cowpuc

Done deal - prayers sent for your hubbies safe return!! 'Puc

A laughable one: My daughter and were Mountain riding on a two laner in Colorado and came upon a cone marked section of the road with a Signal Girl and a Work Ahead sign near her.. We road that section of road for MILES and never did see another person OR any evidence of work being done or needing to be done - STRANGE.. A not so funny one: Michigan is in BIG TIME hurt over this economy.. I got ticketed last summer for 2 - I AM NOT KIDDING - 2 over by Bronson Village Police (tiny town on 12) who happen to be running radar right where their little village marker is on the outskirts of town.. I explained to the officer that I had a CDL and that us truckers have to really watch our point count - can be job threatening.. He says "we are running a sting and by law we have to write EVERYTHING over the limit - beside for 2 over there will be no points just a small fine".. I called the area court to find out what my small fine was and was informed that the officer was not properly informed.. the going fine AND points charged are the same for 1 mile over as 10 miles over.. THe clerk told me that I could fight it but I would have to appear in Court to due so - 4 hours from home!! I later asked a State Trooper about this "sting law" that says the officer has no choice but to write the tickets during a sting.. He saidthat is absoulutly not true - the LEO ALWAYS has the choice to write or not!!! He informed me that a LOT of small towns are going thru very hard times right now and that LEO State funding is getting tighter and tighter creating a "bring in the cash or your out of a job" situation.. Apparently here in Michigan all that ticket money goes to the State and is used for LEO funding state wide!! BOttom line folks - if you cant abide by MI Law (and there are all kinds of tricky little traffic laws that NOBODY even realises exist) you dont want to travel here!!!!!!! 'Puc

Did you guys have to re-order the calendars or are they shipping out to everyone who got them last year?? Thanks for the info! 'Puc

For kicks, let the air out of your forks, sit on your scoot with the weight of the bike on the tires, now look down at the front forks under the bars and you will be able to see the dust covers on the sliders.. Bounce up and down a little and notice how badly your springs are sacked out - unless those puppys have been changed they ARE gone.. Little bit of inside info to go with the new progressives your gonna want to install,,,, it seems that back in the good ol days of producing really really really fast touring bikes Yamaha spent sooo much cash on R and D for engine design that they couldnt afford quality fork AND there was an abundance of fish oil left over from the resturants in Tokyo sooooooo guess what ended up in the forks of our bikes??? Seriously,,, your scoot has probably never had a fork bath, pump er clean - purge it with some 7 wieght and pump clean again and fill to spec.. I use a syringe with a piece of metal tubing in it to get the fork fluid exactly equal... It probably wont handle like an R1 when your done but it will do nicely up to 135.... 'Puc

I just cant even imagine or explain the life long memories that my children and I wouldnt have if we had to live under such oppression.. Socialist simply have no idea what happens to a people when they are withheld the God given right to live free.. Ironically, we freedom seekers here in Michigan have been fighting with our Governor (who by the way is a socialist thru and thru) for years to give us back our right to choose and she simply wont do it.. Now our own President just sold out our way of life to socialism and many people like myself believe it is going to take some very serious hard work to ever get our country back... Truely, I feel for my brothers on the other side of the border but PLEASE be rest assured - your not alone in dealing with such nonsense! 'Puc

Thanks for the compliment Joe.. My wife of 28 years and a number of really close friends have been twisting my arm for a while now to staple all my ride stories together and create a book.. Another very close friend went behind my back and got with a designer and put together a cover/title and the like and gave it to my wife,,,,, the guy is always trying to stir up trouble.. All that said,,, I have told all of them over and over again that if I ever did actually persue such an honorable task that I would only do so because of responses like yours.. That "stirring of the soul" that your talking about is what 50 years of "Cowboy Biking" has always done for me so I KNOW how important it is in our lifes!! Thanks again!! Pitbull, I rode out to Lake Placid this past summer with my brother and some of his friends.. That group had to head home and I went off by myself exploring the mountains between Placid and my daughters house in Greenville SC.. I found all kinds of really cool stuff on that little weeklong jaunt to her place.. I found several real old abandoned coal mines, even strapped a classic vintage coal miners axe onto the front of my scoot that I found in the hills.. Found several old mountain shacks buried under Kudzu Vine and even found a couple real old car bodies on the side of a two track.. During that whole time I never did see one of them Cowboys your talking about..... Side note,,,, I did pass by a drinkin joint along the way that had a bunch of bikers sitting around drinkin but they didnt have any trail dust on em...

Having raised 4 kids in the sticks of upper Michigan and having tasted the freedom of our great country with one of them at a time on the back of my scoot has always brought about thoughts simular to the starter of this threads thoughts.. Up before dawn, breakfast of fruit from the bag hanging on the antenna,, ride the prairie/mountain two tracks,, stop and pan gold for a few hours,, pull into a small western town about 1 hour east of Jackson Hole Wyoming.. Can feel the dirt on my neck cracking as I turn my head to answer the lady with the Cowboy hat on behind the counter.. Yes mam,, gallon a water - box of granola - bag of Jerky and just a minute,,,,, Wahooo (daughters bike name she earned by making it 4000 miles without complaining) - you want some gummy bears (her fav).. Sure Dad she says - I smile at her when she smiles at my question cause she is COVERED in prairie dust and her eyes look like racoon eyes where her goggles left em clean... After we pay for our gas and groceries we meandor back out to the old 84 Royale that just cleared 135,000 miles on the ode.. Having learned longggg ago that you always saddle up from the right side, my daughter headed that way.. About that time a Cowboy riding a gorgeous Mustang all solid in dark brown color except for 3 white feet comes around the corner of the old building we just walked out of.. The old guy smiled at us, tied his reigns to a hitching post beside the building and walked over to Wahoo and I.. He asked where we were from. My daughter being only 12 was still shy and she kinda winced at me like we were in some kind of trouble.. I pulled my googles back off (dont always wear them but on this particular day it was REAL windy and prairier dust in the eyes aint much fun) and told him we were from Michigan.. He asked how long we had been out - 17 days I said.. He said it looks like you two Cowboys are having a blast.. I told him that he was right on target and I told him thanks for the compliment of calling us Cowboys.. He said that it has been MANY years since he had actually seen folks like us that still practiced the real art of Cowboying and that it did his heart good to meet us.. I asked exactly what that meant to him.. He said he could tell by looking at our bike and us that we didnt take to moteling and that the water jug hanging from the antenna and bag of apples under the jug told him we also probably lived off the land and only came back to civilization when necessary - I smiled and told him he was very observant.. He asked what I would do if we were miles back in the mountain and the bike died.. I laughed and said,, what would you do if you were miles back on your ranch and your horse died?? He said he would walk out.. I told him that I had always told the kids that if we did get into a broken bike to the point that I couldnt fix it that we would give the bike to some Indian kid and take a bus home - he laughed and said "you know what - just from the little bit I have talked to you I can tell you are serious - and I was... I also told him that he was correct about not being motelers either,,,, that there is just NOTHING like riding morning till dark and dropping the bag on the desert floor whereever you happen to be after riding 16 hours... He laughed and asked my daugher if she got bored sitting back there... She smiled and said "life with my dad has never been boring.. That all REALLY happened back in the early 90's.. Fast forward to last year... My other daughter was home for the summer from Medical School (Manhatten/Cornell) and she chose to do a 3 weeker out to Sturgis and then Montana on the bike instead of flying to Europe.. It had been several days of hard prairie riding on two tracks, and we ran into a couple of Lakota Indian women at a Farm fueling station out in the middle of nowwhere.. They had a little boy with them about 6 years old that couldnt take his eyes off us.. I walked over to him, wiped some of the dirt off my face and smacked my pants so the dust flew off and you could see blue jeans again.. He was well trained and didnt answer me when I asked where he was from.. His mom smiled at me and told me they had a farm about 20 miles away that they raised miniture horses on.. She then says "so where you two cowboys from".. My daughter told her and the ensuiing discussion lasted over 2 hours.. In the end we got invited to thier farm for dinner and offered a barn to sleep in ANYTIME we wanted to stop!!! I do agree with JT about the real Cowboy issue.. Years ago I did a 2 month journey up into Nova Scotia then down the coast,,, coming up out of Texas and across Nebraska shortcutting to Washington State to visit a family friend I did some real digging into finding the ol Chisom Trail... If you dig around a little you can still find monuments that have been placed that show the actual route that REAL Cowboys did their thing... If you do as I do and spend some time sleeping on the earth in those areas you will be SHOCKED at how difficult those guys had it.. The "trail" runs across our country on the east side of the Rockies - do you know what that means??? Muggy - so muggy at night you cant breath , sticky, bug laden, heat and then dont forget those cattle drives were HUGE so STINKY they did!! There is a spot on the red river that Cowboys used to push those grass eaters across and while the cows were crossing the cowboys used to walk across the river on the cows backs - NO SMALL UNDERTAKING for sure.... Anyway,,, even though real cowboying is gone forever I still lean more toward that philosophy way more then the whole "biker" ideal and always have,,, guess its just a flaw in my charector.. Cowpuc

Dont know if you r riding your scoot or not but if you are be realllllly careful in those mountains at this time of year.. My daughter and I did a late season trip to the North Rim a few years ago and hit an ice storm coming through the Grand Mesa and had accumulating snow on the roads near the Canyon.. Still wayyy fun camping and touring as long as you dress warm.. Have fun!!!!! 'Puc

I grew on the early Harescramble courses and MX tracks of the 60s and 70s.. Even the bikes that I personally modified to compete on lacked HUGELY in suspention so standing up was mandatory.. It was easy for me to take the skills of standing and riding and transfer this to the street.. In my, ummmmmm, older years here I still use those skills all the time and they have saved me on my occasions.. I ride thousands of miles every year on the street now and a lot of those miles are while standing.. I have ridden with groups of people and always shocked at how few of riders are accustomed to doing this, it has also amazed me that the bike manufactures have chosen to produce bikes without foot pegs mounted in a postion to accomadate this..

In my experience its pretty uncommon for a battery to just fail. Usually they will get weak and let you know that they are dying.. I have tried to explain to people MANY times that when this happens (battery starts getting weak) it is extremely important to replace it as low voltage is the main cause of electric motor failure - lots of starters are toasted because of it.. Sadly not many people listen to this counsel and I end up replacing a few starters every year because of it.. Pull your battery, toss a charge on it with a battery charger. Clean your battery connectors while apart - clean the contacts on the main fuse. Its been awhile since I have done the following so you might want to start a new thread about the following to check my accuracy but: coming out of the cover on the left side of the engine behind where your shift lever is are three white wires that lead to your stator - on the Venture I believe they exit the stator cover and are routed under the cover that your clutch slave is under.. Anyway, because of its need of high output Yamaha uses a 3 phase system for charging. Follow those wires up to a connector - as I recall its located under the plastic side cover that would be under your left leg while sitting on the bike. Unplug that terminal from the harness. There us a resistance check that you do that checks the stator windings - I cant remember what the resistance is across the stator windings but it should be easy to find out if you want to do this correctly.. More importantly thought is to just shoot a resistance check across the winding and make sure they are all pretty much the same in resistance - just hook your ohm meter up on one lead and test it across the other white leads. Now check each white lead to ground by touching one lead of your meter to the frame and the other to each white lead. If it reads continuity the stators gone or if you get a variance between windings its shot.. The Early XVZs had stator problems because they were not cooled properly.. Yamaha had an upgrade for the system that amounted to getting more oil on the stator. A small splash plate was installed in the stator cover and a sqirt hole in the nut on the end of the crank did the squirting.. Your bike may or may not have this upgrade (your sig line didnt have year of your bike so I am assuming its an early model). I say all this because it is VERY common for a stator to just fail (not like a battery).. When this happens your bike will be running on the battery, the battery doesnt get charged and it can give the rider the impressioin that its bad.. I have bought bike batteries from Auto Zone for wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy less then 150 bucks, take care of them and they last just fine!!!! Oh yea, another possibility is a funked voltage regulator - actually less common then the stator but still a possibility.. FIX IT CAUSE AINT FUN 'Puc

How frugal on fuel is the 1100??

Do my eyes decieve me or are those some aftermarket pipes on that 83???? Maybe had the originals rot out.. Wonder what they sound like..

