luvmy40

1983, Gen 1 MK1 Venture: Fastest of the ventures, lightest, Tallest(?), least cargo capacity. Arguably, the most unique of the family with quick remove luggage and the most comfortable factory seat ever design/produced for any bike, ever. 1986, Gen 1 MK2 Venture Royal: More cargo capacity, more weight less HP/Torque to the road, no quick removal of luggage, still a darn comfortable seat(same as MK1), Still quicker than the Wing and HD. 2006 Gen 2 Royal Star Venture: Still more cargo capacity, still more weight, no quick removal luggage, Different, but still very comfortable seat, Still as quick or quicker than the HD but maybe falling behind the wing a bit. I find all three iterations to be very stable at highway speeds and much easier to handle in low speed situations than any HD I have ridden. The Gen 2 , while a little lower in general has a higher center of gravity than the Gen 1 due to the more traditional gas tank configuration. The fat factory front tire makes for a slight "flop" feeling at very slow speeds and tight manuevering, while still being quite nimble for such a large bike. I had a short ride on a Gen 2 Tour Classic and found it to be much more under powered than the three Ventures I own. It looked great and was very comfortable, just lacking in the torque off idle and no real top end. I do not know if that was due to engine design or if it was just a poorly performing specimen. $0.02, YMMV:cool:

Well, I can only take credit for 2500 of those miles. I've only owned her for a couple months.

Rolled the odometer over 100,000 mi. on my way to work this morning. According to the PO, who is the original owner, the valves have never been adjusted and she purrs!

There is a spot that water sits in and it rusts from the inside out. There will be no visible rust until it just gives way.

Try pumping the rear shock up to max pressure(dont remember the number)and then putting her up on the center stand. It sure is sounding like the frame might have failed. I'd get down there and take a real good look.

They are shown briefly in this one.

Didn't go to Sturgis but: I'ts always possible, but keep in mind that a recent report from the NY Times claims that something like 70% of the positive tests for COVID19 are false positives due to the amplification process used in the most widely used test. Sure those people had the COVID19 virus present in their systems but in such small amounts that they could not have been contagious or have any symptoms. After thinking about it; It seems likely that the claim of 1 in 2 at Sturgis picking up the virus might not just be possible but maybe even likely.

Since you don't take the lid off of the rear master cylinder to fill it, you never see the bellows gasket. If the reservoir gets low it can pull the bellows down into the reservoir and severely limit the reservoir capacity. Take the lid off the MC and reshape the gasket.

I finally got to take a little time and work on the Sgian Dubh I forged. Ready for heat treating. It's still a little rough but for being ground on a POS Harbor freight 1" x 30" belt sander that's set too low and slides around on the bench, it's not too bad! I have a slightly better(still cheap) purpose built knife grinder coming but it's on a slow boat from China so no telling when it'll arrive.

I do not know if any of the '83s had the CLASS air system. If you do not have the CLASS system, the knob for the rear shock is the damper adjustment(and may be the same if it does have CLASS). It doesn't have anything to do with the air pressure in the rear shock. The air pressure is adjusted with a manual pump through the schrader valve located near the damper adjust knob.

Can you get it it up on the center stand? This is a good indicator as to the condition of the frame.The early Gen 1 frames had a tendency to rust out and break. When they do, it's darn difficult, if not impossible toe get them up on the center stand. The rear master cylinder is still available from Yamaha and Partzilla, etc. The rebuild kits are also available. You would be well advised to talk to skydoc_17 about all things brake and clutch related.

Pulled the air horns and compressor from the '06 to clean them up and found the compressor to be Tango Uniform. So I mounted a WOLO horn I had laying around on the very convenient mounting point engineered into the passenger highway peg mount that RDawson so graciously designed and fabricated. Thanks Corporal Newkirk!:banana::banana::banana::banana::banana:

Fixed the exhaust leak at the right side muffler clamp. Installed hand tighten bolts in the side bags. Rode about 70 miles 'cause Saturday!

I've been a two wheeled camper for many years. In my youth, I rode with a tarp wrapped around my fart sack. I'd lay the tarp out and park the FXST on the right edge. Then I'd pull the tarp over the bike and stake the edge down in a lean-to fashion. Roll the medium weather bag out and cut some Zs. Kris and I just had our first motorcycle trailer camping experience a couple months ago. Much better! Be careful. It's very easy to overestimate your cargo capacity. Still, it's nice to be able to carry a comfortable size tent and sleeping bag system without sacrificing on food and wet weather gear. The tongue mounted cooler is an added bonus. Other than the obvious (hitch and electrical connections), I didn't make any other mods to the bike for towing.

I'll let you guess which are the first and which are the last beads. A couple are just puddle runs, no filler. The real ugly ones are with no shield as I had the regulator turned off.

I picked up bottle of argon, a small portable welding table, some filler rod and got it all set up this evening. After a half hour of playing around with a #5 cup, 3/32 red electrode and a couple 1/4" mild steel coupons, I have determined I need a lot more practice! This is the very first time I have ever attempted TIG. It's more difficult to maintain the arc length than I thought it would be. I also tend to get a little too much lean going from time to time. I did pretty good with adding filler. That isn't too different from oxyacetylene technique. I think I need to up my amperage a bit and speed my travel up a smidge. A couple times, my coupon was glowing cherry at the end of my run. GOOD TIMES!!!

