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Seaking

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Everything posted by Seaking

  1. Seaking
    Time line wise I think we'll be in TX heading north east by then I believe.. however, if we're delayed due to weather (still potential of snow storms up here in May) we should really try to touch base =) Cheers
  2. Seaking
    Thanks Mike, we're looking at various angles of this trip.. I think we're going to beat feet to south of NY, since we've been all over the north upwards from there, anything south is virgin roads to our biking. So we might boot it down to the keys to where I presume is the southern most tip of the USA? and after that its meandering back north.. Certain things to see that caught our attention is the SkyLine and Dragon's Tail.. still have to figure out exactly where these are.. We picked up the 'large map' of places and will start route planning later this week etc.. Thanks for the input.. we'll certainly give it a look.
  3. Seaking
    Typically, anything that can fit on a Harley Road King etc will work on a Venture, if you have the plate adapter etc..
  4. Seaking
    We both spent time out in Saskatchewan so we know what it's like live out in the prairies.. a nice quiet stillness about it.. actually looking forward to that part of the trip in IL and IN.. But yes, we are indeed passing through Kentucky.. a small part of it mind you.. coming up from Arkansas, Tennessee and Missouri.. What part of Kentucky are you referring to? A lot of this trip is incidental to our RTD date..
  5. Seaking
    Ya'll huh? lol.. EH? depending how the trip goes and what we'll be doing, I plan to post to the message board along the way.. (WiFi thru iPhone works awesome).. I'll grab that list, thanks =) never thought of that..
  6. Seaking
    Awww crap.. we cant leave that early.. I wish I had known though, we could have planned it earlier.. dang..
  7. Seaking
    LOL I'm in Halifax and people don't understand why we show up in Charlottetown for lunch.. "why not".. we did all the little diners in Nova Scotia.. =) That's whats fun with a Venture.. go for lunch.. be back tomorrow.. =) Last year, I showed up at my buddy's place and asked him if he wanted to go out for a coffee.. we returned 10 days later lol
  8. Seaking
    Having shared all this, please, anytime any of you folks are coming up to Nova Scotia, drop me a line.. I usually have waaaayyy too much time on my hands in the summer and would love to meet up with some fun riders.. Cheers
  9. Seaking
    LOL dood, we live ON the Ocean right here.. surrounded by water in Nova Scotia.. LOVE the water.. Last May my buddy and I did that region you described.. 90'F that noon hour and by supper time we were freezing in 36'F weather in NH LOL.. wow.. LOVE that time of year..
  10. Seaking
    OOH.. don't cha hate invites like that eh? lol.. We'll be web portable when on the road.. and should be able to keep in touch through here.. it would mostly depend on our progress and time frame to see if we can make it to that part of TX, M8.. I hope so.. hehe.. might as well try to make it down to the Mexico border and say hi.. =) Many thanks M8.. much appreciated.
  11. Seaking
    AWESOME!! M & E's are similar to what our club does.. WE are an "eating club with a riding disorder" lol.. TOO funny.. The way you describe your trips is basically how we're going to be doing ours.. 1st target down to Key West Florida and what ever else in between, then to the NE corner of Texas and meander our way north and east again.. basically like that.. =)
  12. Seaking
    I bought my used 2006 Midnight with 20,000 miles on it in 2008 for around $11,000 cdn which was a good deal.. but I had to do a lot of minor mending and adjustments to it to make it perfect.. But YOU got a spiffy trailer with it as well? Dang.. wash off that horse shoe and send it up here..
  13. Seaking
    Thanks Stud and jlh3rd, we drop you a line prior to the trip to touch base.. (what's an M&E?).. We have a couple of specific stops in PA to do (Sky Doc etc) We're playing this trip by ear.. no set targets per day etc.. all we will be keep track on is the return trip home requirements.. if we take longer on this trip and can't get all those states under our belts, then by a certain date we need to know that we have to beat feet for home and get back to work to earn $$ for the next trip =) tis the ONLY way to live.. hehe
  14. Seaking
    Ah sweet, see this is the genre of information I'm looking for.. Each state has something to offer but if ya never been there, ya wouldn't know.. =) Thanks again! I'll most likely be in touch later on. Cheers M8
  15. Seaking
    I'm only 5'8" with a 30" inseam and I have risers on my bars as I prefer a nice sit back position to ride.. all day long.. hehe..
