Seaking

Aww man... 'lame excuse #43" We want the pics!!

Hi Tony.. so you're pulling the clutch lever in with the cover ON? Otherwise you're going to get a spray of brake fluid coming up from the return hole at the bottom of the reservoir.. ?

Yes, new or used 2nd gen oem shocks are much cheaper than a Works shock, no doubt.. But when they fail at the rate they do, you're hedging your bets that you'll only ever have to buy the ONE Works shock and if that ever dies, it can be rebuilt.. I felt so ripped off when the second OEM shock I had installed on my bike died less than a year after it was installed, and just out of warranty period.. Instead of wasting my money on JUNK, I preferred to purchase something that is rebuildable and adjustable.. The preload is indeed a PITA to adjust once the shock is installed but with a little forthought you can easily adjust it in a matter of minutes without having to remove the shock..

Bleeding the clutch is simple and it helps to have a vacuum pump pulling the fluid down from the reservoir but you have to be careful not to suck air into the system from the top, so it's almost a two person job to be sure.. On the subject of speed bleeders.. I don't see how they work on the clutch system as the system has to be closed system to work. If you have the reservoir cap off, and pull in the lever, you get a fun squirt of fluid coming out of the reservoir return vent (little hole at bottom of reservoir.. The Speed Bleeders work with a spring loaded ball that when you pull in the brake lever, for example, the pressure built up pushes the ball aside, lets the fluid out and when you release the lever, the ball reseats itself and prevents air being sucked up back through the bleeder port.. that's why speed bleeders work great, you don't need two people to bleed brakes.. just apply the brakes and keep the reservoir filled as you watch the fluid go to a catch receptacle.. That's why I can't see a speed bleeder working on the clutch system.. ? Or am I missing something?

I have the Works shock on mine after going through two OEM shocks, the last one failing just a year after installing it, and just out of warranty time on the bike. The Works shock works great for me, and though you lose the 'air adjust' of the OEM shock, the Works shock is pre-load adjustable and rebound adjustable. Because the preload adjustment is harder to set on the shock, I think they ask you these various questions before hand as they will adjust the shock as close to what should be a proper preload (tension on the main spring) but you still have to do the pre-sag test and final adjustment on your own after you install it and set it up. I personally like a stiffer suspension ride and the Works shock is adjustable enough to give that for my tastes..

You're welcome.. but as Slab Ryder noted, you will indeed have to remove the handle bar from the bike to get the liquid form of Bar Snake down the tube.. Unless you drop the bike down on it's side.. But luckily the handle bar comes off easy.. And interesting thing about the bar snake I hadn't anticipated on, though they mention it on their site is that 'handling improvement' after install the bar snake.. I dunno about that when I read it but man.. yeah, talk about NICE! Not just maybe but definitely.. When street riding, I find the turns are easier to get into, almost to the point where I almost did a u turn at one corner, the bike turned that much easier, the bike wanted to lean more.. and on the highway, we have this one 2 lane highway onto another highway merge that has a nasty bump that always gives you a wobble wobble when you hit it, and it's right in the curve.. catches some people by surprise... But after installing the bar snake, man it's like a bump and nothing else.. I have no idea how or why the bar snake would make such a difference but I ain't complaining.. I'm SO impressed! Remember how much improvement you felt after installing Leveling Links? You FELT the difference... its the same thing with the bar snake.. you'll FEEL the difference.. impressive.

