BlueSky

I bought a gel seat cushion from onlygel.com for my Kawasaki. It's about an inch thick. It does raise me up a bit which isn't a problem on the Kawa except that it puts my head more into the turbulent zone behind the National Cycle Plexifairing 3 windshield. So far I've used it with the clips or hooks that hook under the sides of the seat on both sides. When I sit on it and compress the seat the hook may come loose. It did come with a strap that can go under the seat all the way across but I haven't tried that yet. The cushion appears to be high quality. Some highway pegs may be what you need. I bought some cheap ones for the kawa and I can't get them tight enough to keep from turning on the crash bar.

I told my wife that the only cruise I ever wanted to go on was the Alaska cruise. I had no interest in going on the Caribbean cruise. Of course the only cruise we've been on was a Carribbean cruise. I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would. Maybe one day we will make it to Alaska one way or another.

Both my boys drive stick shifts. The oldest is 38 and all of his cars have been stick shift, Escort and several Mustangs. The youngest (25) has a Miata. After he totalled his first Miata, I bought a cheap auto Mustang for him. My daughter has always driven an auto. She was accident prone like her mother for many years but finally turned into a good driver. My ex has always been an accident prone driver. Current wife has never driven a stick. I taught her to drive at age 42. She is a careful driver, so far accident free (knock on wood).

Google "Stratoliner specs" and see what you think. This is what Cycle World said about the Stratliner: This technical package helps make the big Twin a very flexible engine. But its very large displacement doesn't hurt! In any case, Yamaha claims a peak output of 91 horsepower and 117 foot-pounds of torque at the rear wheel. That is Big Business, and, after some time in the saddle, the latter figure is pretty easy to believe. The Stratoliner not only grunts away strongly from a standstill, but also easily torques past traffic, rarely requiring a downshift with the slick five-speed transmission. Twin counterrotating balancers keep engine vibration in check. The torque is the same as the goldwing. The GW has about 118 hp from what I read. I wouldn't buy an air cooled bagger but the power probably is adequate.

The "new" V-twin will be plenty powerful for that bike. It' basically a Stratoliner engine and if I remember correctly, it has close to 100hp. But with 125 ft. lbs. of torque it should stretch your arms all you want. If you don't mind the air cooling, you'll probably like it.

Did you switch both coil leads, input and output?

Nice!

A member of the Kawasaki forum posted this procedure for cleaning his carbs. Sounds like a good idea. "After consulting with the Sea Foam people (one working day response -- excellent customer service) about potential damage to O-rings, diaphragm etc. (short answer: none), I decided on the following course of action: 1. Drain the float bowls and took note of the quantity of fuel (around 75 ml in my case). 2. Turn off the petcock, and disconnect the fuel line. 3. Using a graduated squeeze bottle, refill the carbs through the fuel line with the same amount of Sea Foam as the quantity of fuel drained from the float bowls. 4. Let sit for 24 hours. 5. Drain bowls, reconnect the fuel line, flush with new fuel and then repeat the process. 6. After the third time, make sure all the Sea Foam has been drained. Reconnect the fuel line. 7. Bike started on the button within five seconds -- better than it has all in the years I've had it."

Lot of junk there. Seems like so many have locked up engines. "bill of sale"? May be hard to title.

Sounds good.

http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?3384-First-Gen-Service-Manuals

Wow! That was quick!

If you have to crack the throttle to start, that seems to mean to me that the fuel is too rich. Perhaps, don't pull the choke out all the way and see what happens. Perhaps the idle mix screws are too far out, too rich. But, some serious riding with a cleaner in the gas might help out.

I have some videos of Canadian Snipers making some long range kills on my old computer. I'll see if I can find them and load them for all to see.

You mean it doesn't have anything in common with the Stratoliner, such as the engine and belt drive? Take a look at the Strato specs. I admit it is "all new" compared to a gen 2 Venture. I just got back from the NC mountains, specifically Hot Springs and surrounding area. There was a bike rally this past weekend. Lots of Harleys there. Harley has the rumbling V twin market pretty well sewed up. The sound and image is everything to most of those guys. Saturday other brands showed up like Goldwings, sport bikes, a few BMW R1200 GS. I was surprised at how well I like the sound of those opposed twin BMWs.

Cody is a great place to visit. My wife and I spent a couple of days there and had a great time. Went to a rodeo. Went to a live performance. Went to see the old western cabins. I kinda wanted to go to the gun experience and fire the gatlin gun but didn't.

A member from Canada bought an early Venture for about $250 Canadian as I remember and rode it to Mexico. If you have the time do a search and read about his adventure. jfman is his handle.

Just don't get stuck in stop and go traffic in the summer or the engine could fail or be damaged. I don't see buying a bike with those limitations. Like I've posted before, the ineternet posted LA Sheriff's dept test of potential police bikes where they checked everything during the test including oil temperatures and made sure they met the manufacturers specs, the Harley spec was not to exceed 410 degrees F oil temperature. That is a mind numbing number to me.

Oh Man! I'm really sorry you hurt yourself. It's as frustrating as it is painful I'm sure. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

I'm sure it's a great bike. And I don't mean to criticize your bike. But it looks like a Harley to me. I just have a mental block when it comes to Harleys and wannabe Harleys. It's my problem.

Have you been doing knee exercises? It really helps. I do a few exercises 3 times a week. One of the exercises is 45 squats. As we age the legs will get really weak if we don't exercise them. I'm 73 yrs old. Exercise also helps keep arthritis at bay.

Switzerland is fortunate that they aren't large enough that they have been invaded. And they were sympathetic to Germany in WWII. Going to war as unfortunate as it is, is necessary sometimes to maintain proper world order. If the USA had not entered WWII, we would all be speaking German or Japanese if we were alive. I know Russia defeated the Germans on the east side of Europe but they got a lot of help from the USA to do it. The UK, about the only European country left was almost defeated when the USA entered the war. No country in the Pacific was able to stand up to the Japanese. So, war was very necessary for the USA in WWII. And today, if it wasn't for the USA military, Russia and China would take over the world. They might anyway.

Demography has a huge impact on the countries such as the USA. The Swiss don't have some of the problems other countries have due to demography.

I might end up with a cruiser. Who knows? But I have a character flaw. I just don't like the looks of cruisers or anything that is styled like a Harley. And I'm sure that V twins are better designed today but in the past I had a CB350 Honda parallel twin and it was a great starter bike but it did have a nasty high frequency vibration (because it turned 6,500rpm at 60mph). Later I had a Yamaha Virago that vibrated and was underpowered so I decided no more vibrating underpowered twins for me. I might be tempted by the Vstrom 90 degree twin or the BMW R bike but I don't know. Yeah, I know. I'm weird!

I've been looking at Goldwings lately as well as ST1300s and even V-stroms. Don't know if I will actually buy one, but I like to look and that is what starts it. My 85 ZN700 is fun around town but it needs a much better seat to ride any distance. When you get much over 500 lbs, bikes tend to get much harder to handle in town and the ZN weighs about 525lbs with a full tank.