gggGary

Great thorough set of tests. What I don't see, battery voltage after it's been shore charged, battery voltage 5 hours later, voltage at battery terminals; at idle at 2K rpm at 3K rpm check those voltages again with neg lead on a frame ground point. report. Will go look at the diagrams but if your tests indicate the battery and grounds are good and it's not charging, then there is a way to bypass the regulator function and make the stator put out full output, this should only be done for a minute or so and avoid revving motor to produce more than 15 volts. This would pretty much lay it at the door of a defective regulator.

My experience was that the 99 acted that way on stock rubber, Dropping down to a 130 front on the stock rim and removing the rotor shields and weights really reduced the "rubber coupling" slow to respond feel. If I keep riding it I may put the front fender, fairing and trim on a diet also. By all means look for loose parts, some sort of front tire "vice" so you can apply torque and observe movement should help find issues.

Never rule out problems at the rear of the bike when tracking down front end issues! Worn swing arm bushings are known wobble inducer on RSVs. On a recent cross country ride I got a hard to damp out oscillation in the "forks", turned out the rear tire was going flat from a nail in the tread.

Hey Zagger I've seen your bike at the crud run several times but never got to chat. Thanx for the link, I had checked fleabay but didn't find a complete set up like that!

There's a titled 84 "been sitting 4 years" the owner "wants it to go away" asking 400. but holy crap, a grandson counted this week, I kinda purposely don't, 20 bikes in the shed already!!!! Just what I need another hulk.

Tried this in the classifieds but figure there's at least a few guys sitting on a parts hulk, not actively buying or selling that may give up a set of bars. Full disclosure it's for a Non venture project. I want to get my FJR "more comfortabler". Two sets of riser blocks added now, and still not very happy. I like the multiple adjustments possible on the venture setup. Related question; Anyone mess with adjusting their venture bars? Or was your 1st gen so comfortable out of the box you don't need to change a thing?

I'm in the it's a revver not a lugger camp. I'm also not much of a "fuel additive" kind of guy. If it doesn't run right the carbs come out. On my 99 with 10K when I bought it doing that found a diaphragm that wasn't seated in the body properly and fuggled float valves, fuel levels, synch needed, mouse nest in air filter. It ran MUCH better with all 4 contributing. But it really did run "fine" on just three!

Always the odd duck I am looking at the Honda NM4 as being closer to a start for my ideal touring bike. I might regress from the RSV to a Venture royale just cause they are out there with the farkles I want already applied, for little $$ and I am VERY cheap. (rule out new bike) Wife will never be a long distance pillion for lots of reasons, I don't see any reason for a solo rider and bike to be north of half a ton. my ideal list 600 pounds wet LOL forward floorboards with the controls on them* ABS@ cruise*@ rider backrest*@ BIG saddlebags that don't look like they were cobbed from an ammo dump.*@ PERFECT rain protection@ If it ends up pig heavy I want reverse @. 70MPG quiet enough that I can ride with my visor up.*@ items with * met by the RSV Items with @ were met by the K1200LT

Removed and cleaned the clutch hydraulic system on the 99 stem to stern, didn't use any new parts but removed a "gunk ring" in the slave. Used 2000 grit and smoothed the inside of the slave. Thanks for the "how to" on here. Very minimal wear and corrosion found. Bleeding went fast and easy. Probably 4 hours and half a roll of paper towel start to finish. Will road test today. I may need to do a few hundred miles "to be sure".

True that, LED's in incandescent housings are a band-aid solution. Not perfect by any means. Yes have seen plenty of retrofitted cars, trucks that were obnoxious dazzling bright.

That's a great price for the bro-view! I have 8K on my 99 RSV with the bro-view AND a pair on my FJR. Reliability seems great, but little riding at night. That's just me anymore. You do need to lower the aim "quite a bit". If you are getting flashed you aren't done aiming yet. I think "proactive brights flashing" is a bad thing............ From my pics linked here, the high beam throws OUT further but cuts the width a bit. Haven't done a good night review on the dual bulb FJR yet. I have a cheapie COB LED H4 replacement coming for an XS650 with a retro headlight that doesn't get ridden much at night, it's a very small package bulb to fit the small headlight can on the XS, the 55/60 watt halogen H4 bulb is a bit much for the XS650 charging system at idle. Nit picking but the LED blue/white is colder than the yellow/white halogens which is colder than the feeble incandescents we used to ride behind.

Will note the Leak/dirt has been forming pretty consistently here since I have owned the bike, enough to attract dirt not enough to leave a drip. Is there a write up in tech for the clutch slave R&R?

Let's see if this pic shows it better... It could be something else, thought it was a leak from the clutch cover, smell a bit of gas now and then, usually only when she's tipped on the side stand pretty far. All 4 float valves and bowl gaskets replaced fuel float height checked and tested under fuel pump pressure. Antifreeze is up to level in the bottle, haven't messed with it at all.

