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pilothawk

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  • Posts

    22

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Personal Information

  • Name
    Chris Groff

location

  • Location
    Oak Ridge, United States

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  • City
    Oak Ridge

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  • Home Country
    United States

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  • Interests
    dirt bikes, ham radio, "tinkering"
  • Bike Year and Model
    1989 Venture Royale
  1. pilothawk
    The pic I got was a close as I could get. Someone else can post another picture and name a target. As far as being generic, there are literally thousands of barns with the painted signs on their roof's. Let the hunt resume. The point is to get out and ride and THEN get the pics if you can. If you are simply out to get the pic then what is the fun? Anyway, happy riding! I guess the controversy remains.....you now have 3 targets to chose from. A silo and farm tractor A fireworks display or a "See Rock City" barn It all depends on the mood of the "game"
  2. pilothawk
    I got the silo and a dozer The tractor was on the other side of the barn. I went on a ride today with trucker6pak and his wife, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We passed this silo on the way home, and I remember the scavenger hunt and turned around to get the pic. The next target may be unfair to some of our northern and western brethren, but I like it so here it is. You, your, bike, and a real barn roof that has been painted and says "SEE ROCK CITY" Good luck and get out and ride!
  3. pilothawk
    Well I finally had time to get to the new tires for the bike. WOW. Thats all I can say. The low speed wobble is gone, and the tires feel very balanced without any additional wheel weights. That may change once I get it up to 75, but up to 60 they feel great. I couldn't get the beads broken on the old tires so I took the wheels to the tire shop I use, and they not only broke the beads for me, he was able to install the tires too. Best part was it only cost me $20 bucks to get them mounted, and $10 of that was for a tip since I didn't have to sweat and cuss to get the things on in the heat of the day. The final drive gears looked good, and I topped off the final drive lube with 90wt gear oil. Other than getting absolutely covered in old road grime and rubber, the job was a cinch. Thanks for the help, advice, and access to a great web site with helpful tech articles like this one which (http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=1393) made getting the wheels on and off the bike a breeze! Chris
  4. pilothawk
    HEY! You are right down the road from me! What a small world. I bought an 89 VR a few weeks ago (out of Frost Bottom) and I could use a few parts. If you think you might be interested in riding with a new guy drop me an email and we'll get together. Chris pilothawk@comcast.net
  5. pilothawk
    He replied to my order the other day, and I see his posts fairly frequently. Now that I have a few days off from work I hope to get a few things done so I can do some serious riding.
  6. pilothawk
    Got the tires from ron ayers.com today. I just hope they perform as good as they look. I will try do do a sort of tech page with the tire changes to possibly help members in the future. It may be a week or more before I get the tires changed. I work night shift, and start a 6 day rotation after I wake up tomorrow (right now it is still the day before I actually work, until I wake up that is). I'm also waiting on my "ride-on" to get here too. Hopefully with the new tires and the ride-on I won't have to worry about taking the tires to a shop and get balanced. I'll probably stac balance them here at home before I add the ride-on. Thanks for all your help up to this point! Chris
  7. pilothawk
    Cassette players are so.....80's! Is there anything I can use to replace this worthless chunk of weight. I would really like something simple like an MP3 player, and have it work with the existing intercom system, heck while I'm at it I'd ditch the CB too.
  8. pilothawk
    A starter with bad contacts or brushes will most definitely cause the symptoms you describe. I've not had the side covers off my gen 1 off yet to see if I can see the starter, but if you can get a small hammer into the starter the next time this happens give the starter motor a few taps with the hammer or ratchet or whatever you can get to it, and see if it will turn over then. If it does you need to rebuild your starter or get a new one.
  9. pilothawk
    I sent a PM Friday or Saturday, and I haven't received a response yet. I sure hope he still has a set or 2 of these cables around. I finally got my bike warm today and ended up killing it at a stop sign. I have a new AGM battery, and I wasn't sure if the thing would start the starter motor was turning so slow.
  10. pilothawk
    While I am waiting on my new tires to get here I decided to go try some of the techniques in "Ride Like a Pro V". Well I certainly found out that I am nowhere near as good hauling this big gen1 around as I am an XR400! I also found out the hard way that I needed the first thing taught in the video....how to get your bike back upright! One of the things that is stressed in the video is to practice in a controlled setting so you don't have to learn things the hard way, in an uncontrolled setting! I'm glad my spill happened in a parking lot, and not on the road! I scraped up a bag protector and ended up with a stubbed middle toe, but other than that me and the bike are both ok. The little women in those videos sure make things look easy. It is amazing at how agile they are on these huge bikes! The one thing they have done to get their skills to where they are is to practice. I obviously have a lot more practice to do before I can even get close to their skill level, and before I let my wife on the back of the bike. I will also plan on practicing the skills taught in the video with her on the back. I've already got 4 fused vertebrae from being foolish. I don't want to add any more battle scars to my collection or start a collection for her! I'm glad that I've found this site, everyone has been very helpful. I will follow and learn from others, and help out when I can. The internet is such an amazing place, and I hope I will eventually get to meet many of you in person Also, now that I've had a chance to read more....I'm not sure if I really need a crotch rocket with suitcases, so I'll ride my mkII very reserved, and as much in control as I can get her. I appreciate all the camaraderie that I've observed at VR!
  11. pilothawk
    I've used Rotella in my dirt bikes for years. Like has been mentioned, it doesn't have all the friction modifiers found in regular automotive oil. I know its time to change when gear shifts aren't as smooth as they should be (dirt bikes don't have odometers).
  12. pilothawk
    Well I went out and tried the technique showed in the video today. It went right up without too much issue. I put it up on the CS several more times just to make sure I had the hang of it. The most important thing I found is that you have to "follow through" when pushing down with your right leg. Using the passenger grab rail is what made the biggest difference for me. By grabbing it I could use the power in my leg to really push down and through the stand. Before I wasn't using the grab rail and I simply couldn't generate enough force to get the bike up on the CS before I lost my balance from "riding" the peg into the air. Thanks for the help guys! Chris
  13. pilothawk
    I thought I was doing something wrong though because the guy I bougt the bike from weighs MAYBE 160, and he had it up on the CS before I saw what he had done. I guess I'm not the only one who has ever had a problem getting the beast up onto the CS. That makes me feel a little better. Thanks for the help guys, and the video!
  14. pilothawk
    Ok I know there is some kind of trick to getting the bike up on the center stand...so what is it? I feel like such an idiot for not being able to figure out how to get the bike on the center stand. Does the side stand have to be up?
  15. pilothawk
    Here is where my ignorance between dirt bikes and road bike comes into play. On dirt bikes I have always used to the bleeder at the top of the forks to bleed any accumulated air out of the forks, and in the rear I have always charged the shock with nitrogen. The shock design on road bike is probably completely different, and what I just said doesn't matter, much less make sense. So I'm sorry if I'm confused.
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