CaseyJ955

Fantastic! So glad its working. Its never a waste of time to dig in a bit and get more familiar with how she is put together. Better to learn now than along side the road somewhere. I hope it was just the ground preventing the battery from charging but were you able to get some voltage readings just to make sure she is working 100%? Even the other trick mentioned above would be prudent to make sure the battery wont die again. Let us know and enjoy the sun!

Ditto, really enjoying the story, it brought me there. Amazing. Of course you have exacerbated my already intractable case of spring fever. I think I speak for others too when I say this is the sort of experience we live for!

There are a couple cool bobbed Ventures here, one or two in progress and a couple others with some upper engine Vmax hardware for a hefty boost in performance to an already decent running bike. I cant seem to get anything linked off my phone but you will find them here somewhere. This issue of tank came up not long ago and using a retro tank and altering it for storage was kicked around but not sure what direction the owner went. I never get enough of the custom work. Keep us updated.

Im a 1099 guy, no LLC, just independently insured and working. Taxes are such a hassle that its worth a couple bones to just take it to a guy. Finding a good tax preparer is not easy. I had used H&R before and another cut rate preparer, my guy ended up amending three previous years, some from my W2 days and found several thousand dollars left on the table by the cut rate places. I eventually found my tax guy by asking my lawyer if he had a recommendation. This was a great move. In my experience one will never loose money by paying a pro for anything north of a 1040EZ. I drop my stuff off, answer a few questions and done. I no longer dread tax season beyond the gnawing dread of knowing how my tax dollars are squandered. YMMV, I'm ingorant to tax law so this works for me to remove stress and errors. I envy folks that can properly do their own taxes, but sadly Im not one. What did Clint say, "a man has got to know his limitations" haha.

Thats awesome! I could read most of it but some on the top is hard to make out on my phone. Once I get home I will be sure to read the rest, probably easier to see on a full monitor than a 4" phone screen. Absolutely continue, at your leisure of course, but I am interested in seeing what I cant see now. I have been through to WY but many years ago. Thats about to change. The trail system has changed in recent years but still vast. I'm so looking forward to spending plenty of time in the woods this riding season, well outside the reach of tourists and rally traffic. Im beyond excited. I think you should take a trip out here with your favorite plated dirt bike and there is no way it wont be a great time. I can always make room for brother Puc. There is a Dual Sport Rally here in early June, cant wait for this, aawwww dayum, its gonna be a fantastic season! I haven't looked forward to a riding season like this for a very long time. BRAAAAAAAAAAP ding ding ding ding. Soon! But right now were about to get spanked by winter storn Xanto. Were expecting blizzard conditions and another possible 12" snow in the next 24 hours. Some of our most notable blizzards come in the spring, not always winter.

Since the weather came up with Puc, I felt compelled to groan about this weather obstructing riding. Last week when the weather was nice I rebuilt the calipers and MC of my Vmax, along with flushing rear brakes and clutch DOT, oil change and battery. I remounted the windscreen and got her all synched up and she barked right to life with the anger and snap I love her for, then over night we got a dusting of snow, just enough to make it to risky to ride the nearly 3 miles from my cabin to the paved road. There is a grade in the shade that does not thaw like every other road in the known universe, so with a heavy heart I slid her back under the cover, not having ridden. The Venture is last this year for a ride, I'm going to play with the Ignitek mapping and oil chage is about all she needs but she is taking me house hunting again this spring all over SD and WY. Only the Venture is suited for days on the road like that. I know this wont impress the folks with brand new 2018s that have not ridden r/t inclimate weather, but a couple weeks before spring I picked up a KTM and still have not ridden it once. It kept looking like spring was here, only to be pelted by more freeze and snow. Anyone familiar with the Black Hills knows it's world class street bike territory (Puc knows!), what not everyone knows is that it is equally blissful for off-road bikes and other recreation. Our trails, oh, and Buffallo Gap Grasslands otherwise known as "Farmingdale" are balls out fun for dirt bikes. No matter where I buy a house it will not be to far from the Black Hills, nooo way! Im at work this week and wont be home until next week, hoping when I get home I can simply ride. So, this KTM 250 XCW sits inside my sunroom by the front door, emitting the gentle aroma of 2-stroke oil and gasoline. Its a sweet scent that once in the woods combines to form a potpourri of pine trees, hills growth and earth to form a succulent olfactory treat words can not possibly encompass. I got plates, registration and insurance, next week I'll get my forestry trail permit sticker (yes, a 2 stroke dirt bike can be plated in South Dakota). I ordered the jets and a cant wait to ride and dial her in. I have not even cracked that new jug of Interceptor yet. Its killing me! I hope spring is waiting for me when I get back home! The anticipation is stifling. I feel the pain of others here getting leaned over the back of the couch by old man winter. But it will soon be over and spring is almost here for real.

