Freebird

Oh trust me...it had plenty of bug splat. Eileen and I recently did about a 275 mile ride on a Sunday while the Cicadas were still active. It was covered with them. Took a lot of cleaning before I took those pictures.

You need to learn how to take and add pictures here. Don't you know....

That would be fun but the funds are not there. I would have to sell this one first and I really don't want to do that right now. Yea, in Ohio all trailers have to be registered and they consider a trailer a trailer. Regardless of the size. Oh well. I may at least get the guy who made my license plate frame for the bike to make me one for the trailer. The VentureRider frame.

He will have to answer which ones he has but any of them for the Harley Touring bikes will work with a simple bracket fabrication. A lot of people here have installed Harley take-offs on the RSV and RSTD. So any mufflers made for the Ultra Classic, Road Glide, Street Glide will work just fine.

A few more pictures. With the trailer this time.

The PlastiDip worked great. They will be a flat black when looked at on the back side but will look glossy on the front. The nice thing is that if you ever want to do something different, it should just pretty much peel off. I did notice at the auto parts store that Duplicolor has a LOT of peelable rubber paints now so there are several other colors available if you want to try something different.

I just went out and measured mine. My hitch was made by @Carbon_One . It appears that the rear of the tube is about the same distance from the tire as yours. My other measurements are different probably because I have the leveling links on my '05 and they raise the rear of the bike. Mine measures about 12 3/4" to the center of the tube. The bottom of the chrome fender trim is about 14" from the floor. The top of the tube is pretty much right up to the chrome trim on the fender. I also pull a Bushtec trailer and it uses a pin type hitch that I think with the base and etc., is a little taller than a ball but haven't measured so am not sure. At any rate, I use a stinger with a step down so that the trailer sits level when connected. I think that is what is important. It will depend upon the tongue height of your trailer. You can always build or buy a stinger with the proper step down or step up to level it out.

Heart breaking to learn that such a little darling is having to endure so much. Prayers said for her and the doctors. I hope that they find the cause very soon and successfully treat it.

Looks like a good time. Wish I could have been there. I actually saved the information and was going to try but had to take Eileen to the airport this morning and it was too late when I got back.

They are Dunlop. I'm personally not a fan of them but they were on there when I bought it. I'll probably go with Dunlop E3s or E4s if they are available in the right size when I'm ready. Whatever, I will go to black walls.

and the last of them

More

OK folks. I finally got around to taking some pictures of my '05 Royal Star Midnight Venture. I know that there are many here just as nice but this one is mine so I'll show it off a little. A lot of extras on it. A lot was already on it when I bought the bike. Some more was added over the past month or so. Not a whole lot more that I want to do. A couple of things that I'll get around to sooner or later. The only thing that I will be doing VERY soon is adding the longer SS throttle cables. The stock cables are just a bit tight with the RSTD bars that I installed today. Here is list of extras that are on it. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but this is most of it. 2005 Yamaha Royal Star Midnight Venture Russell Day Long heated seat Utopia backrest covered by Russell to match Corbin passenger backrest covered by Russell to match Yamaha ball milled air filter covers Yamaha ball milled carb covers Yamaha ball milled twinky covers Yamaha luggage rack Yamaha passing lights Yamaha chrome front gas tank bolt covers Yamaha chrome passenger floorboard backing plates Yamaha front fender guard Yamaha saddle bag guards Yamaha saddle bag liners Yamaha Headlamp and turn signal visors Yamaha chrome oil cap Yamaha tail light visor Yamaha Chrome passenger floorboards Yamaha Chrome rider floorboards Yamaha Royal Star Tour Deluxe handlebars The Diamond Cut Guy triple cut cooling fins. The Diamond Cut Guy triple cut saddle bag hinge inserts KuryAkyn Longhorn highway pegs KuryAkyn Iso Grips with throttle rocker KuryAkyn bar end weights KuryAkyn brake mounted GPS mount for my Garmin Zumo 665 KuryAkyn riders drink holder KuryAkyn passenger drink holder Show Chrome folding flag mount for VentureRider flag Dyna 3000 ignition module Carbon One crash bar stiffeners Carbon One trailer hitch Carbon One leveling links Harley Davidson auxiliary rear tail and brake lights Harley Davison visors for auxiliary tail lights Yamaha trunk spoiler with LEDs Show Chrome chrome ignition bezel M61A1MECH auxiliary wiring harness and bullet connectors for lights and hitch Harley touring mufflers or Yamaha RSTD mufflers depending on my mood Ace High Leather Tank bib and chap combo Ace High Leather Saddlebag lid covers Ace High Leather gas cap cover Truck Lite HID headlight and driving lights Stainless Steel front and rear brake lines Wagner Grill Guard Slowrollwv polished stainless wind deflectors and brackets

While I had the fairing split this morning, I figured it was a good time to go ahead and paint the wind deflectors at the bottom of the fairing. I had though about trying some window tint, vinyl, various things but I didn't have any of those and it was already apart so I made do with what I had. I had a couple cans of black spray paint that I started to use but then came across a can of black PlastiDip. I figured why not. If I didn't like it I could peel it off after it dried. It actually turned out very nice. I like them much better than when they were clear. Of course I just sprayed the back side of them.

