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Saturday my wife and I packed up the RSV and loaded the trailer with fishing gear, then headed South from the Orlando area via US 441. Weather was rainy until we got about halfway around Lake Okeechobee. Once we got on US 27 the sun came out for the rest of our ride to Key Largo. The next day we just hung out and fished behind the hotel with some not so shrimpy live shrimp for bait. Caught nothing, I suspect because the bait was bigger than the fish. 😒 But my wife did make a new friend. 🤣 After a "hard" day fishing, we went out to the Islamorada Fish Company for dinner and caught the sunset. The next day was a ride to Key West, the Shipwreck Museum, lunch, the Aquarium and the Southernmost Point before heading back to the hotel in Key Largo. Weather was nice, if a bit windy crossing the bridges on a bike. Tuesday we packed up and headed home via a quicker route: The Turnpike and I-95. This was the first trip we had taken with the trailer that we bought off Craigslist earlier this year. I was very impressed with the way the RSV handled two-up, loaded down and pulling a trailer. Even at 80 mph the only way I could tell I was towing a trailer was by looking in the mirror. The bike didn't handle any different whatsoever. All in all it was a nice long weekend getaway.

I picked this up from a charity auction for 610$ and it came with 2 new covers and 6 qts of Bel Ray oil (I never heard of the oil until now). It is a 1986 Suzuki Cavalcade that has been parked since 2015 the PO had medical issues and passed away. I have a notebook of his that had all maintenence that was done and even everytime he put gas in it how many gallons and how much it cost. So far I put a battery in it and I am doing an inspection on it. The starter relay clicks but it doesn't turn over and the clutch system needs to be rebuilt. The air ride has a leak somewhere because the pump wont shut off so I unplugged it for now. I think with some sweat this will be a nice ride because the PO took great care of it until it was parked. It had an oil change and new Conti tires done 200 miles before it was parked but I am still changing all fluids. I will keep updated because I want to ride it to Vogel. I have the windshield they took it off for transport.

They were very solid bikes back in the day, you got a nice deal on that one.

Got a few more pics to post. Picked up a four brush starter, cleaned it up, painted it and now it's mounted on the bike. Also got the rear caliper installed.

I can help you with this project, if you need.

Love the FL Keys! I worked at the Turkey Pt. Nuclear Power Plant for 3 1/2 yrs and stayed in Homestead, FL which means I was very close to the Keys. My wife and I spent a lot of time in the Keys fishing and enjoying the water and went to Key West many times. The first time we went fishing on the Captain Michael from Robbies Marina, they had a few bait fish in the live well and rigged up a rod for me and I caught this small grouper! This one is protected and had to be thrown back.

We were sitting in a restaurant eating lunch in Key West watching the Weather Channel reporting on the weather up North.....and congratulating ourselves on our choice of where to live. 😄

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Peace..... And be safe out there! David

Good to hear that you made it through. Wishing we could take some of the pain for you, but the best we can do is pray for you,, so I'll do that.

Last March, I brought the RSV to Phoenix so my buddy and I could ride through the Spring through Fall... Hitting the mountains and enjoying weekends on the road. Covid put an end to that. A few weeks ago, i started the bike up and fuel poured out the overflows. Went through the basics but nothing worked. Mind you I've been running her at least once a month since March. Running fine. This week I broke down and took the carbs off. Actually, after reading @V7Goose's older article about removing carbs and another that @Freebird posted from an earlier member... The process was simple!! Yea.... Seriously. Took the carbs out, cleaned the carbs, bowls, jets... Checked the gas in tank, fuel lines and replaced fuel filter. Replaced plugs as well. Thought we had it done but after 10 minutes or so of running very well... fuel poured out the left overflow. Took the tank and air stuff off... Started her up... And she ran fine... No overflow. What? Put her back together last night.Went for a long ride today.... City riding, country and freeway... Hitting 80mph. Not one issue. Have to conclude the problem was some gunk got in one of the carbs and took a while to work it's way out. For the record, the full gas tank had Stabil and Techron in it since March. BTW, I set the floats at 9mm and the pilots at 2.5. Pilots were at 2.25 and she was always cold blooded. So a touch more fuel I thought would help. It did. My thanks to @cowpuc for his help and his encouragement! Besides helping me stay on track, he gave me extra ideas to ponder and check out as I went through the carbs. This forum and it's members have once again proven their worth!! Sorry no pictures... We were to busy CTFW!! David P.S. Dont fear pulling the carbs on the 2nd gen. Read the two articles, both in the 2nd gen maintenance section. The pictures and explanations are perfect.

Two weeks ago, I sent out my shop Shim Kit with a set of new gaskets, like I always do. On the weekend of the 24th of October it was returned to me in a timely manner. Only this time, there was white and RED USPS Tape all over one corner of the box. I was immediately worried as I have NEVER had the Shim Kit Box returned to me with any trouble what so ever. When I opened the box, to my horror I saw that the outer case that the shims were in was crushed! Even worse, when I opened the outer case, there were a half dozen canisters that would normally be filled with shims EMPTY!!, and a large hole in the bottom corner of the box. (Where the USPS Tape was on the outside. Luckily, the Bucket Tool was still in the case but it looks like between 35 and 55 shims were lost in transit! The Forum Member who returned the Shim Kit to me filed a claim with USPS as soon as I contacted them. To his credit he has been all over USPS and I was contacted to bring the Shim Kit with all of the packaging to my local Post Office for inspection. Which I did. The Post Master and I have been doing business with each other for the 12 years I have been a member of this forum so he made short work of the Inspection and the forms that needed to be filled out. My standard procedure was to insure the kit for $200.00 and request that the kit be insured when it was returned. After over 100 trips back and forth across the country, the Insurance finally paid off. The claim was approved, and I should be receiving a check in the next week to ten days. I am now in the process of replacing the outer case, and tearing down a few motors I have here at the shop to harvest the shims from. The supposed cause of the damage was the Priority Mail Box got caught in the "Barcode Reader Machine" and was destroyed during the scan of the Barcode. I can only imagine 55 Valve Shims raining down like ping pong balls, and rolling across the floor! They will be skidding on those puppies for the next five years,,,,,I hope! I have attached a few pics, because as we all know... It didn't happen if you have NO pics. Enjoy. Earl