Hi guys, I installed a Bar Snake on my bike today and took the bike out for a 5 hour road trip and WOW.. thank you!! what a pleasure THAT was.. I suffer horribly from hand buzz on any bike, especially the left hand, very susceptible to hand buzz.. Annoying as heck.. but today, man that was the first ride in AGES where my hand didn't buzz, go numb or fall asleep.. I installed one on my bike, took me 90 minutes or so to figure it out how best to install it.. what parts needed to come off, what was the best way of doing it ect... And then installed one on my buddy's bike which took all of 30 minutes or so.. Simple easy and well worth the cost and effort to install. I'm SO impressed.. It doesn't take all the vibrations out of your handlebars but it attenuates those high frequency vibes that put your hands asleep.. done wonders for me! I ordered the HD-3L from http://www.barsnake.com Its longer than I actually needed, but that came in handy especially for installation.. The best time to install the bar snake is if you're switching from OEM grips to say something like Kuryaken ISO grips which seem so popular and comfortable to ride with.. Its best to do it at this time as you have to remove the handlebar threaded inserts that the OEM bar weights screw onto. To remove these threaded inserts, you'll find a shiny dimple under the handle bar ends. Best way to describe this is that they are soft welds that go through a hole in the handle bar and hole in the insert to hold it in place. Start with a small bit and drill a hole into this dimple, it's rather soft.. then a medium bit and then finally a larger one that takes up the whole hole to remove all the material and you'll find the threaded inserts are now free and easy to remove. If you're like me and already have the ISO grips installed and cannot remove the left one (glued on way too good) then you can still install the bar snake but will lack about 4 inches of it in the left side of the bar. Just in case someone is going to ask later, I'll add how I installed the bar snake on two bikes today.. the first one took 90 minutes and the second one easily 30 minutes since we figured out what worked and didn't work.. If you're going from OEM grips to ISO grips, then your work is tons easier.. Same installation process. The bar snake comes with a pull wire. The task is to pass this wire through your bars and attach the snake at one end of the wire and then pull the snake through the bar by this wire until the snake protrudes at the other end.. then you trim off the excess bar snake and that's it. But in reality, there's a little more to it.. This is how it's done with the left ISO grip in place.. Take the end cap off the left ISO grip to expose the hole in the end. Remove the right side switch cover. There are two phillps crews holding it in place. You'll have to loosen and move the brake reservoir clamp as well. (make a mark on the bar with a marker to relocate the clamp at the end of the task). Under the switch box, the wire bundle needs to be slid out of it's pinch hole. Both halves come apart and you can rest these on the bike's gas tank which you have covered with a towel or heavy blanket.. The right side ISO throttle grip can now be slid off the handle bar with ease, no need to loosen throttle cables. Inside the handle bar tub, you'll notice an insert with threads inside. This is where the OEM bar weights screw into. You will need to remove this by locating the shiny dimple near the end under the handle bar. Using first a small drill bit, then a medium then larger drill bit, you drill out the dimple which is made of softer material. Once you removed all of it, the insert will be loose and able to be removed. De-burr the resulting hold inside the handle bar to make sure it doesn't catch on the bar snake when passed through. Take the supplied pulling wire and make a small loop at the end of it, about the same size that you can slide a pencil through.. This will make it easier to pass it through the handle bar's tight bends.. Patiently thread the wire into the left side of the handlebar, being careful not to bunch it up if it hits a snag.. Starting off with a straightened wire without bends or kinks make it easier. You'll be able to feel it go through but most likely it will bind up just as you get it to the last bend of the handle bar.. and this is where the little loop at the end of the wire really comes into play.. Using a straightened out wire coat hanger with a hook at the end of it, start reaching into the right side of the handlebar to try and hook the little loop so that you can then pull the wire the rest of the way through.. Patience is a virtue here While you're doing all this, your bar snake has been soaking in VERY hot bucket of water to soften it up. Attach the pull wire that came out of the right side end of the handle bar to the end of the bar snake. One end is tapered with a reinforced hole for this task. You'll want to secure the wire so that it won't pull out or bind on it's way through.. I took a turkey baster and used it to blast about three loads of ordinary liquid dish soap into the right end of the handle bar in order to get it in deep. This is key to the task as it will allow the bar snake to pass through easily. The left end of the pulling wire is wrapped around a screw drive handle (a better grip to pull with). As one gent is ready to pull, the other gent has to lube up the bar snake with dish soap read to lube up the bar snake as it's going into the handle bar. And as one pulls on the wire at one end, the other guides and lubes the bar snake at the other end. We found it MUCH easier to pull the bar snake through if you twist the bar snake as it's being fed through. Because the bar snake is meant to be very tight inside the bar in order to do it's job, the twisting of the bar actually reduces it's diameter and makes it easier to slide in. You'll know you have almost pulled it all the way through as all that soap you squirted in comes pouring out of the left end of the handlebar, so have towels ready to catch it, and not get it on the bike or floor (slippery on the floor) As in both installation process, we found that you can pull the bar snake all the way up to the left side threaded insert, but as soon as you let go the pulling tension, the bar snake retracts on itself. What we found works best is to keep pulling on the wire, while the other gent is twisting and releasing the bar snake at the other end. The tension on the bar snake will pull in more of itself from the right side.. You'll know when all the tension is gone when you can't pull anymore from the left and no more bar snakes goes in from the right. Check it again in five minutes to make sure all that retraction tension is gone. Once satisfied that its completed, you can cut the bar snake's left end piece and put everything back together again. If you're installing a bar snake just before installing ISO grips, both threaded inserts can be removed and the bar snake can be pulled all the way through so you have some hanging out both ends.. Trim off excess at both ends and put everything back together again. Its a simple enough process, once you know the little tricks and idiosyncrasies of our bikes.. As I said, for me I feel it was money well spent and time well spent installing these. Its made lot of difference in my being able to ride without my hands going numb from hand buzz. If you need more info, drop me a line.. Cheers

