cowpuc

Thats cause it was Tippy

WOW ZZZZ WOW WOW WOW Red,, THAT is AWESOME:178:!!!!!! GOTTA LOVE COLORFUL COLORADO Thank you for including us and not making us beg for 's - you da man bro!! Hey Jeff,, spray some more salt water on the door hinges of those Canadian back doors while your up there will ya brother!!

Ahhh yes,, shame on me Mr. Bird,, shame on me:buttkick:!! How dare I miss one of the trail icon's of yesteryear my friend:thumbsup:.. Like you mentioned, I also remember how good ol Mother Yamaha took liberity to help teach us how to start a REAL thumper by placing a small window on the rocker cover above the right end of the cam shaft. Then they put a small white line on the cam to visibly show boneheads that couldn't "feel" the cam land between the valves for easy starting - a four stroke kickstarting technique that saved many many potential broken knees and ankles (also turned a 50 kick bike into a 1 or 2 kick magic machine:big-grin-emoticon: I actually tried to teach that easy start method to the guy that bought Olivia Don. Months later when I saw him at MD, I was surprised when he told me that the top notch mechanic who "tuned" Olivia for him told him and he didnt have to do that any longer.. I just shook my head while I sat n watched him kick that poor ol 42 over and over trying to demonstrate the prowess of that mechanics advice - I guess some of the things we learned thru the years of biking still hold true my brother:big-grin-emoticon:!! Oh,, by the way,, those 500 Yams were AWESOME flat-trackers!! Talk about maniac but controllable torque to hang the back tire out there! :checkeredflag:

By the way Bert, we have never owned or actually ridden a Gen 2. I have been told that one of the issues with the 2nd Gen has to do with the passenger having to do with more wind buffeting than on the 1st Gen fixed fairing scoots.. I wonder if your wife being shorter like she is may actually not be a blessing in disguise when it comes to that issue?

This is a VERY interesting subject Bert. One that has Tippy and I for a long time. In our case, the RSV seating makes my wife Tip feel like she is sitting a way to high above me (she is tall). We LOVE the seating on Tweeks, our 83 1st Gen because it puts her in just the right spot to be able to see above me when I am leaned back against her. My thought was always that if we ever did find the need to swap out to an RSV I would get ahold of the seat guru here on VR = Rick Butler and see if he could produce an RSV seat to our specs:fingers-crossed-emo. I would suggest that you do the same.. If the Butler mod seat champ cant do this, I am SURE that there are custom seat folks somewhere out there that could make a custom seat for you folks that would put those seat height needs exactly where you want them!

Ya know what Bill,, I have often thought that if Tip n I ever did end up with an RSV or RSTD we would really really miss the bars on our 83's.. I gotta have "back and in" to get comfortable,, just looking at the RSV's makes me wonder how hard a pair of 6 bend Chopper bars would be to install on one..

Thats pretty strange Sys, here in Michigan we have a BUNCH of single track dirt bike trails that are "loops" thru the National/State Land forests in both the Lower and Upper Penninsula's. We also have the Michigan Cross Country Cycle Trail - a gorgeous single track trail with 30" wide room for handlebars to pass thru (its tight but it keeps the quads out - they have their own trail system anyway:missingtooth:). For many years I belonged to the Cycle Conservation Club of Michigan and we also have Off Road Chapters consisting of groups of single track dirt bikers covering all of Michigan. I preached "street legaling" dirt bikes for many years to enable us dirt bikers for many many years. It was always fairly easy to do here, add a lighting coil, lights, a horn, a fold away mirror, some DOT Knobs, plates and insurance and you could connect all the trail loops and ride our Cross Country Trail legally! Adds a whole new deminsion to the world of MX Bikes:thumbsup: I must have converted over 500 MX bikes at my shop thru the years. I also personally know LOTS of Michigan riders who have done their own too.. I always wished there would have been a way to convert Quads too, would have been a BLAST to have a street legal Banshee or Honda TRX250R with street tires on em.. The snag with doing that here in Michigan is the "straight" axle those quads had - we have a "green sheet" we have to work from that a Police Officer checks off when you have the bike inspected to obtain the street Title. Part of that includes a "differential" section for any 4 wheeled vehicle.. No differential - no street legal status. Funny how the States differ. I will never forget the first time I pulled into Salina Utah when heading west. Kids riding all over town on dirtbikes and quads:think:. Got talking with a youngster about it, asked if it was legal.. He proudly acclaimed it as part of the fun of living in Utah. Then a guy pulls into the same station with a BUMPER hitch on the back of his truck pulling a camping trailer, camping trailer also had a BUMPER hitch with a boat behind it (Michigan you can do that with a 5th Wheel but NOT a bumper hitch) - when asked if that was legal he had pretty much the same response. Then I asked an MX biker if there were any trails up into the mountains from there,, he just points and says, yea,, its all trails:confused24:,, we just ride:witch_brew:.. Then I asked the same question about camping over night in a tent in there,, he laughed and said - anywhere you want to,, then he said "you folks in Michigan must really have it rough" and rode off..

