csdexter

Just FYI: the pipe goes into the muffler at the joint. The pipe is mild steel whereas the muffler is stainless. I would bet on the pipe being corroded all-around so it broke there, with the last ~2" of pipe still stuck in the muffler hole. Can't tell for sure without pics, but I think your mufflers are in a much better shape than the pipes. Depending on what magic device the Road King mufflers have at the forward end, you may or may not be able to connect them to what's left of your pipes' ends. Take a look (maybe even post a pic) before investing in new mufflers ;-)

A few things about the "EFI stumble" story: 1) How come in those 10000km (or was it miles?) of testing nobody noticed anything and yet a couple months after the launch people started complaining about off-idle stumble? Smells like a last-minute, improperly qualified update to me ... 2) EFI is never "plug and play", it requires research -- regardless of whether it's a retrofit or not. Research requires brains or (time and money). Ural (the company) doesn't have either. 3) The ECUs chosen, while small, cheap and, let's not forget, USA-made (a very important selling point -- at least to them), do represent a compromise. Ural's engine is at the higher limit (displacement-wise) of what ElectroJet is targeting and the exotic one-ECU-per-cylinder configuration is also something they've never done before. Add in the low-budget combined pressure sensor and you get a very unstable cocktail, perfectly matched with the complaints we heard. I said something above that warrants further explanation: if Ural (the company) had brains or money, they would've transformed the Ural (sidecar motorcycle) into the wonderful product that it could be; anytime within the last 10 years or so. "The wonderful product" means a sidecar motorcycle that looks as vintage and as Russian as it gets but doesn't crap out on you in the middle of nowhere, at night. It would have then attracted endless stories of "let me tell you where I've been with my Ural last weekend" instead of the current "let me tell you what I've most recently fixed (or patched up) on my Ural". In my humble opinion, Ural (the company) is wasting a valuable chance and are seemingly oblivious to sitting on a gold mine -- by keeping the quality low and insisting it's "part of the brand concept". Pity.

Mine was "easy" before I rebuilt it a month ago. The first time I tried to turn it after closing it up was real tight, I was almost afraid I put the O-ring the wrong way in and I'm gonna break it or something. But with patience I managed to work it around a few times and now it's fine. I think the gas lubricated it after I opened it the first time because it was noticeably softer after that. Rebuilding is simple: get a kit online (like the one here), then empty the tank, get a philips head screwdriver, open the plate that surrounds the tap (the one with "RES - OFF - ON" on it) and take the tap, the packing and the O-ring out. Replace with new parts from the kit, assemble in reverse order and that's it. If you have extra time/patience, do the tap-to-tank O-ring as well: undo the two big bolts that hold it on, take it out, replace long O-ring, put everything back the way it was.

The radio will not turn on unless given a command by the handlebar controller. Unfortunately, that command is not the closing of a switch but a command word sent down the C-Bus interface (round DIN-13 connector). You can thank Clarion and the stupid copyright/patents/industrial secrets doctrine for the fact that, despite the product being defunct, no documentation was ever released by Clarion. There is no way for you to debug it unless you can borrow known-good components from another bike and exchange them one by one until you find the broken part on your bike. Alternatively, find somebody who works (or worked) at Clarion and beat the information out of them. Alternatively, find somebody who is privy to the construction of the VentureMP3 and maybe they'll start talking if you ask them nicely with a six-pack of their favourite beverage. Alternatively, find somebody who works for iSimple (AAMP) ...

Isn't that a diaphragm? I.e. it's meant to bellow down as the fluid is consumed. When you open the reservoir, top-up the fluid and simply fold the diaphragm back into its original shape.

Yes, the CC on these bikes only works in 4th or 5th gear, above 50km/h and below 120km/h, if my memory serves me right.

CC disengages when either brake or the clutch lever is used. For some unknown reason, Yamaha has different switches for the front brake and clutch levers (even though identical from an electrical standpoint), with the clutch one having a long stem and a mechanical setup that makes it switch very soon. I also have leather fringes on my levers, but it never happened for the wind going through them to disengage the CC :-) It could be because I overhauled most things on my bike, including the clutch, this winter (and "overhauled" begins with a "so that you can eat from them" clean-up); or it could be that I'm just lucky. Going back to the clutch switch being more sensitive than the front brake one: if you've never ever overhauled your clutch, it may make sense to spend $10 and get a new pushrod and bushing (for the lever) and replace them. They wear down with time and decrease what would be the freeplay, in this case the amount of travel until the switch switches. The same goes for checking your lever and its pin: if the pin or the lever hole have gone out-of-round, it could also make your switch act very early on and prevent you from engaging the CC. Yes, the CC is vacuum-operated but that vacuum is not drawn from the engine intake, but from an electric pump. Finally, due to safety reasons, the CC is "picky": if there's anything wrong with the carbs (some people call it "tuning" ) that makes the engine run differently than stock with respect to "rpms-for-a-given-speed" or the clutch is slipping, or you're going up a steep hill or against powerful wind or, indeed as somebody mentioned, down a very steep hill; the CC will believe something's wrong and cut out. Safety is also the reason for which, even on a new bike, the CC doesn't engage suddenly. It instead slowly rolls the throttle on to match your current speed and then goes just a little bit down and then back up -- it's checking that it can, indeed, control the engine and the bike's speed. I know that, for people used with the car version of same, this must be very lame, very antiquated behaviour; yet again a car has more than two wheels and CCs on motorbikes (at the time the RSV was introduced) were still rocket science compared to their car counterparts. Hope this helps.

For the future, always try PartShark (or the official site, star-motorcycles.com) for superseded part numbers. Partzilla tends to know about both versions but pretends it doesn't know about the link between them when you search the site. When you order, however, they will show the old part was replaced with the new one.

I don't know about the US customs, but in the EU pretty much any gas stop will have a small shop which sells car bits, such as spare bulbs, brake fluid aaaaand kits for fixing flat tires. They're mostly targeted at bicyclists but in an emergency, it could take you home. In the old days they were called "cold patches" to distinguish them from the "hot patches" that a proper tyre shop would use to do the same repair. Also in the old days you could buy emergency hot patch kits which came with a number of patches, adhesive, a rasp to roughen the patch site, a small vice-like thing to hold the patch down and a matching number of something which looked like a biscuit only made of the same stuff that match heads (the ones you light your cigarette with) are made of. You would take the tube out, find the puncture, roughen it up, apply adhesive, put one patch on, use the mini-vice to hold it all steady and then place one of the biscuits on the plate of the vice and then light it up. It was far away from a properly done job at the tyre shop, but has brought many unlucky drivers home safely. I don't know what's still available to buy nowadays, in the era of tubeless.

The iPod plugs into the iSimple, the iSimple plugs into the C-Bus (i.e. round DIN-13 connector at the end of the cable that went to the CD changer in earlier models). Yes, it is controlled via the handlebar controller in the same way as the VentureMP3: by simulating 6 CDs' worth of music. The instructions come with the iSimple box, if I remember correctly, you create six playlists in iTunes with "magic" names (like CD1, CD2 etc.) and the iSimple presents the contents of those playlists as the would-be CDs in the changer.

Thanks for the kind offer, RedRider :-) The parts I need are: 1x Yamaha 90461-15100-00 (plastic P-clamp, holds front end of clutch pipe, under the engine sump) 4x Yamaha 3EN-14997-00-00 (plastic-to-aluminium rubber bushing seal, seals fuel pipe to carb body, center of carb assembly) 4x Yamaha 1FN-14565-00-00 (philips screw with flange head, holds body of float valve inside float bowl) Partzilla wants 31.26USD for the parts and 43.99USD for shipping; PartShark wants 27.72USD for the parts and 50USD for shipping. While I'm extremely happy with the first number, I outright refuse to pay shipping that's more expensive than the product bought -- especially, when we're talking small, inexpensive stuff. Please let me know how (and if) you want to go ahead with this and many thanks once again

If you'll be using the original model, then yes, it is controlled via the same controller that runs the radio too. Also, yes, you can change discs while riding -- it's all explained in your (the owner's) manual.

Okay, I'm done with all carbs. All 4 diaphragms are good (no cracks/no pinholes). If anyone wants them, let me know.

(moderators: if this should've been posted elsewhere, feel free to move it. Alternately, let me know where to and I'll move it myself. In both cases, please accept my apologies for posting in the wrong place) I'm going through my carbs this week because I'm fed up with looking at the new parts bag, constantly reminding me that it's yet another example of stuff I got and don't use :-) I just got them off the bike today, broke them apart and went through #4. Replaced float valve, air cut diaphragm and spring, main diaphragm and spring, little O-ring in the cover, choke plunger set and float bowl O-ring. The main diaphragm looks good -- no cracks, no pin holes and still flexible. I changed it with the new one because that what I set out to do anyway. I will go through the other three carbs tomorrow and I'll report back on the "old" diaphragms' status. If anyone here wants them, I'm happy to let them go. Now for some Q&A: Q: What state is "Dublin", man? A: Ireland, across the pond. I'll be happy to put all/each in an envelope and even pay for postage to the US or wherever you may be. Q: Why don't you keep them, you know, for a future bad day? A: I plan to sell the bike soon...ish and people here don't pay extra for "it comes with a bag of spares". The diaphragms seem rather rare/expensive so I thought I'd give something back to the community. Q: If you took them from your bike and you're in Ireland, doesn't that make them useless for a US RSV? A: On the contrary, the only difference between the US (4XY) and the EU and Australian model (5JC) in what carbs are concerned is the needle kit (4XY-1490J-00-00 vs. 5JC-1490J-00-00); everything else is identical, including the diaphragms. Q: And you're giving them away, like, for free? A: Since you're asking, I need about half a dozen small parts (nuts, cotter pins etc.) for which shipping isn't worth it. I'm happy to send the ~10USD that places like Partzilla want for them via PayPal if you'd be so kind to send them back in return. I'll even include a self-addressed envelope if you like :-) That's all, may I have a show of hands for who wants some RSV carb diaphragms?

With a vacuum gauge, which looks just like a pressure gauge only works in reverse (i.e. measures negative PSIs or inHg from the atmospheric pressure downwards). You can plug that into the same nipple you'd use to sync your carbs.