VanRiver

Congrats on the new Bike....hope the first gen goes to a loving home for some more happy highway miles! Sorry I'm not able to comment on the 13 model as I've never owned one, but would love to see some pics of this new scoot!

Do those Doc's of yours have you on any "Seafoam" alternatives to break down that clot in the plumbing or does nature just need to take it's course over the month of laying low, elevation and heat? I'm really glad to hear that the risk of stroke is rare for this type of clot.....would be nice to have a inline filter or a conversion kit for a spin on filter installed just in case. All joking aside, hang in there buddy! Prayers up.

Hey @PKR Customs Great project and thanks for sharing the details! I'm building a 86 Venture MAX project, 1300 Venture bottom end with V-max heads and Cams and would love to add this carb setup to the project! Would you be interested in building me one of these? I can supply the carb, but would like to buy one of your intakes if you make more!

Ha Ha....Trust me, we have guns (speaking as a Canadian gun owner).....don't forget we are a society grown from living in the bush and hunting for survival. According to Wikipedia there are 112 guns per 100 people in the USA......In Canada it is 30.8 guns per 100 people. Long story short make sure your coworker picks the right house up here on the tundra or it might not end well for him!

Hi @DragonRider Thanks buddy, sorry for the delay in getting back to you, I have been working away.....I'll PM you my address as requested. Thanks for holding on to it!!! @Dragonslayer my problem is the Van has too many addresses. Stay low and keep moving is my life moto!

Thanks @divey ! No, I let the Yamaha Vision go. Looked like a great bike, and I hope it went to a good home! But like I said before, the wife would have killed me if she saw it sitting in the garage. I already have 15 bikes in my collection, which is exactly 15 too many for her. It is a lot easier to hide a moped in a corner of the garage that she never looks at compared to a Vision or another big Venture....they are a bit more conspicuous! If you have a spouse or significant other that supports your motorcycle addictions then you hold on to them and never let them go as you are a lucky lucky dude.

Well I got the Little Honda all fixed up and she is cruising the neighbourhood again just like Mother Honda intended. I think she turned up pretty well, if I do say so myself!

I think I have officially seen everything now.....they actually sell a Nitrous kit for this bike!!! Yes, Nitrous for a 35 year old 50cc Honda 2 stroke moped! Unbelievable!!!! Cute little NOS bottle on the handle bars!

And as everyone knows.....Red bikes go faster then Black bikes......It's science!

Hi @snyper316 Yes it was sold in the USA....Actually, looks like they had a model of this bike for almost every country. In Japan they even had a smaller 400cc version too. I agree, I had never heard of this model before as well:

I've been spending too much time shopping on Kijiji (our local version of Craig's List up here in Canada) lately since the wife has been out of town....and have seen some really nice vintage motorcycles up for sale that have been tempting me! Anyway, I came across a "1982 Yamaha Vision" in very nice condition for $800 tonight. The wife would kill me if I bought another bike especially while she was away, so I decided to "look but not touch" and do some research on this "Vision XZ550" model since I had never heard of it before. What is interesting is that according to Wikipedia, Yamaha leveraged this "Vision" model as their revolutionary bike in the late 1970's and over a 3 year design period engineers reached out to the design teams at Cosworth for the engine design, Porsche for the shaft and final drive design, and GK design associates for the body and fairing design.......which just happens to look exactly like a Baby version of our Ventures. Here is the Wikipedia info on the bike (but you can't believe everything you read on the internet): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yamaha_XZ_550 Looks like mother Yamaha only built this 550cc "sport touring" bike for 2 years, 1982 and 1983. It was supposedly their first down-draft carb production bike which required them to build a high cowl over the gas tank area for the new air intake position. It is water cooled, shaft driven, and had a red line at 10,000 rpm. Sound rather familiar? I think they just glued 2 of these Vision motors together to make the MKI Venture engine! Unfortunately, the Vision was not a big seller and was pulled after only 2 years, but I must say I like it!!! And I'm trying really hard to come up with excuses not to call the guy up and make a deal on this classic example of Yamaha motordom for my collection. Have any of you guys and gals ever owned a Yamaha Vision before? What did you think of it? Here a few pics of example Vision's......and the other set are of the bike that is for sale......I must say I see clear styling and mechanical similarities to my Venture......That is why I think this is really a "Baby Venture", or do we have "Big Grownup Yamaha Visions"?: Bike fore sale:

Hey Puc, words to live by my friend! Can never have too many 50cc or 70cc Honda's in the stable....even though there are only 2 "kids" in my household (my Daughter and ME!) Actually she is more mature then I'am. I would love to read the other 17555 quotes! Hope you write a book someday. Anyway my "restoration" is coming along nicely. I usually do more of a quality job on my bike restorations, but for this $100 bike I'm not going to any extremes. She is built for fun, not to be pretty show queen! Lots of rust on this poor girl, was left under a carport for 20 years of it's life. Still working on the Tank and assorted plastic bits...but looking like a bike again rather then a pile of parts!

Wife and Daughter are in Europe enjoying the sights while Dad (me) needed to stay home and work. Perfect time to buy a new Motorcycle and not have to ask permission...just forgiveness when they get back! $100 Canadian Dollars later and I'm the proud owner of a 1981 Honda PA50......Yes folks, 49cc of pure 2-stroke Honda POWER!!!!!! Sure to strike terror in the heart of any WeedEater or grass trimmer out there! Sure is a lot easier to put this beast on the centre stand compared to my Venture! These pics are of the old girl fresh from being picked up and not washed, cleaned, or cared for yet. She will sparkle once I'm done with her. Hope my daughter will enjoy cruising the neighbourhood on it!

I'm a Shoei man myself....they seem to be modelled after my head shape. But I do like the Bell Mag 9 that was designed for the SENA SMH 10 bluetooth. I wish more helmets had Bluetooth and camera integration baked right in rather then all this after thought third-party accessory stuff I seem to be using that otherwise gets clamped or glued to my helmet which wasn't designed for it.

Sorry @Skid but I'm afraid you are a bit too late.....The frame from "Maxine the Donor cycle" got chopped up and sent to Yamaha Heaven already.

I found out that here in Arizona motorcycles are allowed to travel in the Car Pool "Diamond" lane. Is this unique to AZ, or does that also apply to other states? I guess if you travel like these guys then you qualify no matter what! The guy on the fender is nicknamed "bumper"! Are they a motorcycle gang that only owns one bike (they do have matching jackets..which always make you look cooler not matter what you ride....right?)!

Thanks Puc! Yes, all good things must come to an end. But the way the summer flew by, Christmas will probably be here before we know it! I tried to distract @Flyinfool by asking him lots of mechanical questions (he is one smart fella!) so he doesn't start working on his winter snow plans too early! Puc, you are to blame for me even starting this project!!! If you hadn't sold me all those shiny and pretty V-max parts from Tweeksis' collection, then my fingernails would still be clean, I would have a better tan from spending more time in the pool, and I could have stayed in the nice air conditioned house rather then the "Oven" I call my garage! Na, no that isn't me....Best Vacation Ever! Thanks again Buddy!!!

Hi @Jamsie, good question! I tried very hard to keep the particles out of the crank case by packing rags and plastic at the bottom of the Cylinders and covering the crank....but to your point that was not a perfect process. So once it is all done I plan on flushing the internals with diesel as well to get any remaining sludge and hopefully any particles out before I start closing her up again. I then plan on filling her up with cheap oil and spinning her via the starter only to redcoat the bearings and flushing it 2-3 oil changes this way before she actually gets fired for real. Still not a perfect process but "it is what it is"....this is a project for a bike that will probably get ridden 1,000 KM per year while I'm on vacation. I highly doubt my "hack job" will allow the engine to run another carefree 200,000 KM, but I think it will accomplish the goal I set out to do which was learn, have fun turning wrenches, replace a tired high mileage oil gushing engine, and do it without spending a ton of cash. Also if I like the Venture V-max combo, I will have AZZI's original engine as a spare, plus I have an additional set of V-max heads sitting on the shelf so I could do that engine up as well, but invest to have it done "proper" the second time around. The great thing about DIY projects is that if I have a failure due to one of my mistakes I only have one person to blame.....I find that so much easier to mentally deal with compared to paying big bucks to a "professional" and still having failures.....I have a long list of those "Professionals" making mistakes unfortunately.

