cowpuc

I think there is more to the failure of the Gen 3 than just people getting out of touring. I think there would have been a lot more interest in the Gen 3 if Mom Yam would have listened to our club, BUT,, she didn't and here we are. On the same token though, yep,, the touring bike world has gone somewhat stagnant hasn't it. I do know the people that own the Harley shop in town personally and know they are not doing to bad. They have sold a TON of used bikes and don't seem to be doing to bad on new stuff, when they can get them in. It will be really interesting to see how the Sturgis Rally does with attendance this year. In the past, during downturns in sales that rally also shows downturns. On a whole different thought, I have for many years (since the greeny movement got out of hand) thought a Hybrid Motorcycle might just be the thing now that will be the future of touring bikes. If I were CEO of HD or Polaris I would be pushing this, especially now. Our little Hybrid car maintains +60 MPG on the highway with its combined total of 140 hp electric motor/gas engine. I think the 1st company to take a serious shot at doing something similar with a touring bike and breaking into +100 mpg in so doing will be paid in big dividends. Of course, this all hinges on basic economics now though. If this recession is not dealt with head on we may all be walking and eating deer taken from the state parks. Country boy will survive! Puc

@Papa Fred, depending on where you took the reading from you may find out your good to go. Ride it and see how she does, just dont let go of the bars and go no handed yet, feel it out brother. 2 to 3 pounds taken at the forks may very well be fine, I always did mine from the bar tips and found 5 poundsish to work best. Also make sure when you take the readings that you have no cable drag or other snags. On the rear axle alignment. I think at one time Mom Yam used to make special shims for aligning the final drive at the swingarm. I also think at one time @skydoc_17 was offering shims for this.. Its been a while and lots of water has gone over the dam since I was spinning wrenches but it may be worth at least getting Earls thoughts on this. My oh my that was a LOT of thinking for a geezer! lol

Not a clue.. Never really had much use for one, in my world of travel I never used one and considered GPS to stand for Go Park Somewhere, Tips Tweeksis and I are just out CTFW lol. I have borrowed one on a couple of occasions just for kicks to check speeds and such and do know they are VERY accurate though @Pasta Burner. Once you get it figured out I bet you will really enjoy it.. Puc

WOWZY WOW WOW WOW Corporal Newkirk! Soooo glad the two of you are ok and the physical damage to your body isnt any worse! Sounds like the two of were blessed big time! Hope the bike isn't to bad. Don't feel alone Ronnie, life likes to give me the bird once in a while too. I think its normal for us bikers who enjoy living life large brother,, sort of keeps us on our toes if you will. Puc P.S. - you should go back and see if you can find the bird.. It would be interesting to see what it was. If you folks have an abundance of turkey down yonder that would be my guess. Those things love hanging out on the roadways here and scaring people. They are excellent eating if you deep fry them in peanut oil but taste terrible uncooked, as you aready knew.. Love you!

@Papa Fred, thanks for the welcome back, its appreciated. If it were mine I would raise the bike and shake it down. Starting with spinning the wheels and looking closely at the little bead alignment line on the sidewalls of the tires. Its not uncommon for tire installers to not take the time to get that line spot on. This results in a slight wobble that can show up at higher speeds (sort of like an out of balance but more like a slipped belt feel). also watch the tires closely for belt slippage. I would also pull the wheels and check their balance for accuracy by doing just as I show in the vid below. A recheck on steer bearing torque would also not be a bad idea either, I still use the old zip tie on the bar ends and measure the weight it takes to make the bars move with a little scale (same thing I use to measure trigger pull on my shooters). I like to adjust my neck bearings to break at 5 - 7 pounds, if you do this you can usually tell if the bearings are notchy too because you will get a different reading from one side or the other. Its a REAL old school method used by us MXers from many many years ago BUT it still works great! I even did this on my R1 and it was rock solid even out to 176 mph. I would also double check and make sure I got the rear end buttoned up properly after having it apart to swap wheels. Making sure I followed protocol sequence when torquing the axel and such. Keep at it, you'll find it! Puc

Hi @Carbon_One and Joyce, Tip says hi and sends her love as do I. Tweeksis says hi too and says THANK YOU for saving her just for us! She is still VERY happy even though we cant ride like we use to. Hope and pray you folks are well. The 3 of us are having a great summer playing with grandkids and just sucking the life out of every day our Lord gives us. Love you. Puc, Tip and Tweeksis.

the tires I have on my Hybrid car are cheapies from Walmart, Douglas tires that cost $42 instead of the OEM "Green" greenie tires that cost $175 each. I run those cheap Douglas tires at 45 psi instead of OEM spec of 36 psi to save on fuel and it works awesome with no sign of odd wear. The sidewall on the Douglas states 51 psi max (see pic). I cant imagine that $42 douglas tires have ANYTHING over any other car tire BUT I would check the sidewall for max psi 1st anyway when adjusting to regain control of the bike running dark side .. I know for fact the one I increased to regain control on my friends Valkarie was rated to 50 psi so it definitly was no where near above designed max. Please note @saddlebum,, car/bike factory spec for tire psi is NOT max psi on tires. Also note folks, when checking/adjusting tire pressures do so with tire cold and do not worry about where the tire psi will rise to when hot.. Tire manufacture max psi's are designed with heat increase in mind, its normal and perfectly safe psi max and inflated to 50 psi when cold to go over 50 psi when hot. ALWAYS CHECK YOUR TIRE STAMP WHEN INFLATING THOUGH! way it works. Puc for a tire rated at 50

Worked on a buddies Valkerie with a car tire on back. It was NOT rideable running "normal" car tire 32 psi. I just kept raising psi in car tire until it became rideable and raised it an extra 5 psi. ended up at 46 psi and rode like a bike tire. it was DANGEROUS at 32 psi!

