BlueSky

Another thought is that if you bought a brand new Venture, it would depreciate $5,000 the first year.

All kinds of ways to look at it. But the bottom line is how much fun you have with it. Gen I Ventures are inexpensive to buy for what you get which is a fast, good handling, reliable after you get the usual stuff repaired, and comfortable touring bike. Hey the airlines use their airplanes for 35 years or so and they are reliable because they keep them maintained properly and replace stuff before they reach the end of their service life, proactive maintenance I believe it's called. Cowpuc and many others have proven how much bang for the buck the Ventures are.

I have a cheap Black and Decker straight rechargeable battery screwdriver that I use for easy stuff such as removing the 15 screws holding the plastic pan under the engine of my wife's car when I change oil. I also have a Dewalt commercial duty battery operated drill ($200) that I used to install lots of 3" screws in the building of my 12' x12' utility shed. I'm very pleased with both for what I use them for. I'm sure there are lots of choices in the middle.

Saw this 2009 Venture on craigslist last night. Only 4300miles on it. https://myrtlebeach.craigslist.org/mcy/d/2009-yamaha-royal-star-venture/6382558764.html

Sorry for your loss.

Bear warning sign! https://www.google.com/search?q=Bear+warning+sign+cartoon&tbm=isch&source=iu&ictx=1&fir=OxKemvgqlE7I7M%253A%252CyYSkHgPC3gyxVM%252C_&usg=__CmWT4wA2FOTc4Ilq9ZBD6Qx3Sl8%3D&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi4sc-qybTYAhVSMd8KHYbvD0QQ9QEIMzAE#imgrc=OxKemvgqlE7I7M:

If he hasn't been charged with any crime, how can they legally keep him in jail?

Looks like a great idea. And it looks like you could still pull a travel trailer with that setup if you wanted without having to buy a toy hauler model.

I have a 5'x8' utility trailer I bought from Lowes that I have hauled my bikes with. I tie the front wheel securely to the front rail and the bike does not move. Then of course I use 4 tie downs on the sides of the bikes. I had to load my Gen I diagonally to keep the tail gate from possibly touching the bike. I could have removed the tail gate and that is what I would do next time I think. I suspect it would be a good idea to put the tranny in neutral though.

I think the Nighthawks are similar to my Kawasaki ZN700 in that they have a short frame making them more ideal for a short rider. The advantage of a short frame is that I sit closer to the Plexifairing III windshield that I installed and my helmet is in a quiet zone. I had the same style windshield on a 83 Virago that had a longer frame and the buffeting around my helmet was terrible. Sounds like that bike will need some wiring troubleshooting since the battery drains quickly and you always have to assume a carb cleaning. Don't know about the Honda but my butt is hurting in a short while. A long trip would be painful.

That type of plug is in the 4,6L engines with 3 valves per cylinder. And mechanics have learned how to get them out without breaking them. The older 4.6L engines have 2 valves per cylinder and they tend to blow out if not torqued properly due to having only about 4 threads in the heads. And if they blow out there is a reliable repair method. My 2000 F150 with the 5.4L 2V engine had 170k miles on it when I lost track of it and now plug issues. My current truck with the 5.4L 2V engine has 147k miles and has not had the blowout problem. (Knock on wood!) I wouldn't let the plug design keep me from buying a V8. And some of the newer V6s have as much or more hp as the older V8s. Also, I know the truck 5.4L 3v engines had a different plug design starting in 2009 that eliminated the breaking plugs.

Sorry to hear that. I hope she is back up to full speed. The best thing about getting sick is that it makes you appreciate feeling normal again.

Since I'm retired and I am at home a lot, I'm not so worried about stuff disappearing in the day time. I have 3 lights (two dual spotlights and one entrance light) that turn on automatically by motion at night and I'm going to replace the other 4 exterior lights with lights that have motion detectors. Lights coming on help deter the scumbags. We don't have a lot of problems in my area but occasionally at night the scumbags will steal stuff out of cars that are parked in the driveway. A little sheetbag egged my truck recently. With the lights coming on, probably didn't have the guts to break in my vehicles.

Welcome! And that is a beautiful Venture!

Carb cleaner is a lot more powerful for cleaning when the carbs are being worked on.

A woman in my neighborhood owns a Yamaha Vstar 250. That would be a great starter bike I suppose with its low seat height, and light weight just over 300 lbs. One of these days I suppose I'll have to buy a cruiser just to see how comfy they are.

Yeah, Yamaha did a great engineering job on the new Venture with the exception of the engine. An air cooled V-twin in an expensive 963 lb. tourer is not great engineering. It may be great marketing. Time will tell. Lots of riders don't mind but I would never buy one for that reason. Yeah, I have an air cooled 85 Kawasaki but I only paid $1200 for it in 2009 when it had 1,054 miles on it. And I'm acutely aware of the overheating possibility while sitting at stoplights in the summer. I usually shut it down and restart when the light changes. I wouldn't want to have to do that with a $27,000 tourer.

What disappoints me most about motorcycles is that so few are comfortable to ride for any length of time. Seems you have to ride a 800lb behemoth to be comfortable. I think that could be much improved.

Are you sure it's spitting oil? If a tank of gas disappeared it had to be running into the engine and maybe into the exhaust system and maybe evaporating. Check the oil very carefully to make sure it's not mixing with the oil.

Wow! Venturous Randy that is a much loved bike with all of it mods and maintenance!

The RSTD (before 2005) carbs are 28mm vs 32mm for the Venture. There may be other differences such as cams but I do not know.

I recommend that you take a run down to Key West just for fun. It's a beautiful drive. One of the bridges is 7 miles long.

Sorry you had to sell the Nomad. It's a beautiful bike. I'm surprised you couldn't have made a profit on it considering how much you paid for it. Are you still enjoying FL or have you moved on?

Yeah Dan, get over there and see her! Women must be taking over the medical profession. The Dr who gives me my annual physical is a young lady and the urologist PA who checks my prostate is a 50ish woman. I don't care as long as they do their jobs and both appear to be competent and are nice to me. The physical now has a memory test which I don't enjoy but have passed with flying colors so far. She also asks me if I have fallen in the past year. I suppose this Feb, I'll have to tell her about falling off the top of the 6' step ladder while nailing on the roof sheathing inside my utility shed. I'll have to exaggerate and tell her I bounced and landed on my feet!

After all the Christmas customs that we have, decorating the tree, giving presents, partying, mistletoe,etc. was adopted from the pagans. Hundreds of years ago, the pagans in Europe were celebrating the winter solstice on Dec 25 by doing all these things. The Christian Church was losing members to the pagans because they were having more fun so the Christians adopted all of the same customs, declared they had different Christian meanings, and declared they would celebrate Jesus's birthday on the 25th of Dec. I'm not trying to denigrate anyone's beliefs. It's just historical fact.