CaseyJ955

I run 91 because everything else has ethanol, when I see 87 without ethanol that is my first choice. At 110 miles I'm on the last bar but I'm chasing an MPG issue that probably has nothing to do with gasoline grades.

I read a thread somewhere on his videos and have heard great things. The Vmax/Venture carbs arent too bad once you get into them but i'm sure I would learn a thing or two from a professional vid.

I have only had the 89 but have read that the MKI bikes normally read very high and that this was theoretically corrected with the MKII. On my 89 it rarely goes over half, I think I saw it hit 2/3 once while it was sitting idling on the center stand while I adjusted carbs and MAP sensor for over 30 minutes, it took forever for the fan to decide to kick on. This was with ambient temps around 65-70.

Sounds like you know the drill, dont let them short you on pain control and good luck.

Congrats! Dues paid. I guess you have earned the right to do as you please. Enjoy!

I'm glad this came up, I totally forgot I contacted him after I got the bike home. The factory seat is very good but I can see room for improvement. Sounds like a huge improvement for a minimal investment.

I have an ugly Vmax and that is where I learned the trick, also worked on the Gen1 Venture which is definitely preferable to pulling the carbs. It clears it up enough to get some Seafoam through to finish the job over a few tankfuls. I didnt know if the Gen2 carbs would respond do it, I'm glad to know that they dont.

I just went through this, I have an antenna that wont tighten onto the hub, it slaps back and fourth with that collar unable to catch threads to tighten. The antennas are spendy on Ebay, usually > $100 and I have been examining the idea of using a Firestick, I read that they work pretty well for AM/FM as well as CB so we'll see. I just bought a rack that will accept dual antennas. Someone posted a link to a new replacement for the OEM mast, I'll find it quick and copy it here. EDIT, here is a link to the post with some good information, also Karaboo posted a link to an affordable replacement in this thread. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?128742-Antenna-issue More info I found on Firesticks for am/fm. I plan to use a seperate stick for AM/FM and another for CB. http://www.wearecb.com/firestik-am-fm-antenna.html Good luck.

Living so close to Sturgis, motorists seem hostile towards motorcyclists, or at the very least annoyed. I understand why too, sure no mystery to anyone trying to get on with life during bike week. A great many of us are *******s on the road (not necessarily Venture guys but motorcycles in general) so collectively we bargain for the contempt of many motorists just as they us. When I ride I assume that they dont care and they arent going to burn the calories of turning their head before doing a sweeping lane change out of the blue, or to flip the wand that makes the blinkers go. I assume this all the time and often I'm not disappointed. Se we fight not only the mind-numbing in car distraction systems but the active conditioned response motorists develop as a result of less considerate and less skilled motorcycle owners. As a result many many motorists are passively dangerous and some are actually actively dangerous and harbor a seething hatred of motorcycles, again, not hard to understand why. One thing that is mentioned that should be given additional emphasis to is NEVER EVER ride in someones blind spot, even if they do care they cant see you. I dont waste time executing a pass, I go as quickly as possible without being rude but it ties in with existing in a blind spot. Extra caution should be taken around HDs and anyone still careless enough to be using a phone while driving, in my experience these are the most significant hazards on the road, even ahead of drunks and tractor/trailer combos. At stop lights make sure your positioned to shoot between or beside any vehicles in front of you and keep one eye on the mirror, sort of an escape route. This has saved me more than once. It seems to get more complicated as time goes on, I really feel for you folks that ride in congested areas full of impatient commuters. We have a duty to be courteous and safe but it has to be tempered with the ability to instantly kick into self-preservation mode. This one is one I have to keep in mind living in the hills, NEVER ride beyond your line of sight. If you cant stop before the furthest point you can see then it's a roll of the dice, never know whats beyond that blind corner, even on a familiar road. A pile of rocks, a stalled furniture delivery truck, deer (all things I have personally almost smacked rounding corners).

I have the Ignitek so looking inside and making changes is possible, I have little experience with this so I'm hoping it doesnt come to that. The Ignitek map I'm using was made for the Venture so I'm guessing that some of these other changes may make a decent difference.

I couldn't agree more, seems like a healthy % of people I see driving shouldn't be on the road or in physical control of any vehicle, ever, for any reason. As tech advances though it has promise IMHO. 20 years ago the thought of self-driving cars actually being successfully tested and used on the roadway was laughable, but here we are. I'll be thrilled when GPS, radar and automation take over vehicles from some of the idiots I have to avoid as it stands currently. If humanity is allowed to continue 4-5 more generations I would not be surprised if we have fully automated solar personal hovercraft.

I think it's a good idea. I remember a thread not long ago where a guy was having some trouble with that CA setup, thats when I realized mine was a CA setup. Might as well shed the weight and extra opportunity for mechanical failure. I think it's working correctly and I dont think it's causing any significant MPG loss, but I dont know it for a fact. I'm doing this as soon as my K&N and the goodies from Skydoc get here. If all thise fails to get me close to 40 then I'll be looking at spark timing and advance curve within the Ignitek. Is this bowl vent/charcoal canister the only difference with a CA bike or are there some other performance robbing CA specific things I should be concerned with?

