CaseyJ955

I've had to tear my forks apart for the 3rd time, maybe a bad batch of seals. I have not been able to ride for a little while adn Vmax is down for some brake work. Just the video gave me a rush and a grin. Thanks for posting it. Now just to glide along the amazing 71 that I saw recently when I was in that area. Glad you got her back and a good solid starting point.

I'm in agreement, it doesn't work as well as it did at age 25. I would already have a wing but I found no comfortable place to put my feet. I love the look of this new wing, looks like it lost some girth and the stodgy displacement. BMW fired some shots with the new K bike, maybe Honda is returning fire. I may go throw a leg over one and see how it fits.

+1 for bleeding, and enough so to flush it completely out. If the reservoir is overfilled the clutch will not operate properly so when your done bleeding it make sure the level is right. In my experience it's rare to have to rebuild a hydraulic cylinder unless there is an external leak, but it does happen. Internal failure is possible if the service intervals were ignored in the past. Flush/bleed and maybe play with adjustment and see where you are. Even if the clutch itself is faulty it's not a terrible job to replace. Congrats on your new scoot and welcome!

There is a lot of tech involved in the TC, it's true. I just came from Yamaha (had to get another fork seal) and he tried to sell me on the NEW Venture when he found out I had an old one. Really cool guy so I didnt bust his chops much. I told him I would like to ride but would never buy and he told me that they would be later than expected getting them because of a new recall. No details but all the demo bikes and others scattered around had to go back to Yamaha for recall work. No word on when we would see them. Anyone waiting for their 18 bike to arrive might want to place a call and see what happened.

No.

My first wife did not appreciate my showroom fresh bright red 00 Triumph Sprint ST. She was even less enchanted with my reaction when she said either the bike goes or she goes. Congrats and make sure to post up pics when it arrives! I hope it gives you years and miles of excellent service!

You can never go wrong with Honda, car or bike (aside from a short period where select automatics were fragile). Truly fantastic reliable well built machines. I would have been on a wing if it had more legroom. Awesome looking bike, would be interesting to hear a fun comparison after you grab a few more miles on it. I'll bet it's less finicky than the Venture (or at least my Venture).

When one has been independent for the better part of a century it can be tough to give up control. This man probably lived through the dust bowl if he was in the USA so no doubt he's probably tough as nails and used to taking care of himself and his family, seeing the tables turn is not often an easy adjustment. It's very important to include him in every step to keep him feeling in control. If he's of sound mind he should be an active part of planning his care. Compliance is so much easier when a patient has some choice and control over as much of it as possible. I have seen some seniors go full rebel when they feel like they have lost all control over their lives, so control or perception of is important. There are home care nurses that can go through the house and address risk factors for falls and adjustments that can be made to increase safety. Also nice to allow him to do everything for himself that he is able to do, if you can make adjustments so that he can do his own ADLs thats a good move. Preservation of dignity is huge where it's safely possible. Not a bad idea to formulate a back-up plan for if/when he does need full care. It sucks to try and hustle that together after you need it and time becomes a real factor. Some of these rules change when you kick into hospice mode so if you get lucky your dr can hook you up. Make sure he's not one of those sissy doctors that wont scribe liquid MS for a hospice patient. When I'm in hospice I definitely want MS (Morphine Sulfate), it's in my advanced directives. If he does not have advanced directives now is a great time to get it sorted out or review the existing directives and make sure they reflect his current wishes. Busy time for sure. Feel free to call me if you have any questions. I'm a long ways away but happy to help if I can.

For fall prevention check the basics first. No rugs, extension cords, abrupt thresholds, furniture or stuff in the way and that sort of thing. Proper lighting is necessary too, glasses with right Rx and shoe fit should be good. Also bathroom (or anywhere) grab rails, shower chair if necessary, even a walker for getting around the house if he is receptive to using it, many are not. There is an assistive device for almost anything. If the falls are from blackouts then need to get the dr involved to see if you can figure out specifically why and hopefully remedy it. If it comes to a point where the falls persist in spite of all other efforts he will need someone with him all the time, be it in a facility or at home. Caregiver burnout is a pretty real thing so a regular respite fill-in is a good thing. He's lucky to have family to do this, not everyone does. Best of luck.

Dont MKI and MKII have different fork sizes?

https://www.bikebandit.com/blog/post/ducati-announces-a-v4-superbike-for-the-masses Sweet. Can we ask for this to trickle down to a cozy ST4 at some point? Nice to see where this might go.