He didnt cry like they do when that clapped out, sticker covered, 300k mile beat up ol Tweeked on 83 Venture goes slicing by em Dan:big-grin-emoticon: And I think that Tippy secretly knows that in my case,, Tweeks and I do occasionally sneak off and still ride like that NOTICE THE LAUGHTER AT THE END OF VID:big-grin-emoticon:

Sounds good @rbig1,, only the Curator at the museum would be like,,, lets see here:think:, do we place this thing in the "I LOVE America" section , in the extinct wild animal section:think:, the sticker art section:think:, the outdoor survival section:think:, at the front door and use it as a sign in registry:think:.. They certainly would never put Tweeks in the motorcycle section next to all those gorgeous extra clean examples of touring bikes of yesteryear

Yes, that is a rubber surface imbedded into the choke "piston".. The system works by that piston being pulled open which opens a passage way for fuel to be pulled from the float bowl and moved into the carb throat.. It is adds fuel, and does not lessen the air.. If it were mine I would see if I could remove the choke assembly rods (rod with piston) without removing the carbs.. Open the drain valves on the carbs, take some carb cleaner and place the little straw thingy on the carb cleaner - slide it down the hole where that piston slides and try to squirt thru the passage way until I was getting carb cleaner out of the carb drains. Take a close look at the seals imbedded in the pistons (those are not replaceable to my knowledge - you have to buy the whole piston and shaft to replace the seal) - make sure they are still nice and flat - not bloated from the Chemdip.. Also,, before you do anything,, work the choke on your scoot and make sure those piston arms are being pulled all the way out.. If they are not being pulled all the way out because the mechanism is out of adjustment, the choke will not work enough to cold start..

@Flyinfool usually starts taking orders and running fall specials this time of year.. Not sure how far south he ships,,, seems like I remember reading about him shipping as far south as Atlanta last year at a very reasonable rate.. Might wanna give him a shout BUT,, I forewarn you Beachy,, he runs his Wisconsin White Wash business like one of those old Book Club deals,, once ya get em started its HARD to get em to shut it off!!

Awesome Venny!! That being the case,, you would probably really have fun on a 250 2 stroke MX bike.. Can always toss a flywheel weight on one of those too if you wanted to - 8 oz weight on a 250 is amazing!! That would really mellow out the hit and add trail torque. Another thing that I liked doing with my MX converted to trail bikes was either finding a rear wheel off a matching "enduro" bike and swapping it or lacing up an 18 inch rim on the stock MX hub. A KDX 250 Kawi matched my KX perfectly. Most (if not all) MX bikes come with 19 inch rear wheels and run a lower profile tire.. Works good on an MX track but most woods riders (myself included) liked the 18 inch better = taller profile tires, far better selection of tires (can run cheap ones too) and you can squeeze a much wider tire under your scoot and run lower air pressures = better hook up.. Inside scoop,, had a fair amount of problems with the Suzuki power valves, smaller than KX500 = cranks and tranny problems as far as Kawi's go, CR's seem to be good bikes but, like Beach Bum started to mention - YZ's = YUM YUM!! Know what cha mean on the KTM's,, pricey. They do seem to hold their value pretty good though.. Good luck in your search, looking forward to hearing how it all goes!! Also,, dont forget to take lots of 's,, we LOVE 's

No idea,, he was just banging second gear when Crud and I went flying by him with Cruds front tire touching ground about every two feet and me hanging onto his horns for dear life.. This thing is soooooooooooooooo much fun Dan O',,, :lightbulb:you and me - we should have Chopped a couple of these VMax's a longgg time ago Yammer - the world would be a whole different place if we would have bro!!!