Thanks! Just ordered a set. Not exactly like yours. I got the cheap set with no hardware.

It IS an addiction! Latest Update: 1981 Seca 750 1982 Maxim 750 1983 Venture 1986 Venture Royale and then, 2006 Royal Star Venture

Puc, WOW! See the Puddle! Wow! That is exactly what I meant when I was talking about knowing what the heat is doing and where it's going. As usual, you stated it better and just helped everyone who stumbles onto this thread that I started as a Brag/Boast/Look What I found thing. I have always been told"Learn Gas before Arc. Learn AC stick before MIG. Learn Mig before TIG. As I said, I'm far from expert at any of them but can be periodically competent when I need to. I'm hoping that having a quality welder will encourage me to practice more and grow as a fabricator. I know having the forge has been a great learning experience in the few short weeks since I fired it up. The one thing I don't like about the TigPro is that it does not have AC TIG so, no aluminum. I then did a little more reaserch on the Omni Pro welder and found it doesn't have AC TIG either. You have to use an aluminum wire feed gun with it. I'm glad I didn't pass this up for the Omni now.

I'm far from an experienced, expert welder, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last month. In my limited experience, High School metal shop 35 years ago, one adult education basic welding course about 15 years ago and 35 years of making do for myself when I needed to, I have found that preperation is the key to solid welding. That and understanding where and why the heat is going where it goes makes getting good, strong welds a bit easier to achieve. I still have to waste some rod or wire and scrap metal everytime I need to weld anything. It is a perishable skill. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! My last welder was a Silver Beauty MIG box. Bsically the same welder as the very bottom tier Chicago Electric MIG. A real piece of junk. But even with that, with the proper metal preperation and patience I could get mechanically strong welds if not pretty, smooth beads. Lots of slag splater regardless of technique. From all the reviews I've read and watched of the Vulcan series, They are very far above the average cheap welders out there.

Clean and tighten the electrical connections at the sending unit.

I just got a fantastic deal on a Vulcan ProTig 165 welder at Harbor Freight. I was just killing time while doing my laundry at the laundramat down the road from the hotel I'm staying in so I was looking around at the HF around the corner. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular. I always check the clearance rack first thing. There was an "Open Box" ProTig 165 for $350.00. They sell regularly for $699.99. The manager said it was just an open box and not a return and I have five days to return it if it doesn't work. I called my local branch and the manager there told me she would extend the five days to 5 days upon my return to Ohio as I would not be able to test it until then. I opened everything up and there are a couple things missing, one of the three tungsten elctrodes and the shoulder/carrying strap. All the boxes and bags had been opened, but none of the wire zip ties had been removed. It powers up and the selector switch works, but that's as far as I can test it here. I'm keeping my fingers crossed as this is a sweet deal. I had been holding out to save enough discretionary cash to get the Vulcan OmniPro 220, multi process welder but at 1/3 the price tag, I'll make do without the Mig capability.

Do it on the center stand, but you want to use a ratchet strap to hold the center stand in the forward position. You will want to be able to let the front end down to compress the fork tubes several times at different steps of the procedure. Then you will want to put a jack under the front frame cross member(be careful not to hit the oil filter or pan) to lift the front end up and keep it solid when you replace the top tube caps.

I've dropped a street bike 3 times since 1985. I was riding my first Big Twin, an '84 FSXT that had a 10" over stock front end and factory rake, off the Yamaha (I went to buy a Seca and got a Harley, go figure.) dealership lot in Colorado Springs and stopped short when a car changed lanes right in front of the entrance. I was already leaning into the turn and down she went! The long front fork made it very difficult to get her back upright. The next time was about 35 years later or so. I had The Beast('83 Venture) up on the center stand and for some reason I cannot remember I thought it would be a good idea to take her down from the left side instead of from the saddle. Stupid! fortunately I was fairly close to my POS ford ranger and The Beast wound up leaning against the bed. Busted the right side mirror, but no other damage. The last time was just a few weeks ago. Kris and I were returning from a weekend trip on the fairly new to us '06 RSV. it was our fist time hauling a trailer on any bike. The trip had been uneventful with the exception of having to navigate a very narrow and rough dirt logging trail for about 8 miles to get to our destination. The RSV with trailer in tow was surprisingly easy to control "off road". Any way, when we got home I foolishly attempted to ride into the front yard, past a driveway full of cars with a shallow storm ditch to the left. We were moving very slowly and turning onto the grass when I saw the trailer in the right mirror looked like it was going hit the rear bumper of Kris' car so I hit the brakes and down she went. It was a slow gentle drop onto grass but we were both semi trapped between the bike and the car. We both managed to get turned around, Kris grabbed the passenger grab bar and I had the engine guard. We got her back upright fairly easily and Kris went around to put the side stand down so I could let her down. No damage to the bike or the car.

STOP THE PRESSES! Head Line: "luvmy40 washes and waxes his RSV!" I have never waxed a motorcycle in my life. As a matter of fact, I rarely wash them. This Black Cherry '06 is just too beautiful to let her sit all bugged up and grimy.