Dern straight, that is AWESOME!!! Heyyyy fellers,, wait for me,, I wanna ride too!! Indeed @Pasta Burner,, GOD BLESS AMERICA AND HER ALLIES! Very very very well done!!!

WOWZY WOW WOW WOW @Pasta Burner,, that was awesome, THANKS for the vid!! What fighter jet was that? Unbelievable to see the pilot slow walk that puppy across the sky like that,, just BEAUTIFUL!! By the way, THANK YOU for your service!! P.S. - oh heck yeah,, I can DEFINITELY see where going slow would DRINK the fuel under those dynamics!!

This 1st step really was a lot more work than one would maybe think.. Either that or I am more worn out and beat up than I thought.. Just chasing a weasel almost got the best of me LOL..

Not today but yesterday Tip and I climbed on Tweeksis and away the 3 of us went!! We went all the way up to Baldwin Michigan (about a 1 1/2 hour ride, took us 3 hours to get there though cause we played on the back roads) and had an ice cream cone at Joneses HOMEMADE ice cream. Waffle cones no less! Tip had "Mango Dole" and I had "Banana Pudding" and Tweeksis ate her fill at a BP Gas Station/a full tank of 87 octane at $4.99 a gallon. Tweeksis's treat cost way more than ours, hows that for "what I did for my Venture today? LOL" I figured this still fits this thread because, in me and Tweeks line of thinking, the kindest, most compationate, best way to show your bike you are doing something special for her is to ride her, Tip even agrees so the Puc home is a happy home. THE END, for now

Just reread what Earl wrote, all of it, and you will have heard exactly my response

Well put Earl.. An interesting side note here. I LOVED running the empty spaces out west on my MK1's in triple digits. One sniff of that wonderful desert air and all my MK1's would be begging me to give them some rein and let em buck, which I liked to oblige. After the kids grew up and moved on to lives of their own so they were no longer riding with me and Tip started owning the back seat she immediately noticed this phenoma and after an afternoon of 115 across that vast openess said "I am really not comfortable with these high speeds" to which I said "well if your not enjoying this I am not enjoying this" then I said "so,, pick a speed limit you are comfy with and thats where we will ride".. Remarkably. Tip picked 100 mph as her roll of comfort lol. So from that day forward, unless she was leaned back on Tweeks rear trunk and sleeping , Tweeks got governed at 100. As @skydoc_17 mentions, maintaining those speeds always showed reduction in economy. We dropped from +40 mpg to below 30 mpg, usually around 28 mpg.. Now touring in Trooper (who seems to have aquired the same taste for remote desert region high speed travel), our Hybrid car, our highway mpg of +60 also drops significantly when moseying along at 100 mph. It drops to 51 mpg in that same senario so it seems Earl, your thoughts on the matter apply equally in the science of miles per gallon analyzing..

@Midicat, if it were mine here is where I would look and how I would start the adVenturesome repair. 1st check all linkage and pivot points at the shifter on the left side. Look closely to make sure nothing is prohibiting the shifter from completing its travel downwardly as you put it in 1st. Also pull the forward bevel gear cover (that covers the clutch slave) so you can see the linkages behind that cover. Now move the shifter and watch to make sure nothing has loosened up and is moving around. All good there and nothing causing the issue, now pull the clutch cover on the right side and look under the clutch basket and at the bottom of the cases where you will see the shift shaft. Look for any abnormalities that may be repaired without removing the clutch. Spring laying there or something.. Everything looking good there I would pull the clutch basket so I could examine the shifting indexer, cam follower and all shift shaft connections and components. Make sure the screw that holds the index on the end of the shift drum is tight. Matter of fact I would take it out and locktite it and probably even stake it. Look at the pins in the indexer and make sure they are all in place and not ready to fall out. Look for wear on the oddly shaped fork on the end of the shift shaft linkage. Try to move the shift shaft in the case to see if you got wear there and double check the cam follower wheel for looseness. With the rear wheel off the ground, rock the rear wheel slowly back and forth and have someone drop it into first while you watch the shift shaft working and cam follower and indexer before you button it up to make sure its working smoothly after doing any repairs. You will find it,, I have repaired 100's of issues related to what you describe. Mostly on MX bikes cause their shifting linkages take a beating when landing jumps and stuff and all of them were easy to identify once opened up. Very seldom is it cause by bent shift forks internally. Those usually show up with a different set of problems of their own.. Good luck my friend! Puc