Now wait a minute here,,,, its ok for a nurse/doctor/anestesiologist to inject dye directly into my blood stream or into my spinal fluid for testing purposes but getting it on the my skin is cause for them to squak??? This sounds like another one of those ignorant insurance company mandates that doctors have to live by...

Back in the early days I was completely wearing out one brand new MX bike a year - literally every nut bolt and washer was destroyed at the end of the year... Unfortunatly the DT Yamahas that I converted to race had the speedos removed and when Honda came out with the Elsinore CR250M it was the REAL DEAL --- its front end never touched the ground anyway... I did purchase several new bikes other then my dirt scoots back then but none of them made the 100000 mark before I swapped them out.. THEN I won a 1978 Harley Low Rider in a Raffle.. IT WAS GORGEOUS and probably my favorite street bike.. I rode it until my first child was born in 1981 - sold it to build on to our home.. I had put 138,000 miles on it in 3 years - made MANY cross country trips on it and spent TONS of hours touring the desert.. Picked up my 84 VR in 84 and retired it at just under 200000 miles.. It was/is just as wore out as my MX bikes used to get - way to much two-tracking out west with the kids on the back I guess.. I am currently using lots of parts off it on the 83 Venture Standard I am riding now - by the way I just got from a 7000 miler on the old gal - did great - NO problems at all!! What would I buy if I could afford it and just ride all the time and add up miles????If I were concerned with MPG - a new Beemer... If not,,,,,, I would build a new V-Twin Chopper to MY specs.... Puc

It sounds to me like some of us need some business excersise.. Gouging is taking place when the product is increased in price with no value being added.. Purchasing a load of goods at one price, adding value to that product by shipping costs, product insurance costs, business risk (guy doing the hauling assumes full responsibility for the product if stolen of damaged) and on and on.. Actually, tripling in value for an at risk product that is in high demand is probably not good business scense as costs havent been taken yet.. Should be closer to x5 to actually make it a profitable business.. Now,,, IF that same product has NO value added or additional costs associtated (eg: the producd was already there on sale the morning before for 6 buck - nothing has changed except the price raise of 12 bucks.. Thats price gouging and the perp should get prison time.. Another good example.... If you needed a gallon of gas and I said sure I have one for 40 bucks a gallon.. GOUGING you cry.. Howe ver, once you realise that I have to travel 120 miles to bring you the gas its a different story//

I have done several hard bag converts over the years.. Bates used to make a universal set of bags that really were cool - hard to find now adays.. I have a soft top trunck that I used in additin to my hard bags some years ago.. I took the softside bags too and between my oldest daughter and I we had them filled with every tree/rock/pine cone/droft wood/sea shell that wasnt tied down during one of our 6 week rides hahahah THey work REAL well!!! 5 am on Saturday and HANNA THE HURRICANE is just starting to bring T Storms to us here in west M 'Puc

Mine method of madness is a regular bike bouy that had fallen off someones bike 8 or nine years ago while they were in Sturgis... The vast majority of stuff I have added onto my bike is stuff that I have picked up on the side of the road... I am currently working my way up to building a bike out of pieces and parts I have found.... Getting close!!!! Take notice of my quick detach system I use on it 'Puc

The daughter and I did a bunch of eastern travel this year on our way out (definitly a round about way) to Sturgis from MO.. Cut through the Smokey Mountain National Park, get on the Blue Ridge Parkway at the South/east entrance of the park.. RIde the complete length of the Blue Ridge ((WOWWW!!)).. Get a dab if the Catskills and Adorindack Parks and go see/do Lake Placid --- IT IS AWESOME!!! Puc

Eddie: I just completed a 3 weeker/7000 miler with my daughter on my 83.. Part of that ride included Sturgis/BLack Hills area.. Dont miss 16A,Needles Highway and Custer State Park on the way around from seeing Rushmore.. Also a must do is Spearfish Canyon via Deadwood on the way to the Tower. We slept under the stars the whole trip (only was to travel) and found this year to be one of the wettest for afternoon mountain travel - mornings until about 1 pm riding was PERFECT!! By the way,, after THOUSANDS of miles of bike travel and spotting animals the whole time I/we finally got to see Big Horn Sheep in the wild this year (and they werent even in a National Park....) - IN SOUTH DAKOTA of all places!! Take a cheap digital with 5 gig of mem - then when youdrop the camera you can always go back and salvage the mem stick (thats if you take while riding....).. HAVE A GREAT TRIP!!! Puc

