CaseyJ955

You guys are right, I'll find some stockings and do that test. If questioned by the wifey I'll tell her that I have to make sure Birtha has legs as smooth as hers. Im glad she has a remarkable sense of humor (yea, she would have to hah!) because she will use it for sure. Seriously I'll swing by Walgreen's and "snag" a pair and keep them in my tool box. I also got a mental image of walking into a billiard, slapping these down on the slate and giving them that roll we do with house cues to find a usable one. I think I'll order a spare leg off ebay (~$40 shipped) because whether or not Im able to find the issue I will never have peace of mind again with these parts. I get much to far from not only home but from civilization where possible. I will sure use both of these great ideas to find out why it did leak, If I dont then it will haunt me always. Thanks gents, I will take all advice given here and update when I know waddup! You guys rock!

Congrats, shes gorgeous!!

I would like to apologize to Freebird and all my brothers and sisters here, not for what I said or to whom, but for everyone else in open forum having to read it. It was poor etiquette on my part. I have enjoyed debate, even heated debate here but this is the first time I have seen it go dark, I detest drama and I contributed to it in a moment of impatience. Wont happen again folks. Love and respect!

Brother Puc has exhibited far more patience with you than I would have. He contributes untold value, his worth is proven. Your value remains highly questionable in my opinion. If nothing else you have just forced me to figure out the block/ignore function for the first time since becoming a member here.

There was a wicked pothole on 44 and I rode right over it, it literally made my teeth chatter, surprised there was no damage. It bottomed out hard, first time since I installed the Progressives. Not sure if the bottoming was due to fork oil already being lost in this ride, or if that pothole smack was ugly enough to pop a seal. Ive decided to just go ahead and replace the fork upper and try again, even if the bike sells I would not feel right about selling it like that even though I fully disclosed in the ad. Im convinced there has to be a flaw in it that I cant see. This is how bad it leaks... I wipe it down clean, then get on, hold the brake and rock back/forth to bounce the front 10-20 times and it would be dripping down the leg from just that. Looks like im replacing a set of new saturated EBC pads too. They dont weep, when they go its a ride ending deal. Thanks you guys for all the ideas. I do love this forum!

Thats another cool idea, I thick I heard Puc mention the film trick. I have a seal mate which was used to no avail. My forks dont have gaiters but more a metal chrome plated shield, it has a pedistal inside that is held to the fork tube via hose clamps. Never seen these types before but they look very nice. They most closely resemble really sexy exhaust heat shields. Ill throw up a pic after I get home. They fully cover the front half of the tubes and nothing seems to get by them, they do get plastered by insects tired of life, but the forks are always perfectly clean. I dont know why everyone doesnt have shields like this, they are quite slick. They look OEM but never seen any others. I think the PO loaded this bike up with every extra he could find, gotta say his choices really do ad function and value. Pics coming next week. I would actually like to see if anyone knows about these shields.

I bought my cherry red Triumph Sprint ST right off the showroom floor in Issaquah, lived and rode in the Seattle area for the first 5 years of that bikes life before I fled WA, getting wet and dirty most days. Keeping her clean was a chore, feeling your pain but glad you got to take her out and stretch her legs! A cold wet ride is still better than a warm dry drive.

Aaaawwwww SNAP! You rode that home for twelve hundo and you feel anything other than excitement and anticipation? You did just fine my new brotha!! As you said, being a man entitles us to more than stupidity, that attribute knows no gender boundries. As a man you do not need to justify or take one oz of guff. You will find things to address, its an older bike, just the nature of the beast. You bought it right and know your way around a toolbox, your way ahead. So once you have her up to where shes ready, you must pack bag and hit the road for a long weekend to a scenic destination. These bikes handle great so twisty roads are fine. Its no CBR bit its pretty light on it's feet for a big ol tourer. These bikes shine on trips, its just liberating to glide across the plains and into the hills. After I got mine ready I headed across the Black Hills (home) into WY, down eastern WY into CO, then across and back up crom CO into NE, went through Scottsbluff and Kimbal, then N on the 71 through the grasslands and back into Hot Springs then home. 2 long days of mostly back and scenic roads. Heck, your not that far from just cutting up into WY and MT!! Awesome!!! This bike has the right stuff for **** like this and much more. Road trips to nowhere are an addiction for many of us and its just hard to find words to explain all the bike related wanderlust. Hell, ride it right here to the Black Hills, see Mt Rushmore and some of the best motorcycling known man. Im jazzed for ya!!!! Keep us posted on her needs and any questions that come up.