Yup, thats what I had in mind. When the other side blew (mind you, with all new OEM parts and very few miles) I tried it unsuccessfully, so not sure it's going to work this time. You guys are awesome, I had quite a chuckle picturing cut up coke bottles serving as fork protectors. I guess duct tape and zip ties would be the finest way to make this dream a reality mwahahahaha. This bike has the chrome shields that hose clamp to the upper tube. I'm going to try the seal saver sweep today and hope it works, not sure whats inside. When the right side blew there were metal shavings inside and I never could figure out where they were coming from. Nothing was scarred or grooved, no signs of contact, the fork compressed and expanded freely with no scuffing or drama. It's a mystery at best. I'm not wanting it to be down for long, the last few weeks of amazing riding season are upon us now, the tourists are mostly gone.

It's quite a bit like a poor mans seal saver. For some reason I suspect it's all coming apart again.

Might as well kick this zombie thread in the pants. I started this when I blew the right fork seal after a fresh rebuild. Just yesterday the left one blew. Freshly rebuilt forks, I'm getting sick of tearing these things apart. I'm going to go make a seal saver out of a coke bottle and try that first. When these things blow they dont just weep, they piss the oil out for real. Man this is frustrating but at least it didnt fail on my last road trip.

Taking a bullet is a likely death for a career narc I suppose. This is some Oz level stuff going on here, It think you should be commended for your amazing restraint. What has your lawyer said about all this?

Sounds like you found a few of our lesser known roads. The hills are full of little treasures like that. You are right, simply amazing. Oh, a tidbit about deer for those less familiar. They are chalk full of feces, if you hit one hard enough to tear it open, not only are you likely to go down but there will be ample feces to go around. You can hit deer AND they can hit you! I had a rear car door caved in when one smashed his stupid head into the car as I was driving. One more thing, if they feel cornered or threatened, they can put the hurt on ya. They will try to run but if they have nowhere to go they can throw some hooves and make meaningful connections. BUT they are way cute! I see them in my yard every day. I saw something like this video but less severe.

I know I said this before but I absolutely love your bike and admire your skill. You sure know your stuff buddy! Slow riding with a passenger and overloaded with gear takes plenty of experience and balance.

I've had Corbins on a couple different bikes but not my Venture. Had one on my Vmax and like all the others it's like sitting on a marble courthouse bench. On the Vmax it was so wide that it would have been counterproductive for the height challenged rider, or the rider with a narrow ass expecting comfort. Bigger guys tend to like Corbins more than us narrow guys, generally. If you want a good seat and you can spend $600-800 take it to a specialist and have one made. If you do any distance riding it will be the best money you could possibly spend on the bike. In my experience if you can plant both feet flat on the ground there is nothing to be gained from lowering. If you need to get yourself a little lower there are probably a handful of local upholstery shops that know how to do bike seats. Cheaper than a Corbin they may be able to dish it while keeping proper shape and even reuse the factory cover if cost is an issue. There are two things I did to vastly improve my low speed handling of this Venture, first and with all bikes all the low speed/parking lot maneuvering is using rear brake only, the second is to make sure your steering head bearings are perfectly adjusted, serviced or replaced if necessary. This assumes tires are inflated properly. Mine is a 1st gen but I know this bit experience crosses the 1st gen and 2nd gen line. Good luck.

I was a towtruck operator for a few years. I saw first hand what happens when seat belts and helmets are skipped. I quickly went from a never guy to an always, with no exceptions guy on both seat belts and helmets. Even if your a passenger in/on one of my vehicles it's not optional. There is something really sobering about sweeping up teeth and chunks of brain into a debris bucket, luckily the ME usually gets the big chunks, but sometimes the vehicle recovery reveals things that he/she missed. I also believe that insurance companies should be able to refuse payouts to anyone not using available safety equipment. On the flip side I'm dead set against helmet or seat belt laws for adults. It's a waste of resources to enforce laws protecting people from themselves. Less legislation/intrusion and more choice is a good thing.

I saw this article and I have to say I really like the look of the new bikes. It was much needed facelift. I doubt they are brave enough to offer some models without the antiquated anemic Vtwin, not yet anyway. Even HD has the twins now running better than they ever have in the past. All that being said I think it's too little too late. There is good news for the traditional purists loving the previous years of HD. There hare thousands and thousands of them on CL at rock bottom prices all over the USA. Many are in showroom condition with little/no miles. Damn near brand new bikes and people just cant seem to get rid of them. I see the same ones on CL over and over for months and I regularly search SD/ND/WY down into Ft Collins. There are enough of these things to go around for at least a couple generations to enjoy for those that want tradition and heritage. It may sound crass but if we look at this from a strictly marketing standpoint, the guys that are really upset about this will probably be done buying any bikes before to long. HD has no reason not to do this and so much more. I agree with keeping a line of the traditional twin but sink or swim comes to mind. I agree with what was said in the article. They have to start building better, more modern bikes to survive going forward. It has to be getting hard to sell brand new HDs off the showroom for the insane prices they ask when there are so many late model super clean private sale offerings for a fraction of MSRP.

