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Finally got out yesterday for a few hour for the first ride of the season....and the first real ride of more then an hour for a few years. The bike purred like a happy kitten and I was smiling the whole day.

Guaranteed my rear brakes won’t lock up. I changed the oil recently and left the drain pan in front of my bike in the shop, a few days later some circling wind decided to relocate my shop roof into the woods out back. Two days of downpours followed raining into the shop overflowing the drain pan into a nice big slick on my floor, the falling rain splattered the oil all over the bike including I guess the rotors. Without really thinking about it I took it for a test run the next week, I quickly realized at the end of the driveway no matter how hard I stomped the pedal there was absolutely no chance of lockup. I can’t really recommend this design of antilock brakes though as the stopping distance is exponentially increased. 🤬🤬🤬

My father carried an electricians knife with him for most of his life. It was a tradesman's style and was sharpened so many times that it was worn down to a narrow blade..lol.. When he passed, at the funeral, I put it in his pants pocket so that he'd have it on the other side in case he needed it; I miss him.....sniff....

I think it was Luvmy40 that recently posted about knife collecting. I am not a big collector but there is one style that I buy when I can. They are getting hard to find. My preference is Fight 'n Rooster and Bulldog but a couple others also. Here are most of my small collection.

Beautiful Spring day forecast for the rest of the week in our area in SE York Pa. Been riding since Monday running errands and commuting to and from work. Nothing big, but it is so nice to be on two wheels what ever the occasion it may be. Ride safe.

happy easter to all!have a great day!

Many use a rear tire mounted backwards on the front for that reason. Rears are a different compound so they last longer on the front. I can’t say from experience but I can’t see a front tire mounted backwards would last any longer than correct rotation.

Between London and Brantford Ontario Canada and getting weather you guy's are sending our way. Rain ,cold yesterday so no riding since Monday! Heavy freezing rain,hail and snow again plus very cold,so no riding today also! Supposed to be high of 15deg.cel. tomorrow. More rain etc. then chance of rain all weekend then chance of SNOW again Mon. and Tues.!!

It’s a few days of the best riding you could ask for, not to mention the time setting around the fire hearing and telling stories. Some of them even true!!! I’ve made the last 4 years and it’s a ton of fun with some good people. I recommend the trip if you can.

Hi Carl, the bike is in great shape, especially for it's age. Plastic is all excellent although previous owner reinforced some pieces of the fairing but looks good. All the extras still work, radio, cruise, air controller. Next time there's a get together I'll bring this one down so you can have a close up look, Mark

Been able to get out a few more times this past week ! Weather is still sketchy lately with high winds and rain but will have some great ridding ahead!

Congrats! Glad you finally got out! Sorry we couldn't get your center-stand mounted like you wanted but if you ever need any help you know who to call!!

@Chaharly Glad to hear you are able to work on your passenger backrest. Hope you are able to ride more, now that we should all see a warming trend on all states. Rain here and there is ok with as long as I keep a close eye on doppler and extended forecast. So glad for better weather reporting and technology. Ride safe.

Already on my 2nd cut and applied fertilizer on half of the yard. TBC fertilizing this weekend.

I like that idea. Guten tight and a new crush washer every time.

Yeah, I thought I was getting them Guten tight but I developed a leak on one of the drain plugs. Kept telling myself not tight enough. I actually drained the Oil and replaced the crush washers. Right now the bike is in the shop for a fuel pump. I will put this on it and see how close I am.

Happy Easter 🐣

On my '82 Yamaha XV920 I never had to worry about the petcock unless I needed to flip onto reserve. Call me spoiled and lazy, but I went ahead and swapped out the manual petcock on my 2001 RSV for a vacuum operated (automatic shutoff) petcock. Hopefully the below link will work - the video shows the petcock working. 20250420_043309000_iOS.MOV Here's the ebay link to the petcock I put in: https://www.ebay.com/itm/404012437230

Speaking of CanAm, I was at Don's Kawasaki yesterday and had my SVTC front tire mounted and balanced. While waiting in their showroom, I got the chance to take a closer look at their new 2025 RedRock model built for street and mainly for offroad use. It is sharp. If only I can find the funds to support my desire, this CanAm is a great addition to the fleet.

That is fantastic news. Never thought they could reopen so fast. I would love to see pcs or tour to see what survived the storm.

i found that it's not necessarily the shop, it's the procedure followed or maybe how close it's followed. Canam does alignment on front wheels using the body center line. This way the wheels are aligned to each other, the fronts to the rear. Yah, it's a bit of work but then it's rewarding.

