Freebird

Selling the Slingshot freed up a lot of room in my garage. When I get the '05 sold, my wife will actually be able to get her Murano in the garage again. She hasn't complained though. The tractor, mowers, etc. are in the building that was once a greenhouse. It is 30' x 60' and FULL right now.

I know...it took me by surprise. I was just getting it ready to ship to you. Oh well......I really didn't want to bother you with it anyway.

I figured that would be he case. Oh well, I guess I'll have to decide which oil to use. I may try the Quicksilver. I know nothing about it.

I haven't taken but one and it's not real good. I posted it in the watering hole but here it is again.

You just never know but there is a guy coming tomorrow from the Cincinnati area who seems very serious about my '05. Didn't try to negotiate, may at some point, but said he was coming with cash in hand. Sounds like a nice guy and rides a '98 Royal Star right now. We'll see. Eileen was wanting me to keep both bikes but I really don't need two large touring bikes.

That's going to be hard for me. I've been using Mobil 1 in my bikes for over 20 years. They say that the VTwin formula is specifically designed for Harleys and I guess they don't require the JASO rating. Haven't checked my manual yet but I'll be the Yamaha does.

Thanks for the reply. It was sort of what I expected but I hoped I was wrong. Surely they will come out with a fix for that in the near future. Nobody wants their private conversations broadcast over the CB.

@ChiefGunner or anybody else who can answer this question. I haven't used the intercom system yet. I read early reports that the intercom was somewhat screwed up in that if you used the intercom with the CB on, it would transmit over the CB. If true, that is a terrible oversight and one that I hope Yamaha will address. In reading through the manual, I am a bit confused though. If I understand it correctly, if you turn on the VOX, then you don't need to push the talk buttons to use the intercom. In that case, I would think that your conversation would not transmit over the CB and you would simply use the talk button to transmit. Am I correct? If so, that seems like it would work just fine once you get the VOX adjusted to your liking.

I will be sure to do that ASAP. I know she is not going to like the fact that the backrest doesn't wrap around at all. On my RSV and the Harley, I had replaced the passenger backrests with a Mustang (Harley) and a Corbin (RSV) that wrapped around. She liked resting her elbows on the extended "armrests". I will come up with a solution for that as soon as possible. Saw a set of armrests that a guy built and they looked good but haven't seen anything on the market yet.

It's a good looking bike but in a different way. Much more modern look. That actually goes against everything I've ever looked for in a bike. I have always been a huge fan of the cruiser styling of the RSV. I've owned some first gens and was just never comfortable on them. To be honest, if the new SVTC had the engine that many VentureRiders had hoped for, it would probably have appealed to the first gen owners more than the RSV owners. I can tell you that it handles much better than the RSV and though I don't know about the lean angles, otherwise it handles more like a first gen except even better. Very crisp and responsive but with a great center of gravity. A difference though is the foot position. It still has the foot forward riding style that I am a fan of and a lot of first gen riders seem to prefer the feet under or slightly back position. I can tell you that with the modern styling, if it had the upright/feet under riding position, it would not have appealed to me. Though the styling is way out of tune with my past preferences for an old-style cruiser, this one appealed to me in a different way. Though I like the old cruiser style, I also love the muscle cars of the late 60's and early 70's. One of my favorite cars was a '74 Dodge Challenger that I wish I had never sold. A friend had a '72 (I think it was) Barracuda and I always drooled over that car. I read somewhere a quote from a Yamaha design engineer that said they drew cues from the Barracuda when they were designing the bike. I can somewhat see that influence and maybe that is why this one, though different, kind of reached out to me. For the V4 Die-Hards, I know that this one falls far short of expectations. For anybody who can get past that major obstacle though, this one is worth a test ride.

Great....did you find it yet?

I forgot to mention that before heading home from Buffalo on Friday, I met up with Bongobob for some very good BBQ. It had been a long day already and it was nice to sit a while and enjoy some good food and conversation. Thank you @bongobobny for taking the time. Much appreciated and was great to see you again.

Looks great and probably a nice relaxing sound late in the evening when it gets quite outside. Very nice.

Two Dutchmen talking about WHO is going to PAY....I'm sure you are BOTH shaking.

Well, I did order a couple more things today but they were absolute necessities.

I'm done for now. Except for finding a wiring harness/isolator for the trailer. Utopia backrest is ordered, ROX handlebar risers are ordered. Yamaha backrest is ordered, Hitchdoc receiver type hitch is ordered, Yamaha luggage rack is ordered. I want the lower wind deflectors but they will have to wait for a while. The piggy bank is looking pretty malnourished.