Let me start out with, CONGRATS to both you and your son for you making the decision to get out and do something extra special with him - THAT is what I call LIVING my friend!! May your times together be extra special with the wonderful end being a life long bond between the two of you - I applaud you Venny!:clap2: IMHO - THE FOLLOWING IS ALL JUST MY OPINION - FEEL FREE TO PICK IT APART AND DEBATE AWAY!! Having sold many many dirt bikes over the years in my shop I assure you I have been faced with the question you are asking on many occasions. Not only did I buy/sell/repair and restore most of them, I also rode cross country single track (year round here in Michigan) and raced MX, Harescrambles - my personal favorite, Ice, Hillclimbing and pretty much tortured and destroyed dirtbikes as a sport. Knowing what I know from personal experience, this is my advice: Modern day 4 stroke MX bikes, YZF's - CRF's - KXF's and the like require way to much expensive maintenance for the "average" woods rider. They are SERIOUSLY competitive scoots and a BLAST to ride but can be a pain in the neck to maintain. I have been out of the dirtbike scene for a while now but can tell you, because of the high revving motors, pancake pistons, light weight valves and springs and tiny little cam chains - bikes like the original CRF450 Honda (you ever ride one - you will instantly agree with me when I say "there is magic between those bars ) had a factory rebuild schedule of every 30 or less hours of run time .. Of course, you can always go with the much more durable full pistoned, Hyvo cam chained "thumpers" as mentioned by Unc - had em for years and they do a pretty good job but,, they do tend to be heavier and more "street" oriented than a good ol fashioned 2 stroke dirtbike.. If you do decide to go that way, here are some things that I found thru owning/riding them. KLR - 90% street/10% woods. Tank of a bike that will wash out in the sand on you and leave you as to what just happened. Later models had a cam chain tensioner issue, fixable by an aftermarket repair part - well known issue. They are "CV" carbed like our Ventures - excellent for increased MPG - TERRIBLE for throttle response necessary to get a really good wheelie out of XL Honda - 80% street, 20 woods. Good bikes! 3 phase stator for LOTS of output for LOTS of extra things (like hand warmers for winter riding). Normal carburation so wheelies are fairly easy in first couple of gears. XR Honda's - 50/50 Street - woods.. Fun woods bikes easily convertible to street legal use. Very durable scoots. Suzuki DRZ (both "dual sport" version and "off road version) - Pretty cool lower dollar scoots. Normally carbed so wheelies are not a problem. Never was a Suzuki man but really liked this one. Weight seemed more "liveable" than the others.. After years of playing with dirtbikes, riding dirtbikes, teaching my kids to ride em and doing exactly what your doing Venny, I ended up living the following: Modern day 2 stroke MX bikes converted for woods usage and even "street legaled" so I could ride on the road if I needed! I liked the big bores! KX500 named "Kadie" was my all time favorite. I liked the Kawi because it was "power valved" unlike the Honda CR500 (rode those for years too but mostly on the track). The power valve on the Kawi was built on a gear rack idea - worked great and took very little maintenance. I had a TON of miles on Kadie before I sold her after I broke my back in a car accident and had to quit riding the woods. She was an ELEVATOR when it came wheelie time - anytime/anywhere! I even rode her on the back wheel across the Mackinaw Bridge suspention spands one time.. Telling ya brother,, 85/90 MPH and all it took was a "blip",, Kadie and I LOVED wheelies.. All sounds fancy but I wanna remind you of something, wheelies (and the ability to ride em) are a woods riders best friend, front wheel in the air and you can go across any terrain! I say that as an encouragement for teaching the skill to your son and to yourself if you guys are gonna ride the woods.. Back to the bikes.. One of the things that is over looked a LOT in the industry is the idea of adding weight to the crank on a modern day 2 stroke MX bike.. Back to Kadie as an example.. By tossing 14 oz's of weight on her fly wheel I could take a scoot that would devastate most amatures in a heart beat and make it so rideable even a beginner could ride her with ease (carefully of course - just dont wick her up to hard:doh:).. Adding the weight made the KX a TORQUE MONSTER that was literally unstoppable on even the highest hills!! I also added a lighting coil so I could put a whoopin on my buddies at night (winter night rides were our FAVORITES). A very small investment in time and cash and Kadie became