jfman

I will give him the vin once the trip is over. For the time being I am a little protective. Lets hope I dont have to resort to that. But I did ride it on hard packed snow last weekend to test things out. I only tried 1st gear for about 5 seconds I shfted up and I forgot I had no second gear: But the bike refreshed my memory.

Sounds fun but not very economical I will go ride New Zealand one day, looks like an amazing place!

Btw its 12 days from departure. I test rode the bike on my street but only in first gear because its completely covered in snow.

I wired up the front master switch but had to use the yellow and brown wire.

Yeah that is my cousins Ski-doo

I had the same problem wit UPS in the US. Except they delivered my part to James court vs. James rd. First time they did it the parts were lost and I never saw them. The second time it happened we realized as soon as we saw delivered and the package was not there, we drove to the court adress and our box was there. We never touched the box, we called UPS and made them come back to deliver it to the correct address (maybe they will learn that way) Now the address ont my labels reads James ROAD I hope they understand it.

Lets hope for warmer weather in 2 weeks for d-day

So those are the two wires I need to splice into the new master cylinder? The bike has a manual throttle lock on it. I dont think it has cruise but my I missed it. It took my a few weekes to figure out the CLASS system

YES

The 4 wire switch will not physicaly fit the new master. I need to wire up the two correct wire to the pigtail on the switch for the new master and tape the old switch shut. My bike does not have cruise control.

Ok I confused that one with the main fuse. Thanks!

I am tidying up the loose ends right now. Ran into a problem when I went to rewire the front brake light switch. My new front master cylinder has only two wires going to it be the switch on the original master has 4 wire going to it. I guess I will have to keep the old switch chilling there as a dummy and I will have to splice two wires off of it to run them to the new master cylinder. But which two wires?

Ok guyz I figured out that the fuse I had fried was the fuse on the left (thin metal blade setup) That was the main fuse I guess. What is the cylindrical lone fuse to the right of the fuse box for then?

Dumb move of the month: My new battery is still in the box so I borrowed the battery from my other bike to start the Venture but I was distracted and I reversed the poles. I put in on for a sec that I realized what had happened when it sparked at the pole. I put the battery on the correct way and there is no power anywhere. I looked at all of the fuses in the the fuse box and they all look good. I also looked at the big(main) fuse in the fuse box and it looks good as well and same for the lone fuse that is encased. What did I likely fry?

Very nice photos of Vancouver. From helicopter? Here are a few photos I took last time I visited your town by motorcycle.

Life is uncertain, better eat your dessert first.

San Miguel de Allende? I am planning to visit that town. Last time I went to Mexico, I was in Real de Catorce and met some folks who had come up from San Miguel de Allende and they told me it was an awesome place. Thanks for the heads up. I have been to Tijuana and Nuevo Laredo before so I know what she means. I am however avoiding Mexico City. 13 million population and no second gear - No way Jose

Hello Fellow Venturers! I am Posting from Quebec Canada and it is mighty cold today. Somewhere in there: Hides a lady: She aint exactly pretty She aint exactly small Aint no fairy story Aint no skin and bones But you gonna give it all you got My vacation time has just been approved. I am hopping on my recently acquired 1985 Venture on March 5th and I am riding that big girl to Mexico. You can read up on the bike prep progress here for more info. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?106054-Bought-running-Venture-for-250-need-help-with-suspension I still have to fiddle with the Venture a little bit and it is not 100% ready yet. I am going to ride from Montreal thru I87/I95/I85 to Atlanta where my folks live, drop off my winter riding gear there then I am riding to Mexico. I can hardly wait! Mexican Itinerary: I plan to ride to Monterrey, ride around the Sierra Madres Oriental, maybe go to the west coast, see Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and finally Yucatan and flying home. I'll keep you guyz updated on my progress. Maybe I run into one of you guyz on my way down. jfman

Make sure Mount Evans is open. I was not last time I visited CO. My favourite stretch of road in CO is 119/72/7 From Golden to Estes Park.

I did not even know that they were made with 8lug HD axles... Why not buy a quad cab HD truck instead?

Merry Christmas to me

I cant comment on the effectivness of my engineering because as soon as the brakes were done, I started tackling the front suspension. And now it is snowing outside. I did not remove the fairing to pull the tubes. For the lowers, I used an allen key that I cut down(the short end) to make it possible to fit between the fairing and the lower trip. For the top triple i pulled the little plastic grills off and loosed the nuts with a regular 12mm wrench. The front end with the anti dive locked in, 15w oil, and extra sockets on top of the oem spacers. It feels very stiff. Dont know how it will perform. I also bolted the tubes in 1/4in lower in the the triples. This will give me a little bit more clearance for Mexican topes if I go there. If I wasnt set on ditching the bike, I would have put the progressive spring. I am certain they are worth the money.

The oil was darker than any fluid I seen. Even a light film on my finger and I could not see my skin. I only rode this bike 30 miles before tearing into the front end on it. The brakes were dangerous so I did not want to ride it the way it was when I got it. It will be hard to compare before and after but hopefully its good enough to get me to my destination. btw its not a super idea to replace the seals from the top. There is a sharp groove machined into the fork tube to insert the retaining clip for the air collar. When you slide the seal over that groove it kinda gets hooked on it. I just did them this way because I had never tried the method pulling the lowers and I was not comfortable doing them that way. Maybe next time.

Seals are replaced and I am ready to put the fork legs back onto the bike. I used 15w fork oil I already had on the bike and I put two random SAE sockets on top of the OE springs to act as spacers to make it all just a little bit stiffer.