G'mornin sir Puc! I see you and I are on the same page, or we are both nuttier than Chinese chicken salad, possibly both. In the amazing Black Hills we have enjoyed a couple very balmy, sunny, dry days. Now we are gonna get (maybe) 8-15" snow and a blizzard warning a county over. Its not going to be terribly cold which means heavy wet snow pulling trees and power lines down. Welcome to South Dakota! Still no place I would rather live with the possible exception of Wyoming. One day you will find yourself here outside rally week and you and I will ride the hills good and proper, and smoke some ribs! Now, so I dont get kicked in the cubes for hijacking I would like to add for the OP that if the battery is going on a conventional automotive charger, use the 2amp setting, 10amp can cook a small battery pretty quickly in my e perience. 2amp seems to be about the max safe for a bike battery. A couple hours should do her unless totally flat. I have cheated and used my battery tender to charge a battery bacause my other one has no 2amp setting, if its not completely flat it may work, but agreeing with you that it is not ideal. Sorry I still cant format posts into separate paragraphs.

Welcome! Sorry your having troubles. Ill throw this out until some 2nd gen guys chime in. Generally speaking I would check terminals and grounds around starter and batt, and anywhere you can see. Remove or disconnect the battery and get a trickle charger going on it, once fully charged it should again start the bike (hopefully). After battery is charged the key off voltage across the battery should be around 12.5, and with engine running it should not be much more or less than 14v. Just because a battery is new does not mean its good, but what you describe sounds like the bike is not correctly recharging the battery as you ride, so when battery wears down the fun stops. Depending on your voltage readings I might speculate a stator or regulator bit I digress, the 2nd gen savvy might have model specific things to check. One other thing I have noticed in my 35 years of riding, I have often had trouble jumping a bike with a flat battery but slap a known good one in and it fires right up. I hope this gives you a place to start. Good luck on the fix.

The needle has that rectangular wire loop, there is a little tab on the float that goes through that loop and then installed in place. Moving the float manually should pull/push the needle.

Im trying to get links to work on my phone but its stumping me. Google search "factory pro vmax float level". It will bring you to it. I set both my Venture and Vmax to the leanest end of the range with great results. The V4 responds very well to being a tad lean rather than a tad rich.As for wet checking it is outlined in the service manual, there is a free download somewhere. I cant find it but it involves removing the carb drain hoses and using a clear hose looped upward and opening the drain screw and reading fuel level through the clear hose, one at a time. The hose fills with fuel to the level of the fuel in the bowl, there is a landmark on the side of the carb the level should be close too. Bike must be level, prime up the carbs by cy ling the fuel pump a time or two. Engine off. I hope someone else can link this, I have a feeling I'm butchering it haha.

Welcome! Did all the needles and seats look good, floats move freely? All float levels set? You can check float levels wet without tearing into it again. I dry set mine according to the Factry Pro website for Vmax (same spec) and they all landed where they belong. Did you buy Chinese rebuild kits? If you replaced needles amd seats with Chinese parts it may never be right until replaced with Japanese stuff. If you run it w/o the air box/filter it will be funky. Were you able to run it long enough to synch the carbs, again with air filter/box in place. Im just throwing stuff out there fishing for more info and hopefully a way to help.

I often end up with odd, old and unique vehicles, in my experience its a waiting game (for the right buyer). I skirt lowball offers often, its just a matter of the right guy coming along. When I was buying my Venture I found plenty that were worth $600 but priced over $2k. The first one I found that wasnt hashed beyond reason I picked up for $2050 and of course dropped hundreds more into updating and servicing for real world use. That being said, prices on old bikes are not exactly rising, motorsports market has been weak for awhile now. Still, there is no reason I can see why you shouldnt expect $1500-2500 from a nice clean fully functioning tourbike this time of year. I suppose the final determination of that assertion is the presence or absence of a cash buyer. What I used to hear way back in the HD days was "its only worth what the next guy is willing to pay". I often find that floating things for partial trades drums up more interest but still have to vet all the junk offers.

I tip the scales at 220-ish without gear. Probably another 50lbs for gear and cargo and run no air up front with Progressives. When wifey is onboard (100lbs lighter than me) I may put an additional PSI in the rear. When I converted to Progressives I also replaced the bushings, seals and dust covers with OEM parts. I used synthetic import ATF instead of conventional fork oil. IIRC it sets between 7.5-10 wt. Love it. Did same to my Vmax and love that too. No air even needed in either. On a side note, when I did tear into the Venture I found some air lines had dry rot and were no longer air tight. I found the fork air collars and a jumble of air hoses on Ebay for some stupid cheap price but have never needed air up front since forks done.

