Freebird

OK....that's a decent response...you are therefore re-sentenced to SINGLE secret probation. Beautiful bike.

Well we are glad you are back and the new bike sounds GREAT.....BUT.....this was your first post since sometime in December. You can't just sell a Venture and then disappear until you buy another one. We are family...doesn't matter what you ride. THEREFORE...by the powers vested in me....actually I just now vested such powers....you are now on DOUBLE SECRET PROBATION! So there...now you've done it.

Oh my friend...she is cute...I admit that. But mine is cuter.

I guess I got lucky. I drove almost 3,000 miles going to and returning from Texas last week. I bought gas as cheap as 1.49 along the way. Could have been a lot worse huh.

Have the springs ever been changed? That is often the cause of the bottoming out.

Once upon a time, there were some on the market but that was long ago. You may eventually find one used somewhere but they are pretty rare.

My mother. Grace Helen Nelson. February 4th 1934 - March 7th, 2016

I just use the included Safari on my MacBook Pro and like it fine. I've always used Firefox on the Dell Laptop but it isn't working very well on Windows 10. It is my work computer and I seldom use it for browsing the Internet but when I get time, I'll look into it and see if there are some settings that need changed, an update available, or whatever. It works sometimes but often I get the "program is not responding" message.

Last Monday, March 7th, I was getting ready to head off to wherever to start my work week when I received a call that my mother in NE Texas was quickly fading from this world. I checked on airline flights and etc. but due to the timing and the expense of a last minute flight, I decided to make the drive. So I immediately threw some things in the car and headed to Texas. It was about a 1100 mile drive, 16 hours or so, and I planned to drive straight through. I didn't make it in time. I received the call later in the afternoon that mom had passed. She was 82 years old but we had no indication that there were any serious health issues and the women on her side of the family usually live into their late 90s at least. So in spite of her age, it was very unexpected. For some reason I felt the need to keep on driving in spite of knowing that I was too late. Around midnight though, I was having a hard time staying awake behind the wheel so did the smart thing and got a room in Little Rock, Arkansas for about 4 hours. Me killing myself or somebody else on the road was not going to change things for the better. I got to Mt. Pleasant, TX around 9:00 on Tuesday morning. Went to the funeral home and helped make the arrangements and etc. Eileen happened to already be in Texas, in Granbury visiting her son, daughter in law and grandkids. So on Wednesday I drove to Granbury to pick her up so that she could go with me to the funeral on Thursday. It was a small graveside ceremony as my mom had always said that she wanted. I ask your prayers because I am having a difficult time with this. Not that my mom passed away, I know that we all will sooner or later. The thing is, my mother was a loving and caring mother when we were growing up. She deeply loved me, my brother and my sister. I guess I would have to say that she was the over protective type. She loved us to the extreme and though we certainly got our share of spankings, at least I did, she was the type that thought that her kids could do no real wrong. We weren't rich but her and dad provided for us and we were never hungry on in need of anything important. Over the past few years though, mom became a different person. Spiteful, hateful, just not always a pleasant person to be around. Over the past week people have been very kind. Telling me the usual things like "you now have another angel looking over you"....that type of thing. The problem is, I don't know if it's true. I'm having a hard time with this because I honestly don't know if mom was a Christian or not. I have no idea. We never went to church very much and usually only on the major Christian holidays. I never remember her talking much about church, God, Jesus or salvation. My aunt says that she remembers a time that mom professed her acceptance of the Lord but if so, it was long before I could comprehend it. Maybe before I was born. I just don't know. As a Christian it's the most important thing to me that I believe that my loved ones are with the Lord after they pass from this world. It is something that I can't know and will have to live with. I feel guilty and ashamed that I don't know the answer to those questions. That I never talked to mom about it and knew where she was in her spiritual life. It is something that I will simply have to live with until I too leave this world. I didn't visit her as often as I should have over the past few years primarily because she was difficult to be around. I should have done so anyway. I should have just accepted her as she was and tried to find a way to bring some happiness to her life. I can only pray now that she has found the peace that so often eluded her during her time here on Earth. She was my mother. I did love her and I thank her for the caring person that I remembered from our youth. If you are one who believes in the promise of life after death, please say a prayer for her and for our family. I am back home now. Got home late Saturday evening. The world seems a little different now but I know that things will get back to normal soon enough. If there is a loved on in your life that you care about but somewhat avoid for whatever reasons, try to find it in your heart to make amends and be there for them even if it's difficult. We never know how much time we have left to show them that we do love them.

You say that it holds in 4th but drops out in 5th. Make sure that you are not running in 5th at too low of RPMs. If you are in hilly country or fighting heavy headwinds, you may be losing enough speed in 5th to cause it to drop out. If the speed drops too much, the cruise will automatically disengage. It's not the cruise that is causing the speed to drop, it's the bike not having enough torque in 5th gear under those conditions to maintain the set speed.

