luvmy40

Partzilla is a few dollars cheaper across the board and free shipping on orders over $149.00. Only problem is they don't have the main nozzle or needle assy. in stock, so that kind blows the free shipping if I have to order them from YSP.

Well, the deal fell through. No trade for me! He either found a bike that better suits his needs or decided he needs cash.

I'm planning to rebuild my carbs this winter. YamahaSportsPlaza.com has the best price I found for the head cover gaskets and, so far the best prices on the carb parts that I can find. Does anyone have a better/cheaper source? Here's a screen shot of the carb parts in a shopping cart: The diaphragm, set 5 is the coast circuit diaphragm, not the main piston diaphragm.

Yep, and about 2/3 the weight. Never having owned a shadow, I am hoping it has more low end torque than the XJs do. I just want a fun little hopper to commute to my part time gig and blow the dust from between my ears after a long day in the shop.

I've entered into a trade deal with a fellow I found on craig's list. He's got an '86 Honda VT500c Shadow that he's bobbed and a spare engine that needs a starter clutch up for sale or trade. I have a basket case '81 Seca 750 in pieces and an '82 Maxim 750 in very good condition. The maxim has been my short hop bike for about 5 years and I'm just plain bored with it after getting my Venture. I offered both XJs in trade and he accepted pending personal inspection or last minute cold feet so the trade is done deal, just getting the logistics together and transporting both bikes and spare parts about 100 miles may take a little time and planning. Here's a pic of the Honda Bobber What do y'all think?

I'm going to have to take a look at those Knipex pliers. I have a couple different sizes of the RoboGrip pliers from Sears and like the concept. The work fairly well but do not allow the torqued that a couple of you ascribe to the Knipex tools. I picked up a set of these in SAE and one in metric. I keep the metric set in the fairing console of my Venture along with a folding set of hex keys and a 6 way combination screw driver. https://www.autozone.com/wrenches-pliers-and-cutters/wrench/duralast-2-pcs-sae-ratcheting-wrench-set/951643_0_0 https://www.autozone.com/wrenches-pliers-and-cutters/wrench/duralast-2-pcs-metric-ratcheting-wrench-set/951644_0_0 I'm sure the wrenches are available from other sources but I get the employee's discount at AZ so...

Just to throw another non professional mechanic's $0.02 in here; The fact that spraying carb cleaner into one side's carbs had no effect at all tells me those cylinders are not firing at all. As already mentioned, check your wires, caps and coils with an ohm meter. I like to use an in line spark tester as well. Yamaha has a pretty cool spark tester but I haven't been able to find one for sale at a reasonable price yet.

Here's one for the shot shell loaders out there. I found this at a local gun show last year for $10.00. A Lee Precision, progressive 12ga shot shell loader. I didn't know Lee ever made a progressive shot press! It turns out, they didn't make it for long. I spent about $15.00 on parts and powder/shot bushings and rebuilt it. I loaded enough to know it's reliable and sold it at another gun show for $50.00 And here's a jig I made for cutting .223 brass down to neck down to .300 blk

I load nearly everything I shoot. 12ga trap loads, .223, .308, 30-40 Krag, .243, 30-30, .30-06, .303 British and 5 or 6 pistol calibers. I do it all on 3 presses. A Lee Precision Load Master, a Lee Precision Breach Lock Challenger, Anniversary edition single stage press, and a MEC 762 Grabber. There are kits available that get you everything you need to get started. You'll want to upgrade your powder scale and add a couple items eventually. Lee equipment is far from the best available, but it is the best bang for the buck out there, bar none. I have less invested in my two presses and all the tool heads and dies for the dozen or so calibers I load than I would have into one Dillon 650 for one caliber. The Load Master can be run as a single stage/turret style press, a manually indexed progressive or an auto indexing progressive. Changing calibers is quick and easy. It does require a little TLC out of the box to tweak a couple things but nothing major and once it's up and running, if you follow some very easy rules on set up, it runs very well. I'd say, if you are going to load a couple hundred rounds/week or less, go Lee. If you are going to load into the thousands/week go Dillon. BTW, you'll just shoot more so the savings is kind of mythical. You do get a much higher quality ammo with your best QC for your money, and you can tune each load for any particular shootin' iron. I also cast most of my own bullets. There is a significant savings there but it is also a rabbit hole that you may want to avoid, depending on how obsessive compulsive you are!

If I limited my "Guns, Knives and Beer" purchases I'd be driving a Rolls Royce and riding a fleet of exotic antique bikes.

I'd like to see the sales breakdown by CC and class(touring, sport, commuter, etc.) as well as numbers on the used bike market. The economy has been in a slump, wages are not keeping pace with the COL and taxes have been getting higher across the board. This definitely impacts new MC sales but probably has an inverse affect on the secondary market. I definitely see as many or more bikes on the road today as compared to the last 20 years or so. The high rate of IBTW(idiot behind the wheel) incidences may cause some of the older, more health conscious riders from hitting the road as frequently as they used to but I doubt it has much to do with the new sales market slump. Personally, I've never bought a new vehicle of any kind and am not likely to ever do so. The initial cost and loss to depreciation far out weighs the cost of maintenance on a used bike or car. Besides, I like wrenching almost as much as I do riding.

I feel for you brother. It sickens me that good people get put through the ringer and have to spend years and thousands of dollars to get U.S. citizenship and the lawless illegals from across the southern border seem to be given the world and clemency from any crimes they commit.

