luvmy40

I'll be heading out in an hour or two. I think I'm going to take the scenic route out SR303 through Richfield and Peninsula rather than the Turn Pike. It's been a long time since I rode that route. I wonder if the Winking Lizard is still there? It was a favorite day trip mid point or destination back in the day.

I ran the TC Bros forward controls on my Seca 750. They work well but are not much to look at. I still have them and considered mounting them on my Maxim 750, which is the bike they were actually designed for, but I never got around to it. They're banged up a bit as My son decided he was going to drag a knee and snagged the pavement with one right about the time he decide he didn't like forward controls on "His" Seca. Well, I had given it to him for a graduation present so...

The Kuryakyn Universal mount highway peg works perfectly for me in this position; I'm 5'8" and have a 30" inseam. There is knock off, Kuryakyn style stuff out there that are rather well made and quite inexpensive. I got a good deal on the real McCoys on ebay quite some time ago. They have been mounted on 4 or five different bikes over the years.

I pulled the skirt, loosened the mufflers, pulled the caliper then the axle. With the rear tire flat, I just had to cock it a bit of an angle to drag it from under the fender. I had to have some help to reinstall. Me and the boy lifted the rear end a bit and the wife slipped the wheel/tire in under the fender.

Today I had a new Shinko rear tire mounted and balanced at Penn-Ohio Cycles(formerly Youngstown Cycle Supply) in Boardman, OH. They took great care of me and rushed the work as it is fairly long drive for me and a minor emergency on my part. A big thumbs up to them! Removing the rear tire on The Beast today made me vow to invest in a bike lift before I have to do it again. Oh my aching back! Got her all back together and installed weather proof bullet connectors to the electrical wiring on the rear skirt. I cant believe anyone would install that skirt without electrical connectors. The irony to this story is the fact that I bought a HF tire changer and MC attachment Sunday on their Memorial day sale and with a 25% off coupon. I ordered a nylon demount/mounting head but have not received it yet so I haven't set up the tire change station yet. I could have saved $25.00 on the mount and balance. The bad news is the only tire they had that would fit was a 130, not a 140. She had a 130 on the rear when I bought her so I figured it wouldn't hurt one more time. The good news is, Penn-Ohio's price on the Shinko was only $10.00 more than Dennis Kirk's price and no wait.

According to the date code, the front Shinko which has been on the bike since I bought it, was manufactured the 3rd week of 2015. It was brand new when I got her.

I highly doubt they were even close to 10 years old. I'm just saying I don't know how old they are/were. Like I said, when I bought the bike 3 years ago they still had the new tire stripes and nubbins. I just doubt they were actually brand new. They were probably laying around a shop somewhere for a few years before the PO put them on to sell the critter. I actually just wore the rear out without keeping an eye on it. I'd have sworn it looked OK about a month ago it was worn flat and had fibers showing in several spots. It was just my stupid complacency. Anyway, I got a new Shinko mounted, balanced and installed today, so I'll be at Freebird's Friday afternoon as planned.

It's not my favorite 2 wheeled activity either! I was very fortunate that I was only doing about 25 mph in a shallow turn when it popped. I've never had a high speed blowout on a bike on the road, I've had dirt bike tires blow many times. When it blew out last night I heard the pop and instantly thought I'd thrown a rod or fragged a valve then the rear end squirelled up on me and it felt like I was riding through deep sand. I limped her home as I was only 1000 yards from my driveway when it happened. Rolling about 1 mph and listening for metal scrapping. BTW, On the lighter side, I got to use the four way flashers for the first time! I still thinks it's cool that these bikes have hazard flashers. I'd never owned a scooter that did before.

They may be 10 years old, they just don't have 10 years of miles on them. I'll check the date code today when I pull the wheel.

The rear tire on The Beast blew out on my way home from the day job tonight! I knew the tires were older than I like but the tread was still good and they showed no signs of dry rot or cracking. Last month when I had the bags all off I checked the rear for tread wear and it was fine. 3 years, and about 2500 miles ago they looked brand new. The one thing I don't like about the Venture is not being able to see the rear tire at all. It was pitch black and I din't even try to see what happened. I'll dive into it tomorrow. I hope I can find a tire locally in time to get her back on the road for MD. Dennis Kirk says I can have one delivered on Friday, but what time?

