Sexagenarian

For those of you in the southern states where snow is not a problem, I envy you!! Sunday was near 60 degrees here in central Minnesota. The sound of the motorcycles going by on a county road caused me to wonder. How soon is too soon to hit the road as we transition from snowcover to springtime? There is all kinds of salt residue on the roadways yet. My municipality smothers the roadways with salt and sand all winter long. The county roads feed into these municipal streets. I have visions of salt and sand debris causing myriads of problems with the chassis, brake calipers, underside of the fenders, etc..... Are these visions unfounded? Should I be that concerned? Does anyone, beside me, wait until after the first good rainstorm rinses all the winter crap off the roadways. Just curious what the thought process is for everyone from these cold winter areas??

out of the plethora of responses, I take it they must not manufacture one for the RSTD's?

out of curiosity, would there be any benefit to installing a fork brace on a 96 or 97 RSTD? Or do the wide forks take the place of any need to have one installed?

I may be wrong, but for me, I will always remember the Twin Towers disaster on 9/11 that brought the First Responders to the forefront. I will always remember how I was treated coming back from VietNam as how our soldiers deserve so much more for following orders, and I will always do that which is within my power to forget people like Phelps, who I feel used our Lord as an excuse to do whatever it is he wanted. just my two cents. but I needed to say it. .....edit..... please do not confuse my attitude towards Phelps, as being the same as my attitude towards the Patriot Guard... I never realized before that they shared a connection. But then again, if I did not realize it, then I suspect many others have not also.

Not to pick on ya Flyinfool, but you reminded me of the time a tornado went over Roosevelt lake in north central Minnnesota. Lots of trailer homes, campers, RV's, etc. ended up on the bottom of that lake.. Made great scuba diving expeditions for quite a few years until it all rusted out.. good for fish, bad for lures getting hung up on everything down there and really bad for the people who probably were not reimbursed their fare share from the insurance companies..

interestingly, other than the reference to the 'microphone' jack on the "getting started" page, I could find no other reference to it or anything else about it, when doing a quick skim of this manual: 660 Manual

You guys Rock!!! Now that you mention the wired spokes, I remember that it was on the Harley forum where I read about putting tubes in tubeless tires, and as you both mentioned, it was for spoked wheels.. My wife's bike is a Harley sportster with the wire spoke rims... I will stay tubeless for sure on my RSTD, and my wife will just have to use her HOG membership for getting her bike towed somewhere to have the flat fixed.. Am I being too insensitive towards her on this?? Go ahead gals, give me your opinions!! I would rather you all called me insensitive rather than feel the wrath she would unleash upon me

Keeping in mind that I am still a newbie, (been riding my own bike for less than a full Minnesota riding season)...I thought I had read somewhere that it is better to use a tubed tire over a tubeless one or to even go so far as to place a tube in a tubeless tire... But after reading the flat tire threads, it seems that getting a flat tire on a tubeless tire is far easier to repair along the road than getting a flat tire on a tubed tire....If tubed, it seems your only option is to remove the tube and patch it. This would require getting the tire off the ground to remove the tube.. This alone would make me want to go tubeless.. or am I missing something important here???

I have scanned through the threads on emergency tire repair but they all seem to deal with inserting plugs into tubeless tires. What about those of us that used tubed tires.. What does everyone carry with them to get you home or to the next tire repair facility?

so am I the only one that can't access the link??? or is this just for those that facebook?

I think the fella hit the nail on the head when he mentioned the blind spots.... My son just got himself the Ford version of the electric vehicle... That thing is so quiet inside it is danged scary... even hard to hear a harley sneak up on you when riding in that thing... Seems like now the cages are being built by blind and deaf engineers, what with blind spots and quiet-ride!! cheers everyone!!

was going to post that I will be sorry to miss this due to grandson's basketball tournaments on March 8th... It appears that now, the wifey and I can look forward to attending in the very near future...

Thank you everybody for your replies.. Noticing the date of GeorgeS's reply means that I got an extra Xmas gift this year... thank you, George!! Will try out the "Head Shake" driving test once all this white stuff melts and a good thunderstorm cleans all the salt off the roads.. The way this winter is going, that will hopefully be before the end of April this year .... thanks again for the ideas on what to check.. cheers!!

bumping this to see if there was ever any resolution to this problem.. As the post previoius to mine stated: Good troubleshooting techniques in this thread .. curious as to what the outcome was.. cheers!!

I must admit I have not come across anyone on the side of the road or needing assistance as of yet... I am also a newbie and knew nothing of a code... After reading this thread I have now been enlightened and educated.. I shall endeavor to honor the code and to offer assistance when I do happen upon the situation...

