BlueSky

One thing I don't understand and I don't agree with is that if someone runs and the LEO chasing overdrives his vehicle and crashes and dies, the person running is charged with murder. I don't see it.

Yep, I recently read that the murder rate in gunless London is higher than New York City. Criminals will be criminals and buttholes will be buttholes. I'm not in favor of LEOs chasing people at horrific speeds on any kind of vehicle unless the crime was really serious. I believe it's safer to let them go. They will be caught breaking the law soon enough. And now with all the cameras, it will be sooner.

Non-stop. Does that mean the bike will have a tank of fuel constantly feeding the bike's tank and he will wear a diaper? This guy rode coast to coast in 35 hrs without sleeping on his 2003 Kawasaki Concours.

Thanks for the update. 5 yrs for Voluntary Manslaughter sounds like a minimum sentence. We'll hope he is out soon on probation. I was on a jury that convicted a husband of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of his wife and the judge sentenced him to 20 yrs. Of course he was really guilty of 2nd degree murder but a couple females who liked this young handsome man wouldn't convict him of that with one wanting to vote not guilty.

I know this is the Orlando area but southern FL is almost like a third world country now with its high crime rates. I lived and worked in Homestead, FL for over 3 1/2 years. I loved the area and would have moved there permanently if it wasn't for the high crime rates. In Homestead, if your home or apt wasn't in a gated secured area, it would be burglarized on a regular basis. I got a concealed carry permit and went to a range to practice often when I worked there.

Man, I hate to hear about this problem. Lots of riders like V-twins. Hope they come up with a permanent recall on this problem.

Parts to rebuild the caliper can be purchased from places like partzilla.com at a discount. Or a complete caliper can be purchased. https://www.partzilla.com/catalog/yamaha/motorcycle/2009/royal-star-tour-deluxe-s-xvz13ctsy/rear-brake-caliper If the RSTD is like the Venture, the rear brake is too powerful.

A couple of years ago, I ordered 2 tires for my boat trailer from walmart because they had the same brand/size that was on the trailer. One of the two tires that came was the wrong size so they refunded the cost of the one tire. I re-ordered one tire and it never came. The story was that it got lost in shipping and they refunded the money again without telling me what happened until I asked. So, I wasn't too impressed with ordering stuff from Walmart.

Daimler Benz left its mark on Chrysler vehicles when they owned the company. The Dodge Charger, Magnum, Challenger, and the Chrysler 300 are built on a Mercedes chassis and at first had a Mercedes drive train except for the engines. Now they have a German designed 8 speed auto.

Unscrew the spark plug caps and check the resistance. Should be about 9k to 10k ohms. Look at the wires to see if the copper core is green on the ends. If so, you may be able to cut a half inch or so off the wire to get to clean copper core wire. check the ends at the coils. check the coils.

According to this video, the engine weighs in excess of 100 kgs or 220 lbs.

Oh, the mighty Hemi! I got one of those in my 2005 Magnum. Makes me smile every time I step on the gas!

Happy Birthday Flyinfool!

If you haven't watched these videos, you may be interested. There are 12 of them on the web.

My flourescent garage lights were also a pain, not knowing if they would come on or not. One day, I was in Costco and saw they had LED replacements for the 4' flourescent bulbs. So, i replaced the 4 bulbs with LEDs and couldn't be happier. they are brighter and always come on instantly.

Valve springs can get weaker with miles but they seem to hold up rather well. If they get weak enough they can't close the valves quick enough at high rpm, the valves will "float" with the engine missing and not being able to rev any faster. Our old Venture engines don't have rev limiters as far as I know, so you can over rev them and probably float the valves.

Have you sprayed it with Liquid Wrench penetrating oil and let it sit overnight? WD 40 is not penetrating oil. If you have something that will grip it such as a strap wrench, try twisting it. I haven't removed one, so I'm just guessing!

VR, did you think about trying that clutch basket with the new part number to see if it will get rid of clutch whine? Or is your bike one of those rare Gen 2s that doesn't have a whining clutch basket?

I wouldn't want to push my luck with the valve adjustments like cowpuc. If you burn a valve, that would ruin your day much more than an occasional valve adjustment.

I have to disagree with you there. My 2nd Gen doesn't seem to me to be tippy at all especially compared to that dang Concours.

Is the bike easier to tip over at low speeds with the narrower tire? The reason I ask is that the 2004 Kawasaki Concours I used to have came with a worn out dual compound tire that had a 1" wide strip down the middle that was the harder compound and the sides of the tread were worn away because of the softer compound. that bike was really tippy and the worn out front tire made it much much worse. I replaced it with a new tire and the difference was huge. But, it's still one of the most top heavy bikes on the road with its 7 1/2 gallon tank sitting up high.

I would do the same. Filter it with one of those paper shop towels to get the rust particles out and use it in the lawn equipment. When my Kawasaki sat for a long time, I removed the tank, sloshed the gas around to get the rust particles in suspension and drained the tank. Then I filtered it with the said shop towel and burned it in the bike mixed with fresher gas and some Gumout with PEA. The bike ran great. My boat has a 65 gallon gas tank and there is always some old gas in that thing. I keep adding Gumout and Stabil to the gas and it runs fine mixed with some fresher gas. The boat has a 99 Yamaha fuel injected 150hp 2 stroke. Yamaha's rock!

The used car dealer sold it quickly. Comparable Miatas a couple years newer around Raleigh were listed for up to $13k. I don't know who is paying so much for those. They are great sports cars but.........

It's the softtop and it's the plastic version that will need replacement soon. All of the mechanism that supported the top is in the attic too. I haven't tried to sell it but I will soon or put it in the trash just to get rid of it. I contacted the used car dealer who had the car and he wouldn't travel 100 miles to get it.