Yep,, tight valve lash, burnt intakes can certainly be a cause to the the sympton on this one.. Also check ignition timingmaking sure its spot on - is this model still mechanical advance, if so check it out closely.. Stock single carb or is it twin carb set up?? twin carbs out of sync can also do crazy stuff too.. Now here is another one that I have seen many times but no one around here )my neck f the woods) likes to believe it... Carbon deposits,, uh huh those stupid buildups from running rich OR at high vacuum all the time can and DO cause exactly what your describing too.. The carbon builds up, the carbon gets RED HOT and stays RED HOT in the combustion chamber - fresh fuel/air mix hits it and poof you have pre-det that shows up in a pop on the carb.. another possibility is cam wear,,, I know that HD has had problems with soft cams in the past - have no idea if your model/year was affected by this.. Maybe check the recalls.. Also, let the bike idle and spray the external carb areas with carb cleaner - listen to engine speed changes as you spray the areas where the carb bolts on and so forth. Your are essentially looking for leaks with your spray can.. If you hit a spot where a gasket is gone your engine will pull in carb cleaner and the engine idle speed will change.. This can cause a lean condition and result in a pop - change out any bad gaskets.. Hope it all helps 'Puc

What an absoulute shame.. My prayers and condolances go out to wife, kids, family and friends Scott

My daughter and I just got in from the big ride too! WHAT A BLAST!!!!! I have just over 7400 miles added on the 83 and 3 gig of pics to with it. From Lake Placid to Deals Gap and out to Sturgis!!! Sturgis was wayyyy down in attendance this year in both vendors and attendors.. As a matter of fact, I would say 25 to 35 percent lower then I have seen in past years.. The Black Hills were absoulutly GORGEGOUS as usual and Sarah (my daughter) and I spent many nights under the stars.. The ONLY problem I had was keeping her away from the bikers (she falls in love to easily)!! Concerning the shooting.. For those of you who have never been to the big one, PLEASE remember that this place is PACKED with everything from little kids, teenagers, wannabee bikers, Hard Core Bikers, and LEO.. It has been 20 years since anything like this has happened!! Judd Hoos, the group that was rocking the walls at the joint where this happened draws a HUGE crowd every year. Its really to bad that out of state, off duty LEO who are choosing to go on vacation and attend a function like this rally cannot do so and leave the weapons behind.. The question lots of people were asking out there this year about whether or not the Officer had the right to carry because he is a Cop is NOT the real question that needs to be answered.. The REAL question is, what kind of person would fire a hand gun into a crowded room packed with people - what if he would have killed someone just to keep from getting beat up??? I have been there, I have listened to Judd Hoos with my kids (not my personal style - Willie Nelson for me), I have both seen and talked to the South Dakota LEO who stand right outside this place (GREAT JOB THEY DO TOO!!).. All its takes is a scream and they are there - the off duty LEO should have ran - screamed or shoved but NEVER - NEVER - NEVER carried a gun in a place like that,, much less discharge it!!! 'Puc