I read something about retooling for the V4, which fit just fine as many of the forward thinking engineers knew it would come to this, but they were having trouble with plumbing for the turbo which will now sit behind the rear cyl in a ceramic downward vented doghouse instead of between them as originally designed. We should be able to get our 186hp/232ft lb 3rd gen Ventures well before Xmas.

I watched the first video, I find it interesting that they make a video for motorcyclists that spends virtually the whole video telling motorcyclists why motorcycling is great. They could make videos selling sociology professors on value of education:happy65: The other thing is, and I'll steal part of an old cliche', Fool me once! I'm not going to wait on the edge of my seat while Yamaha gradually leaks tiny tidbits of information on a new model, again. Their secrecy/hype/grand unveiling tactic is quite stale with me, I still have the taste of nut-clad feces on the back of my tongue from their last marketing stunt. You guys want a power tourer?! another VENTURE!! YEA!!! AWESOME!!! V4 BABY!!! POWER/PERFORMANCE! VENTURE!!! Fixed fairing slice the wind at 130 all day long! do or die!! wait for it, waaait for it.... keep waiting... wait some more... wait... we said wait..... there, now take this Road King instead Instead of a video with guys posing in leather describing why motorcycling is great (Yamaha, we got that) they could open with some actual information on the motor, options, chassis, or what other existing models it will compete with/supersede. I will be following this from a novelty standpoint but I'm afraid Yamaha squandered any real chance of selling me any bike newer than the RZ500 I have my eye on. I wish I could just tell Yamaha to stop with all the advertising gimmicks and overproduced videos telling us nothing. Just tell us what we're waiting for, we're all adults here, to much to ask? Rant mode off I feel better now! Tourists area almost gone, time to take the Venture off into the hills and enjoy!

I get that. I just had quite a sit down with a calculator about spending the bucks. Im just getting to the place where earning potential is slipping and a medical retirement may be within another 5-10 years if not sooner. Since the V3 turned out to be a crushing disappointment to those of us that were looking for something different I was on the fence about a Trophy. At this point I have decided to pass on buying any new (or used) bike and instead replace my 21yr old Lexus, not because it needs it but because its a rear wheel drive and it sits all winter. It will be sold and replaced with a 10 yr old TDI Jetta while I can still legitimately and honestly consider it a business expense. After all I only just got my 1st gen Venture and it could conceivably last many more years. I also agree on the BMW boxer. I say air cooled twin as a blanket statement but the boxer is an excellent mill and exception to the issues plaguing the narrow angle air cooled twins. BMW knows how to do engines, thats why they have spammed the inline 6 for so many years. I have loved them in the 3 series cars and I was blown away to hear they narrowed one down enough to put into a K bike. If I ever buy a later bike it would almost have to be an inline 6, Boxer or Triple since the V4 is apparently off the table. By the time I'm ready for a new steed I'll bet the K1600 will be $6000 for a clean used one. German bikes (and cars) are excellent but come with the increased cost of ownership and occasionally finicky behavior which is why I've gradually moved towards Japanese cars and bikes. Now it looks like I may be slowly moving back and budgeting accordingly. I have never stopped being fascinated by the K1600. BMW clearly has their finger on the pulse of the power touring market and riders like me. But just like the V3, its a whole lot of scratch to plunk down for a bike.

Im on both Vmax and this Venture board and I cant recall hearing about a timing chain/guide failure. Not saying it cant happen but my guess is you can blow flatus smoke rings if you choose. I dont have a high opinion of dealerships in general, id you have a stethoscope or even a screwdriver you may be able to narrow it down by listening. I found a knock in my clutch that way.

The arguement of emotion vs function vs market is highly valid, I enjoyed VideoA's take greatly. Very well thought out. I also know the emotional aspect is maybe #1 . I think the emotional aspect that put me on the Venture and Vmax also kept mee off the Goldwing, which is a picture perfect tour bike in every regard, except its missing some zazz, some soul (and legroom). I can respect Yamahas position on needing a newly designed model to appeal to as many as possible just to cover R&D cost and sell enough to turn a nice profit. As much as I have enjod racking them over this I do get their rational. Time will tell if they cant make them fast enough or if they sit on showroom floors taking up considerable real estate. The best way to make sense of this is to figure they did use considerabl resources to conclude that we distance riders are indeed a dying breed.