Just a tiny thread drift that I think all would find interesting. Related to the advance of machining and measuring processes; I read a book many years ago about the Wright Brothers and their road to designing the Wright Flyer. In the process they corrected many erroneous data points that had been taken as gospel for years. Data like the coefficient of lift and the drag coefficient when designing a wing surface. They also pioneered the wind tunnel testing and invented new measuring devices and methods still used today. Anyway, sometime in the recent past a group of college students(MIT, I believe) embarked on a trip to reproduce the Wright Flyer from the original plans of the Wright Brothers. Everything went well except for the engine. They could not get it to run at all. It was determined the problem was one of precision. When they built the engine to the Wright Bros. specifications with modern tooling and measuring devices, it would not work at all. When they used period correct machining tools and measuring devices it worked perfectly. I believe the book was "Visions of a Flying Machine (The Wright Brothers and the Process of Invention)" by Peter L. Jakab

I would have to assume that the compression ratio is going to effect the max piston speed as well. At least from a long term stress view. A dragster engine that gets rebuilt between runs is going to be able to have a higher compression ratio and max piston speed than an engine designed to go 100k miles before needing a rebuild.

Will do! I just started playing with this so I'm a complete newb with digital hi def recording.

I did a little research and found my problem is probably due to trying to run the raw file on an older computer with windows Vista. It plays fairly good on a newer machine with Win 8.1. No time lag but it's a little choppy. Evidently the raw video file(.MOV or .MVI) needs to be rendered to a better format for computer playback and uploading to youtube or the like. I down loaded the free version of Lightworks to play with.

You really shouldn't waste that ham bone on split peas. Go with Black eyed peas and add a ham hock for gusto. Chicken stock, a little celery, salt, pepper and cayenne. Served over buttered corn bread with a dash of your favorite pepper sauce. MMMM, goood. I guarantee it!

I just picked up a cheap(retails for $50.00) "GoPro" style camera in a trade. It's NIB and branded CCBETTER. You know the kind, 2"x2"x1" with the waterproof case and all the mounting gadgets. It's suppose to record at 1080p. Here's the problem. It plays back fine on it's tiny little screen, though the audio is very low volume from the even tinier little speaker. When I plug into the computer and play the stored movie files, the audio is real time but the video is slow mo at 1/3sec(1 second of video takes 3 seconds to play). I tried transferring the files to the computer hard drive on the logical(to me any way)thought that it was a cable transfer lag or something. It was even worse when played from the computer hard drive. The video was at about 1/5sec but he audio was still 1/1. Any help from anyone who uses this type of camera? Would recording at a lower resolution help, maybe? The test above was recorded at 1080p. On the plus side, I was very pleased with the audio performance. I tested it with a ride video with the camera clipped to the head band of a reversed baseball cap and the wind noise was not ridiculous and you could hear my voice quite clearly over the ambient noise even at 55mph.

I'm afraid I'd have to advise against getting the ACLU involved. They have proven, historically to side with the drug dealers, rapists and murderer's over the concerned citizen and victims of said dealers, rapists and murderers. They(the ACLU) might just end up championing the poor, misunderstood gang of thugs that are terrorizing your brother and your family. This is not a joke.

FYI, The pilot adjustment screw assy. is is still available from Yamaha. The parts are identical in all gen and displacement Venture carbs. I order for a later model RSV and got them next day at my local Yam dealer.

Cowpuc, Several reasons why the m14 is a better rifle for longer shots. The .308 is undoubted the superior round over 5.56 as far as terminal ballistics go. I'd be willing to bet the M14's chamber and leade were more consistent and tighter than the M16's which would make it a more precise rifle. The sight radius offset of the M16 makes it different to shoot than most rifles. Never having shot an M14, I cant speak about it's trigger but the M16 is not known for a match grade trigger. That's for sure. However, the .223 or 5.56 round is very accurate and has a higher muzzle velocity than the .308 round. In a well built stick it can shoot ever bit as well as a .308. The cartridges are not the issue when it comes to accuracy and precision in this case. It's one of pure mechanics in the delivery system. $0,02, YMMV

An M16 is pretty darn accurate. I never had any problems hitting 300yd silhouettes with the iron sights. My current crop of 5.56mm AR15 carbines are all MOA guns. My eyesight needs a little help from Aimpoint these days but I'm confident out to 300 yds with any of them.

I don't have any insight to your issues. I just want to assure you that working on these carbs is a breeze compared to the Hitachis on the Yamaha XJ series bikes. Removal, service, pilot adjust and synch are simple in comparison. Parts are bit pricey, but not stupidly so. Don't be afraid of them.

Slipstreamer makes an O.E. compatible screen. Part no. S140, MSRP $118.00 Here's one on ebay for $89.99+ shipping http://www.ebay.com/itm/SLIPSTREAMER-YAMAHA-VENTURE-ROYALE-XVZ1300-83-93-REPLACEMENT-WINDSHIELD-/290937726241

The freeways are definitely not safe from deer! I see dozens of Deer Smears every year and they get more frequent during rut.(right about now through Dec.) About 3 years ago a buddy of mine was killed by a deer in a motorcycle collision. About 10 years ago I got hit by a deer on the freeway on my '81 Yamaha Seca 750. I'm lucky to be alive. I commuted 45 miles, round trip to work. Mostly highway riding. I was working midnights then and it was around 10:00 pm, mid October. I was in the right lane cruising at 75mph(minimum speed to not get run over by the cagers) with a line of cars behind and beside me. I saw the deer jump the fence and run toward the highway. My choices were to either lock up the brakes and hope the cars behind me stopped in time, or down shift and twist her tail. I chose the later and felt the deer hit the rear end of the bike at about 80 mph. It didn't shift me too much but I definitely felt it. When I got to work, my right rear indicator was hanging loose from the wires and my license plate was bent and had fur and blood hanging from the bent edge. I bought a lottery ticket the next morning on the way home but I guess I used up all of my luck the night before!