On the '99 RSV, I had installed the Flanders bars. I later heard people talking about how the RSTD bars gave you the same effect as the Flanders. So, decided to try the RSTD bars on the '05 and bought a set off one of our members. He DID neglect to tell me that they did not come with the auto installation option. So this morning I got up bright and early and did the swap. Another thing that has been discussed here at length is "do you need longer clutch and brake hoses and longer throttle cables. Some say that you do, others say that the stock lines work fine. When I installed the Flanders bars on the '99, I bought all new SS brake, clutch and throttle cables. I decided this time to see how they would work with the stock stuff. So now I can honestly tell you that YES, the stock lines and throttle cables will indeed work. That being said, I do not recommend it. There is a big difference between something really working right and getting by with it. Now this bike already had the SS brake lines but I don't know if they were any longer than stock or not. I will say that you can get enough slack in the brake and clutch lines but the throttle cables are an issue. They were binding up so I decided to try and reroute them. I did manage to get them rerouted but they make a couple of bends that they really don't like. Everything is installed and I can ride the bike. but later today I will order now throttle cables and change them out ASAP. The problem is, no matter how I routed them, the throttle just won't return to idle like it should. It is not real tight but just tight enough that I can't get the throttle to return without helping it a bit and I don't like that. As for the actual bars, I will say that yes, they pretty much give you the same affect as the Flanders. The only real negative is that they are a bit wider at the base so they block the 12V plug in the lower fairing a bit. I think it could still be used but haven't tried it. The attached pictures give you some idea about the difference in the RSV and the RSTD bars. As you can see, the RSTD bars have a couple inches more pull back than the RSV bars and that is what I was wanting.

I kind of agree that the handling would suffer if ALL you did was lower the rear. These bikes already sit a little low in the rear. That is why many of us add the "leveling links" to raise the rear about an inch and it does improve the handling. So lowering it even more than stock would certainly not improve the handling. I firmly believe that if you DO lower the rear, then you need to lower the front as much as possible to try and level out the bike.

I haven't really looked at any of them. The only one I belong to is the Murano forum and I've only visited there a handful of times and posted 3 or 4 times. http://www.nissanmurano.org/forums/

Yes, that is what it's for. Any member can auction items there.

I have learned that in spite of even having OWNED a 2013 Road Glide, I don't know everything about their mufflers. There were a few years that you want to avoid because they had a catalytic convertor in the ride side muffler. They later stopped doing that and now put it in the pipe before the mufflers. I thought that was all that you had to watch for. I have now learned though that not all the touring mufflers from Harley are the same. I had bought and installed a pair on the '99 and to be honest, they looked good but were only a tiny bit louder than the stock RSV mufflers. I'm not even sure that they were louder at all. My 2013 Road Glide was not loud either. Even after I removed the catalytic convertor from the header pipe they were not at all loud. When I bought the '05 Midnight, the seller told me on the phone that it had Harley mufflers on it. That was fine with me because I knew they would not be obnoxious. When I went to get the bike I was shocked at how loud it was. I looked inside the rear of the mufflers and saw that they had no full block off type baffles like my previous ones had. They were baffled but you could see all the way through them. I think he told me that they came off a newer Street Glide. He had three sets of Harley mufflers there on his shelf. We looked at them and all three sets were baffled differently. I never could understand why some folks here reported that the Harley mufflers were loud and others claimed that they were at the most just slightly louder than stock RSV mufflers. I now understand the differing reports. It does depend on which mufflers you get. The current ones on my '05 sound good but just a little louder than what I prefer. I'll get tired of them soon enough and have a pair of RSTD mufflers with the tips ready to go on it.

LOL...I wish I had that kind of money. I don't ride the one I have enough.

I think that the hitch points are fine but if it is of concern, there is a hitch on the market that attaches at more points. It is made by Hitchdoc and I personally think that it is overbuilt but would certainly be a choice for anybody who feels that more is needed.

WHAT? You are supposed to REMOVE IT?

It is about as clean a used bike as I've ever seen. Yea, maybe the price is a little high but I think somebody will pay it. To be honest, if I were in the market, I would try to buy it and if they turned down my offer, I would probably pay that price for it. It is in Tulsa, OK.

Sad story on so many different levels. A fire is bad enough but to learn that it was caused by family and the devastating effect it continues to have just adds so much more sorrow. I'm really sorry that you are having to go through all of this. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.