RSTDdog

Unfortunately, Yamaha stopped trying to compete with the Goldwing in 1993. They could, they have just chosen not to, instead trying to follow the Harley business model of selling motorcycle lifestyle. Yamaha builds a good motorcycle, the new one has ABS and retains the Star 5 year warranty, something still unmatched in the industry. If I wanted and were to buy a V twin air cooled touring bike, it would be Yamaha just based on the overall reliability, dealer network, etc. If I re-enter the motorcycle market, it will likely be a newer used FJR with cruise or a used 1800 Wing with ABS.

Economics. Cheaper to build than the V4. After thinking about it a while, the Vmax is 18K MSRP without the fairings, heated seats, etc. MSRP on the Stratoliner when they were building it was around 11K IIRC and the Strat Deluxe was around 14K, don't remember exactly, but way cheaper than the Vmax. I would bet the new Venture with the V4 would be at least 2-3K higher base MSRP. So now you are talking 28-30K.

They built what I thought they would build using as much of the shelf pieces they could and adding on new plastic and gadgets. Its economics. I will bet that is even the stratoliner frame with minor modifications and stiffening to accept the extra bags. Will have to ride one to see if they got the balance better than the RSV. I don't think you will see many Goldwing riders switching over to it. I did not hear ABS mentioned either. Maybe its available. A let down for anyone hoping for the V4. Looks like it would fit in there OK.

To the OP : How long do you keep a motorcycle and how often and how many miles a year do you ride it?

Should not need a rejet. K&N filter in the stock air filter housings will not flow (appreciably) any more air than the stock paper elements. With stock exhaust you should be good to go. Check the K&N's are clean and properly oiled. These bikes really don't like the stock airbox messed with. Refrain from opening up or making things larger, adding holes etc. Affects the driveability. The valve clearance inspection at 26,000 is the most important thing you can do. depending on how many miles you have on a used bike you should find out if this was done.

No add on available for the factory shock. It is not serviceable or rebuild-able. Just the two replacement shock options already provided above. I opted for the Hagon with the Heavy duty spring option on my RSTD when I had it. Well made, good value IMO. No air adjustment on either of the above options, but with improved capacity of the spring which is also adjustable for preload you don't need it.

Since you successfully dredged up a 7 year old thread, you are obviously familiar with the search function . There are more threads with pics on the subject of trunks on RSTD in the forum here dedicated to the RSTD. In addition to the wompus rack, the two most common methods for putting a trunk on the RSTD is to buy the trunk mount from a Royal Star Venture from a bike salvage site like Pinwall Cycles. You can some times get the Venture trunk mount and trunk, but the undamaged venture trunks are expensive. When I had my RSTD, I bought the venture trunk mount and installed a HD tour pack. Installing the venture trunk mount on an RSTD requires either also purchasing the venture mounting rails (on the fender) or removal of the Quick disconnect mounting pins from the RSTD fender rails. The quick disconnect pins are located where the front stays for the Venture mount bolts on. My work around for this was after carefully removing the pins (they are tack welded to the back side of the rail) I installed a plate nut with epoxy to the back side of the rail. I had stainless metric plate nuts salvaged from an old yamaha waverunner steering arm with the correct thread pitch and diameter. You can't reallly weld a nut unless you want to sacrifice the chrome finish. I then tig welded threads to the quick disconnect pins. When the trunk mount wasn't installed, I threaded the locking Pins back in to the holes to use the quick disconnect back rest. The other option is to buy a used quick disconnect backrest, tough to find but they are out there, and cut it down and weld a trunk mount to it. This is the quickest way to shift between trunk and backrest and retain the stock Yamaha mount. I know At least one person here has done that and there should be pictures somewhere. On edit: I used to have some albums or galleries here with pics of the various mods on my bike, but I don't see them in my profile anymore and since the website changeover not sure where they are.

Interesting site from Canada. There are 9 active registered trademarks for the word Journey. None belong to Yamaha. One of the them Belongs to Fiat Chrysler (FCA) aka Dodge Journey. That would not preclude Yamaha from using it on a motorcycle IMO. The Yamaha Venture Motorcycle and Chevrolet Venture Mini Van existed concurrently for a period of time. We also know that manufacturers can call vehicles different names in different markets (Honda ST1100 USA- It was the Pan European -everywhere else in the world). Considering how well Yamaha has kept this under wraps, any trademark applications could be well hidden or through a company they own, for instance whatever Vendor supplies their emblems. They can change the trademark ownership once the bike is officially released. I still think it will be called Journey. Just too many references to it plus what appears to be a logo. I have been wrong before.

That would already be a registered trademark of Nissan dating back to when they entered the SUV market. Doesn't mean Yamaha couldn't use it on a motorcycle. We had Chevrolet Venture mini-vans and Yamaha Venture motorcycles at the same time period.

Change once a year, in a modern engine sure. If you do 25,000 miles in a year its probably not all stop and go. Look at it this way: 24,000 miles at an average speed of 60 miles an hour is 400 engine hours. 12,000 miles at an average speed of 30 is also 400 engine hours. I would say the 12,000 miles of stop /go at an average speed of 30 is harder on the oil in 400 hours, than 24,000 miles of highway at an average speed of 60. In either scenario the engine and oil only has 400 hours after one year. I can remember when the original Mobile 1 first came out, the magazine ads said it was good for 25,000 miles. My father in a law had a Buick wagon he bought new back in that time, used mobile one, took them literally at their advertised word. He traded it with 175,000 miles on it running fine, no smoke, 7 complete oil and filter changes with some filter only changes and top up in between. That is all he has ever used since it first came out. They backed off those initial mileage claims (probably because people didn't check their oil for 25,00 miles) and I find it interesting they are slowly reverting back. When you consider the price difference for premium synthetic motor oils, if you aren't extending your change intervals, your just wasting money IMHO. With a wet clutch and clutch material constantly in the oil, a motorcycle is different animal than a car where oil change intervals are concerned.

