Midrsv

My brother has been having some health issues and it will be very long time, if ever, before he can ride again. He's asked me to sell his bike for him. It's an '06 Midnight Venture with about 9,000 miles on it. He has some awful obnoxious pipes on it which I am going to switch back to the stock ones. I plan to pick it up this weekend to get it cleaned up and ready to sell. When I do I'll post some photos in the classified section. What is a fair price to ask? It has passing lamps, saddlebag rails, handlebar rises and maybe a few other minor extras. The new tires have less than 2,000 miles on them and I don't recall if we put Avons or Dunlop E3's on it. Judging from what I found online I'm thinking $9,200 might be in the ballpark. Dennis

I believe during this month Advance Auto parts has Mobil 1 4T on sale for $7.99/qt which is $3 off. I bought 12 quarts and plan to buy more. Dennis

I went for a ride yesterday with some friends and one was on a Tour Deluxe. He knew that his tire was worn to the wear bars and already had a new set to install but we thought he would be OK to ride yesterday since we were not going that far, maybe 150 miles, and we wouldn't be on any high speed highways. Apparently Avon puts the wear bars right on top of the cords. About 20 miles from home the tire went flat. Wasn't a big deal. He just pulled into a driveway and waited while we rode on home to get the trailer. Attached is a photo of the tire. As you rotate the tire all the way around there are alternating patches of rubber and bare cords. Just thankful we were close to home. So be aware that with Avons there is no margin of safety once you are down to the bars. It was also interesting that he had sevaral Harley riders stop to check on him while he was parked. A couple were ladies who stopped to console him for about 15 minutes. Dennis

Just heard on the news that there were several deaths in West Liberty. Quite a bit of damage in Menifee and Laurel counties also. The UK medical center has been put on alert to expect quite a few casualties from eastern KY. Just saw some video from Marysville IN and it appears that town has be wiped off the map. I hope our IN members are safe. Dennis

It's clear here now. Seems the storms split and went north and south of us. We just had a little rain. The sky is clear now. Looks like eastern and southeastern Ky is getting hammered. Dennis

Looks like the serious stuff is going north and south of us. Dennis

Another spring storm (tornados) on the way to Central KY The Lexington mayor asked businesses to close at 3:00 so workers could go home. Schools let out 2 hour early. They told everyone at my work to go home at 2:30. Just going to ride it out. Be safe everyone. Dennis

I experiment more now than with film. I sometimes experiment with the image capture and sometimes I experiment in Photoshop. I don't waste near as much paper now and I get immediate feedback if the experiment worked or not. I will say I think I was a better photographer with film and I think that was because I shot slower and made certain that the shot was set up perfectly, or as near to perfect as I knew how to make it. Mainly because it was costing a buck a shot if it was a good shot or bad. Now I just blast away and know that I'll get a good shot every now and then. I used to do a portrait session and shoot 12 or 24, 2 1/4 images and hope I got a couple of great ones. Now I don't even flinch at shooting a 100 shots if that's what I think is necessary. Dennis

With the right camera I think the art and challenge to create a good photograph is still there. For about 15 years I shot film, 35mm and 2 1/4 on weddings and portraits. I hated the wait for the prints to come back from the lab. I love the immediate gratification that digital provides. If anything, I think digital is less forgiving and requires that you get the exposure just right to get a great print. Once I went to a full frame digital SLR it became more like shooting film again. These are the good old days. Dennis

On mine I just installed a Y-connector (from radio shack) at the connection under the fairing which allowed me to keep the aux connection on the tape deck active if I ever needed it. Never did. Dennis

The last 3 or 4 sets I've bought came from Jake Wilson. They shipped very fast and the tires seemed to have fresh date codes. Dennis

Centramatcs work on my Goldwing and before that dynabeads worked very well on my RSV for several years. Dennis

Randy, It was one of those bucket list trips. We wanted to say we had ridden to the west coast. After having done it, I would now rate it about 4th out of the 6 trips we have made to the western part of the country. For me, the trip to Yellowstone/Glacier was #1 followed by the Southern Utah trip and the New Mexico/Colorado trip would be #3. In fact we're headed back to Glacier this summer. Dennis

There were several cameras. I shoot with a Canon Powershot 230HS and a Canon 40D DSLR. Some were shot by my friends Canon SX110 IS and Canon SX30 IS. Dennis

I think it was some type of trap. I'll have to ask my travelling buddies what they were. Dennis

If anyone is interested, I just got around to placing our 2011 trip photos into one link on my website. We travelled a from Central KY along a northerly route to coasts of Oregon and Northern CA. We went south to Monterey an then east to Yosemite. From there we dropped down to Las Vegas and returned across I40. The photos are posted at: http://www.traynorphoto.com/wc2011 The SPOT track can be viewed at: http://spotwalla.com/tripViewer.php?id=2fd74df6c9a6b12d4 The two wives along on the trip flew into Portland, OR and back out of Las Vegas. Dennis