Yup, time to pack it up and head back to the tundra of Canada. I didn't get as far as I wanted with "Maxine the Donor Engine", as my parts were delayed in shipping unfortunately. So the rings didn't show up on time nor did the cross over tube and o-rings for the heads. So long story short I will need to wake this thread up again the next time we come down to the AZ dessert. Stay tuned, hopefully she will run again...if I can remember how all the parts go back together! Oh, one last thing.....What color should this "AZZI-MAX" engine eventually be painted? Should it be "Venture Silver", "V-max Black", or something more exotic such as "Gold" or "Copper".....or "Red" since Red parts go faster? Please note that AZZI is a 1986 Brown coloured bike on the outside and will stay that way.

Hey @dna9656 great to hear the COP's worked right out of the box for ya! I've been thinking of doing the same to my Bike AZZI when I do the engine swap. Do you mind sharing some of your wisdom on the conversion? I have a couple of questions: 1. What year and model bike did you get your COP's from? 2. Are you using the stock TCI or do you have the Dynapro aftermarket one? 3. Any other details or gotcha's I need to worry about?

Well it was a big day today for me...first time I've ever honed a cylinder. You never forget your first time, right! I took it slow, and really tried for the cross hatch pattern to be between 30 - 45 degrees.....oh and to clean out all the corrosion and abuse this poor Maxine Donor engine has been through by sitting neglected for so many years too. All 4 cylinders are now done and I think they look pretty good if I do say so myself! Here is a Before and After shot of Cylinder #4 , which had the lowest compression and the most corrosion. Before Shot: And after Honing:

Update from today. Since AZZI will have more "giddy up" with he new V-max upgrades and motor refresh, I thought it would be wise to give her some more stopping ability as well. I already upgraded the Callipers to R1's gold dots last time I was down, but today I de-coupled the brakes and installed stainless braided lines. The date of 11/1985 was marked on my old rubber lines so I think it was past due for a replacement. Although I have an old Honda V45 magna brake splitter in my bucket of spare parts that I could have used for the decoupling project like many on this forum have done.....I decided to go in a different direction for the front brakes and just used two long 45" lines and a double Banjo Bolt connection right at the handlebar brake lever. The reason for this was, I'm cheap!!! I could buy the two 45" stainless lines on Amazon cheaper then buying 3 shorter hoses and using the splitter I already had. The two 45" lines were only $18.99 each, so a pretty cheap upgrade IMHO. I'm still waiting for my rear stainless braided hose to arrive. My hone finally arrived by the friendly UPS guy today, so hopefully tonight I can get the cylinders all cleaned up and ready for the new rings (when and if they arrive in time!).

That is Weird....maybe I have worn out the upload process with too many pictures in this thread! I have edited my original posts and reinserted the pictures again. Can you see them now?

Hey @cowpuc, remember how you were saying that corrosion in the valves might be there reason for lower compression numbers back when I first did my tests on Maxine the Donor Engine.....well you nailed it buddy! Here is what a valve looked like from the original Maxine Venture head when I pulled it to take measurements for @Trader. No wonder it wasn't sealing properly, and this was from one of the "good cylinders" too!

You got it @Flyinfool I think I know what you mean, but if I gave the wrong measurement just let me know and I will try again. Here is a pic showing the OD of the tube the bracket needs to go over: