Seaking

Because it's the middle of winter.. I am Canadian living in Canada with a US bike of which its warranty is ONLY applicable when down in the USA.. so much fun.. The US shops I called already said they would need to do have the bike there to do their diagnostics.. this is a 10 drive trailering a bike.. in the winter.. gas = time = not worth it.. I did get over $3000 worth of warranty parts on the bike when down in PA this summer.. Pinwall.. gonna check them out..

Does anyone have another source for purchasing a Signal Light relay for the 06 RSV? My stealership wants $126 for it and since it's on back order I now have to wait 2 to 6 weeks if I'm lucky for one to be manufactured and shipped in from Japan.. (that's what it feels like).. Any idea where a person can get another one sooner and cheaper? I can get my deposit back if I intercept them before it's shipped out.. Thanks in advance..

Just having diagnosed a bad flasher relay problem, we discovered something kinda strange and wonder if someone could confirm what we hear and explain what it is.. turn the ignition ON, then turn signal light on.. but listen carefully.. you'll hear the relay click click click toc click click.. this is ONLY after turning on the ignition, not any other subsequent signal light activation.. it's around after the 3rd or 4th click of the relay, either signal light.. this is when and where my bad relay would start flashing fast.. we also surmised that there is a right and left relay circuit in the relay? does that make sense? wow, having so much fun with this.. =)

well THAT was interesting.. After getting the light bar reinstalled with the adapter the left only signal light would flash fast after a while but soon it became no matter what you did, highway lights on or not etc.. As I was re doing the wire bundle coming up from the light bar anyway, I thought I'd find the busted wire causing the issue after a while but no dice.. huh.. Out of a whim I borrowed my buddy's flash relay (under right side cover) and yep.. there is is.. now it works properly and solid.. wow. beautiful wiring job, solid flashing.. great mount adapter.. all perfect.. except I have to pay $126 for a new relay.. oh well.. Now I have to sneak my buddy's relay back on his bike before he finds out lol thanks to all who came up with suggestions, and to Adventure 1943, he had the right answer.. but it's not cheap.. $126 is expensive.. :0 cheers

now THAT is a good idea.. thanks!! I'll try the amount of space I have there now to see if it works and if so, then I'll do the tube thing.. good one, thanks!!

Their site seems to be down so I can't contact them to inquire about issues I am having with their light system (under the saddle bags).. a bunch of the wiring had to be redone as the crimping wasn't complete on one side requiring me to undo most of it and getting it redone properly.. tres odd. Though the lights looks great and give an additional splash of "see me lights", I'm wondering how problematic these will be after a full season of in the rain, road grime and heavy road bumps and vibes.. I have RK pipes on my bike and already had to make a lot of adjustments to get them to clear the bottom of the lights.. If you have these on your bike and can shed some light on your experiences with them, I'd greatly appreciate it.. A lot of extra time spent re-wiring them sorta makes me leery on how well they will hold up to the test of time.. cheers

When I have the project completed I'll be able to provide some pics.. The installation is very simple.. wire off a hot lead from the battery, the other to ground.. a switch in between with a fuse inline somewhere.. doesn't draw a lot of juice from the battery.. When I had this installed on the VStar I purposely left the 24 LED lights on for 36 hours and the bike was able to start no probs.. Key fob switch is fun to have, you can have pretty girls 'clap on clap off' your bike lights while you're standing aside.. too cute..

Well that's a thought lol.. I have tons of LEDs from previous bikes and projects, why not lite 'er up good.. LOL.. Around here, law states you can't "ride with BLUE or RED lighting" on your vehicle.. the cops would hate a motorcycle to be confused with an emergency vehicle.. yuh huh.. Luckily for me, Ultra Violet looks great and subtle on a black bike.. hehehe or amber.. Hmmmm

When there is a will, there is a way =) Good on ya M8

I just ordered the Kuryakyn accessory switches that mount over the brake reservoir and will be wiring the highway light into that so its easier to reach than the one by the power outlet.. 3 switches, one for the highway light so when I have to idle through slow traffic for a loooong time I can easily turn them off.. and have a light to indicate when they are on or off.. (nice for day time).. The other switch would be for the garage door opener and the third? Hmmmmm

Having highway lamps on is safer for you the rider.. With three lights on facing the oncoming traffic, you're a bigger blob of light approaching them... even if you don't think these additional 30w lights add more light to the road, but to the oncoming traffic, you look big.. and remember, in the world of survival, to look big means better chances of catching someone's attention.. My Philips headlight alone outshines my highway lamps by far so I don't really even notice the additional light but I feel a little safer that the wider blob of light catches more attention.. (as reported by others).. And never allow anyone to wire your highway lamps into your headlight wiring.. I almost suffered a disaster this past summer when my headlight went out and it took out my highway lights as the same time.. right in the middle of a nice sharp turn in a darkened area of the highway.. Luckily for me I know the road well and quickly snapped on my 4 way hazard lights.. which showed me "guardrail, no guardrail.. guardrail, yellow line.. flash flash..." until I could pull the bike over. A quick fuse change got me going again and the next day I got my lights rewired.. Scary stuff that.. wow.

sweet.. many thanks M8..

taking the advice of our friends here I pulled the rear signal light off and it was very clean.. not the problem... Hmmm what then.. I do other checks and there it is again. the fast flashing.. aww.. it only happens when I have the highway lamps turned ON.. crud.. OK then.. this means everything needs to come apart again and get the proper re-wiring and proper cable routing it sooooo desperately requires. Jiggling cables and such doesn't make it go away so I'm not sure where the issue lies but it's there.. oh well.. everyone should have a nice winter project huh?

That's good to know.. what colour is your bike? (evil grin) I have mine machine screwed to the frame 'somewhere' under a blob of heavy grease to keep it corrosion free.. I found it yesterday, still in grease and shiny clean.. But I do like the BOOT idea.. whats this about codes to get new keys made?

THAT would be the one!!! Money well spent on this bike.. many thanks! no joke, if you guys ever suffer the perpetual loose light bar affair, putting one of these with the pass through bolts will make a world of difference! Later, I might get my machinist guy to come in and drill through the threaded part of the triple tree so that I can use a heavier bolt. I am very confident that the 7/16 bolt is sufficient for what I am doing with it but you know how it is.. 'go big or stay home' cheers

oooh all good suggestions! I hadn't yet checked the rear one but the front one was clean as a whistle.. so it's a possibility the rear is pooched. I did a full wire routing ad bolt torque check on the front end of the bike yesterday and today will be working on the aft end of the bike.. brutally cold out today so nothing better than spending time with babe in the heated garage.. Dielectric grease.. how much of that can you use? Do you fill the socket to keep the water out kinda thing? goosh it into the plug sockets etc? My understanding is that this stuff doesn't conduct electricity what so ever so it doesn't matter if it comes in contact across several leads, it won't cause a short or anything.. is this correct?? Or is it that you ONLY want to use enough to say it's on there.. barely showing?? I've been in the garage here all morning doing some work on the bike and have had the signal lights working for a while.. and it's all good.. nothing 'wonky' about it now.. gees, I hate snags like this lol.. however, I shall check the rear one and grease them all.. for good measure.. a little NOW while it's comfy will hopefullly save me BS down the road.. thanks guys and HNY!! w000t I'm in the Atlantic time zone (east of the Eastern time zone, so I'll wave to you from 2010 at your 11 pm lol..

While I was working on my light bar adapter and wiring tonight, I noticed that my left signal light is acting wonky.. You know how the signal lights will blink fast when you have a dead bulb? Well, what happens with mine is that the signal light will work..... and then start going fast.. I tried the 4 way flashers and no worries there at all... but when ever I select the left signal light and leave it alone, not touching the bike at all.. it will eventually start flashing fast... I changed the bulb, pulled and tugged and pushed against all the wiring in that area and nothing shows up.. it will work fine.. then later when I engage the left signal light it most likely will do the fast flash.. Front and rear bulbs are working properly.. Is there something else I should look at? Flasher relay perhaps? Fun fun fun!!

I've had my air horn installed under the fairing since last year without issues and no vibes.. keeps it out of the way.. I keep the original in place to fill the space.. http://www.myvstar.ca/venture06/air-horn.jpg

Sweet, after a year of loose light bar issues and frustrations with vibes, cut wires and what ever else, the job is done and doods, if *I* can do it, anyone else can lol.. if your bolt hole threads in the lower triple tree clamp are munged or stripped, this is the fix for you.. Or even if you're sick and tired of not ever being able to get them frikken bolts in proper, this would be a good fix as well.. I have tried to find the link or threads of this aluminium block adapter that mounts your highway light bar ahead of your fairing so that you'll never ever have to remove your light bar to take off the front fairing.. if someone can find it, please advise.. this is an awesome adapter. I had never been before able to make it work for various reasons and now I know why.. nothing wrong with the adapter, it's AWESOME but my bike, for what ever reason, always rejected the adapter or proper installation of the light bar.. Me being the 3rd owner of this magnificent bike, I'm finding a lot of previously buckshee maintenance done to the bike causing me problems.. Now that I have my heated garage for the winter, boom, time to fix it all up proper.. and the light bar is my first victim.. mou'aha.. The main ingredient was to use a 2 inch 7/16th bolt with washer and lock nut (nylon insert) or what ever you feel safe with.. As you'll notice, in the photo, I had to nibble away at the shroud with a dremel tool to make tool alignment easier. These are the bolts passing through the triple tree clamp.. The bolts mounting the light bar are now Loktite and have a lock washer as well.. (if I ever have to remove this again for what ever reason, I'll have found proper sized washed to put under the bolt heads in the recess, but couldn't find them around here).. http://www.myvstar.ca/venture06/mount001.jpg The shot below is taken from the floor looking up in front of the radiator. The brake line splitter is removed as is the half moon mud flap (2 bolts each). You'll want to remove these for easier and better access to the nuts. As you can see, the threaded portion of the triple tree clamp where your highway lamp attachment bolts bolt into isn't all that thick after all.. so the 2 inch bolt used here leaves enough thread showing for safety (min 3 threads etc).. When you're torquing down the bolts, you'll want to be very careful and ensure your wiring isn't being pinched or caught in behind the adapter block.. I have mine laying across the top and out to the left side (kick stand side) of the block. http://www.myvstar.ca/venture06/mount002.jpg Photo below shows why I thought it best to nibble away at the shroud for better access to the bolt head. I used a thin walled 7/16 deep socket to turn the bolt head to get the nut started. However, when the nut tightens up against the washer, its best to turn the nut, and not the bolt to avoid damaging the adapter.. There is sufficient 'bolt head size' to take up the hole without a washer.. but if you're able to fit a washer down that recessed hole, the better. http://www.myvstar.ca/venture06/mount003.jpg Below is the hardware I used.. go for high tensile steel if you're going to torque onto these puppies.. http://www.myvstar.ca/venture06/bolt.jpg Below is where a lot of my problems with wiring happened, the wiring would basically drop down into the fork stops and be guillotined causing shorts, failures and freaking annoyances like you wouldn't believe.. I had used a zip tie to hold this bundle up and away from the fork stops but they eventually fell into them again something got nicked.. Now that the bike is sitting high and pretty on the jack adapter, I'll be able to do properly tuck these bad boys away for good.. http://www.myvstar.ca/venture06/wires-cut.jpg So there ya go.. the hardest part of all this was finding out what proper sized bolt I should be using.. originally I had started with a 2.5 inch bolt but the shank was too long so the 2 inch bolt was perfect.. It will be a while before I can test ride this set up properly but I think this is the permanent fix for my bike.. no more BS with munged threads etc.. never more having to drop the light bar to remove the fairing.. Ahhh nice.. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free..

Hence why it might be best to get a hold of a traveling machinist who would have all the right tool for all the weirdest of jobs.. I chatted with a buddy who is a machinist and explained to him your dilemma and he said it's a doable job.. as long as the guy has the right tools.. Start calling around.. you'd be surprised.. and it would most likely be worth your while.. *I* certainly wouldn't try it on my own in there.. too much of a mess lol.. However, I got my light bar done today and will be starting a new thread with pics.. w00t

ugh still IN the tree.. yoikes that sucks.. have you tried any "easy out" tools? it's like a reverse threaded drill bit that drills into the bolt shank and then slowly engages it backwards to allow you to keep turning it out until it comes all the way out. I took a dremel to the lower part of the shroud to make it easier to get to the bolts.. better alignment.. Once you get that busted bolt out, you now know how to remedy the problem.. it might even be worth your while to go to a local machine shop and ask a machinist there if he's able to make a house call to come tackle your broken bolt... might cost you some coins but it would be all the better than having the front end taken apart..

Alrighty then.. progress report.. I did some careful looking around and saw what some other shop had done to destroy my mounts.. though I can't actually say which shop it was but I have my suspicions.. Here's what I discovered.. there is a tang that sits in front of the mounting holes that are tapped into the lower triple tree and this metal ain't very sturdy.. at some point, someone had loosened the tangs, which are part of the support frame under the front fairing (that what holds up your radio gear and headlight assy).. when they tightened everything down, the tangs didn't align up properly so anytime someone else tried to put the light bar bolts in, they had to go in at such a precise angle otherwise they would cross thread and munge up the threads on the triple tree.. not the bolt.. Hard to explain but there is a inner shroud under the support structure that impedes the accessing of these bolts which contributed to the disaster I have at hand.. I could most likely take the whole fork assy apart, pull the lower triple tree bracket and have it tapped again to make it all better.. but what a lot of work JUST for that.. nah.. not for me.. As previously mentioned, I was then going to simply get longer thinner bolts and pass it through the hole and bolt it from behind but for the life of me, there is no area around here that sells hex insert bolts of that size.. its amazing what you can't get around here.. However I found that if I use a 7/16 bolt, I am able to get a thin walled socket into the extension bracket (there's a thread showing the adapter here somewhere).. the adapter bracket brings your light bar forward enough so you never have to remove it to take off your fairing.. With the adapter bolted in place with nylon lock nuts, it's not going to go any where.. The light bar itself gets bolted to the adapter with lock washers under the bolt heads and locktite on the bolt threads and this should be the very last time I ever have to worry about a loose light bar again.. NO KIDDING.. eargh.. lol.. I had to pull everything apart again tonight only because the 7/16th bolts I used have shanks that are too long for the intended use.. so now that all is apart again, I might take the time and try to get some proper photos of what I'm doing to better explain this.. I know a lot of people suffer the loose light bar syndrome and I can see where it's all started from.. dang Yamaha engineers need to work on the bikes they design once in a while.. Now I need to find new fairing attachment bolts as well.. someone stripped 4 of the 6 bolts when they had this apart the last time.. at $1 a bolt and $2 for the nylon washers, no wonder they didn't want to replace them.. sheesh.. ANYWAY... Ya'll have a great holiday!!

Thanks M8.. I'll have a look at it and be able to confirm what you pointed out.. At worse case scenario, I'll arrange a pass through bolt with a nut at the back end if that works.. and mostly likely will Dremel carve a notch at the bottom of the inner / outer fairing to make it easy to access those bolts.. Its a shame that such a set up is pooched, much like the VStar oil filter setup requiring you to drop the exhaust.. sigh.. I'll get to it after Xmas.. keeping an eye on the weather just to get that last year end ride before deciding to start this task.. Thanks again M8

I put the 44k in the bike late this season so reaaaalllly can't say what it does for mileage or otherwise, it was cold cold up here so choke would have been needed regardless anyway to start the bike.. but it did make the throttle very responsive if nothing else.. awesome stuff. On a typical day I would put full choke, twist the throttle once, start the bike and go to 1/2 choke a few secs later, and off choke completely as soon as possible.. mostly outside air temp (OAT) would dictate how long I leave it on choke, really.. Seems every bike is different.. I doubt anyone can start their bikes 100% of the time without any choke at all.. well maybe Goose

Wow, many thanks M8.. a lot of info there.. should help a lot.. The "threaded" part that the bolt goes in, is not actually on the triple tree but that bracket that is BEHIND the triple tree (asking to confirm, still a little confused) The bolt you list, is that for the stock light bar bolt and will is also work for the block? I feel more confident that I will be able to finally get this frikken light bar locked down tight, once and for all!! The way you describe it makes sense for it to be hard to tighten if the shop loosened it all and didn't set it back properly afterwards when they did the wiring fix.. many thanks!