My wife and I have yet to meet anyone on this forum. But as I have read on here so many times, this forum is like a family. And when a family member is hurting, we all hurt. My wife and I will offer up prayer so that your burden will be eased !! - Wayne

I was reflecting back on my first riding season this past year. As I have said many a time, I wish I would have done this years ago. My wife has a 1200 sportster and I have the 97 RSTD. I wouldn't trade my bike for all the Harley's in China (if there are any?)... However, there is one small concern that I have. When turning at intersections with the RSTD, there is sometimes a little slip or wobble about half way into the turn. It happens much more frequently on a left turn than it ever does on a right turn. I would say my speed going into the turn is typically around 20-30 mph. If I was stopped prior to the turn due to a red light or a stop sign then my speed is so slow in the turn that I never get that sensation!! It feels like I just passed over one of those oily black snacks on a hot tar road. But many times, there is just no black snake on that tar road. I cannot say if this has ever happenned on a cement road as there just are not any of them around this area. If I "borrow" the wife's bike and take that same turn at the same speed then I do not get that sensation at all. Thus my concern. Being so new to this, I am at a total loss of experience on just what this may be. My tread depth gauge on the front tire reads almost 5mm. Would it have something to do with the front fork? Or something to do with front bearings? I typically notice this moreso on a left turn but it has happenned occassionally on a right turn. I have never noticed it at highway speeds but then again my highway speeds seldom reach 65mph. As usual, any and all thoughts from anyone are most welcome on this subject. If I need to give you more info for your troubleshooting thought process, please just ask and I will try to give you as much info as I can remember...Cheers all !! - Wayne

I did not want to hijack this thread: Not a MC question about oil but there was some good info in that thread on motorcycle oil. My user manual states I should be using the following engine oil: If the temp is above 40 Fahrenheit, use Yamalube 4 (20W-40) motor oil If the temp is below 60 Fahrenheit, use Yamalube 4 (10W-30) motor oil So this must mean here in Minnesota, use 20W-40 in the springtime and through the summer months. When autumn arrives and the temp seldom gets above 60F anymore, then it is time to change the oil once again to 10W-30. Then ride on this until the salt season (first snow) arrives. This would be equivalent to two oil changes per year. To further complicate the issue, my yamaha dealer told me it is better to use 20W-50 instead of the 20W-40 on my older 1997 RSTD if I wanted to stay with the mineral based instead of trying synthetic. So I wintered the bike with the 20W-50 as I only had a few hundred miles on it since it was changed, and did not want to change it again this year. I know some of you are now using synthetic instead of the mineral based. And I have already read some really long topics on the pro's and con's of each and do not wish to start that debate all over again here. But the more I think about it, I really do wish to know why my dealer would lead me away from the 20W-40, towards the 20W-50. Especially here in Minnesota. Does this make sense to some of you mechanical guru's? Was this nothing more than a sales pitch to upsell me? Or is there some viable advice in their recommendation? thank you in advance...

so, typically if a disaster is declared, everyone with a loss will be able to apply for really cheap low interest loans from the fed govt... hhmmmmmmm.... interesting..... talk about a pro-active governor... how about declaring minnesota a disaster... temps below zero degrees fahrenheit, 8 inches of snow on the ground where I am, 28 inches of snow fell up north by silver bay, mn.... hhhmmmm.. where is my governor when I need him?? but then, I guess I didn't have a loss

It would be interesting to hear from some of the members located in the s State of Washington. Marijuana was legalized there in the 2012 election. It would be interesting to read some info on the subject since the legalization and end of its prohibition there.

...interesting...

Condor, I am so sorry for not finding that another contributor (you) had responded to this thread until now. What I finally ended up doing was setting my TPS to 700 ohms after going through the mathematical formulas in the Clymer Manual. But to get there, I had to set it to 700 ohms and then put the tachometer on spark plug wire #1 and adjust the idle to 1000rpm's.. Once the idle was adjusted, then I went back and re-adjusted the TPS back to 700 ohms again. From reading various forums, I found one whereby they swear at a value of 675 ohms for that setting. But I settled on the 700 ohm value based on the formulas in the manual. I never did dial in 675 ohms to see if it was better than the 700 ohms...cheers!!-Wayne

.... was going to order these but I found the current bleeders are identical on the front and rear. So I am confused as to why the speed bleeders are different part numbers now for the front and rear systems ???? Am I not grasping something here??? ....edit... the SB8125 (M8 x 1.25) was indeed the exact match in height for the original clutch bleeder....thus the square piece of rubber fit back into place perfectly...

As a new member I hesitate to opine on this subject. But I do agree with many that cash is always king. Having said that, I also agree that winning a gift card for a national chain of Inn's/Hotels/KOA's etc., would most likely be just the incentive to plan and take longer rides away from the comforts of home. I also am self employed. For those of us that are, there is no such thing as a paid vacation day or sick day. So having a nights stay pre-paid, makes the journey much more palatable. Just my two cents....Whatever is decided, please let me know how to purchase my ticket!!...Cheers all!!

been searching the internet all day looking for an appropriate 2-4 circuit fuse panel to hide behind the RSTD side panel. Anybody got any leads or ideas?