Here is an interesting read about States with no State income tax. There are positives and negatives. http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/state-with-no-income-tax-better-or-worse-1.aspx

Here's some more. Their announcement for the 2016 Star Line. Most of these bikes are not on the Star Website though. https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/motorsports/news/article/2059/yamaha-introduces-the-balance-of-its-2016-star-cruiser-model-lineup Apparently this is their top of the line touring bike now. Pretty sad really. Nice bike but certainly not in the same class as the Venture. That is only about $400.00 less than I paid for my brand new RSV in 1999. At the top of the V Star lineup is the V Star 1300 Deluxe, a fully-loaded V-twin bagger with a fairing, integrated dash, modern audio system with GPS, and locking hard bags. For 2016, the V Star 1300 Deluxe is offered in Charcoal Silver with an MSRP of $14,090. It will be available in dealerships beginning in January.

It almost looks like Yamaha is killing the Star Motorcycles brand. If you actually just enter http://www.starmotorcycles.com in the browser, it takes you to the Yamaha site where it used to take you to an actual Star Motorcycles site. There they still show some other models like the V Stars and etc. It says a lot though that even now, they are still advertising discontinued models as old as 2014. They must of had some serious over production issues. https://www.yamahamotorsports.com/street-motorcycle/models/lineup/street-motorcycle#cruiser-touring

I don't think that the ones from Nancy will be any cheaper but definitely better quality. Her quality is fantastic.

I agree that they are made in many countries but the majority and coming from Asia. I have toured the GE plant here in Cleveland. Very impressive facility and I actually saw LEDs being manufactured. It is actually more of a research and development site though. Once they have it all designed and working as they want it to, most of the mass production is farmed out to Asian companies. From what I can find online, it appears that less than 20% of the LEDs on the market are actually made in the USA. While Osram is headquartered in Germany, they have LED production facilities in China. I think that Cree may manufacture some LEDs in their North Carolina plant but they also have production facilities in Hong Kong and in China. I may be wrong but I still tend to believe that MOST LEDS are coming from Asia. That does not mean that some are not better than others. I'm sure that companies like Cree and Osram very likely have higher specs than some others might. I agree with you though that the optics play a very big part in the end result. I know that Campfire removed the original lens and went with a clear lens.

Last I heard, Hopnel is no longer available. I know that they were bought out by somebody...don't remember who. After that, I think the Venture items were discontinued.

They have a high and low beam. Note, this is just the bulb to replace your standard H4. My bike has deal H4s so two of these would work great. Now this may not be a good option for some because I think that it helps a lot if you have a clear lens like many newer bikes do. My bike does have a clean lens so that's not an issue. Like I said, for me, I was spend the $40.00 to find out. http://www.ebay.com/itm/281684968187?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_sacat%3D0%26_nkw%3D281684968187%26_rdc%3D1

I don't know for sure but I would suspect that MOST LED lights are made in China. Regardless of who is selling them and under what name. My company has done a good bit of research into LEDs to use in the sign industry. We even looked into manufacturing our own LEDs in house. It turned out to not be feasible though. After tracing everything that we could find back to the source, it seems that they all came from China. Now it is possible I suppose that the assembly is being done for some of them in the USA or elsewhere the the actual LED unit is likely coming from China. Our member @campfire12 was here at the house a few weeks ago and was telling me about the LEDs that he bought off Ebay for his first gen. They came from China. It was in the $20.00 range and he says that they are fantastic. I will probably be ordering some of them for my Road Glide. It has dual headlights so I will have to order two of them of course. Still, for the money, it is certainly worth a try.

Looks great. My '99 had one on it when I sold it to Yammer. I assume it still does. For anybody wanting more information about this great but simple modification, there is a write up here: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?3768-Harley-License-Bracket-Light-Install

Dave gave you good info. If that doesn't help, there is a troubleshooting guide in the service manual that you might try. If you don't have a service manual, you can download a .pdf copy in the Tech Library area.

Moved your post to the First Generation Tech Talk area. I think you will get more responses here as that is what we call a First Gen on this forum. '83 - '93 would be first get and '99 and newer are second get. Welcome again.

Not buying that for a moment. How many hours? I tell you, I woke up this morning to about 4" of new snow. You aren't causing any trouble? Then turn off that blasted machine. I was in Flint on Tuesday and it snowed like crazy. Headed back to Detroit for a couple of days and it followed me there. Headed back home and it followed me home. STOP HOMING IN ON MY BUMPER. and NO...I did NOT drink the water while I was in Flint.

Thank you folks. It was a quiet but great day. My lovely wife makes every day special and this one was even more so. I am truly blessed to be able to count so many people as friends.

LOL...gotta love spell check. It always knows what you mean huh?

LOL..you would be amazed at how often I feel like my head is somewhere like that.