cowpuc

Now now Bubs,, its not the dollar,, its whether or not risking my life by stopping on the side of the I-5 just south of Sacramento California during the rush hour to pick up a couple pop cans to bring them back to Michigan to turn them in and collect my 10 cents per can so I can keep my club dues current is worth the fun... In my case it absolutely is..

No ya lop eared messing up a perfectly good game of tag varmint,,, your suppose to summons someone like I did you.. You know,, put an @ in front of a VR screen name of your choice to get their attention,, this will keep the game going!! We should have used your typing finger to plug that hole in your tire back at that Honda shop :crackup::crackup: :bighug:to the wife,, to her troublemakin drag racing hubby!!

,, you lop eared high falluten rooten tooten 45 shootin bandit varmint Roller!!:thumbsup::thumbsup: I LOVE those R1 Rems,, awesome shooters! Heyyy,, I think I saw one one time that was high capacity,, 12 or 15 rounds? Is that your model?? I am not talking about extended mags,, I think I got a 20 rounder for my 1911,, I am talking about DOUBLE STACK magged,, a little wider in the grip then the standard GI 1911... Not sure if all R1 Rem 1911's were double stacked... Oh PLEASE Roller,, tell me it aint so!! If it is I may have to toss my REAL fine shooter 1911 custom out, come down to WV with a couple thugs who can still bend over without saying OUCH MY BACK IS KILLING ME,, have them tie you up while I take your new gun :big-grin-emoticon::crackup: YOU VARMINT,, some people have all the luck,, or maybe its marrying into the right family in your case.. AWESOME!! Oh hey,, I would LOVE to see a pic of that gorgeous, stainless work of art!!

