Freebird

By the way, here is the place that I found the one that I bought. It was not listed on his page but I emailed him and he had it. If you look at the brands in the left menu, you will see a number of German manufacturers and many of them are made in Soligen. https://www.allaboutpocketknives.com/catalog/index.php?route=common/home&member_id=51&store_mode=standard

Soligen is actually a city in Germany that is renowned for their knife makers. You will find a lot of German knives that are from Soligen. Fight'n Rooster hasn't made a full line of knives in several years, not sure how long. After Frank Buster passed away, his son Sterling Buster sort of partially kept the company going but all they actually made was a couple of special editions per year I think. If you search, you can find some Fight'n Roosters out there but they are all either new old stock or used. There are quite a few on Ebay but finding this particular one was difficult. I was told by a collector that this one is a 3 blade Congress with "Crown" bolsters. He also told me that it was the first production run and would be difficult to find. I think I got lucky. I know it was a Congress, I had always heard the bolsters called "pinched". I had no idea it was the first production run. I guess you can tell that by the design of the shield. The shields changed over the years.

Asking wasn't the answer. More than a few hours of searching and emailing vintage knife dealers is what worked. I emailed a lot of them and finally found it. He didn't have it on his website but had a couple that were similar so I emailed him and he replied that he had one. Actually two, the other one is smooth bone though. I like stag. Frank Buster, the founder of Fight'n Rooster passed away a few years ago. He son kept it going somewhat for a while but only produced a few knives a year. From what I understand, they are out of business now.

Not sure what you mean by "dedicated forum". I created a forum right there with First Gen, Second Gen, etc. a year or two ago. It is ready to go.

Well looky looky what I found. Wasn't easy but it's on the way.

I posted a picture of it in the first thread. It is 3 blade congress. Stag handles. Pinched or "crown" bolsters. About 3 1/2" closed. The main blade is a sheepsfoot.

I would love to do that but it's not likely. My weekends are pretty full right now with running the stairlift business on the side.

As for the knives, I used to buy and sell a lot of them. Usually kept a couple hundred at a time. Mostly new stuff and I had accounts with all the major distributors and bought some directly from the manufacturers. Started out on the cheap selling Parker Frost Japanese knives. They actually weren't bad knives and were coming out with new "collections" almost every month. From that though, I got into the higher end knives and sold a lot of Case, Puma, Boker Tree Brand, Hen & Rooster, and my favorite, Fight'n Rooster. I was working at a power plant in Texas at the time. Every morning I would get to work early and would have three or four knife rolls with me. There were several hundred people working there and they would come in when I was sitting in the break room before work and drinking coffee and ask "what do you have today". I would unroll the knives and they would start picking through them. Sold a LOT of knives during those days. When I left that job, I also left that customer base so sold most of my remaining stock to another guy that I worked with and I assume that he kept the business going. Over the years, I have gradually sold or given away the ones that I had hung onto. I may have 6 or 7 laying around now but nothing really worth anything.

LOL....some things just hang around. I've been carrying the same pen for almost that long.

I have a knife that I've been carrying for more than 30 years and it is in pretty rough shape now. I use to sell and collect knives and once owned hundreds of them but divested of them a long time ago. This was my favorite carry knife though and I would like to replace it with another just like it. It is a Fight'n Rooster. It may have been called a 3 blade congress or maybe a 3 blade whittler. If any of you know of anybody who collects and sells Fight'n Rooster knives, please let me know.

I tell you, the more I see about it the better I like it. I actually like the styling a lot. It has about everything we had on our wish list with the exception of the V4 engine and yes, I know that is a major thing. The only thing though that really concerns me is the heat. My main concern with the heat is my wife's comfort because the heat on her legs and feet on the Road Glide was pretty brutal and from what I'm reading in some of these tests, that is also a problem on this bike. That being said....uh....I want it.

Well, I've read three of them so far and they all commented on the heat. Apparently, it is going to be an issue for at least some people. One of the articles said that it was hotter than the HD Dresser but not as hot as the Indian. The heat on my Road Glide was about the only thing I really didn't like about it so if the new Venture is hotter than that, it's not a good thing for me. Otherwise, the reviews seem to be very good.

Great job. Looks like you saved one.

Anybody want to start discussing a 2018 International Rally?

I know exactly which one you are looking at Dan. It looks nice. I do know that there were some issues with the early K1200LT models. Something about the rear seals or something, I don't remember. The trike conversion may have eliminated that issue, not sure.

I agree. I wouldn't do another thing until I took it and had it load tested. Heck, 10 years old, I wouldn't even bother. I would just replace it. If it's not bad, it will be before too long.

Very nice. I think you'll get great service from it. Eileen and I love her Murano.

With that many miles, especially if the steering bearing has never been greased, you will probably need to replace them if that is the issue. The race likely is worn and tightening them will probably not help much. Here is a thread of how to do a quick tightening though. http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?511-Tightening-the-Steering-Head

Well, I'm surprised that switching from 91 to ethanol 87 corrected the problem. I'm just saying that 91 is way overkill for that motor. Would it hurt anything? I wouldn't really think so. I would love to winter store my engines with non-ethanol but the only place to buy it here is the pumps at the marinas and that is usually a long way to lug a can or cans of gas.

That would certainly prevent it from working. The coil can't work without the ground wire. Hope that was your only problem.

Our bikes do not need high octane gas. I never run anything but 87 in mine. Ethanol free would be great but I just can't get it around here.

I just looked because I considered purchasing a plan for us but the only plan that allows 3rd party hosting is the Plus 500 plan. That is $40.00 per month so that's out for me. Sorry. I've always encouraged people to upload any pictures to our site. There have been too many times when a good tech thread was rendered useless because the photos were hosted elsewhere and then eventually deleted from the remote site so no longer showed up in the thread.

Yes it is.

Not stock. They came with no cover of any kind. Sounds like you have the Wagner cover. Steve was a great guy and a long time VentureRider member. He made many of them but sadly was taken away too early by the dreaded disease of cancer. I have one of his covers on my '05 also. Great product.

Sent you a PM. I'll take it if nobody has already asked.