Ahh you guys have all the right stores down there in the south.. We have nuttin but igloo renovation stores here.. I'm heading off tomorrow to a shop that is reported to have a stash.. hopefully I'll be able to find the right one.. Thanks again.

I would much appreciate them M8.. thanks..

I used to have an awesome tire gauge purchased years ago from Roadgear.. http://roadgear.com//ready-digital-tire-gauge-p-39.html?osCsid=511f930054c43a7b8504bb4dc4a73edd Unfortunately, I lost mine on an earlier road trip this year and bought a replacement and one for my buddy.. Unfortunately, the new version has turned out to be nothing but crap crap and more crap.. The company has been good enough to issue out new replacements without charge.. But those were not working properly either.. bad electronics in them like the previous ones.. then they sent again NEW gauges but those too were crap.. They acknowledged they discovered a bad production batch, either bad integrated circuit boards or bad batteries or both festering their stock.. So they sent me new gauges again (4th time now) and though one of the pair works, one of them failed miserably.. The alert is about how the seemingly working gauges reads 10 PSI too high of what the pressure actually is.. Every dead gauge that worked for a while then failed would read 10 PSI too high. My worry is that there might be a lot of people using these gauges and running around with too high of pressures in their tires.. Since some of us run our tires at the maximum ratings as it is, I would have to think what would happen on a long highway trip with 50 or 55 PSI in your tires? So if you have one of these gauges, do yourself the favour and double check them against another gauge to make sure you're not inadvertently heading for a dangerous situation..

I've hunted all over town since MAY to located those bolts and none to be had around here... I HAD been hoping that the seller was going to be able to get their heads out of their assets and finally send me the proper bolts.. But alas no..

Can anyone confirm for me that if you're to install a Kuryaken Throttle Boss on your Kuryaken ISO grips that you need LONGER bolts as the stock end cap bolts aren't long enough? My throttle boss came without the bolts. The company I purchased them from sent me replacement bolts.. but guess what... TOO SHORT.. Basically same length bolts as what's on there now.. OK, so they sent another set, which they promised me would come out of an existing Throttle Boss package... and you guessed it... SAME short bolts.. Either someone is peeing on my leg and trying to tell me it's just the rain, or Kuryaken is shipping their throttle bosses with the wrong bolts.. Can anyone confirm for me before I start going ape shyte on someone? Nice that I have this chrome chunk of metal and no means of using it.. 4 months and waiting now.. Seems Quality Assurance and Customer Service is starting to take a nose dive with some big name companies out there... this ain't the way to cut corners to save money in a bad economy as annoyed customers simply won't be back.. Cheers

Yeah no probs, I have ape hands and monkey toes.. The original poster confirmed something I have suspected all along.. the first gen bike levers are designed for girlie man hands.. the typical type of first gen riders I've encountered along the way

Just taking a wild guess like everyone else.. and was mistaken I just found on Baron's site a tach listed for the Venture, it comes with the adapter for a "single fire ignition". http://www.baronscustom.com/catalog/display/1062/index.html The PDF doc states that the adapter, which is required for SINGLE FIRE IGNITION systems, is NOT required for Venture.. "IT IS NOT REQUIRED ON 1980-2003 HARLEY DAVIDSON models using the stock Tach output from the bike (PINK wire), YAMAHA Road Star, Royal Star, RSTD, Venture or 1998 to 2010 Vstar 650 & 1100, KAWASAKI VN1500/VN1600 Models, HONDA VTX1300" I guess THAT says it all... But where is this PINK wire they refer to? The tach apparently has: GREEN WIRE provides the RPM count BLUE or YELLOW wire provides power for the illumination RED wire provides power to the Tach BLACK wire is for ground I would then assume that the GREEN wire goes to the coil itself? Can the 'Blue or Yellow' and the Red wire be powered from the same source? (any hot wire?) Cheers

Seems you guys up the highway always have to go heavier on the oil I always use Yamalube 10W40.. good for the whole year range of oil for around here..