Darn, wifey doesn't have anything like that. Very cool idea I will keep with me though. I'm reluctant to do the exact same repair again expecting it to be all good this time. I thoroughly examined the uppers with some crazy reading glasses and I could find nothing at all. I think I will source at least the right side upper as the left seems to be hanging in there just fine now. When they fail they dont just weep, they loose lots of oil pretty fast, 10 miles home and its soaked. then when I pull the seal I can see no sighns that it is even used, no nicks of scuffs, nothing. Really must be something I just cant see. I didnt forget about filings in the right tube the first time it failed, they came fron somewhere but darn if I and a couple others could see where. I think ive done about as much as I can with the existing fork.

An 88 is a MKII, so yes, they bolt on. I slapped a set of R6 pinchers on mine. The brake line mounting position is a little different than stock and holds the 30 year old line at a precarious angle, I opted to use some braided aft mkt lines at the same time. It stops now, boy does it! You can use the stock lines, they can be manipulated to fit but the price of brake failure is so much higher than a set of new lines. There is a year range that works/fits best and I dont have that in front of me, wanna say 99-03 but please verify, my memory is for **** anymore haha. A very worthy upgrade IMHO

Glad to hear the outcome, pretty darn favorable on the scale of great to terrible. Happy days my friend!

If it needs nothing major and is decent I would consider that a good price. When I bought mine anything decent started around $2500, and I had to travel to go get it. Look closely at the plastics. check all the electrical systems and cruise. There is a buyers guide here somewhere. Having to catch up on maintainance can add up fast! Give her a ride, go through the gears, brakes, any leaks around engine or forks, any slop in steering head or swingarm. On center stand the brakes should work but no significant drag when released. 30 yr old calipers can bind and drag. If the bike has no service history assume you will flush brakes and clutch, repack head bearings and change the fork juice and oil/filter. Check date codes on tires. None of this is a deal breaker by any means but it should be budgeted for. If you can do some of these things yourself its great but a bike shop with an hourly rate and simple repairs/maint can get steep. I paid $2050 for mine and ended up putting another $1200-1500 or so in, doing all the work myself but I did some preventitave stuff and updates. Im sure I forgot some stuff that someone else can add. If your not sure then come back and let us know what your ride and inspection reveal. Sorry for the long answer to a short question but there are many things that can effect value and how much you have to do before you have a fully roadworthy scoot.

Bike currently for sale in classified section along with all the Vmax stuff I harvested for it. I would still like to permenantly sort the fork seals before sending her along, or keeping her. Either way I'm still looking for low mile forks or any fork upgrade info anyone can add. I hope you all wont throw me out of the nest for deventuring, I promise to keep my Vmax, does that count?

Looks like a good time. Darn sorry to have to miss it. Next year! You all stay safe and have an awesome weekend!!

Im a 1st gen guy with a good understanding of the gen2, plus a bit of Vmax tuning under my belt. That is not normal. A properly tuned carb equipped bike should bark right to life, cold or warm, choke should not be necessary unless cold start on a cool day. I only use maybe the first 20% of the choke for cold start/warm day, or none at all if its hot out. How much choke you need is dependent on a few factors but you should need no choke for a warm start. It sounds like you may have some fuel management issues. Is the bike current on all maintainance? More specifically carb synch, air filter clean and not a K&N style, plugs fresh, plug caps and wires clean, esp where the HT plug leads leave the coil. Just a few of the basics that might contribute to a hard start condition. Also I like the downpipe spit-sizzle test as a quick way to make sure its hitting on all 4 cyl. Its amazing how well this v4 runs on only 3 cyl, but it would start hard and be a little sluggish.

