VanRiver

This guy on youtube has put together some really funny motorcycle maintenance videos and I thought I would share it....Basically he does everything completely wrong, but with his soft soothing voice and step by step instructions he has many novice youtubers convinced he is giving good information (pretty scary if they think he is being serious and don't understand this is a Parody). I personally love his deadpan humour that only us "mechanic types" would get....It's like watching a train wreck you can't look away from this disastrous advice! I know you guys and gals who really "know at thing or two about a thing or two" will get a kick out of it. Check out his Youtube channel as he has a ton of other "instructional videos"! How to polish your aluminum bike engine covers: How to clean and rebuild your carbs: How to change and dispose of your motorcycle oil: How to secure your Motorcycle and install a theft prevention system: Enjoy!

Hey @Venturous...I like the way you think.....actually I believe I've eaten that at the Calgary Stampede fairgrounds! Words to live by: "Everything tastes better wrapped in bacon!" By the way, sorry to hear about your accident and the damage to your beautiful GL1800, glad you weren't hurt and hope they replace you scoot for ya real soon!

Hey @Great White...get in line buddy, as I would be camping out front of the local Yamaha dealership for a bike like that..a boy can dream..as long as they finally phase out the Cassette Tape deck stereo of course.

That would be great, count me in!

Yup the DPR8EA-9 is the right plug....I personally only use the traditional standard plugs in my Venture that Mother Yamaha intended. I find with these bikes they like fresh plugs so I treat them like underwear (I change them often). The standard plugs are nice and cheap plus easy to find compared to Iridiums so I don't feel obligated to keep them in longer to get my "moneys worth". But that is just my personal opinion and how I maintain my bikes. Don't really know if Iridiums make the gas go BOOM any better.

HI Puc, only problem is I can fry bacon on my shins from the lava hot air coming off those GoldWing heads 2" from my legs, not to mention the 110 degree normal air temperature. Could probably bake a pie in the rear trunk too while I ride.....mmmmm PIE mmmmm....sorry got distracted there for a moment.

Hi @Rusery, welcome to the forum...nice scoot, I look forward to seeing all your future mods to it! Please listen to the other guys like @Flyinfool and @skydoc_17 more then me as I can only dream about having 1/10th of their knowledge and experience on these bikes (they are my hero's), but I had a similar "white/gray" smoke issue with one of my Ventures too when I first bought it.......I was worried it was burning oil (bad rings) or steam from a coolant leak (head gasket)....but after all the troubleshooting my bike stopped smoking as soon as I put new properly gapped plugs in AND Synchronized my carbs. The Syncing of the carbs was really the thing that did it as my bike was so out of whack with one cylinder sucking so much fuel that it was off the charts on my meter. Could have sucked a tennis ball through a garden house!. Plus the original plugs were complete not gapped properly and not putting out the right spark to make that gas go boom. Long story short, my smoke was due to inefficient combustion of fuel and not all those other scary issues usually associated to smoke out of the exhaust. The key is the color of your smoke and the bullet proof nature of these engines, they are not known to have head gasket issues or ring failures even at high mileage. You have a lot of work a head of you including carb cleaning, making sure you carb slides are jumping properly and no pin holes in your carb diaphragms.....but my advise is to get yourself a nice carb sync tool and make sure she is burning the fresh gas efficiently. But that is fun work...not work work!

Hi @videoarizona! I'm located in beautiful Litchfield Park Arizona...how about yourself?

Thought I would stir the pot a bit....I'm a very fortunate man who has "too many motorcycles" according to my wife, spread across our two places we call home in Alberta Canada and Arizona USA. I just happen to have a 1986 Venture Royale up in Alberta and a 1984 Honda GoldWing Aspencade GL1200 in Arizona. I have been doing a lot of riding on my Venture this year as I just finished the restoration and the novelty still has not worn off that bike yet (and probably never will since I love it!) But, I'm currently in Arizona and have been riding my GoldWing and I'm not really enjoying it as much as I used too as I keep comparing it to the Venture, and it seems to be falling short in many categories. Long story short, I MUCH prefer the Venture now!!! These 2 touring giants were the best of their day and hard core rivals in the consumer market with Honda kicking butt.....but if I was able to hop in my "Time Machine" back to 1986 I think I would be passing the Honda dealership and heading straight to Yamaha....for a touring bike anyway. Do you guys agree? If you were back in 1986, what bike would you buy (Yamaha or Honda...or Other)? Let me know what you think! Here are some pics of my Venture and Goldwing that "share me", even though they live thousands of miles away from each other.... one in the scorching Desert the other on the unforgiving Canadian Tundra!

