I am done and said what I wanted to say, carry on.

Unfortunatly I can not fire the bike up, I have no radiator on the bike and am trying to fix a coolant leak. And it looks like there is only 8.5 volts going into the converter any idea why that would be? I have 12 up at the fuse box but not at the converter?

I believe this converter is rated for LED's, it is not a powerd converter.

Today I got my bike wired for the trailer, I used the U-haul 5 to 4 wire converter. I hooked up my trailer a harbor freight 40*49 that i replaced the incandescent bulbs with LED's and noticed that my turn brake lights don't get much brighter than the running lights. The difference is slight and barley noticeable unless you look at them in the pitch black. I ran it off just a 12v battery and all the lights worked fine. I took a multi-meter to the pigtail on the bike and my readings are 12v on running lights 8.5 on left turn/brake and 8.5 on right turn/brake. I checked the ground for the converter and no change, I also replaced the plastic connectors with just a solid soldered connection to each of the wires I tapped into. And the final notice is that the bikes turn signals work just fine. Does anyone have an idea why I am getting a low voltage reading and barley any tun or brake lights on the trailer?

Got my new starter!

Thank you for reminding of me that, I just found a starter on eBay from a guy just a few miles away from me, I bought a CB from him last week. He is asking $50 and I could pick it up. He had it listed as a 99 venture star starter (50k mile bike). I think I will give him a call about it tomorrow unless anyone sees a reason not to . I might as well do this work while I am in there, even though I do not know how it starts hot. I don't want to tear it down again during riding season.

No I never had the thermo cover off, I just had the hose that connected it to the rad off and replaced.

It looks like I will be doing more work on my cooling system in the near future and I want an opinion of a "while I am in there...." upgrade to the 4 brush Vmax starter. I am not sure what is considered "slow cranking" for these bikes, but I can say when I bought it the starter was awful. I have since put in a brand new Deka battery and it is 13.665 times better. I took a video of my starter this morning (It does not start because I had no choke on but getting it to start is absolutely no problem even with old battery) just to show you an accurate representation of the starter speed. The bike was cold and only about 30 degrees out. I don't know how it is warm starting because I have never had an opportunity to ride the bike but 1 mile yesterday before it started to puke coolant and I shut it off. So without further rambling..... I know I am the next Francis Coppola

Thanks for that tip. When I get new parts for the other leaks I will be picking up 2 new plugs.

Some pictures. cant tell if it is leaking out of the ends of the hoses or plastic thermostat housing or both.

Toady I got my bike back together (minus a trailer hitch, still looking for a reasonably priced one if anyone has one) And I took it for a less than legal test trip around the block:whistling:. I was really excited because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel that is my project. But I went back outside and a pond of coolant under the bike . I had drained the old coolant, removed the radiator and replaced "hose 3" a few weeks back and all seemed OK. But I have 3-4 new leaks now. The one is coming from the area where the hose I replaced connects to the thermostat housing (plastic) this is the really bad one, I can not tell if it is leaking from the hose, or from the plastic cover or both. And then both of the rubber drain plugs on the right 2 cylinders are leaking out of the covers on to the engine covers and down. Now I have 3 questions, do I need to replace those 2 plugs or did i just properly install them or is there a trick? How tight do you make the hose clamps on the hoses? (I have them as tight as Dwight Yoakam's pants but it still seem to leak out the ends of the "Hose 3") and is there a way to seal the hoses when you put them on? I will try to post pictures of the thermostat/hose leak tomorrow.

Looks like what I am just finishing up right now.My project I am just waiting to get a trailer hitch, and a good cleaning when the weather warms up a little. but otherwise I should be finishing most of it tomorrow .

What can I say, we love our scanners....

As a few of you guys know I have had some bad luck getting a hitch for my new '86: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76012 http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=76291 Does anyone have a hitch that you would be willing to sell me that will fit my 86? There is are only two on eBay but are way more than I am willing (or able) to spend. Plus the two on there have not moved in a long time. I am not going to picky on what it is only that it will fit and safely tow my trailer. This is the only (big) part keeping me from finishing my bike rebuild.

I finally got a hold of the seller today (some guy picked up as I was leaving a message, they never did reply to the message sent on eBay) and he told me they shipped the bars shrink wrapped inside with the rack. So now I have to file a claim with FedEx and I got the whole they will come pick it up, assess it, and send me a refund in however many days and send the rack back to the seller. They will only give me up to $100 for the rack and hitch because there was no declared value. The seller said he could sign off on it and I will get the refund and the rack back (and fed Ex said that is a possibility) but the seller also seemed WAY to familiar with the process so it makes me wonder how many times he has done that before and if he would just never sign off on it and get $100 and the rack and just post it back up on eBay. Does anyone just have the bars, It is a markerland hitch.

I am offended!!!! I wont start on a rant (and I could), BUT let me just say this, I had my endorsement a 16, I BOUGHT my first bike at 15, have BOUGHT 3 since then (the venture when I was 18 a month and a half ago), all with money I have made working. AND another thing I do ride responsibly, I only ride like a you know what when I am on my mountain bike on the trails (again BOUGHT ) Back on topic MI= no helmet law we repealed it last april. And yes this 19 year old does wear his helmet.

Like the title says, Someone up there does NOT want me to have a hitch on my bike . IF you guys remember I got a hitch 10 days ago and it had a nice sized crack around the ball. So I quick snatched up a rack/ hitch on fleabay. It took 10 days to get to my house. I got it today!!!!! And it arrived "packed" in plastic wrap. First thing I noticed was THEY DID NOT SEND THE BLACK LOAD BARS :bang head::bang head::bang head::bang head: First thing I did was grab a camera and take a few pictures of it still on my porch then a few as I unwrapped it. Now in the eBay ad it clearly shows the bars (even a pic of them only) the first two pics are from the ad and the rest are @ my house. With a quick Google search i found 2 phone #'s and gave them a call but no answer and no return of my call and we just sent an Email through eBay and awaiting a reply. I have my bike assembled to the point where I cant go any further until I get my hitch. On a positive note I rode the venture for the very fist time yesterday! I put an entire 1.1 miles on the clock. FAST

I thing this would be a good fishing boat, It worked for this guy [ame= ] [/ame] :rotf:

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