This story starts about 2 years ago. We hooked the Waverunners up and took them down to Lake Hamilton in Arkansas where my son and two granddaughters us for a few days or rest and relaxation. It was a great time but to cut right to the chase, while my son was out on one of the Waverunners giving my 4-year-old granddaughter a ride, she apparently got hold of the key and dropped it into the lake. OK, no big deal. It's an electronic fob that basically locks or unlocks the Waverunner. Since it was running when it happened, you can use it as normal but just can't lock it. It's more of a security feature and also you use it to enable a "low power" mode or "learning mode". It was in full power mode so that didn't matter either. Now fast forward two years. Eileen and I are heading back down to Lake Cumberland in Kentucky the middle of October for our annual houseboat trip. We try to go once or sometimes twice a year and spend about 4 days on a houseboat rental. They can suck up a lot of gas so we take the Waverunner down, find a nice quite cover to anchor down the houseboat, and use the Waverunners for exploring, going to the store, etc. The missing key has been nagging at me. Like I said, you don't need it but, I've always worried that due to some radio frequency or something that the Waverunner would get switch off or to low power mode and it would then be unusable or stuck in slow mode. The key fob is about $169.00 from a dealer but then you also have to pay to have it programmed as it takes a special programming system to do it. You can find the keys on Ebay for around $125.00 but then still have to schedule an appointment and pay a dealer to program it. So I just hadn't bothered to do it. Last week I ran across an ad on Ebay from a seller who had what he said were "new but not in original box" keys WITH the matched receivers for $150.00. Those receivers retail for around $360.00 alone so that was a very good deal and I ordered the set. They came in on Friday when I was busy going after the new bike and I never got around to looking at it until today. To be honest, when I opened the package, it was fairly obvious to me that the seller wasn't exactly honest about them being NEW but I figured as long as it works, I really didn't care. So I found some parts diagrams online to determine where the receiver is actually located and though, as with most things, it wasn't exactly easy to get to, it could have been much worse. First thing this morning I removed the necessary panels inside the front hatch and by twisting just the right way, I was able to reach in, unplug, remove the old receiver, and replace it with the new one. Tried the key and it worked exactly as it should have. So I was feeling pretty good that I finally got it back to working the way it was supposed to. Just for the heck of it, I decided to test the other Waverunner and guess what, it wouldn't work. The fob did nothing at all when I pushed the button. So I figured that as the Waverunners are two years old, the battery probably needed replacing. So I took it apart, removed the battery and headed to Walmart to pick up a new one. Got two because I don't know how old the one off Ebay is either. Got back home and put the battery in and guess what? Still NOTHING. Then it dawned on me. What if somehow, the key that I still had, somehow got put in the storage console of the wrong Waverunner. The only thing to do was to take it apart and replace the receiver with the one that I had taken out of the first one. Finally got that done, tested it, and sure enough, it works just fine. So now both are working as they should. Stupid is as Stupid does. A smart man would have double checked which Waverunner the key worked with before taking it apart.

So one thing that I noticed on the SVTC is that, as usual with most bikes, the horn is very wimpy. I will take a closer look today but have any of you looked at adding a louder horn yet? It is not my top priority but will need to be done. I don't know why the manufacturers don't realize how important a really good horn is.

Yours was one of the many reports that I read before making the final decision to purchase this bike. Your report was excellent but I knew before reading it that I would be in pain on the way home. That has been the case on ANY bike, including the Ultra Glide and the RSV, before adding the highway pegs and backrest. I've posted on this site in the past that, for me, a backrest makes all the difference between a pain-free 20-mile ride or a pain-free iron butt. So it came as no surprise. As for the maintenance, it would bother me too if I did not plan to do my maintenance myself as I always have. As for the valve checks, I expect that being as they are screw type adjustments, they won't be quite as difficult at the bucket and shim type. We'll see.

I've read where the experts say that all accidents can be avoided but I never really agreed with that. All you can do is keep your head in the game and take all reasonable precautions. So sorry to hear about the accident but so very happy that you are still here to talk about it. Hope that new Wing brings you many miles of joy.

So what you are saying is that SS threaded rod is weaker than SS threaded rod?

I do remember you. Welcome back You have a LOT of catching up to do.

Eileen is really kind of wanting me to keep both of them. I just really don't need them both though. I just got an email from a guy that wants to come look at it tomorrow. Don't know if he is serious about it or not. Either way, I will probably sell it or trade it for something.

I'm really going to try to take the time. I'll likely sell or trade the old one though. As much as I like it, I really don't need two bikes.