I'm one of those poor sods who found out the HARD way why its a STUPID STUPID STUPID idea to hook your driving lamps to your headlight circuit.. and it almost cost me my life and or bike or both.. I had bought my bike used from a gent who bought it from the original owner so I don't know to whom these daggers should be pointed to but who ever wired the front end of the bike had done such a pissy job of it that the wiring was drooping into the steering stops and shorting out.. but I could never find the source.. Change the fuze, it would work but eventually later it would again blow a fuze.. trace all I could I simply couldn't find the short.. Well one night I'm coming home, it was deep dark night.. no moon.. no street lights.. nuttin.. And just as I'm cutting through a nice curve on the highway, out goes the lights.. head light and driving lamps.. DING! and there's a guard rail there somewhere in the dark, a curb and a heck of a deep ditch somewhere out there ahead of me.. For what ever reason, I kicked on the 4 way flashers and voila.. on and off I could see the orange guard rail.. dark.. orange guard rail.. dark.. until I could come to a safe stop.. after an underwear change and a fuze change, I made it back home and kept searching for the short until I found it and was able to resolve the issue once and for all.. Ever since, I'd never recommend anyone wiring their highway lights to the headlight.. Stupid and Dangerous! But that's just me.,

You oughta get that sticky shifter looked at...

Ya know... its a simple question which never gets a simple answer.. frustrating at times. When you purchase a tach, it requires you to know if you have a single or dual fire ignition.. So the answer silly people like us just want to know is "single" or "dual" fire ignition.. cuz that's how the question is posed.. not the book answer of bendal torque rotor sludge pump limple induction system 3... cuz that doesn't answer the question as it was posed.. But the answer, after all of that.. is .. "SINGLE fire ignition" (same as newer HD bikes) Shame I had to find the answer somewhere other than here =( I do appreciate the answers supplied, though..

I think once a year is enough but for the peace of mind and a few bucks, I guess you can't change it too often.. I should know, when I got my used bike, the filter was getting close to clogged and while learning the bike and it's maintenance it clogged up and caused a lot of cascading issues down the line.. (premature pump failure etc).. As Goose described, that's the easy way to change the filter.. for people with normal sized hands.. Thems of us with ham hocks for hands tend to want to relocate the filters

Looking around for a new tach and that old question pops up again.. Single Fire Ignition or Dual Fire Ignition on our bikes? I promise to write it down this time.. I did a search and couldn't find it in previous posts.. (a lot of posts about tachs) Thanks in advance.

My buddy's 2008 shock recently went after 80,000 kms..

My experience.. (A) Tires.. Dunlop Elite 3 tires run best, I get a lot of miles out of mine, running them 39 front 41 rear.. ME880s were awesome on my VStar, no issues, great handling and long life.. but from all accounts they suck on our bikes. One tech told me is that instead of formulating the compounds around (harder in the centre and softer on the sides) they instead tightened the centre belts more which now wreaks havoc on the rubber.. No idea how true that is but I've never had problems with ME880's on other bikes.. but won't put them on this one.. (B1) Most of Pinwalls parts come from crashed or dropped bikes.. They state they 'check them out for serviceability but how well can they actually do it? I dunno.. some parts yes, others I doubt it.. (B2) If you haven't smacked your controller (killing it or what ever) you should split your front fairing and look at the connectors that are found to the right side of the radio box.. you cant miss them, they are the BIG connectors.. I believe its the BLUE cable that goes to the controller. I had a lot of issues of mine jarring loose due to the nice pot holes found in the road.. If all your connectors to the speakers and radios etc are fine, then check this one.. I resolved this issue by making a 'cinching harness' with 4 zip ties that effectively cram both ends together and never had a problem since.. Best of luck

$25 for a FUEL filterr?? Dood, someone is pulling a Chinook over your eyes.. They are under $10 each.. I just bought two of them recently.. wow, $25 huh? Gold plated is it? I change mine often enough that I relocated my filter out of that black hole of Calcutta and put it up more (secured) so all I have to do is remove the seat and access it from there.. There is enough hose at both ends to relocated it without pinching the hose or squeezing it.. Haven't had any issues with it like that since..

2006 with two OEM shocks and now riding with Works! shock.. if I'm gonna have to spend money replacing a shock, might as well get one that can be rebuilt and serviced.. Talk about built in crap..

Blinker fluid.. LOL.. now I like that one.. Goes along with the Bendel Torque Rotor Sludge Pump... oooh... my belly hurts... lol