Hey Puc...your Adrenaline deficiency is probably due to using all yours up over the years doing the exhilarating stuff like wearing out motorcycles, racing motorcycles, putting your bike on cruise control and sitting on the back seat with feet up and hands behind your head..... all that other "adrenaline rush" stuff you have partaken in. Should have saved some of that "fear factor juice" for your "Old Age"! Should have collected stamps as a hobby instead. All joking aside, sounds like very promising news on both medical fronts!

Thanks PrairieHammer! You are a true fountain of information!!!....The Canadian numbers are just a drop in the bucket compared to the US49's.

Wow that blue 1991 is sure pretty, especially for $500 CND (that is ONLY $398 USD for us who deal in "Green backs"!) Too bad my "Star Trek Transporter" is on the fritz as that sure would look nice in my Garage. The wife and I call Alberta home but also have a winter house in Arizona, and I always thought that Phoenix would be a "treasure trove of minty classic Ventures for cheap"....but they are pretty rare down here too (from what I have found anyway). I've been looking in the Arizona craigslist for a long time but nothing in that price range so far that wasn't just a crate of random parts. But the funny thing is GoldWings are a dime a dozen down here compared to Alberta. As a result I actually broke down and have a mint 1984 GoldWing in AZ instead of a preferred Venture because of that (I got my mint GL1200 for only $300, yes that is right, mint for only $300....but that is another story for another forum thread). I find it interesting how plentiful or rare these "survivor" first generation Ventures are in different geographical areas. In Alberta Canada, because of our long winters and very short riding season, all the Ventures are low milage and in nice cosmetic shape but barely run as they spent most of their lives in the garage with old gas gelling in their carbs...because they look so pretty people usually want big bucks for them.....in Arizona because the weather is so nice the very few ventures I have found are very high milage and have been sitting in the desert sun baking away and causing some major cosmetic damage. So my theory is that most have already been sent to the scrap yard because they looked like crap after all the plastic deteriorated in the sun. Or that Honda dominated the AZ market so much that maybe there weren't that many Ventures here in the desert to begin with? Would be interesting to know Yamaha Venture sales numbers by Geographic location. Does that info even exist for the 1980's? Might be a good question for our brother and local VIN database guru @Prairiehammer Viva La Quebec!

Wow @jfman I didn't know that "Cheap Ventures" were so plentiful in Quebec....I'm hooking up the trailer immediately and heading your way to tap into this Venture goldmine you found! :banana:Sure wish the same was true here in Alberta, I would fill the garage up to the rafters if I could get $100 and $250 machines! :canada:Carbs are still fairly easy to find on ebay, so stealing from your bike might not be necessary. Having a good riding buddy come with you on this tour sounds like the cherry on the top!

Cool idea for a trip!!...but rather then calling it an "abandon tour" might want to drop the bike off at a fellow forum member's place when you are done and call it a "parts bike gift tour" instead. We have members all over the world that would give that bike a good home and potentially a new lease on life rather then running her in a ditch and walking away once you are done with her. Anyway, enough of my preaching...sounds like a great trip....and be safe! You picked/found the perfect bike for a nice long trip. Ventures are awesome..... in my very biased and humble opinion of course.

Hi Puc, Thoughts and prays from my family to yours! Prostate cancer for us men is like being a pre-1986 Yamaha Venture with a serial number below 0001413. You know you have a problem and weak part, every once in a while you think your second gear is slippin, Seafoam can't fix it, and many of your friends have already been sent to the repair shop...and some may even get sent back to mother Yamaha before their time....but that does not mean you are headed to the scrap yard just yet.....you have many more miles to travel and people to inspire. Sounds like you got some of the best medical people (mechanics) watching your back (especially your daughter) and they have a full chest of metic wrenches, hammers, special mother yamaha tools, jacks, fuel additives and the sort to get you back on the road. Even if they need to split your case to get at that weak part, they know what they are doing and they don't need to read forums like ours to put you back together again......That is the most important part to ALWAYS remember. Sorry, I've been told I'm not the most sensitive or educated man when it comes to these medical and emotional situations....The way I cope is to translate these situations to things I know, understand, and my small brain can handle...pardon the weird Motorcycle metaphor...but it is being said with love, hope, and support. Hang in there buddy!