We've had good luck the last two times at Treasure Island. Dennis

I've ridden and 2010 Ultra Classic and it was a very nice riding bike. A little bit cramped for my taste. Dennis

Go at them again. Both my '04 and '07 lower left fairings cracked in the same place. Both were replaced under warranty. Yamaha has got to know this. Dennis

Hard to go wrong with a Nissan product. I've owned several and currently have an Infiniti. However, I driven several rentals with the CVT transmission and I did not like it. I just felt I didn't have enough control over the engine speed. I'm sure it's a good system I just didn't care for it. It's hard to beat a Nissan V6. Dennis

Just what I need to hear. I've got to go to Juarez in a couple of weeks. Staying in El Paso and getting shuttled across the border daily in an armed car. Makes me feel real secure. Dennis

I see this thread is a couple of years old and in reading through it I saw my original post back in 2010 where I had no interest in a wing because of the comfort factor. How things have changed. After spending some time on a friends GW and in the market for a new bike I took a leap of faith and bought a new 2010 GW last spring with the hopes I could make it comfortable enough to ride. If not, I got a good deal and could trade again. Now, after 20,000+ miles and a cross country trip to the west coast I think I made the right decision. Here are few of my observations. Out of the crate the RSV is more comfortable on the road. The forward controls and leg position along with better wind protection make a more comfortable highway ride. I have since added highway pegs, larger windshield and mirror wings to the GW which have improved the comfort. Still not as good as the RSV but OK. My wife likes the passenger seat cushion better on the RSV but likes the wing's backrest better. I'm 5'9" or so and I don't notice much difference in seat heights. The GW feels much more nimble at all speeds. It feels lighter even though it's not. In my view it has better slow speed handling and handles twisty roads and mountain grades much better. Crosswinds move the wing around much more than the RSV. And I like the RSV's lower fairing better. It offers better foot and lower leg protection from wind and rain. Wind protection at all speeds is better on the RSV. The audio, control and instrument package is better on the GW. Tach and temperature guages standard. Clock and air temp which is easy to read. I also prefer the central locking of the saddle bags and trunk. Heated grips and seat is standard. I do ride in cold weather and I've grown to like those two features. The GW wins in the powertrain as well. The RSV had adequate power but that power came at high rpms and the engine lacked torque for such a heavy bike. Fully loaded it often required some clutch slipping to launch. Especially towing a trailer. On the RSV you have to stir the gears frequently to keep the engine in it's power range. Trying to pull a grade in 5th gear at highway speeds would often require a downshift. The GW on the other hand has loads of torque. Launching off idle fully loaded with a trailer requires little effort. The driveline also feels much smoother and you don't worry about downshifting until you drop below 25 or 30 mph. For my riding style the GW gets slightly better gas mileage. While the engine and driveline is smooth on the GW, the ride is not. The RSV handles road imperfections and bridge trasitions with little feedback through the handlebars. I think the larger front tire contributes to the smoother ride. The GW really jars you going over bumps. The electrical system on the wing is more robust. The system can handle heated gear and extra lighting with no problem. The stock lighting package is much better on the GW. Better headlights and tailights. Also, there is no limit to ways you can accesorize. When I was looking to replace my RSV there were great discounts on leftover 2010 GW. I ended up with one at about the same price as a new RSV, just over $17,000. For equal money you get a more up to date bike with the GW. In my view there is no perfect bike. There are compromises to make when choosing any bike. After riding to the west coast and back on the GW, over 5000 miles and having taken the RSV on multiple 4000 plus mile trips I think I have a pretty good understanding of the compromises between the two. For town riding, backroad twisty road riding and mountain riding I would take the GW. If I were to just want to roll miles on the interstate at 75 mph all day long the RSV would be the better choice. These are my opinions based on my riding style and experiences. For me the GW provides the best compromise. Your compromises may be different. I liked my RSVs and would go back to one when Yamaha corrects some of the compromises with an update. Your mileage may vary. Dennis

I'm not in the running and don't need the windshield. I do have an F4 windshield on my GW which I bought with the VR discount. Great shield! Still clear after 20K miles. Would definitely buy one again. Dennis

I've used Tapatalk for quite a while on my Iphone. I like it better than the full site when accessing from my phone. Much faster. Dennis

Slowly getting this project wrapped up. I spent all weekend setting tavertine tile. I think I'll keep my day job and not switch to tiling as ocupation. It took me two full days to set the tile and what seemed like hundreds of trips down the 5 steps to the garage to make a cut on the wet saw. Overall we're very satisfied with how things turned out. I just need to grout and seal the tile and put a few trim strips on the cabinets and install under cabinet lighting. So far I'm only about 50% over my estimated costs. Dennis