Leaderboard

After being blessed with a beautiful baby boy 19 years ago, I decided to sell my '99 Venture due to not being able to get the 'what if' thought out of my head every time I rode it. Ironically, it was my wife who said "don't sell it, you love that bike". I can still hear her saying those words to this day. I think she also loved it, we took many trips together up/down the coast, Yosemite, Mt. Lassen and Shasta, beautiful country and amazing rides. At times I wished I'd kept it and took my son riding, but baseball was his passion in life from when he was 2 years old, so we ended up spending most weekends at the ball field anyways and the bike ultimately would not have fit into our lives and sat unused for too much of the time. Well, last August we dropped our son off at college in St. Louis (where he's playing ball!!) and in September I purchased my new baby, an '07 Venture. As a funny little side story, I was recently searching for some family photos from 2010 and came across a photo of the blue/black '07 that I had apparently downloaded to my computer late one night in 2010! I have no recollection of doing that but apparently my love of the '07 color scheme goes back a good 10 years. It's taken 6 long months to work through carb issues, then getting a trust & wills set up (at my wife's, the responsible adult here, insistence) and then finally some nice weather for this day to finally happen. Our first ride together in 20 years. It really is amazing how time flies, the whirlwinds of parenting, getting older and then suddenly right back to where we started and hard to believe that these 20 years passed in the blink of an eye. I'm blessed to still be here, healthy, to have a wife who gives me no grief about having a motorcycle and to have experienced the greatest joy of all in life of having a child. In the end, I can't say I would change a thing but now, its time to ride!

STEP 1 Start by checking if you have power at the ign switch with the key off you should have at least one live wire going to the switch if not you will have to back track the red wire to see were the failure is. If it is good you need to start making sure all your ground connections are good. STEP 2 Start by connecting a booster or any other heavy cable from the battery neg to the engine block (this is to eliminate any possible ground issues) Next jump the the large cable coming from the battery to the large cable going to the starter, key does not need to be on your only checking to see if it cranks over, this puts power directly to the starter. If it cranks over good and healthy you know starter and battery are in good shape so you have now eliminated battery and starter as part of the problem. If not you may want to load test the battery. ( a simple though not as good as a using an actual load tester is to connect a voltmeter note the voltage and than turn on the ignition and see how quickly the voltage drops off you can even try to start it and see if the voltage nose dives. if it does Battery is likely bad. if there is no change in voltage and no starter response you likely have a wiring issue.) Remove the booster cable and try it again. If it is still good ground should be OK if this time it fails you need to check for ground faults. STEP 3 With the key on, Clamp a test light to the batt NEG (Yes the Neg) post and with the key on touch the point of the test light to various metal parts of the bike such as frame and engine case etc.. the test light should NOT glow at all if it does you have a bad ground some where. with test light still clamped to the NEG POST and while grounding the test light probe to the engine case try cranking the engine if the light glows you have a bad ground if it does NOT your ground should be ok. I know this all sounds kind of backwards but it works very effectively. If at any point the light glows slowly move the test point of the light along the ground circuit until the light no longer glows. The fault will be between the point were the light glows and does not glow. you can even pin it down to the connection by testing the wire it self at the connection and the and the the bolt and contact point at that connection. If this all checks out you can use the same procedure on the positive side of the circuit and if that checks out STEP 4 If the schematic I am looking at is correct that plug has two red wires protected by a 30 amp fuse they should be hot all the time as they are the main supply to if electrical system. it also looks like they may splice together at some point and splices can be a source of trouble. check for constant power at your ign switch. With the key off at least one possibly two wires should be live at all times if not trace that wire back toward the 30 amp fuse and beyond checking any connectors in the circuit for a faulty wire or connection. The other two wire on that 4 wire plug which appear to be a blue one and a red/white one control your solenoid. The red /white one is protected by a 10 amp fuse in fuse pnl 2 and should be live with the key in the on position. The Blue wire is the signal or control wire and is grounded (should be batt neg ) when you hit the starter button. If you disconnect that 4 wire plug and using some jumper wires run a wire form the batt pos to were the red/white wire went to. Now connect a second wire to were the blue wire went. When you touch this blue wire to the battery neg the solinoid should kick in and the bike should crank over.

Awesome Story! Mine is similar, right down to the '07 Venture. Enjoy your rides!

@PastorCurt wait, are we still talking motorcycles here?😇

All this info is great! Thanks guys. Another thought I’ve had recently and this is for everyday carry as well is a compact umbrella or two. Aside from the obvious rain protection I’m thinking more for use against the sun, especially doing a roadside repair. It’s difficult to do anything with the desert sun beating down on you let alone see through the sweat.

I have a similar jump pack that I picked up at Costco a few years ago. It’s successfully turned over my Expedition in freezing conditions and actually saved mine and the kids ass when stuck in the left turn lane of a seven lane interchange on an overpass over I15.

They forecast us 12”-20”. Only got 5-6, I’ll count that as a win. Snow rarely lasts a week here, riding today and going fishing Saturday.

Nice to know I'm in such good company! I started on a Honda CM450 ~1989, upgraded to a couple of larger Shadows, then the 1100 Yamaha Virago. Was planning a 5-day trip with a couple of friends in '99 and starting thinking I needed something different for such a trip. I was 31 years old then and the idea of a big touring bike was not even within the realm of my thinking. That was when I walked into a Yamaha dealer and started looking at their bigger star cruisers. I called my wife who happened to be nearby and asked her to come give me her opinion of the bikes I was looking at & see how they felt as a passenger. In her smart ass way, she looked at the Venture and said, "Well, you could buy 'Grandpa's' bike here" (Sorry guys, she said it not me, but I did laugh...). The sales guy, of course, laughed too then said in all seriousness, "its a really nice bike, we'd be happy to let you take it on a test ride". She looked at me and said "you gotta try it, maybe Grandpa knows something." I signed the necessary paperwork and was off for a quick ride, she waited at the shop. I came back, told her Grandpa DOES know something and we're buying the Grandpa bike - because I love it! Haha Two weeks later I was off on my 1st multi-day ride through Yosemite, to Lake Tahoe, Mts Lassen & Shasta and then two days down the coast. That '99 Venture made multiple trips back to Yosemite, up and down the coast and eventually a multi-week round trip to St. Louis and back. It was also my daily commute ride. I kept it looking like it did the day I bought it. It was a sad day when I sold it, but the buyer was a 52-year old guy who's youngest daughter just left for college and he had given up motorcycles when his kids came along. Isn't that something! I'm right where he was then. And still love this timelessly beautiful bike! And yes, my wife is still a smart ass and she still calls it the Grandpa bike.

As long as the charger ground was not still connected to the bike, the two (charger & bike) electrical systems were isolated from each other and 12v didn't go back into the frame. This would be the same as putting two D-cell flashlight batteries together + to - end. As long as you do not connect their other ends together, you have not completed a circuit for current to flow and nothing will happen. Connect those other ends with a wire and yes, fireworks.

Looks like we oughta have our own section here. I started riding in 1969, rode til shortly after our first daughter was born in 1981, then sold the bike I had then (late '70s Honda 750 Super Sport). We re-joined the "Never Say Never" riding community again in 2017 when we found our present ride...a very-well cared for, 1 owner 2000 RSV. Funny how the years, the aches and the worries went away.

This story sounds so on track with me. I also took an 18 yr. hiatus from riding. Not all from family things but I just lost interest. In late 04 the itch got under my skin and in May of 05 I bought my brothers 03 Venture and put 96,000 miles on it so far.

You know to win a pile of money would make like more and easier ... But I tell myself that I already won big in 2010 I had a fast growing set of tumours on my liver and the team of 5 doctors told me I had 4 days before the cancer would explode on my liver and that if they did not operate in the next 24 hours they could no longer help me ... At 5 am the next morning they started 8 hours of surgery , they removed the liver from my body and then removed a part of my liver to remove all the ugly stuff and put the liver back in my body .. When I woke up I saw the chemo bottle hanging from the pole from my bedside . The team of doctors came to see me the evening , and told me they had got it all . I still am today on a restricted diet , but hey I am still here . So I tell myself , that I had just won the biggest lottery any one could win .

Today I took my youngest on her first ride. She loved it, she thought it was so cool when other riders would wave and I would wave back.

Name of Restaurant Rockton Tavern Street Address S2463 Rockton Road City Lafarge State or Province WI Website (Optional) - Quality of Food Great Quality of Service Great Biker Friendly? (Parking, Trusted Location, Etc.) Yes Kind of Food? (Mexican, Chinese, etc.) American Alcohol Served? Yes Additional Comments The bar is north of Lafarge on Highway 131. You can Google Rockton Bar for a web site.They have a Barbeque chicken on Sunday that is great . They recommend reservations for Sunday they start to serve at 1pm till gone. As you come across the bridge there is a leather and fur trader that will repair you leathers and they sell sheep skin seat covers.