I've been running Avon Venoms for the last 3-4 years on the '83VR and they were great when it comes to handling. It's just the sidewall cracking issue that bothered me. No complaint about Avon's replacement policy.
Anyway, because of some good feedback on this board, I decided to put a set of Elite III's on the '99RSV. I'm still running Avons on the '91VR, but figured the '99 will be a long range tourer, and I don't want to deal with possible cracking while out in the boonies. Besides all of the 1stGens I own, for the most part, came with EII's, and.. IMO... are as tough as nails. If the EIII's give the same results I'll be a happy camper. The EIII's also have a tread pattern that's very similar to the Venoms.
So I went ahead and picked up the EIII's from Jake Wilson online. Another set of Venoms, with their $50 buck rebate would have been cheaper by $20 bucks. The EIII's ran $221 on my doorstep, and the Venoms would have run me $240. Have I ever mentioned how much I dislike rebates....