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I'll post up some pictures as soon as I can. Probaly a couple weeks. Well, there is a gargae, but it's small and in bad shape. I plan on tearing it down and building a bigger shop in a few years. We bought the place for the 1890's home and the landscaping. The back yard is a beautiful flower garden with many expensive trees and has a park like layout. The only CBs I own are part of my Ventures!

These are all good points and the reason I asked before moving forward. I’m still having a hard time believing 1000lbs hanging as mentioned 3’ off the back of a receiver lasting too long, also pushing 800lbs up that ramp ain’t gonna happen, would need to find a good hill or high curb to help. I found the same issue with u-haul being round trip and also in my area a 5 day max. so after pondering a little today I realized I’m an idiot. I already have a trailer!!!! I have an old Highlander (Shoreliner) bunk trailer from my Hobie 16 that I got rid of when I moved (sold the boat, kept the trailer). It’s been propped up against my garage wall for the past six years. I initially counted it out because of the 4.80-8 tires and low speed rating. And I haven’t put it together here because one lack of need and two lack of storage, I need to remove a fence panel or install a gate. Then I realized all I need is new highway tires and maybe adjusting the fenders. Measures 5’w X 10’l plus tongue. Single leaf spring with 1800lb capacity.

Couldn’t agree more @cowpuc. I don’t understand Yamaha’s position on this. Their greatest completion is the Goldwing when it comes to touring bikes. And yet the BIG difference is that the new wings which also had problems after release have all been addressed immediately. Not only that but when they down sized the 2018 Wing to be less true touring and more sport touring like an ST1800, there was an outcry about the too small storage. What did Honda do? They immediately produced a newer model which gave back the storage and then some. In other words, Honda actually listened to the people who invest big $$$ in their machines unlike Yamaha who seems to IGNORE them. Facts are hard to beat!

Went and looked at bike lit has all the goodies and is in nice shape, no dents just some nicks here and there. extra motor is a match. I offered 1,300 not a penny more. Everything is there to make it run again but it’s is a project.

In the instructions that came with my springs back in about 2004, Progressive says oil level should be measured with the springs out. Have the instructions changed since then? Oddly, I don't see instructions for the Venture in Progressive's current tech section: https://www.progressivesuspension.com/install-sheets/metric. @Pasta Burner: When I installed the springs back in 2004, I didn't think about exercising the forks to make sure oil filled all the nooks and crannies before I checked oil level. When I rebuilt the entire front end a few years ago, I put oil in and exercised the forks several times to distribute oil. I was surprised by how far the oil level fell from the initial fill. Something to consider if you go back in. Progressive Spring Instructions.pdf

You will always find a difference, maybe only because you are being more sensitive to all the happenings. Now on the amount of oil, the more oil the less air in the forks, the less air the sooner it compresses to a higher pressure and the more sensitive the feel will be. Now will 1" of oil make enough of a difference that yu can feel it,,, don't know,,, just theory.

Search rampless trailers and watch some videos. I’m considering one if the day comes we decide to haul the bike, now we just ride the whole trips. No way I’d put a heavy bike on the hitch.

I'm not diggin' it. I have a similar hauler that I use on my motorhome to haul a BMW 650 enduro bike, and it's not as easy as shown to load even that ??? 350 ??? pound bike up. Once it's loaded up, it does rock / rotate up and down quite a bit. I don't know that it's an issue, but it is annoying. I must also say that with the distance from the hitch, there's a lot of leverage there. I'm sure the weight is beyond the rated hitch capacity, and the distance / leverage amplifies the problem. I also wonder with the weight hanging 3' off the back of the bumper, how much it'd affect steering and such....changing the dynamics of weight distribution going down the road. Trailers can be a pain, but my experience tells me that, if properly maintained and loaded,....they're the safe bet.

Well I have some questions. I have seen many many racks for luggage on racks in the receiver. They teeter back and forth a bunch unless they strap them to bumper. So I do not see any kind of stabilizing to keep this thing from rocking to a fro. So do you really want to trust a single connection with 900#+ ?? And exactly what is the tounge weight rating on the hitch/vehicle your towing with? I dont think I would use it, all I can vision is my bike bouncing down the road after this thing breaks off.