I personally like the MKII (86-92 Ventures) better....Significantly more storage capacity in the bags, 100cc more in engine umphfff, and I think they look rather pretty and more like a traditional bagger! I would think that if you are a 2 up rider you would appreciate these two factors of more power and extra storage. Plus when you buy a 1986 and newer you don't need to worry about that pesky 2nd gear issue (cracking the case to fix the problem). The defect was fixed in 1985 after serial number 0001413 I believe. But if you are more of a sport bike type of guy that likes to lean until the pegs scrape, like to remove the bags to lighten the load so you can do the twisties quicker then I would think the MKI (1985 and older) might be a better fit. But of course, this is just my opinion....and I'm biased since I'm in total love with my 1986 MKII Venture Royale's. Hope that helps! Oh and by the way if you get a MKII do the V-Max final drive "upgrade" well worth it! It is plug and play and a cheap DIY project that will really enhance the performance of your 2 up riding.

Although I'm a young whipper snapper of 41, I got my Dad back on 2 wheels this year with our "Father-Son Venture Royale restoration project". He is 74 this year, and we are both really enjoying going out for rides together just like the old days when I was a kid.....but now we can talk and shoot the bull via our Sena Helmet mic's which makes the rides even better. He is not the best at this computer stuff so we share our Membership here, so I think that still counts and hopefully still worthy of a post. Here is my Dad...still looking good for 74!...he has the Brown 1986, mine is the black 86 in the distance.

Congrats Puc to you and all the family! Hopefully the groom is a worthy partner for your lovely daughter.....but I have a feeling based on her great parents and upbringing she probably picked a pretty good guy. My only daughter is turning 15 in a few days, so hopefully I'm many, many, many years away from experiencing what you are going through. I also like cleaning my guns regularly on the front porch to keep the boys away that are unfortunately already knocking on the door. You just need to shoot one (only a flesh wound), and word spreads pretty fast! Soak it all in, one of life's great experiences! You and Tippy done good!

Hi @GAWildKat if Dbeck is not wanting your grips then I would be interested in taking them off you hands....how much would you want for them? Send me a PM if you are able to find them in the good ol' parts bin. Thanks.

Thought this was pretty creative....My local motorcycle shop's "mechanics version" of flower hanging baskets! April showers bring May Helmet flowers. Wife said "NO!" to me making my own for the house! Any other creative Motorcycle "Art projects" out there??????? Show me what you got!

Yup, JT's used to be my go-to place but unfortunately they shut down a few years back.....they sold a portion of their "stock" to the "Old Motorcycle shop" and the rest went to the metal scraper......but I haven't had the most positive experience dealing with those guys at "OMS" and basically all the mufflers are in one big pile with no way to distinguish what type of bike they belong to. I have checked "the pile" and was not able to find any that look like they could be from a Venture. I don't have the originals as they didn't come with the bike so repairing them is not a possibility. Thank you for the offer of "Relaying" parts from Rocky Mountain house! Much appreciated. If that comes to fruition I will send you a PM and I will make it worth your while! And yes TJ's used to be located on BlackFoot Trail here in Calgary, and years and years ago they were up in the NE part of the City.....but I guess profits in the old motorcycle parts game were not as high as they were once was...and they packed it in as a business. Thanks for all your help guys!

As @Prairiehammer said, the left is 7/8"and the right with throttle tube is 1" in diameter.......I too have been hunting for new grips....I wasn't aware that GL1800's were the same size, thanks for the Tip! These bikes sure take looooong grips.

Looks like a Honda Goldwing F6B and a Yamaha V-max had "intimate relations" and this was their off spring.....some type of German breeding experiment? I like it! Can't afford it....but I like it!

Thanks Great White, I appreciate the offer but I completely agree about the shipping part. Lots of nice ones on Ebay too, but shipping to Canada is the deal killer. From the Youtube video you so kindly shared, the HD's do sound very loud, basically on par or even louder with what I already have with the Jardine's....guess I'll keep looking local to see if I can locate some OEM someday. All the good bike junk yards of my youth have disappeared here in Calgary. A real shame.

Hi Guys and Gals, I need your insight and opinions on Mufflers please. I currently have a set of Jardine's on my 1986 Venture Royale and I find them too loud for my liking. Finding original OEM mufflers are as rare as hens teeth in my neck of the woods and too expensive for shipping on E-bay, so my next logical option is to go with stock Harley Road King mufs. I see there are several members that have done the switch to HD RK's, but the real question is will they be quieter then my existing Jardine's or would I be wasting my money in the quest of making my bike as quiet as possible?