I also use State Farm. Im very pleased and I pay $22 /yr for my KTM (plated dirt bike) and I think the bigger bikes are $45-ish. I newly switched from Progressive. I was happy with Progressive for years, had full coverage on my Audi and smacked a deer, I then found out why they are so cheap. After using their claims department and drudging through some of the worst customer service since Verizon or AT&T. Progressives claims dept is an experience I will never repeat without a lawyer. It was like truing to have a serious conversation with a group of children, I have no clue where they get employees but NEVER AGAIN! I cut my losses and moved everything to State Farm. What surprised me is that overall State Farm is cheaper (cabin, bikes, cars) once all is considered. Besides they have a local office I can walk into. I will never cheap out on insurance again, icing on the cake that I now have quality insurance at lower cost.

I have several high end plug sockets in SAE amd Metric, the only one I have that works on the Venture is the one in its own tool kit. Works like a charm. The other thing about carbs is that they are a little bit of a knuckle buster to pull but these CV carbs are pretty straight forward to work on. I have also heard great thing about the video mentioned above. I pulled mine because I wanted to verify jet sizes and set floats while addressing an intermittent missfire. What I found inside was the PO ran screws into the jet block plugs to try and snug them up. After setting floats and undoing some **** the PO did I had a machine that ran as it should. No tellin' wattup with a set of carbs after a few decades. I knew I would tour mine far from home so there was never much doubt I would go into the carbs and at the very least do a cleaning and set the floats (they are a bit rich from the factory).

Yup, its the same engine/different tune as the TL1000. I know the 650 is a great all around bike but like you, I would probably sacrifice some off road toss-ability for the extra grunt of a full liter. I spent a couple weeks with an SV650 and I can only say great things. It's how a twin SHOULD be done! For only being 650 it was awesome. I'll probably never go with another narrow angle twin. My guess is either of these stroms would make a fantastic steed for a guy that wants something light but still travel worthy.

Darn! I do understand though. I have always been fascinated with and heard tons of good stuff about the Vstrom 650s. Folks tour the snot out of them. Plenty light, reasonably powerful with good highway legs for the long haul. If you bolt it wont be the same around here.

Spring definitely went missing, but I can assure it did not flee to the Dakotas. I'm still waiting to break out this KTM I have yet to ride.

Ive read some interesting things too, like reduced fuel capacity and range. It looks like they were trying to knock some of the stodginess out of the GW. Honda had to return fire somehow, the introduction of a bike like the K1600 could absolutely not be ignored by any world class touring bike mfr. Honda had to do something. I might have voted for a less dramatic revamp of the GW and introduced a new heavy hitting sport tourer to compete with amazing machines like the K or RT bikes. In any event it will be interesting to see how buyers react to the new generation of GW and where that puts the older generations in the market place. The existing model looks great to me, stodginess aside it has all the right stuff for a dedicated touring machine.

I'm about a 36" inseam so I felt a bit folded up. It was disappointing as I really wanted the big flat 6 in a touring bike. My guess is with less inseam it's a very comfortable ride. No doubt they are nice bikes. If your not in a huge hurry to buy then maybe keep an eye on prices and market saturation over the summer. Prices are going to drop and choices are going to become more plentiful. Also we will need pics once you get one!

My knees get a little tender too, and one thing I realized immediately about Goldwings is they really lack legroom if you have some inseam going on. This is how I ended up on the Venture, sweet legroom and highway bars that dont make me feel like the bike is about to make a wish. If knees or hips are a thing I would suggest taking a long ride on that Wing before making a final decision. I felt cramped before I left the dealer lot so I knew the Wing was not a good fit for me. YMMV. Also with the new generation of Goldwing coming out I do believe that the deals on the previous generation are going to get quite good as the hardcore Wing guys seek to trade up to the new model, should soon be a buyers market on previous generation Wings. If I could fit on one correctly I would own one, they are fantastic bikes and I have a lot of respect for Honda.

Pulling for young Cole, he/family are in my thoughts!

The quality of HD has improved but they still trail way behind the Euro and Japanese manufactures. I've seen later HDs that seem to have adequate build quality but the technology found in an HD is always at least a dogs life behind the same year Honda/Yamaha/Suzuki/Kawasaki/BMW/Triumph/BETA/KTM etc etc. They are what they are, I sure hope he isn't just finding out about that!

Glad it's looking like it will be done soon. Sometimes it's nice to get someone on it that has the patience and know how so hopefully this kid can do some magic. Anyways, hopefuly you will be riding very soon!

Smoke and a cool cyl could be incomplete combustion for any number of reasons. If a head gasket were leaking into the cyl you would probably get visible steam, which is easy to identify because it dissipates much faster than smoke. I would check the easy stuff first for missfire, plug cap, HT lead into coil, possibility that over winter some jets/circuits got plugged up. I used to have to do shotguns in the spring and once even had to pull the carbs and scoop corn squeezings out. Needless to say that I top off with pure gasoline, sta-bil and Seafoam after the last fall ride. A quick compression test should tell you about a possible head gasket issue in that cyl, it just doesnt seem to be a common thing for these to drop head gaskets. Good luck sorting through it and keep us posted, I hope it's an easy fix!