So many many years ago, 1989 to be exact,, I was a poor college student carrying a full load of classes (carried a 24 hour class load in one semester) so I could finish my Bachelors degree and move up the corporate ladder and eventually fulfill my lifes dream of owning my bike dealership all while working full time to support my wife and 4 kids and I needed a cheap car to get me around in.. Two years before this we saved up and I purchased a 1987 Chevy/Starcraft conversion van for the wife to haul the kids around in so I all I needed was a decent beater that got decent gas mileage.. I grabbed a CHEAP Ford Festiva,, and gradually fell in love with it.. Tiny little beater of car.. 1.3 ltr motor with amazing guts and awesome (45 mpg regularly) backed by a little 5 speed tranny.. When I got it it had 30k miles on it, two years later it broke 150k and was still running strong as ever.. I ran that little thing out past 300k and was so amazed by it that when my kids started driving they all actually wanted one.. My daughter,, working her way thru Pre-Med at GVSU while working for Hospice in her spare time dumped over 60k miles on hers (a newer one with EFI) and hers actually got better MPG and was peppyer than my carb models.. I owned, and serviced 5 of these little go getters at one time,, yes,, having 4 kids driving at once and one of my own Festivas was a full time job just keeping them running as we lived on 5 miles of gravel roads that beat the living daylights out of the little things but we made it.. During all this I learned that,, believe it or not,, the little Ford Festiva was actually sub-compact car of the year for 5 years standing in Europe,, wayyy cool but it did not surprise me at all.. In the late 90's my wife decided she wanted a small car to stomp around in,, remembering the Festiva fun we had had and the durability of such I went shopping and was disappointed that the Festus was no more,, replaced by the Aspire.. I found a 94 Aspire in decent shape and bought it for my wife.. Shortly thereafter another daughter called from college in South Carolina and said she needed a car for student teaching.. I grabbed another Aspire for her. In the process of doing so my daughter who is now practicing medicine in California called and said she had been accepted at University of Michigan, Ohio State and University of Wisconsin and wanted to know if I could take her around for interviews (she ended up at Cornell in NYC but that is another story however me and my Festiva made several trips to NYC too).. Of course I did so to help her like any of you would do for your kids.. I took my daughter in South Carolina's new Aspire and headed out with my other daughter to visit medical schools,, lots of fun.. When crossing Illinois on the way to Wisconsin we got pulled over by the Illinois State Police,, when asked why they stopped us they said cause we had an out of state paper plate and they wanted to check the car for stolen.. It took them over hours to verify the VIN.. At the end of the red tape disaster we/I found out that the VIN came back as a KIA and the car said Ford on it.. Come to find out, the Aspires/Festivas came right out of the KIA plant in South Korea which also appeared to be a Hyundia.. Crazy.. Years later,, much after both the mighty Festiva and Aspires were no longer in production,, 2006 to be exact,, my wife once again decided it was time for her to need a car.. I went shopping, remembering the Festiva's of days long gone by.. Knowing what I did then I went around the car lots and car shops to see what others had discovered about the KIA's.. I bumped into a place in Holland Michigan that actually ran a rental fleet of KIA's/Hyundai's.. The owner and head mechanic of the place told me that absolutely solid cars well beyond 200k if taken care of.. Of course,, as with all interference motors,, a real biggy was making sure the timing belt got changed at 80k and also,, if automatics,, make sure to flush in fresh tranny fluid on schedule.. I found a 2005 KIA Spectra on a repo lot with a salvaged title with just under 20k miles on it for 3500 bucks.. A close examination of it showed that someone had ran it up on a parking concrete bumper or something and bent the pull tabs on the frame to the point that an insurance company probably totaled the car for frame damage.. Could nothing,, I mean nothing else wrong or repaired,, I grabbed it.. Tip and I hauled our college bound kids all over the country in it.. Made dozens of trips all over america to move kids into their new homes and to meet their future husbands and so on.. Matter of fact,, had cancer not kicked my butt and Tip and I stopped living off the back of Tweeks (our bike) and started living in Trooper, our 2018 Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid that gets over 60 MPG average and will maintain 50 MPG at warp speed (desert fun at triple digits,, you know the routine) we would probably still be driving the KIA.. When we went shopping for Hybrid vehicles that we could both sleep in,, we really went looking at new Prius's cause that is what I discovered adVenturous youths camping/living in on YouTube.. I did all the measuring,, all the comparing,, at the negotiating between Hyundai and Toyota and in the end,, the lifetime battery warranty on the Hyundai, the DCT tranny compared to Toyota's rubber band feeling CV drive (or what ever it is) and the look,, the sports car look of the Hyundai won us over.. Also,, the back of Trooper was much larger and more conducive to where we were headed use wise.. What really broke the camels back deal wise,, besides the fact that I had come to trust KIA/Hyundai,, was the fact that the Toyota Dealer closest to us would not come off 26k for a cash buy for a comparable model of the 2018 base model of Ioniq that we got for 18k cash,, brand new.. So far,, knock on wood,, besides having a neighbor go nuts and start tossing nails on the road resulting in a bunch of ruined tires and a socialist group going crazy at a political rally and keying/fist denting our new car,, the little Hyundai Ioniq Hybrid (not full EV,, it has a gas motor as well as EV,, you dont have to stop and charge it, just put 100 bucks worth of gas in it to go to Sacramento California from west Michigan and it does the rest) mini-motor home named Trooper that has won its place in our hearts and home is still doing a fine job.. The End Puc PS - as in our CTFW adVentures,, you can find some of our Trooper adVentures on our Youtube page now too..

,, I am almost done playing outside Patch and will get right on doing in those dishes when I get done and Tip says "PULL",, she knows how to do dishes just as well as I do!!