I guess I may have have jinxed myself haha. Its a beautiful place but two things we have to offset this beauty is the nations most dishonest reprehensible state politicians and weather that can turn on a dime. This morning when I woke up. I still love it here.

My first thought is how can this technology lend itself to dealing with congested cities like, any city really. Ever been stuck on the I5-405? I believe I will live to see self driving cars become commonplace, but will I live long enough to see them fly? Oh man, this is too cool!

From what I can see it has a broken port. I remember that the 1300 is so amazingly advanced it has no YICS, in all its excellence there is simply no need Actually the bowl vents on this one all merge into a rubber manifold system and one big hose goes out and into that solenoid, then down to the charcoal canister. I want to eliminate that but I have never seen a 49 state bowl vent system. I'm guessing its just as simple as on the Vmax where the tubes all go up high by the airbox and vent to atmosphere. I'm thinking to emulate that system with the one large hose, run it up above the carb level along side the airbox with a basic baffle vented to atmosphere. If there were a bike salvage outfit around here, or any other Venture guys in western SD I could just peek at it and duplicate it. I did hear from Skydoc and his system does move the needles inward so I have that coming, so combined with the air filter and removal of the CA junk I expect I'll see some improvement. At least it should become clear if my efforts are masking another issue or if I have remedied the actual culprit.

As a general rule avoid ethanol tainted fuel where you can for any carburetor equipped vehicle. Let that junk sit in the carbs for any length of time and your bound to have some problems. I'm not as familiar with a gen2 as much but does the Shotgun method hold valid as it does for a Gen1? Just thinking that if there was some ethanol in it, and it did sit a while some of the corn squeezings could be gumming up a jet block or two. If the bowl vents are patent then a Shotgun might do the trick. Seafoam is good, ethanol is bad.

I figured if I could bump the throttle and the bike lunges forward with no fuss then it probably aint lugging, but I think you make a good point on RPM for best mileage. I'll bet if the needles are behaving correctly then it would be possible to get decent MPG. I know on a stock Vmax the needles will start to come in at around 4k with cruising speeds, I think the Venture is about the same judging by feel. I sent Skydoc a message about his system to move the needles in and I'll probably go that route after I understand how it works, his price is quite fair. One other thing I didnt really think of until now is the bike is a CA bike somehow, it has that charcoal canister and the vent solenoid. I'm not directly seeing how that can degrade MPG if the bowls are still venting but I think it's time to remove all that junk from the equation in the event it's playing a role in the poor MPG, which existed before COPs and Ignitek. Does anyone have a pic of the 49 state carb vents? I htink it's just the 4 tubes running up along side the airbox and ending in clips somewhere or will I need one of these. This is off a 1200 but is this what I need for my 1300 or can I do it like the Vmax and just run the hoses up and secure them somewhere? It's time to decalifornicate this machine. http://www.ebay.com/itm/XVZ-1200-VENTURE-BREATHER-BLOW-BY-VENTS-YAMAHA-ROYALE-/172463961778?hash=item2827a736b2:g:woAAAOSwhQhY5oy4&vxp=mtr

Hijack away, it's all good, I think I sort of hijacked it first so please, let it go where it may, it's all good I may learn something haha. With all that 2-up riding and great mileage I should expect something more. I'm really not flogging it. I'm finding 5th gear is really only good after 60-65, other than that I feel like I'm lugging it a little. It's strange to have a bike that I'm not always looking for another gear once I reach speed. In 4th and 5th gears it feels better if I keep it above 3500.

First, it doesnt sound strange at all, I often embark with no idea where i'm going, I just feel the road and change course on a whim with little or no thought. It's the only time in life I allow myself to make decisions based on emotion. On the wobble, I just got rid of my wobble, it was bad when I got crosswinds or when changing lanes. If I wiggled the bar a little it would reward me with a whole bike wobble of pucker factor 5-6. All I did was adjust the steering head bearings. They werent loose when I grabbed the forks but they bounced kind of far off the stops with the bounce test. I got another 1/4 turn to get them to bounce right. Figured while I had it on the center I lowered the jack to let the front wheel just touch the bround but with no weight on it. I pulled the front axle loose from the left fork but left it in the wheel, then loosened the 4 impossible to reach 12mm nuts on the upper tree a 4 allens on the lower tree, loosened the fork brace. Then torqued the front axle back, tightened the upper and lower tree then tightened the fork brace. Next ride was rock solid stable. I did check the rear swing arm for play and there was none. So that got me from a scary high speed wobble to the feel of a brand new bike. I know tire wear can cause strange highway behavior too. If your missing a washer back there I'm sure that will not help matters at all.