  16. Seaking
    Hi Glenn, last summer my bike went through two events that had the mechanics baffled at first until we discovered what was happening.. (A) the bike would "run out of fuel" before getting to the reserve level.. even if I turned the petcock to Reserve it wouldn't help.. however, if I added more fuel it would run again.. So strange.. but it would do this always when the fuel got down to a certain level.. what was happening is that the fuel filter was sooo badly clogged, none of the previous owners had ever changed it since 2006. When the fuel level in the tank got down to a certain level, there wasn't anymore head pressure to help push the fuel through the filter and the fuel pump would basically not be able to suck enough fuel through the filter, thus shutting the bike down from fuel starvation. After a lot of humming and hawwing.. I changed the fuel filter and ting, all was good after that.. Fuel filters have that nice pink look to them.. the one I pulled out was gunk black.. (B) the second incident was worse. At various unpredictable times, the bike would simply shut down. No rhyme or reason why.. but so infrequent, no one could figure out what was causing it.. scary. However, what happened is that the bike finally died while on a road trip, several mechanics looked at it and couldn't see what was wrong so I got a lot of warranty work parts replaced for lack of any other trouble shooting.. But one mechanic looked at the fuel pump and saw that it was fried. No one looked at it till then.. it would work for trouble shooting... it worked 'enough' to make it look serviceable.. but when the last guy looked at it, the fuel pump had finally died. The electrical contacts were burned out enough that under certain conditions, the gap was enough to cut off power. Luckily they had a floor model that they were able to rob the part from to get me fixed up without having to wait for parts to arrive.. The bike has been running prime ever since then.. One of the ODD symptoms of the dead fuel pump is that my signal light flashers would blink super fast, as if a bulb was out.. It would do it when the bike died, but not when the bike would start again.. it was SO odd. Yamaha tells me it has nothing to do with a bad fuel pump.. but something caused it to do that.. so odd. That's why I thought your fuel filter might be at issue, its just a guess. It certainly wasn't apparent to me at the time.. but that initial incident contributed to the second incident. The pump had to work so hard to suck fuel through that dirty fuel filter that it basically died an early death from over work.. That's about all I can tell you.. Let us know what you discover with yours..
  17. Seaking
    Good on ya, I went from a 1100 VStar (lowered) to this 2006 Midnight and had the same 'wow, this is top heavy' routine and yes, this IS the only bike I've ever had to lower to the ground in all of my riding career.. hehe. One of the things you'll want to look at is getting some "Leveling Links" installed. These replace the OEM dogbone links under the shock strut to raise the rear of the bike slightly to give you a better rake and trail configuration on the bike. It will be like riding a whole new different bike altogether. Installation is painfully simple and not very expensive.. I believe you can get them for $40 or buck? Of all the mods and changes you can do to a Venture, this is the one you'll notice the most.. well worth it. Because this is an older bike, I will assume you bought it used? Do you know the maintenance record of this bike? If not, do yourself a HUGE favour and replace the fuel filter as soon as you can.. It should be done once a year but it's a pain in the assets to access and most people won't bother changing it.. and it WILL cause you some issues later on down the road. Get it over with it and change it out soon.. Run some "Seafoam" through the system as well, to be nice to your bike.. if you're able to get the bike up on a stand, check the neck bearings to make sure they are not too loose.. a typical check is to push the bars from side to side until they hit the stops. A good setup will allow the bars to hit the stops once and bounce... and come to a rest.. if your bars bounce several times, they may be too loose and can affect your handling.. there are articles here how to do a poor man's tightening which again help the bike's handling.. Good luck with the bike, it's an impressive machine.. I honestly wish I jumped into one of these ages ago.. I bought mine used and LOVE it..