Freebird ,, I too have been having issues uploading pics.. The last set that I uploaded (think it was yesterday) I had to keep trying to upload them one at a time to finally get them to upload.. This was definitely not a pic size issue as there size was 640x400.. Don, maybe try to upload some pics and see if you have issues.. Kent ,, in the past it has been very common for picture size to be the main issue for pics not uploading.. Below is was I down size my pics to make them fit the club format that has always worked.. I might suggest either taking a view of my little vid here or just make sure your pics are below 1000 pixels on the high side.. If you already have done this and are still having issues please note my note to Don above.. The issue I am talking about above is something that has just started recently.. I am still able to upload pics but find I must do them one at a time (not in mulitples) and have to attempt uploading a few times to get them to go.. Hope this helps.. Puc

:lightbulb:I got a great idea,, lets turn this into a club role call 1. Not me,, @videoarizona ,, how bout you?

Hold my friend,, I am gonna summons my dear brother out on the west coast, kinda like screamin "hey culligan mannnnn",,, heyy " VentureFar far rider mannnnnnn" :crackup: My brother out there has professionally tested and reviewed more bike stuff than you can shake a stick at Pasta and he may very well have actually included aux fuel apparatuses in one of his Ultimate reviews.. What da heck,, what da hay,,, even if the varmint aint done that,, I do happen to know that he and I had discussed carrying xtra fuel on numerous occasions and he handled this need totally different than my "one off" Puc methods so lets see what kind of input he may come up with here.. While wait though,, I will state; For many many tens of hundreds of thousands of miles,, mainly cause Tip and I didnt see eye to eye about pushing these Ventures down the road instead of riding them,, I used (and actually found this to work very nicely) quart oil containers filled with gas and tie wrapped under the rear rack that I have used forever as a tent carrier on the back of tweeks.. I found that by leaving a little space in the container when filling them and then squeezing the sides of the quart to allow for expansion really helped with pressure build up when riding in the heat.. After filling, squeezing and capping the quarts,, I placed them in some old socks (a technique I devised on a two month tour one time after Tip decided she would push no more due to my laughing while we pushed Tweeks uphill into a Shell Station on the other side of the river from Chamberlain SD) and tie wrapped them to the underside of the rack.. 4 quarts = 1 gallon = adding 40 miles which may not seem like much but if you spend some time in the desert with only 1 gallon of water to share all of a sudden 40 additional miles can be a life safer.. Need some pics? I can probably find a few.. On another HUGE note,, personnally,, I have only found 1 spot in the lower 48 where - all things being equal - a person who really wants to not run out of gas and montitors his bikes fuel level really has concern,, that would be out on the xtra terrestrial highway.. IMHO,, a person would be a fool (no reference to @Flyinfool intended cause he really is no fool) to head across that puppy without a couple gallons of xtra gas.. Another thing to consider in all this,, IMHO, is the opportunity to help others.. I have actually used my little quart oil containers filled with gas to help others more than in fulfilling my own needs.. It is nice to be able to hand them over to another rider or even cage driver in need just give them to them and then just grab a couple empty containers out of a trash can at a truck stop and start all over again.. I am not sure but I think a genuine aftermarket aux fuel container may be cost prohibitive for doing such a thing.. Maybe,, maybe not.. Lets see if Neil responds here cause he will also probably know just how much one of those things cost.. He is like that,, my brother Venturefar, got a good memory...

@RickRack,, my apologies for having missed this and hopefully you get this before your trial membership expires my friend! Glad to hear your getting to experience the bright/fun side of owning the greatest touring motorcycle of all time.. They are awesome!! I totally understand your thoughts on feeling like you have to work on it continually but I assure you it is not as bad as many of the machines we use to ride back in the early days where these scoots came from,, ever ride a Harley shovel head cross country? Ever spend much time on a snowmobile of that era? Concerning the need of yours for more scoot stuff in my YouTube adVentures,, have you subscribed to my channel and/or clicked on my name "Puc Puc" there and looked back over the years and years of touring nonsense in there .. If not,, you really should cause I have documented a ton of touring fun there.. If you have already done that and are simply stating a need for more,, in my case it probably is not going to happen as Cancer has pretty much kicked me off the far ride on the bikes.. About a 1 hour ride is now my limit.. That is where Trooper,, our 2018 Hyundia Hybrid and his ability to instantly become a "mini motorhome" with me sleeping inside as my wife (Tip) slips into the "riders" seat to continue the adVenture came into play. Believe me my friend, NO ONE misses the open road aboard Tweeks,, our 83 MK1 1st Gen, more than I. The above true story is why you will ALWAYS hear me say in my video's things like "seize the day" or "get out and ride",, simply put - my/your ride time in life comes with no guarentee that tomorrows adVenture is ours to claim.. Do it NOW!! P.S. - I never forget where I am going because, when out CTFW, I ride moment by moment with no where to go but on the road before me.. Try this,, its a fun game,, head out on a Month long trip,, get out west past the Rockies where no rain or bugs can interfere with the fun,, now play the coin flip game,, come to an intersection, stop,, flip a coin = heads go right, tails go left and let life decide your journey.. It ALWAYS amazed me the people I met, the things I saw and adventures I found by doing this.. TOTAL FREEDOM, TOTAL ADVENTURE, TOTAL FUN.. Take life as it comes, at least for that month...

Hello again Dav? Hopefully you find something above that is useful.. I also am including below another one of my endless YouTube vids that you may,, or may not, find useful,, or at least entertaining.. Take a peek when you have some time with nothing else to spend it on

My apologies gentlemen,, I was in such a hurry to go outside and continue with my ditch diggin that I did not bother to check the link,, my bad.. The pics below are what turned up when I clicked on one of Sunman Sonny's pdf links in the file section that houses all the tech stuff.. I know this is probably NOT an issue and I did not mean it to sound like I thought it was.. What I found down right humorous is/was that clearly the owner of the Facebook page, Sonny, absolutely does not want any reference to our club on his site and/or any promotion of VR of any sort.. Knowing that,, now take a look at what is contained within the files of which I speak (see pics as I could not get the link to work correctly),, sometimes in life we are our own worst enemy :

,,, thank you gentlemen..

In a recent discussion with one of your fellow countrymen the question came up as to whether or not the following statement is true,, in its entirety. If you would be so kind,, please read it line by line and look for factual, honest truth,, truth matters.. A simple yes that line is true or no,, that line is not true would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks in advance Puc Here is the statement we were discussing: In 1982, it (Canada) adopted its own constitution and became a completely independent country. Although it's still part of the British Commonwealth—a constitutional monarchy that accepts the British monarch as its own. Elizabeth II is Queen of Canada.

:crackup: Wanna hear another really great one Bum? Having to do with this thread and what has or has not been copy/pasted from our club files and whether or not this "Sunman" charactor is or is not still supportive of our club:big-grin-emoticon:? A quick check in his facebook pages "files" revealed this .. So much for not wanting any of his facebook members to be encouraged to check out VR Read this: https://lookaside.fbsbx.com/file/venture_west%20flyer%20and%20registration%20form.pdf?token=AWzd8n1gNmINeKlIB_Uwnmi6li0YoBhdWwlxk81hVLC5mycc9LsQilvNMIt9HfVHnFbDp7lar4aKYfgElZaueJAF5AGSw8R5wbqFhUESLuIGWHFQKtk6v7GgG_HJRP1SqmxS3-xdzMxPfvBOb2360SBrEsa3u1qKMFgaC9M1oF3tqOXUqcx2Td6vYNOsXcref6zfc1vypYFqX8OapWt4Ai_vGQKljFpBpNhet-2TvbY6Nh7kt2CKWDUb55y06N5q5_aw0BsFpofOjYRQssXV9h38sSC-piLR79BoTUsM8saDfA I think we should thank him

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..

My oh my,, the whole world really has gone stone cold crazy:doh:... Next thing you know Rich will be seen at the local Yam Shop ordering bling and other fancy things...