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Well V-4 I'll tell ya,,,, I have a little different perspective of the Rally then already mentioned.. Yes it is very busy, it is CRAZY with CRAZY folks and indeed it can be and IS dangerous BUT there are some very good reasons for this.. One of the main reasons that problems happen during the Rally days was pointed out to me a couple years ago by an old lady who was working in a Laundrymat in Rapid City. I can quote her and even though she was purely a non-biker her words of wisdom were spot on - "most if not all of the deaths and other crashing going on during the Rally are caused by yuppies who buy a bike, never ride it, tow it to Sturgis, unload it and try to pretend they know what there doing". You dont fit into that scene so I bet you would be fine.. I have toured the Black Hills many times both during the Rally and during other times of the year. Personally I have come to enjoy those first two weeks of August out there.. I am not a partyer but AM an avid touring freak. I LOVE the control of the road that thousands of bikers give you when your riding.. Cagers pay wayyyyyyyy more attention to us when they are out numbered 1000 to 1 and cops are amazingly friendly.. The little things like going 2 mph over the speed limit (I actually got a ticket for that in one of those little towns once - cost me 90 bucks for 2 over) are not even noticed.. I am also one of those drop the bag on the ground and sleep types so finding sleep is no problem, after riding 16 hours its amazing how easily sleep comes - even my daughters came to really enjoy it!! No matter when you go you REALLY need to ride back roads and get to know some folks out there.. SD people are the greatest folks on the planet.. If you do take all Highway do yourself a HUGE favor and stop at Draper - it is about 1 1/2 hour before Wall Drug SD and is on the North side of 90.. It is a super neat little Cowboy town with gravel for a main road - the Mayor of the town also owns a little fab shop, I stop out there everytime I go thru just to say hi - neat town and a good example of the type of scenery/kindness you will find in the REAL SD!! If you stopout there look up the Mayor or go to the firebarn (top of the hill on mainstreet) and tell them the guy who rides a real old Honda Chopper from Michigan to Sturgis told you to stop - you will have instant friends guarenteed!!! Also, Rushmore is prettiest at night, Deadwood is AWESOME and if you go thru the town and up the hill you can coast all the way back thru town if your brakes arent draggin.. Also, at the "end" of the Spearfish Canyon ride there is a Lodge with a gravel road that goes to the right of it.. There is a sign there that posts the mileage for waterfalls up ahead - its not very far (few miles) and the falls are GORGEOUS!! Also, if you stay on that gravel road and ride all day (a young man that I met on the road a couple years ago had JUST purchased a brand new Harley Heritage and he did this with me) you will pass a small sign up inthe mountains that says "Wyoming State Line".. Pay no attention to the funny looks the quad riders give you because eventually you will come out on pavement about 20 minutes from devils tower AND those quad riders will be long gone!!! Make sure you take a cheap, digital camera that is SD compatable - pick up a couple of 1 gig sticks for it and LOTS of batteries. Carry it close to you at all times so you can snap pics in a heartbeat.. If you drop the camera while your taken pic off your bike on the highway you can always go back - take the stick out and toss the smashed camera and grab another at Wally World.. Concerning where to ride to get the best ride,,, just stay in the Black Hills and you cant go wrong - its gorgeous out there!!! Although, One of my daughters LOVES to do the Badlands National park - starting from the East Entrance - go thru - come out the West Entrance - then do Wall Drug (its not far from the West Entrance) for Lunch/Dinner and then go back thru the Badland Park and take the exit on the Back side of the Park before you get back to the East entrance - I cannot remember how its posted but its arrowed for a small town on the back of the park (if you dont want to pay a park fee you can still go thru the park from the East Entrance to get to this little town - just tell them your going straight thru but DO go straight thru as the rangers will be waiting for you if you dont!!).. Anyway. Follow that exit and roadway up to Rapid City - Its an awesome ride and a rode not ridden by lots of bikes.. Its awesome to see the back side of the Badlands!! Take binoculars and lots of sun screen.. Use lots of Lip Sun screen too and I use lip stuff on my nose and ear tops too.. Take a tire guage and check your tires before you go mountain riding the first time - low tire pressure is dangerous!! I am heading out for the east coast with a group of 7 other rider (4 wings, a Harley, a RSTD and my ol Venture) this week- hopefully back in time to catch the second week of Sturgis so may see you out there! HAVE FUN!! Puc

All depends on what kind of butt pain we are talking about.. Before I broke my back a few years ago I was an AVID dirt rider... I had a KX500 that I "street legaled" and spent a lot of time (weeks) riding and camping at trail side and riding more... Because of sweat and seats (MX seats arent really made for long distance) "monkey butt" was a common problem.. I finally cured this issue by wearing spanex riding shorts with the Chamios crotch in it - WORKED GREAT!! As for my street bikes - I have found that the first few 800 mile days on a cross country trip are the worst and can be greatly reduced just by finding several different positions to put my feet in.. Also, I stand and stretch when I need to - it also not uncommon to catch me standing up for miles at a time - this really helps too.. The back rest suggestion is something I totally agree with - if you have something to lean against it seems to take a lot of pressure off you butt muscles. By the way, my first gen saddle is the most comfortable saddle I have ever ridden long distance on!! 'Puc