luvmy40

Well, the right size for your rear tire would 140/90/16 but I suppose a 130 would fit. I ran the Kenda Challengers on my XJ bikes and they ride nice but wear fairly quickly. What kind and how much riding do plan on? One Up, weekend kinda thing or two up, loaded road trips?

My '83 had all the aftermarket chrome including the huge rear skirt and crash bars which adds considerable time to removing the rear wheel, so that will probably be a wash.

I didn't mention the brakes in the OP because I did not want to compare them to the delinked brakes on the '83. However, if memory serves, the original linked brakes on the '83 were better than what the '86 is showing me now. I'll wait to pass judgement on the '86 until I flush and bleed the current brakes. I have a feeling the brake fluid is as old as the tires, which are 18 and 19 years old. The pads are GTG and the rotors are pristine. I will be delinking the brakes this winter. No question. I'll probably upgrade the clutch as well. Also forgot to mention that the clutch pull is so light that i thought at first it was not working. It does work perfectly and she shifts through the gears nearly silently with no clunk at all at any speed up or down.

You have no idea how many hours and gallons of gasoline I have wasted checking out Face Book and Craig's List adds that show a nice picture that turns out to be 20-30 years old and what they actually have is a pile of parts or a basket case rusting next to the driveway. Keep looking though. It finally paid off for me when I found a truly beautiful specimen of the '86 Royale variety on FB Market Place fairly close to home.

I just picked up an '86 Venture Royale after riding the '83 Venture Standard for 4 years or so. Aside from the cosmetic differences, here is what I see at first blush as far as performance comparison. The '83 1200 is snappier with more aggressive acceleration and more agile. The '86 1300 is more stable at highway speeds, though the '83 is far from unstable. The '86 runs cooler, at least the temp gauge on the '86 stays much further down in the green than the '83. Maybe different temp range on the gauge? The acceleration and stability may have as much to do with the fact that the '83 has a short wind screen and the '86 has the factory spec screen. I know the '86 is slightly heavier so that would have some slight effect on both. Other than the displacement, are the engines identical? Cams, timing, valves, etc? As far as the Royale amenities go; I can take or leave a radio on any motorcycle. If it's there I'll use it sometimes. If it's not there, I don't miss it. I love an intercom system for road trips. It remains to be seen if I will prefer the wired intercom over the Team Ride bluetooth system that I used to run.(batteries are done and not replaceable in that cheaper system) I need to transfer the head sets from the 33 year old matching helmets to our modular helmets. I hope the mic boom is long enough to work with them. I'll likely never use the CB but it is a nice insurance policy for backing up the cell phones in emergency situations. The CLASS is a major plus! I love being able to quickly switch from one up soft suspension to two up loaded settings. BTW, the '86 either has progressive fork springs installed or the factory springs were better than those in the '83. The front end is much stiffer than the '83, even with little air pressure. The larger capacity luggage is a major plus, but not being able to quickly remove the trunk or side bags is a major minus in my book. Not a deal breaker by any stretch but still a bit of a downer on what, in all other areas is a fantastic ride. I miss having the stowage area in the main fairing but I'll get used to using the smaller bags mounted on the fairing. They are not waterproof, as it turns out! They may be improved with an application of Camp Dry. Well, that's what I see at first. I'll see how different doing tires and other routine maint. is this weekend.

This is the external noise pick up on the control head next to the spkr/h.ph. selector. It's what provides feedback for the automatic volume control.

I'm going to cut a piece off the hood of my Frog Togs. I never wear it anyway.

I ordered 75 grams of the blue to pink gel on amazon for 10 bucks. I should have ordered the big bottle for $26, Oh well.

Take it to PPG or Sherwin Williams Auto paints and they will color match it.

They are far from the most difficult I've done, but I've never worked on the Magna so I can't give a comparison. I would highly recommend sourcing a factory service manual.

I've had good results cutting out old wires and re potting new ones on vintage coils. It is a good bit of work so you definitely want to make sure the coil itself is good and the problem is only the wire.

It does, however have nearly everything to do with engaging and disengaging the clutch plates.

Cheese cloth would not be waterproof. I'm thing something like Gortex but I don't know if that would let the sound pass properly.

When the desiccant gel gets too old it starts crumbling and can cause clogs in the air lines. The manual says the OEM gel is clear when dry and pink when saturated.

Odds are, it's an easy fix and it may not even be the fuel line but stuck floats in the carbs. Clear title? Even without a clear title, if the plastic are in decent shape, BUY IT! if nothing else, you'll make your money back 3 fold parting out the body panels and scraping the frame and engine.

So the external noise microphone is missing the "Special waterproof cloth" cover on both the control units I have. What is a suitable replacement material? Leaving that whole in the control unit open to the elements cannot be good!

The Shinko 777s I ordered, originally for The Beast arrived yesterday. They will now be installed on Beauty and I ordered a set of Kenda Kruz for The Beast. I wanted to get Kenda Challengers but I could not find them sized for the Venture. I went with the Kendas for the boy because he won't put 1/4 of the mileage on the bike I do. His daily commute is only 12 miles round trip and with a young child he doesn't get too many opportunities for road trips. The ride quality of the Kenda Challengers was very good, they just didn't last very long. He'll probably change them on the calendar long before wearing them out. Anyway, This weekend I plan to to do a complete inspection on Beauty and replace both tires at the very least. Probably pull the desiccant cylinder and see if the gel is reusable. I assume I can buy replacement gel from Yamaha if it's broke down too far to dry and reuse? I'll change all the fluids and install the spin on oil filter adapter, that is if it gets here in time. If not I'll save the oil change for next week. The battery is supposedly on 1 year old, but I'll check that as well. I do not know yet if the fuse block has been upgraded. If not I'll probably tackle that this week as well. Maybe a new horn with relay? Then The boy and I need to do his tires and address the leaky o ring on the left anti dive unit. Hmmm... This could be a long weekend!

As a general rule, I resize photos to 800 x ???(auto) for forum postings. It seems to work everywhere and results in good resolution.

Mr. Hammer Sir, Another bit of datum for you: JYA1NL006GA000818 Titled as 1986 Yamaha XVZ13 I haven't looked at the build date yet.

Yeah, I was thinking someone said it was easier to remove the entire rear sub frame than to pull the side bags for rear tire changes. I may be just making it up in my fuddled memory:confused24:

So, in case you haven't heard, I just picked up a 1986 VR. I recall a conversation in which a member stated something along the lines of (para) "there is an easy way to remove the whole luggage rack assembly by removing 4(?) bolts" on the MK2. I believe this was in a thread about changing rear tires. Am I remembering correctly or is this just wish full thinking on my part? Is this possible?

Rode the new girl to work and ordered a spin on oil filter adapter and Purolator filters for her.

Search the forum for ignition module or TCI relocation. I don't know for sure but I'd bet there is a thread dedicated to it. IIRC, The air box and battery box need to come out, then there is a heat shield or air dam that comes out(I don't think it has any fasteners, but i could be wrong) and then you can get to the rack that the coils, TCI and boost sensor are mounted to. Pull the whole rack then you can take the TCI off and it's just a matter of rerouting the 2 cables a bit so it can then lay on top of the air box when you put everything back together. This is a dryer, cooler and more easily accessible spot for it.

I've been using Budge, XL covers from Walmart on The Beast. They fit nicely work fairly well and are cheap. I'll pick up another for Beauty, but does anyone make a good half or Bimni style cover for the MK2? I see very nice half covers for the Gen2 bikes but can't seem to find anything for the Gen1s.

Pull the whole rack. You'll want to move the ignition module up on top of the air box anyway.