street legal (one of many I did) - TALK ABOUT A FUN STREET BIKE!! Adding "bark busters" is a MUST for woods riding as is a low decible DNR Approved spark arrestor and a SKID PLATE. Seconded ONLY by a large aftermarket fuel tank (I had a four gallon on Kadie) cause pushing aint fun. Here is something you may find interesting.. Although I only had to rebuild Kadie 2 times during the many many hours of fun we had together - it was SIMPLE and CHEAP (well under 150 bucks) to bring her right back to brand new WOW ZZZZ WOW WOW WOW!! All of that and I gotta tell you, EVERYTHING above fits the parameters of almost ALL modern day 2 stroke MX Bikes!! You would probably REALLY enjoy a Yamaha YZ250 set up like I am talking about.. I personally LOVE the way the YZ handled when set up right for the woods. On the same token though, ALL of the metric (Honda, Kawi, Suzy) are right there too.. Something that you want to consider though if your going to go shop for one.. Do a little research on top end repair costs. I know that certain years of the CR's were REALLY pricey just for a jug - they started getting close to 4 stroke top end parts pricing.. I havent mentioned the mighty name of KTM yet for a purpose.. Around here, KTM is like the holy grail of woods bikin - almost entering into the zone of Harley's for the street.. Me and Kadie used to love to go by em on the back wheel - I can only HOPE that my good buddy Donny reads this and takes some time to sign up and respond - he has been riding KTM for a good while now:guitarist 2:- YZMAN400 - you out there?).. Anyway,, KTM makes a number of fabulous 2 strokers. I know my buddy Donny is still riding his 300 (never did get a chance to ride that one Donny) - cool thing about his is that it came WITH ELECTRIC START!! YZman is a really good friend of mine who has covered many miles of very tight Michigan trails with me - he currently spins wrenches in a Yamaha shop out in Montana (traitor).. If he happens to see this and responds he can fill you in on some of the finer points of the KTM,, and the others as far as that goes:bighug: All that said: Venny, I dont know you personally. No idea how much experience you have "in the woods" so to speak. Please dont take offense to what I am about to say in ANY WAY my friend. Gonna talk to you like I would my best friend OK? If you are just beginning into the dirt scene with little to no experience in the woods, just looking to have some fun with playing with your son, have no idea how to "ride a wheelie" but want to learn (doing so WILL inspire confidence), want to keep everything inside the realm of a good fun learning expeirence between you and that precious son of yours? This is what I would do. I would pick up a good, slightly used, TTR125 - maybe a Honda 150 or an Honda XR200.. May sound crazy but, by putting the biggest - fattest knobby on the rear, toss a little gearing at it (larger sprocket on front = geared for 40/45 top speed = easy to wheelie), set up the suspention for your weight (easy to do). The smaller four strokes make learnging to ride the back wheel easy = start out by learning to "cat walk" (feet down sliding on the grass), this will help you find and "feel" the balance point. After you can "Cat Walk" really good - doing figure eights and all that, you can begin placing your feet up on the pegs.. Then learn to control the wheelie by modulating your rear brake while holding the balance point. Then practice shifting into a higher gear as your front end starts to drop out of the balance point.. Just takes practice but the practice will be a LOT more fun on a smaller, not so spunky bike. Again, sounds crazy but if you do this you will probably go into it thinking,, yea,, I could do that - I can always resell the TTR after a year of playing with it.. I have heard that thought many times over and truthfully gotta say.. Most of the folks who do what I am talking about end up keeping the little TTR cause,, well,, because they are SOOOO much fun and SOOOO user friendly - even for "bigger" guys like me and you. Couple more suggestions regardless of what bike(s) you choose: - Set both you and your sons bikes up for your sizes. Adjust suspention settings including aftermarket mono springs and fork springs if needed. Stand on pegs - purchase bars so they are comfortable when standing up - learn to ride on the pegs, standing up is your friend! - Get GOOD safety equipment for both of you. All of these are just as important as the other: BOOTS, CHEST PROTECTORS, NECK BRACES, KNEE GUARDS, FULL FACE MX HELMETS, GOGGLES and GLOVES!! - Let your son spin his own wrenches under your guidance, get him an assortment of tools of his own.. Ol Puc wishes both of you nothing but the best of many hours of fun together out there!!!