I think this was my #1 gripe. Followed by all the secrecy before unveiling, they could have let us know that a performance tourer was not actually on the menu. I had a very healthy chunk of change ready to go for a gen3 and today I still have that $$ so im fine. I know a few folks in town at Kawasaki that rode and all rave about them. So I am convinced that its a darn fine bike. Like many I'm not put off by Yamaha making a better twin. FANTASTIC! packaging it as a performance tourer (by using the Venture name) and not telling customers what they were cooking up was a misstep. Im not a 5 yr old on xmas morning, im a thinking adult with cash, credit and an inclination to buy a big bike. I dont need all the hype and secrecy like they were building the next space shuttle. I dont need PR stunts. Yamaha gave me back to the European mfrs by not being more open with its potential customers (and not making a performance tourer that many of us were waiting for). I wish Yamaha all the luck in the world, From what I know so far its a super bike. They will go into the future without my loyalty or money, but I seriously doubt this will break Yamaha's bank or feelings. Congrats to those that have and love the gen3, I am genuinely happy to read the good reviews and happy buyers raves.

I agree that it is very obese. If this bike didnt fit me so well I would have not considered it. I love her for the same reasons most of us do but if shes going to help me relive my HD days Ill catapult her giant ass clear to the moon (sell). I really need to sort a permanent solution for the forks. In the Vmax world there is an R1 fork upgrade common to some circles, do I have any options to upgrade the forks without major mods? Maybe non bushing? Maybe I just need a fresher set of these but one thing becoming clear, I'm overlooking something stupid or for some reason these forks are not going to take a rebuild. If anyone has known good forks, or an upgrade idea, pls chime in. Wanna make an offer on the bike, let her rip, my frustration is palpable. Will 2nd gen forks swap, if so would that be an upgrade?

I slid the BIC springs on out early on. I got all seals and bushings OEM and use an oil thats ~10w, threw in some new progressive springs right after I got her home and went through the forks and head bearings. The right seal blew after that, I found some metal filings that time but complete dissassembly left that a mystery. The two large washers were dished and I flatrened them, reassembled with new seal. Weeks later it failed again sans filings. Figured maybe dud seal, replaced again and was fine until yesterday. There are actually very few miles between failures, probably less than than 1000 mi or so. The tubes are very smooth, nothing rough or visibly wrong and smooth as glass to the touch. I does have some 75k miles so maybe some wear that is not visible, dunno. I cant have this going on with a bike to use to get so far from home with. The bike wears fork shields, metal fixed on with hose clamps and cover fully. I think they are original equip. Ive never had these issues using OEM seals, any other ideas on how to remedy? Thanks!

Yea, I'm not sure what to do with this. This will be the 3rd fork seal on the right, this is the 2nd one on the left side too but for now that one is fine. There was a nasty pothole on the last ride but still, that shouldn't be killing new fork seals. Using only OEM seals, I thought this last one was solid but here we are again. The fork upper looks perfect, not sure what keeps killing these new OEM seals. I'm tired of pissing around with these forks. Any ideas? Anyone have a good MKII fork upper, I cant think of anything else to do about it. I really dont want to do this job a 5th time. Anything I may be overlooking here? I'm one fork seal away from selling this bike and cutting my losses.

Valid point. I like this. The cost of fuel on a bike is secondary to plenty of other things. The cost of fuel after a days ride wont add up to much, but it does add up. I'm less concerned with fuel cost and more concerned with range. The freedom to choose fuel stops instead of being a slave to the reserve light is really nice.

I sit outside with my coffee this time of year, there was a doe and three very young uns stacked together like they were packaged for shipping. They are great to look at, and they were in this valley before I was but I'm still driving my Audi with deer damage. May the OP find her and wear her skin like a prize! If she is found quickly she might even still taste a little like tomatoes. Dern hooved rats!