I have said it over and over and still have not found a way to express this wholly.. That little buck a month is soooo valuable to me,, as member, because of what you wrote above but also because it seems to cut out a LOT of naysayers that really dont want to be here anyway. One thing that life has taught me, and something I tried to implore to my children in raising them, was that people seem to act different,, think differently, hold a more healthy perspective of value and be more responsible when they have skin in the game.. Even if it is just a buck a month, it matters.. It sort of follows along the line of one of Cosners lines in Water World saying "nothings free in water world" cause isn't.. Thanks for handling that one Boss and keeping the peace in so doing.. Also appreciated your humble, open apology = you gotta a ton of class brother = YOU DA MAN!! Back to boring everyday life of putting up with that pesky Kanuckian Moderator @Marcarl.. Speaking of club members voting on stuff Don,, I wonder if it may be time to take a vote to see if its time for Carls next cat scan? I think another one of his cat's may have escaped..

Sticks and stones,,, mere sticks and stones and not very big ones at that :rasberry: Welcome home Craig,,, see,, I been sayin it,, nobody ever listens to ol Pucster but like a broken record, I been sayin it over and over and I told ya

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

:dancefool: Yeah that Roller!!! Open carry it like McQueen and his Mare's Leg :dancefool:!!!!!! Gotta LOVE the land of the free brother!! ,, appears to have a mil-spec fire group.. If so and it were mine I would be chasing down a Franklin Binary trigger like ratta tat tat,, that fast!! THAT SHOOTER IS GORGEOUS TUFFY!!

God is good my friend,, you done been blessed again as THAT was a close call that He brought you thru.. I think your last sentence pretty much says it all. On the other hand though, bad things really do happen to good people, sometimes no matter how hard they try to protect themselves. Glad you made it out ok you lop eared grass mowin, living life large varmint.. You are in my thoughts and Prayers Up for a full heal, again!! Think of you every time I listen to Waylon,, you always remind me of him. Dedicating this song of his to you Don, beware the mountain!!

Personally Case,, I think you did awesome!! Around here the litre bike is a hard sell at best.. The smaller cc sport bikes (600 class) are very popular and easy to buy/sell/trade but the litre bikes have a fairly small following,, almost one off cultish similar to the choppers or other custom builds.. That FZ is just the opposite IMHO. When the FZ first came out and the local Yam Shop had them displayed at Muskegons big bike show there were throngs of youngen's gathered around gawking at em.. I have since seen numerous FZ's buzzing around here. Personally I find owning/operating my own litre bike similar to having the best of the best world class roller coaster right in my backyard for my bucklist/retirement enjoyment.. The adrenaline rush of breaking 100 mph in 1st gear or feeling the front end lift off the ground when shifting into 6th at 176 mph is totally addictive BUT definitely not something you want to do over and over again hour after hour day after day.. Quite frankly,, I think the litre bike scares the crap out of most people (as it should, a person who dont respect his litre bike is a doomed biker IMHO) and, because of its needed lay down design (you ever stick your hand out into the air foil on your litre bike at 170 mph? I did,, almost ripped my arm off) many cannot stand the riding position as they typically do not ride at speeds above 150 where the litre bike design lifts the body and makes you float.. Yea,, IMHO,, you my friend did AWESOME on your deal!! ENJOY and dont forget to report your findings and get us some pics ya lop eared bike swappin varmint!!

Speaking of comparisons,, here is a quick vid of @videoarizona's 2nd Gen showing off its whine for Tip and I.. I don't think David did anything to change his 2nd Gen from OEM clutch basket,, perhaps he will pop in and let us know one way or the other..

My money is on your response to the feel of the bike when your finished will be "WOWZY WOW WOW WOW,, had I of known that just dumping those OEM Ink Pen springs that Mom Yam stuck in there and replacing them with some Progressives would turn my scoot into a canyon carving, off road loving, feeling like it's on rails handling motorcycle like this I would have done this the day I brought my bike home"..