I changed the front master cylinder on my G2 (Harleys want to be) to a 14mm and had to carefully adapt the stock brake light switch to it and an adjustable lever from ANOTHER MC, I ended up making a "hump" out of JB weld so the switch was correctly depressed as needed, cruise worked "as good as a venture cruise works" for my recent road trip. Would like to pull and relube all the throttle cables "again" using STP or some other super lube to see if I can get that last bit of stickiness out of the system. Got real used to tapping the wrist blade I have on the throttle for "hill assist". LOL PS the 14mm MC and FJR calipers with SS lines REALLY improve the brakes!!!! Had to get the adjustable lever so I wasn't over extending my grip causing poor leverage. Yeah the lever got that firm!

Speed KILLS (fuel mileage) road trip at 60-79 reserve at 180 miles Hammer down at 80MPH no headwinds reserve at 130 miles. G3 stock windshield from last years riding a short bagger shield windshield was worth near 5MPG But I didn't think it was worth the much louder and more turbulent ride. Or rain intrusion.

Anyone else get this? was cleaned well just before a 2500 mile road trip. I have a new gasket on hand was wondering if there are any "secret" issues I should know about there. I have not done any clutch mods, and so far clutch is working fine. I ride mostly solo, long distance (other bikes for town riding) and have a pretty well educated clutch hand. Mostly unrelated; bought bike last August with 10.8K, it had a plugged relief port in the clutch MC got that unplugged, and bled,now at 20K during last weeks road trip I had a non op clutch after it had been parked overnight at a pretty good angle, fluid was very low, got it working with lots of lever pumping added DOT 3 (only thing available at a tiny nearby town) and came home with no problem but had to add a bit more fluid, I see a leaky slave is not uncommon how hard is the R&R? Have not seen any leaks at MC.

I'm just a piker cowpuc but I had a good time. We trailered out to Kalispell was a tight fit but it went well, then I headed south and into Idaho, back through Wyoming and home 2500 miles in 5 days. The RSV is the most comfortable bike I've ever put miles on. Stock seat with a sheepskin and a SLIGHTLY inflated neck pillow under it. a backrest, longer risers and some ginned up soft grips was it. Was great seeing the sights even if the original trip got really messed up, (my fault, expired passport, oops) Got up in wyoming the third day and got chased over a pass by a cage, we were making GOOD time through the curves, then hit the freeway, hammer down 80MPH east from Buffalo, next services, Gillette about 65 miles. Part way, I started getting a hunting weave, a bit of experiment and it had negative stability, without intervention it would have gone bad. Slowed a bit to 70MPH and kept going all the way to Gillette, pulled off for gas and it was wobbling in the parking lot. The rear tire was near completely flat. Next gas station had air but it was on the rim in 5 minutes. Found a puncture in the tread, I carry a plug kit so 20 minutes later I was good to go. Ran 60 then 70 and soon was back up to 80 and ran the speed limit 1200 miles home. No more weave! Camping rig, the bikes on the trailer (ground was angled it wasn't ole lard a$$ tilting it!) and looking down into Jackson Wyoming. Got a bit damp that day.

"hard" and binding when hot, brake or clutch is usually a clogged relief port in the master cylinder, it's tiny and easily plugged. Has happened to me on various bikes, front, rear brakes, and clutch, my life is SO interesting.

Looks like a good way to lose about 1/3 of your horse power, (the hideous manifold shape at the junction, hard to imagine what that will do to flow) if that and a big air filter in your lap seems cool go for it!

Congrats! I think of myself more as gainfully unemployed than retired but the gummerment promised to start sending me check next month, So that means: ROAD TRIP NOW Check will be here before the bills come due....

Me too, it BETTER be worth it!

Packed it for a camping trip out west, leave tomorrow.

My FJR1300 previous Concours 14 and even the ZX14 all returned about 40 MPG on secondary roads at 60 ish MPG. An old KZ1300 manual stated 4000 RPM as the highest efficiency engine speed. I suspect this is true across a wide range of engines that redline at 8K ish and make some horsepower up high. Cam design is always a compromise, and a high horsepower cam will not get good fuel efficiency when lugged at low RPM. My XS650s get 50 MPG, so even huge reductions in mass, profile and power do relatively little to improve mileage. The honda 700 parallel twins (CTX700) are supposed to capable of 70MPG and I am thinking along those lines when I find the right deal on one.

Yup old tires suck, 70's vintage rubber removal often involves a hacksaw. Modern tires are pretty easy, a gallon of ruglyde and an old windex bottle REALLY help. I have a Coats 200 manual changer but do em on the floor by the wood stove in the winter. change an average 10-15 tires a year, mostly on fix ups of neglected bikes I buy. Now that I'm "retired" I am actually wearing out some tires, grin!

99 16K miles one person with a bunch of camping gear pretty much 40MPG, dips at speeds above 65MPH The BMW K1200LT with 130K on the clock would get 50 in the same conditions..... Advantage; Fuel injection.