BlueSky

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.

Sorry for your loss! Whoever called dogs, "man's best friend", was exactly right.

Thanks for the laugh! And if you picture it like she said it does look exactly like what she said.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/n6mbW-jMtrY?rel=0

Cowpuc posted recently that he hasn't had a cable break since he started lubing the cables.

That's going to be one happy Grandson!

Never owned a computer controlled bike but I have bought Superchip tuners for my 02F150 and my 05 Hemi Magnum. And I used it to raise the speed limiter to 180mph on the Magnum. From what I've read it may be capable of reaching 155 to 160mph. I don't plan to drive that fast but if I get a wild hair and want to, I want to be able to take it to the limit. The Superchips made a bigger difference in performance on the truck than the Magnum. My buttometer guesstimates an extra 20hp on the truck and about 12hp on the Magnum. 12 is what was promised by Superchips for the hemi engine and it feels about right. Gas mileage was improved on both vehicles as well as hp. They also allow you to do many other things such as enter the tire diameter that corrects the speedometer if you change tire sizes.

This is what I googles on the GTL and GT K1600. The K1600GTL is also electronically restricted to a top speed of 136mph (220kph) compared with the GT's unrestricted maximum of 155mph (250kph), and this is the reason it has a higher maximum payload, despite the softer suspension – fully loaded at close to 150mph it could become unstable. And this: The K1600GTL is electronically speed limited to 140 mph, due to aerodynamic concerns from the large trunk. The K1600GT has no speed limiter, and we've seen as high as 158 mph (GPS confirmed). Running at 120 mph can be reasonably safe for a skilled rider on an open, flat, clear section of highway.

The Shadow will have about half the hp of those 750 fours but you know that.

It's warmer in Key West but not a lot to do. May be a good time to go to Disney World if you like that sort of thing. NYC is interesting but will be chilly.

Being retired and with the wife still working, it's my job to make sure there is a spare roll in the cabinet. Just part of my house husband duties. At least we agree on which direction it has to roll! Having the homestead to myself during the day M-F is a wonderful thing!

I end up buying a lot of stuff on line because it is simply not available or not in stock in the local stores. Stores only stock items that sell in high volume so on line purchasing is necessary. A long time ago, I ordered from the Sears catalog!!

Yeah, looks like that email was sent from someone a lot closer to the international date line than us. It's been a while since I got a similar email asking me to update my paypal account.

From what I understand, you shouldn't run oil that long in motorcycles with a wet clutch because the clutch contaminates the oil. So, those extended miles recommended oils don't apply to motorcycles as I understand. And then there is that recommendation not to use car oils because the energy conservation additives might cause the clutch to slip. Then if I remember correctly, Cowpuc runs the cheapest oil he can find in his 200k plus mile Ventures. So here we go again, an oil thread!

Cabelas was just bought by Bass Pro Shops and the guys probably think they are being laid off.

That is one disadvantage to having a metal roof. May not be the case with your situation. Yep, our phones switch to wifi when we are within range which is inside the house or very close.