Last time I had a contract that was breached I slid it in front of my lawyer with my documentation when a tactful phone call failed to work. He read the contract and wrote a demand letter, the problem was fixed, I think it cost me $125-ish. I contacted the other party to reimburse my legal fees as it was their breach that made my fees necessary, it took a small claim summons to get them to issue a check for my legal fees. Even that is a fairly simple cost-effective step. It's sucks that vendors/employers can be so downright greasy and fly with no apparent principles or moral compass, only to fall into compliance when forced by legal action, or the threat of. They may be greasy but my guess is they have a really good idea that if a judge looks at this situation he will not find in their favor. Everyone loves to threaten to sue, of those poeple I would speculate that maybe 1 of 100 ever calls a lawyer, so they laugh you off. Once they get some registered goodness from a lawyer they can start thinking about doing the right thing or trying to explain deplorable business practices to a judge. What sucks is that businesses that try and do things right and hold their customers in high esteem end up suffering when others in the same industry pull **** like this. I hope you get every penny your owed my friend!

If I could just make a suggestion, if the contract or their actions are anything less than crystal clear this should go before your lawyer. Anything you do now could make his job harder later, bounce this off him before doing anything. Often what seems an intuitive way to handle legal issues like this is actually counterproductive. Anything beyond insisting that they honor the contract. I would also bill them for your legal expenses, its fees you would not have incurred had they honored their contract. IME just about any small claims lawyer would award you legal fees in a situation like this where legal means were required to force these poopsmears to honor the contract. It's shocking what a good lawyer can accomplish with little more than letter head and a few words. It's dissapointing how consumers are often abused and how much less vendors/businesses care after they have your $$ vs before. Unrepresented consumers are not much of a threat beyond a ****ty Google review. Representation seems to motivate businesses to get in front of issues like this. Unfortunately businesses just doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do is pretty far from trendy in this age, especially if it cuts into the bottom line. I'm really sorry your having this experience, I hope it get sorted quickly.

All good points and very true RE Vmax. One thing that is true of a Vmax is that they do handle poorly in stock form, there are a few basic things that can really help that. I stopped short of buying expensive rim conversions to get rid of the bias ply tires. It handles just fine and I live in the Black Hills, it's stock except for solid motor mounts and Progressive springs. It will never be a CBR but it carves canyons just fine with a few tweaks. Some guys go further and add frame bracing, better fork brace and as mentioned, radial tires (that last one is the not cheap one, there is no radial rear tire in stock Vmax size so a rim is needed $$$$$$). Owning both I do agree that the gen1 Venture is a better handling bike in spite of its massive weight. Vmax and Venture engines are cross compatible, with the differences above being the biggest. A perfect mill would be a 1300 Venture engine with the 1200 Vmax heads/cams/carbs/intakes. I also believe the Venture gearbox has a couple different ratios, but the Venture 5th gear would be a welcome thing on my Vmax, seriously it's pretty high strung on the highway as opposed to the more relaxed Venture ratios and final drive.

Hey Jeff, I have done the Gen1 one and my VMX but not a Gen2, so grain of Na here. If all your doing is installing the springs you should be able to lift the old ones right out and slip the new ones in through the top without tearing big chunks off the bike (on center stand with no weight on the front wheel, dont ask me how I know that). Progressives often contain a spacer or PCV sleeve that you cut to suit your preload requirements, there is usually an inlay in the box explaining (sort of) model specific spacers. If your taking this opportunity to replace your seals and bushings then there is more to it but still not that bad. There is a tech library here somewhere or a thread in which Freebird (IIRC) did his Gen2, with pics and explanations. I cant find that link but I know it's here, along with the service manual. Regardless of how your doing it you will need to adjust oil levels as the Progressives are slightly beefier than OEM and will displace more fluid as you slide them back into the tubes, you will need to compensate by adjusting fluid level. The coolest part about all this is how much better the bike will ride and handle when your done. On a side note, my Gen1 felt a little bouncy for the first few days until the new springs settled in.