Hiya Chief,, hows life? Sounds like, in your case, pretty dog gone good. There are numerous Venture owners here who have been with Yamaha for many many many years of which I am one.. I am probably not the only one who is aware of this but,, maybe I am.. Yours (and "Robs") experience with Mom Yam is not something new actually.. Back when the Venture was introduced it came with a guarenteed failing 2nd gear. The issue therein was that second gear failure (due to a soft shim on the secondary shaft) had a known habit of not failing until +25k miles so most of the failures did not even start showing up until the bikes were out of warranty. Although proven many many times over that the cause was, in absolute factual factory defect Mom Yam never ever did issue a recall. What she chose to do was run the thousands of defective parts out of inventory and then (about mid year of 85) started placing updated, hardened correctly shim and buckets in.. As a matter of fact, our group is sharp enough that there are those that can tell you EXACTLY the bike number (by VIN) when this started. As in all things though, one mans trash is another mans fortune and that is exactly where my million mile plus journey on the Ventures comes in. I took advantage of that crisis and ended up riding out 6 (still in the process of wearing out number 6) of the MK1's by simply buying them dirt cheap (my recent one was/is my most expensive one I purchased at $1000 and it has had the tranny fixed - only one so far I have had with a 2nd gear in it lol) and chasing out the remaining 250k miles with them just by skipping 2nd gear. For many many people who paid the big $$$ up front on the MK1's I always felt sorry for and,, on another note,, please be advised that what I just explained definitely had a major influence on the value of the whole Venture line from that day forward. I still think if Mom Yam would have done what was right wayyy back in the mid 80's her Venture would have been the "go to" bike instead of the much slower, much less torque, much less mpg, no where near as comfortable MK1 now iconic Honda Goldwing.

I’m thinking maybe a lift for hot steel in a blacksmith shop. ???????????

Despite the issues I’ve had I still love this bike. Yes, having issues with a new design does happen. You’d hope that the R&D department did their homework and worked out any issues before production begins. Problem is that real world use is a lot different than a testing environment. Personally, I think that given the number of issues with cam/lifter that have occurred, Yamaha would issue a recall and deal with it proactively but this sadly doesn’t seem to be the case. It seems they’d rather just deal with it as it arises. I don’t think that’s a wise move by Yamaha to let a customer take off on a dream lengthy trip on a possible ticking time bomb. IMHO, something has changed at Yamaha and not for the better. I’ve had Yamaha’s for years and chose them again for reliability and customer service. I’m glad they’ve been faithful to take care of my issues, but it’s the lack of preemptive action on a known weakness by their part which doesn’t sit well with me. Once a reputation is tarnished its super difficult to repair!

Congrats on the new house. Hopefully it has a garage for your toys and hobbies 👍

Wow, glad for you that the dealership is taking care of you. This is another example of why I shy away from new designs of anything, there is an inherent learning curve and issues to be worked out. Not to mention my technophobias 😬😬😬. I seem to end up like your buddy’s story. Hope this gets you miles of smiles.

The picture isn't what is centuries old.

I was thinking along those lines when I read your post the other nite. You can find a piece of channel at a local metal shop and bolt or weld it rite on there. Some highway acceptable tieres, repack wheel bearing with high temp bearing grease and you should be good.

Amazon, same with the 7mm wire and the NGK splicer.

Guess I said that wrong. left hand track for right hand turns as well as left hand turns. If you were to line up in the right hand track you would be sending the signal that you were turning right, if there was a right turn. My BAD!!

There is compression, forks are moving and dampening out the road, I just expected them to be softer than they are. Ride home yesterday in freezing rain and 30mph wind, I was just concentrating on my frozen face and eyeballs.

I'd also be worried about the overall length of the bike compared to the width of the tow vehicle. My '06 RSV, for example, is significantly longer than the width of my 2012 Tundra.