Does the '88 still have linked brakes? If so that is probably the problem. You'll need to bleed the front caliper linked to the rear MC. On the '83 it's the left front caliper and there is a metering valve located on the steering neck. I know some of the later models had a bleeder on the metering valve but the '83 doesn't. If yuo don't have a bleeder, look for Puc's video on bleeding that sucker. Also take a good look at the short hose going from the rear MC to the steel line that runs up front. Mine was seeping brake fluid the entire length.

My '83 XVZ12TK (base model) has "Venture" in script on the luggage.

Yeah, Len(chacal) is a miracle man. He's saved more Yamaha XJ bikes from the scrap heap than I can imagine. I suspect, but have no proof that he owns the forum. It may not even be any kind of secret, I've just never bothered asking.

In my experience with K&N filters on Yamaha motorcycles you can usually get away with a K&N if you have not made any exhaust modifications. Remember that part or the air flow restriction is in the design of the air filter box. If you have not removed/modified the box, it might lean things up a bit but not drastically. Now if you've modded the air box and/or gone to an after market exhaust and then go to a high flow air filter you will definitely need to re jet your carbs. I ran a K&N air filter in the stock air box and Vance & Hines 4/1 header on my '81 Seca 750 with out re jetting by adding a couple layers of oiled shop vac filter paper to the filter. This restricted to flow enough to keep it from being way too lean. It also had the added side benefit of letting me just replace the filter paper rather than having to clean the pleated filter. I have not tried a K&N filter in my Venture. BTW, if anyone has gone to the pod filters, do you have tuning problems? On the inline engines(XJ) it's nearly impossible to get them to run well at all throttle positions due to turbulence at road speed. Even if you get the flow regulated at idle they stumble at WOT at speed or if you tune the flow to account for the turbulence they will not idle well and you have no power off idle. I'd think that may not be as big a problem on the Gen 1 Venture if you keep all the plastics in place.

cruiserlover, Are you a member at xjbikes.com? It's another great forum dedicated to the Yammaha XJ series. I've been a member there for many years as my first Yamaha was the '81 Seca 750, XJ750 RH that has now been relegated to parts status. I also currently have the '82 Maxim 750 which was my daily commuter till I found the XVZ12. Any way as Chaharly said, stick around, there's more going on here than Ventures.

Since this was brought back to life I'll add my $0.02 Auto Zone has Rotella oils on sale right now. $14.95/gal on the white jug dino oil, in store. This may be local but check your area. Full disclosure, I work for Auto Zone but do not get any kind of commission.

There ain't enough Mother's in Ohio to make this engine shine!

I was able to order 2" flexible aluminum duct from the interwebz. I was just hoping to get it that day as I had an itch to start tuning things and don't really care for CO poisoning.

I finally got a round to fixing some of the broken plastics. She doesn't look all that different but there's significantly less rattling now and no danger of the side panels flying off on the highway.

I pretty much finished up the plastic repairs on The Beast today. There's still a couple places that are so bad I'm not sure if I can do anything with them but they aren't in critical areas so they may be left as is. I did have to use quite a few rivets so there will be a paint job in the future but I've never been one to worry about the bling. It may be a long time before it gets painted. For now at least there will be no more rattling or bits flying off as I go down the highway and the side covers don't need screws to hold them on anymore. After the epoxy sets over night, I'll put her back together and snap a pic or two.

emphasis added I checked with Yamaha for new emulsion tubes and was told they are discontinued.

cimmer, That carburettorshop . com parts kit is quite a bargain? I paid close to 3 times that per carb for OEM parts and didn't even get new bowl valve pistons.

Ipleedthe5th, Thanks! I recently opted to pick up a refurbished TCI for my '83(Thanks Mralex!) and it is working great but I wanted to go with the Ignitech just so I could go with the COP conversion when My 35 year old coils finally kick the bucket. I n the past, if my memory serves, The Ignitech could be programed to work with an after market vac sensor in place of the boost but it did come with the sensor. I'm also relieved to hear that the cost is significantly lower than I was expecting.

I'd highly recommend replacing as many of the JIS screws with SS socket head screws as you can. I got mine through Fastenall and have some spares. I think I have enough of the larger mounting bracket screws to do another bank if you want to pay for shipping they are yours.

Ordered new grommets for the side panels and started work on repairing the plastics. I had 2 broken(one completely missing) bullet points and both sides have the bottom fingers busted off. The right side main fairing is broken at the rear where it bolts up to the frame and the lowers are really messed up. A little epoxy(devcon 10010 plastic steel) and some Kydex fabrication should do the trick. I just hope I can get good bonding to the ABS parts. It may take some rivets as well.