  18. Seaking
    Hi guys, my buddy and I are "venturing" out early this season, at the latter part of May to hit Rolling Thunder in Washington DC with our MC and from there we're booting it down to the Florida Keys and then back up and around through the top north east corner of Texas and back up through the middle back home.. we're taking roughly 3 weeks to do all this, to see as much as possible and hit as many states as possible.. 28 in all. Starting from Halifax NS, entering the USA through Maine, we just want to hit the slabs and get some miles under our wheels. (love the highway riding..) This is the link to the map lines we're planning on doing in order to loop around and hit as many states as possible (600k file) http://www.eastcoastphotos.com/venture/usa-trip-a.jpg Obviously the red line makes no consideration to any actual highways along the way but mostly just shows the intended path we plan to take in order to get us through the areas to hit each state, even if it's just a corner chunk of it.. Has anyone done anything similar to this that might be able to point of a few features or areas we should see along this route? We won't have time to hit every beautiful back road there is out there but would like to hit the most popular ones like the Dragon's Tail etc.. We'll be hoping to run into as many friends as possible along the way.. we still owe Sky Doc and his beautiful missus another Rib Dinner =) And hope to be able to meet up with other Venture enthusiasts.. If you have any info or recommendations for sights to see, things to do, stuff to be aware of.. etc etc.. it would be much appreciated.. I did over 35,000 miles on the bike last summer.. I think I might try to surpass it this year.. because in 2011, I plan to do up the other 20 states I haven't visited on a bike.. (already did Hawaii and Alaska on a bike =) Thanks in advance folks =)
  19. Seaking
    Sweet, many thanks.. Its a pain around here to find a proper bike lift.. the more popular ones from Canadian Tire were redesigned so that the arms are exactly an inch shorter which makes it now very dangerous to lift a Venture up, even using the Carbon One adapter. Additionally, one the older model jack that I have, when I have the bike up high enough to work on it, it will rock end to end making me nervous working under the bike.. So I bolt on the legs to the Carbon One adapter. If these guys make this lift with a built in adapter (removable) for the Venture, I'm game to try it out. I have two bikes in the garage up on jacks and stand right now.. Drop me a line when he gets back.. Cheers!
  20. Seaking
    Do you know if they are sold in Canada? Anytime we want to find anything like this we end up paying twice the price on shipping and custom charges alone.. sigh
  21. Seaking
    Hmmm and I'm heading down to TX this spring.. But this still doesn't negate the need to adjust the heads every so often does it? I had my 2006 'poor man tightened' last year and what a huge difference that alone made. The bike is up on jacks right now and still passes the bounce test with flying colours..
  22. Seaking
    Luv ya man.. just poking fun at you.. or your dike.. As Robin Williams said "What's a protective dike? A woman in comfortable shoes telling you not to go there?"
  23. Seaking
    lol.. what? My dike?
  24. Seaking
    A little similar to what I went though last summer on my 06, which turned out to be the fuel pump dying a slow death before dying completely.. the SLOW death caused a lot of bad troubleshooting but netted me a lot of new warranty parts I couldn't get up here in Canada hehe.. Even though your bike is an 08, when was the last time the fuel filter had been changed? The filter is a beach to get at but worth the hassle.. considering the alternative.. Engine problem like yours is either fuel feed or spark generation. below would be my list of backyard mechanic troubleshooting, but I'm sure the more experienced guys out there can add, correct or amplify this list.. (A) very bad fuel, so drain the tank, put in fresh clean fuel.. let it run the junk through the carbs and system. Add Seafoam to clean it out if dirty fuel is suspect. (B) Bad Fuel flow: Most likely NOT the fuel pump as it's providing fuel.. If the fuel pump dies, the engine won't run. The rear cylinders can run on gravity fuel but the front requires the fuel pump. But because your bike runs, albeit poorly, it sounds like your fuel pump is working, so check your fuel filter, replace it if you didn't do it last year.. © Spark: Spark plugs, you said you changed them and it got worse? Did you have the proper plugs? Proper gap? Proper torque? Double check those.. (D) AIR: Check your Air Filters and boots.. if the wrong ratio of air gets to the carbs it can muck things up. My buddy's bike was acting all odd on a road trip and we discovered the pod was off it's boot for some reason. Once reattached the bike road beautifully since.. best of luck.. let us know what you discover..
  25. Seaking
    Finally found the info lol.. This is what I have installed.. Phillips MotoVision https://motobarn.com/product.php?productid=1030994&cat=0&bestseller=Y My buddy has it installed on his bike. It washes out what the highway lamps put forth on the road, hence why I proceeded with the amber highway lights. Cheers
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