Your in my world now Venny,, you want the long version or the short version?

I thought there was something special about that Canuck with the great big grin Tip and I met at Venture West of The Dalles in Oregon a while back.. A quiet kind of guy, real friendly but never did expose his right hand - even as we sat down with him to share a pop and hear some stories - he kept acting like there was something itching him behind his back... Now that I read the above, I have to make some adjustments to my 5 Star list of motels...

Looking GREAT there Spence!! GREAT PICS of a SHARP BIKE!! Man I LOVE the 83 Standards,, pure soul for the open road and ready to put a whoopin on almost any touring bike out there if needed :witch_brew:

Yessirrreee my good friend,, that Tippy - she is keeper!! There is just nothing better than sharing the best Motels known to man and the surrounding sites, sounds and experiences with your best friend:thumbsup:

THANKS A LOT ECKSTER,, NOW YA GOT MY BLOOD PRESSURE ALL MESSED UP JUST BY READING THAT!! Going to have to have some therapy here,, I dont drink so I guess I will have to settle for staring at some pictures of motels I have stayed in that something that HORRIFIC would NEVER happen in... Much better,,,,, sorry about the hijack Eckster but a mans gotta do what a mans gotta do brother...

Yea,, what da heck,,, sounds like another story I heard from the same story teller about a snow man visiting Don's MD - he didnt have any pictures to prove that one either Hey Jeff, should have had a Meet n Greet over there during the dirt road season.. This bunch LOVES to sit watch people do crazy stuff and you probably could have gotten one of them to do a Utube program for you brother!! Just set up a grill to cook hot dogs on, mix up some lemonade, toss in some Wisconsin cheese and crackers and you coulda had the bestest M n G EVER!! :lightbulb:Better yet,, open a 2 year old tub of Rum Balls and just the smell of em would have had most of these lop eared varmints being stars on Utube as they jumped that 2' berm on 800 pound touring bikes!!

WE ARE DA MAN JONAS,, WE ARE DA MAN!!

That is hilarious that you mention skipping the front end above.. After we got ol Crud home and were discussing names - I told my wife I wanted to name him "Beach Ball" because he did exactly what you are talking about - thru second gear his front tire would bounce along the pavement like a beach ball being bouncing along the beach in the wind Cruds fork brace is stock by your definition Beau (THANKS FOR THE INFO BRO), got an after market one on one of my retired 83 Ventures out back (parts bike now) - wonder if they are the same bolt pattern? Will definitely try the Furbur Fix if I notice any funny stuff going on,, you are right - must of been in the same class somewhere along the line!! Our shop classes were at the end of a long corridor, got booted for riding my 69 350 Motosport down the hallway and out the door after setting valve clearances during shop class one time, sound familiar (I dont think those people would have liked Crud at all back then:confused24:)..

That would be a known fact in our neighborhood Goose!! And my neighbor @bluestar99 should know,, he stood there and watched Crud and I give another neighbor a very fair head start before Crud put yet another Harley notch on Cruds ever growing win counter.. Figured a good 2 second lead (two lights at any drag strip) was fair being a 103 inch V-Twin against an old 73 inch Vmax

Sure seems like the simple thing of requiring a valid drivers license just to purchase booze would help - no license no booze, then run stings like are currently being done for under age sales of booze - get caught, your license to sell is gone. Then maybe an accountabilty ruling that requires Judges who have released waco's like this from prison to be required to share the sentence with the perp if they release them and they do harm.. Say a split by 50% = if this guy gets 20 years for this = the goofy judge that let him out in the first place gets 10. In all honesty, this person should obviously never have been released in the first place. I agree with Paul ( @Pegasus1300 ) - getting the AMA involved is not a bad idea,, their thoughts on the life of a motorcyclist being just as valuable a road worker or civil servant's is CTFW up the right road as far as I am concerned..

Or the brain either @bongobobny!!