Front wheel alignment. Had that issue when I bought my 2014. Front wheels need to be aligned with the rear wheel, not the body necessarily. It's been about 6 years since I did this and it's not on-line anywhere that I know of. Hopefully I remembered all the steps I took. A little understanding though might be needed. Also, this is not how Canam does their alignment, but they did it 3 times and 3 times they failed. Concrete floor, flat and level. 1) install and set the belt for the rear wheel. 1A) set and fasten the steering gear in perfect center, measure well, set snug. 2) set a target behind the bike about 1' behind the tire to use for marking on, 1x3 works great, pasted to the floor. 3) using a laser mark the rear wheel outsides on the 1x3, not the tire, the wheel. 4) now you can measure to mark the center of the bike on the 1x3. 5) make 2 identical inserts to fit the front wheel hubs so that you can set a laser on them and rotate from floor to rear. Identical, very important!!! I made mine with some brass and a speaker magnet glued to it to hold the laser. 6) shoot the laser to the floor at the tire and make that mark on a piece of masking tape pasted on the floor. 7) roll the bike ahead and measure the distance between the marks, make note. eight) now shoot the laser to the 1x3 from the front wheel and make that mark 9) both marks should be the same distance from the center mark from the back wheel. 10) check to see how the measurements work out compared to the front measurement. 11) you can now adjust the tie rods so that the front tires have a 5 to 10 degree toe-in. As you drive they will automatically toe-out a bit to come straight as they should. 12) a crowfoot wrench is very handy to get at the inside nuts.

Silly question. Tire Balance???

Touchy stuff, there is a real reason for the arrow on the sidewall, not sure if it means anything but it's there for a purpose. For most everything may go just as planned until the plan flies out the window and then it means all hands on deck but one or two hands were tied up elsewhere. You might get away with it, and then again you might not. Figure first what it might save you and then consider what the savings amount to.

Order a whole bunch, they're only $1.59 ea. A screwdriver is not a special tool, you will bust the basket, you need to hold the basket at 2 points minimum or do as I did and just rattle the nut on and then stake it in place.

Very handy and useful. I used to carry one similar.

Thanks. I was an electrician for about 20 years and the sheepsfoot and wharnecliffe blades just worked very well for stripping wire and etc. They just stuck as my favorite.

I have always Run Metzlers on my Ventures and generally got around 20 to 22,000 miles out of them. The rear tires I may get 11,000 if I make sure I keep them inflated properly.

I hate rememberer malfunctions!

Trying to remember the science but certain tires years ago on cars couldn’t be reversed or belts would break. Bias ply maybe??? Once you started them one direction you only rotated front and back on same side. Any body with input on that or is my rememberer malfunctioning again?

I don’t know if I will do it, I just know that rotating the tires on my car is well worth the effort!

It'll make that first cut feel so much more impactful when it comes time to finally do it!

we may ride over while we are at Maggie Valley and see how it looks.

Only ever other year

Joe, how did you all those young folks to stand still long enough to snap that picture?

You were at Vogel?

@Chaharly It is indeed pretty quiet lately here. Great to hear from you and the condition of your wife is favorable. Truly understand that no riding for the meantime...Family comes first before anything else. I wish her the best of health and the baby until almost full term. Keep in touch whenever you can. Over here, rain in the forecast for the next three days. This will give me time to work on my front tire to have it replaced.

Dan is going to try to make it from Chicago.

My local Yamaha dealer orders my Metzlers for me. I run the 888s with good luck and just replaced the front one last week.

I have an 84 VR that I bought brand new still on the road,,,,thanks again Carl @Marcarlfor the refurbishing of this bike to keep her going. My wife and I went around Lake Ontario last year through New York State and home with it. Also have an 86' pictured here. My sister and I went to Vermont on it in 2023. Still love riding these old bikes. Hard to believe that they're 40 years old. Mark

Still have my 87 that was my first touring bike(sold last bike {84 Honda 400SS} to get married in 83) rode it till having accident in 2008. Bought it back with intentions of restoring when I had time after retiring! Well that hasn't happened and not sure if it will happen at all!!!! Don't have the money or the time as I hoped to have!!! Really miss ridding it!! I do ENJOY ridding my 2012 Royal Star Venture but both bikes have their qualities that make me LOVE both!!! Will have to see what happens I guess!!

got an '84 and '86. '84 is a bastard bike -- all 1200 parts on an '88 frame, and the '86 has over 120k miles on it, and was featured at the old Venture Days shows in the 90's.