How often do you intend to haul your bike? U-haul has some really nice little motorcycle trailers that they rent out for dirt cheap. You could haul your bike several times a year, for multiple years, before you got anywhere near the cost of owning a trailer. The only problem I've had with the U-haul motorcycle trailers is the fact that they're not available for one-way rentals and must be returned to the same location where you picked it up. I was told that this is because these particular trailers aren't owned by U-haul corporate, but by the independent locations actually renting them out.

I have the free wire using that Sena 20S, works fine except you get an echo on the phone . . . not sure why. I flip flop one whether I have the phone paired directly to the Sena or have the phone paired to the bike. As far as the rest of the functionality it works fine, CB, Radio and comms . . . the thing we loved about the Sena is that we could talk seamlessly with out having to push any buttons when we made the initial connection to each other. When using the comms on the bike you obviously have to push the button, but in the rare case where wind is being picked up by the mic and causing your mic to pic it up using the bike comms is better. There are more pros than cons that's why we stayed with it. I like it.

A few posts have been made in the past about the workings of the fuel tank level sender & the petcock. I pulled these parts out of my spare gas tank and took some pictures of them to show how they work for interested members Picture of the sender unit as it came out of the tank. Picture of sender with metal cover removed. The tabs do not have to be bent to remove metal cover. Just spring sides of cover out slightly and cover will slide back. Close up of the wire wound resistor. The metal wiper contact is at middle position in photo. In this view float is all the way down, at the empty position, metal slider contact is now positioned at bottom of wire wound resistor. View of petcock showing adjust lever. View showing the two screens that go into to the tank. The longer pickup tube is for the regular selection. The shorter tube is for the reserve side. Gary

Right, wrong or indifferent,, this is what I have always done and was always, in the end,, very impressed with my highly skilled abilities in creating a good outcome,,, a legend in my own mind :crackup: I dump everything OEM in there except for the little little cap that covers the end of the spring.. That long piece that goes lon top of the OEM spring is history.. IMHO,, if you did get a set of PVC preload spacers (piece of PVC pipe about 3 inches long?) with your Progressives they are plastic to make them easy to cut to the length of preload you desire.. There is no way you will get the full 3 inches in there as preload.. Personally,, I like 3/4" of preload and have always tossed the PVC in favor of heavy wall copper pipe caps as spacers cause I like to know if I decide to beat the living daylights out of my bike in some hair brained "wonder where that snake trail in the Utah Mountains lead to" moment I aint gonna end up shredding some plastic into my fork valving.. After cleaning out the old whale/fish oil that Mom Yam uses for OEM fork oil completely and rebuilding the bushings if needed, I slip the Progressives into the collapsed forks, then add some fork fluid being careful not to fill to close to the top.. Then I lift the forks to the top and screw in the fork caps a ways to keep the fluid from gushing out while I work the forks up and down to get the new fluid into the valving.. When I am satisfied that I am feeling proper dampening of the oil I remove the caps and recollapse the forks with the springs protruding from the tops of them again.. Now I take my handy dandy fork oil leveler (its a long tube connected to a syringe (gotta LOVE those large AG Syringes), slide the tube in with the springs still inside the fork and measure 3 and 1/2 inches of distance between the top of the fork to the top of the oil and suck out oil till I get air,, both sides doing this quarentees equal oil height.. I use Bel Ray 12 weight and have always found this perfect for my first gen off road travels and canyon carving needs with 2 up, fully loaded... Now I raise the forks, make sure I have the heavier wound spring section of the spring in first, slip that little OEM end piece over the spring, put the preload copper end cap with its solid face pointing toward the fork cap (up) in and set about the task of getting the fork caps on without cross threading them,, beware the fine threads.. I have found that tieing down the back of the bike if I am working off the centerstand is handy for this as it takes some serious controlled down pressure to get the caps started.. Once buttoned up I have also found,, at least for me,, no air pressure in the forks = the best handling/ride now.. I am sure I missed something here but maybe this will help somehow..

Thank you! I will check it out.

I rode a Wing before the SVTC, with wired J and M headsets (5 pin) Jand M makes the factory ones from Yamaha. All I had to do was change the lower Z cords on my headsets to the seven pin to mate with the Yamaha

The higher the quality, the longer the duration and appreciation.