That is what I want to hear, first that your getting good MPG and then that you had an awesome ride again, and of course what riding style you use to get that MPG. I tried to do 65-70 going to Hermosa then through Custer. I found I was doing 65 through some 45 mpg corners and didn't even realize it. I did set the cruise at 70 and this is the first time cruise worked as it should. I think with the increased speed not only is there wind resistance and the significant amount of HP it takes to keep a massive bike rolling at that speed (guess what that does to rear tires too) but with the increased revs and load lift the needles, so here come the main jets and needles dumping more fuel in. I went out on the super slab but I doubled back through Custer, Hill City, Keystone, Mt Rushmore area then 385/44 back home, the last half I was very grandfatherly with the loud handle and it chewed through that last half tank just as fast as 75mpg went through the first couple bars. I expect my riding style isnt helping a great deal but even when I'm gentle and 45-65 it still eats up bars on the gas gauge, it's almost as if it doesnt matter what I do. I'm thrilled to have all the other issues worked out on the bike and this is the only thing left so I'm grateful for that.

Thanks! It was a long process on the Vmax and I'm not expecting the Venture to let me off easy. As far as I know the needles are in the stock position. There are no shims and they are as far in as they can get. This is why I'm not clear on how to move them further in without altering or replacing the white cog that sits between the end of the slide and the needle clip. If I put the TCI back to stock the cops might cook it, they are resistorless, which the Ignitek can handle but I guess the OEM TCI could be damaged by the extra current drawn from lower primary resistance of the stick coils. I know the map that was done for the Ignitek was tailored for the Venture and I changed nothing other than adding a rev limit and dialing in the MAP sensor. So if the filter and needles dont get me up to the 40 mpg club I'll focus on the Ignitek. I would have left the stock TCI alone had I not planned on running unadulterated COPs and eventually using it to control Vboost. One thing I forgot to mention is that the poor MPG condition existed when I got the bike, before any other mods were done, I was in the 24-25 tops neighborhood so the mods did improve things to the tune of around 5mpg.

Free flowing intakes seem to play hell on CV carbs, I know your 100% correct. When I added a custom filter top airbox to the Vmax I had to put little brass jetted restrictor plugs into one of the small top ports to compensate. I realized the Venture was no different when I fired it up w/o the airbox in place to observe the action of the slides. The factory paper filter looks okay but maybe it's still dusted up. I like K&N mostly because I live on a dusty dirt road about 3 miles long and I have to flush/oil filters at least a couple times a year. Besides I found a used on on Ebay for $22 shipped, so I can remove that from the equation. Honestly I have never noticed any performance or MPG gains from a drop-in K&N on any vehicle aside from possible slight gain in WOT but in the case of these bikes where the intake restriction is notable to begin with and part of the design/tuning it may be different. I'm carrying over Vmax experience and I'm not sure where the cutoff is and where things will be different with the Venture. Once I had the Vmax leaned out and able to breathe the HP and MPG gains were significant and I found the V4 likes to be on the lean side of things. Someone that knows a bit more than I told me that in the case of the Vmax, if it's lean enough to hurt the engine it will not run correctly. There is a narrow window of having the mixture correct from the mains down and when your in that window the performance is awesome, and MPG is really nice too. So I'm at that place where I'm rulling out any defect with the bike causing inferior MPG and maybe just moving onto fine tuning. I think my plan of attack is to go with the K&N to lean it out a little and learn more about moving the needle in a half a clip. I think those two things should make quite a difference. My Yamaha V4 experience tells me that if it's for decent MPG that the performance should sort of go hand and hand with that.

Thanks, I had a look at those. I was wondering about the needles. For some reason I thought you could only shim them out to make it richer. I was unaware of shimming them inward, never thought of it. I bought a shim kit for the Vmax and ended up not using any of the shims, turns out the best position for go-to-jail acceleration was 2nd clip. I think I'll dig in and see how to shim them inward. I'm above 3000' and my rides often get me over 6000' so I could stand to lean it out, I'll bet I will pick up a little performance by leaning it out. Thanks and thats a fantastic looking machine, and weather! I made up some COPs so no plug wires or caps, brand new diaphragms installed and float levels set at 1.125" dry. no detectable vac leaks, brand new plugs gapped at .032". Brakes are fresh front and back. I thought the rear might be dragging a little but the rotor stays cool after highway rides. I dropped in several oz of Seafoam before the ride today but I just had the carbs apart. Figure it wont hurt to run some through anyway. It's running quite well.. I have a K&N coming and I'll see how I can move the needles in a little, my guess is that will help. If none of this helps I'll go into the Ignitek program and see whats there but as well as it runs I'm definitely leaning towards just getting to much fuel. I've got a few days of rain, I'll check the plugs and see what they look like this coming week. Thank you guys for all the help!

I'm looking through that. It's running quite well, it pulls pretty well from the basement on up. I was hoping to get around 40-ish but I cant seem to even get over 30. I suspect there is an issue that I'm missing causing the poor MPG. With 70k on the clock I guess the emulsion tubes could be worn but a close inspection of them and they appear perfect, not even the slightest oblonging of the port. No shims in the needles, I think the air filter is alright but I ordered a K&N just to rule that out. I live on a dusty road so it makes sense anyway. I do have an Ignitek so maybe I should do some checking and make sure I have the right map and parameters set. Today I hit 110 miles and I was well into the last bar on the fuel gauge, filled up and calculated 28.x mpg I'm going to go check out that thread.

Thanks Earl. So far so good but I'm glad to know who has the goods if I need them. About all thats left now is sorting out why I cant seem to break 30mpg.