When you roll on the throttle of your Second Gen. RSV or RSTD does the clutch slip? When you "briskly" go from first to second gear does your clutch slip? Do you ride 2 up often? Are you trying to pull a trailer and is your clutch slipping? Are you thinking about paying $300.00 plus the install for a Barnett Clutch, well think again! The stock Yamaha clutch is a high quality part and will last up to 100,000 miles. The problem is not your clutch; It's the clutch basket diaphragm spring and that "wimpy" half disc that has failed. So here's the fix! Install an aftermarket, thicker clutch diaphragm spring, and full clutch disc and never worry about that RSV or RSTD or RSTC clutch again! The heavy duty clutch diaphragm spring puts 25% more clamping force on the clutch discs than the stock RSV clutch spring. Here's my deal, you get a brand new .070” thick heavy duty clutch diaphragm spring, (name brand) a new full clutch friction disc to replace the half disc, and a brand new, genuine Yamaha replacement clutch cover gasket, everything you need to do this install for $115.00 including shipping in the USA!!! I will include complete written instructions, and i have a picture file that can be downloaded! what a deal!! If you have some miles on your current set of friction discs, check my other MEMBER VENDOR Classified Ads for the remaining 7 genuine Yamaha friction discs or the seven steel clutch plates for $105.00 a set each, Making this upgrade basically, a brand new, better that stock clutch! This upgrade can be done in less than 2 hours, doesn't require the removal of the clutch basket, can be done with a 10mm and 12mm wrench and an allen wrench, and a pair of needle nosed pliers and side cutters and you will loose very little engine oil! Shipping in the 48 states is free, outside the us is at actual cost! I accept paypal and checks! Thanks for viewing my ad. Earl (skydoc_17)

Sorry but the Stebel harness was not one of my products. It should be a very simple harness. Connect the OEM plug to a relay to energize the coil and run a fused line from the battery to one side the Normally Open (NO) contact of the relay and connect the input for the Stebel to the other side of the NO contact. Push the horn button and the relay closes making the horn blow. The tricky bit is making sure the relay is rated for the current needed for the Stebel horn, size the wire and fuse accordingly for the current needed by the horn. I could build one, but not having a Venture around to determine what connector is needed or estimate the length or wire needed, I would need some help in the form of pictures of the horn connector, and estimate of length of wire needed to get from the battery to the new horn.

Earl @skydoc_17 is still active on this forum and still, as far as know producing his excellent delinking kits on demand. I would message him again. He's probably just taking a break or otherwise busy right now.

Finally done with all the painting! It came out really well, and definitely gets a lot of attention now! We added a bunch of shiny butterfly stickers to really capture the "9 year old with a barbie jeep" vibes it's got going on lol:

LEDs. Some ideas for you.... I replaced my headlight bulb, reflectors, taillight with LED's. Taillight was sold by Custom Dynamics, about $90. A board replacement that is quite bright. I don't see it available on their site, now, but it fit the VStars as well. Maybe available on EBay. The reflectors I replaced with 2 cheap 2-way LED boards that fit almost perfectly into the reflector spaces...and wired to the taillight and front running and turn signals through plug and play adapter cables sold by a member here. Added an LED strip under trunk and HD style tail light kit for additional running and stop lights. Headlight bulb was a Dot approved LED with low beam cutoff and passive cooling. Fit fine and works very well. Also, you might want to consider the ignition switch modification. As stock, Yamaha runs a ton of current through the switch. Member that makes the plug and play cables also makes a plug and play set up that routes most of the current through a relay instead of the switch. Easy installation, like all of his stuff. Look up above under classifieds, member venders. LEDs in rear Reflector LEDs..run and turn blink. Wires run through rear guard, up front forks. Plug and play accessory cables from Steve. I've used his stuff to wire in the XM radio power, rear lights, front leds and soon the small front spot lights I'll be mounting on the forks. I used the 12 volt power center located under the dash on the lower left side of the fairing. Pics of the headlight pattern. High beam does go out nicely! Much better than stock in both reach and width. Low beam... High I also lowered my front end about an inch. helps level the bike, gives me more flat feet room and makes the low speed handling a touch easier. Currently run 0-4 lbs air front shock, 30lbs rear shock. Front tire at 38 and rear at 40. I change rear to 35-40 for 2 up. david PS. love your part of the country. Spent some time just East of Knoxville picking up my travel trailer. Strawberry Plains Best Western! Been through that area a lot in past few years. Will have to plan a detour south to your area by the Tennessee River next time!

Name of Restaurant Anna Mae's Street Address 4060 Perth Line 72 City Milverton State or Province ON Website (Optional) http://canada411.yellowpages.ca/bus/Ontario/Milverton/Anna-Mae-s-Bakery-Restaurant/92085.html?what=anna+mae&where=Canada&le=106198cdd1a%7C106198cd89a Quality of Food Great Quality of Service Great Biker Friendly? (Parking, Trusted Location, Etc.) Yes Kind of Food? (Mexican, Chinese, etc.) Home cooked Canadian Alcohol Served? No Additional Comments -