The references to the "Journey" and the fact Journey is displayed prominently in a emblem ready logo fashion (V extending from the bottom of the O in journey, noting V engine), they are already developing the brand. The logical conclusion is it will be called the Yamaha Journey. That is my bet. They also created their own classification for it : "Transcontinental Touring" motorcycle.

Been away for a while, but saw this thread and figured I would throw in my two cents. I will be interested to see what this new bike will be, but reality for me says I won't be shelling out the likely $25K plus asking price. I will "venture" a guess that the new Yamaha "Journey" will have a Base MSRP of $24,900.00 with some paint, Chrome ( think S model), abs and option packages to drive the price toward 30K. With the numerous references to "The Journey", my money says that is the name of the new model, no coincidence they are building the brand and model recognition in the run-up videos. Assuming they are building to compete with the Goldwing, I think they will need a new engine for this. I have never ridden the new V Max 1700, and if anyone has, please tell us if you think it is or capable of being tuned to be Goldwing smooth. If you review the parts fiche for the engine in the new Vmax you will see it still share's quite a few internals with the original V4 engine (some part numbers still have the original gen1 model code prefix). The Yamaha V4 is 1980's and early 90's smooth, but it is not IMHO capable of being made Goldwing smooth and has a lot of mechanical noise, even if you are fortunate enough not to have the whine. They will need more than a retuned V4 with reverse to swing routine Goldwing customer's their way. I worked in a Honda Yamaha Suzuki dealers hip in the early 90's wen the first GL1500's arrived, and we got a lot of Ventures in trade on those. Venture's were a tough sell in 1991-1993 except to the diehard Yamaha fan. They will need to bring a multicylinder engine to the table in the Journey for those guys, A V twin with reverse is not likely to move wing riders at all. To me one of the most important things they should focus on is balance and feel, particularly slow speed feel. This is the one thing that Harley has in spades in my opinion. When i still had my RSTD, I rented an Ultra Classic while on vacation in Hawaii. Not a fan of the cable clutch, clunk shifting, mystery neutral and typical harley stuff. But the balance of that bike was incredible. No top heavy feeling or feeling it was going to fall over at slow speed, even two up. I was comfortable and confident in the handling almost instantly and had never ridden one before. The RSTD by comparison took alot of getting used to and alot of rear brake dragging and trickery to execute slow speed maneuvers, especially two up. Yamaha can put all the cylinders, horsepower and features they want. But if it ends up being top heavy and doesn't feel well balanced with a low CG with the impression of being easy to ride, it will put off alot of people. I hope Yamaha has spent some hours on an Ultra Classic to baseline the feel and the handling of that bike. The reality of this bike in the face of manufacturing economics is that other than the new body work, it will likely be mostly assembled from the existing available parts bin. Unless they bit the bullet on an all new engine, expect a liquid cooled version of an existing Vtwin with counter balancing and as much cylinder bore as they can manage and some spiffy new cladding on the cylinders to make it look like a new engine. A starter motor driven reverse option should not be difficult to do. They already have electronic cruise control parts in the bin. Yamaha probably got a vendor to make them a great deal on a ten year supply of Six Disc in-dash CD changers with an auxiliary Input plug for your MP3 player to carry them through the product life cycle........ I guess we will see what the "Journey" will bring in 25 days or so.

Not sure what you mean by indirect driving of the cam on the V4? Cams on V4's are driven much the same as on inline and other motors although there are no pushrod V4 engines I can think off. Early Honda V4 (VFR750 Interceptor) had gear driven camshafts-direct drive from the crank. You haven't heard whine till you have heard a gear driven cam Honda v4 spool up. The Yamaha uses a chain to drive the overhead camshafts. The Honda ST1100/1300 uses a timing belt like a car to drive the over head cams. VFR 750 is a v4 chaindrive motorcycle. The output shaft on the Yamaha V4 has to make a 90 to accommodate shaft drive. Shaft drive is more complex than a chain inline or v4 doesn't matter. The guys who build high horsepower drag Vmax bikes, eliminate the 90 and the shaft and convert them to chain. Too much torque twist on the driveshaft for the HP they produce modded. The longitudinally mounted Honda ST1100/1300 V4 have the output shaft straight in line with the driveshaft so no right angle needed as with the Yamaha. That said the ST1100/1300 V4 would not convert easily to chain drive, where as the Yamaha and other transverse V4 models either will convert or already do have chain drive to the rear wheels. By and large most V4's were in cruising/tour bikes thus the shaft drive.

While you cured the symptoms you technically didn't fix the problem. The problem is not the AIS. If carbs are tuned correctly and floats are set properly these bikes will not back fire or pop with the AIS fully functioning. While you removed the air supply to the exhaust to stop the ignition of un-burnt fuel, the un-burnt fuel entering the exhaust remains. Subtle point but Carbs are running richer than they need to. Plugging the AIS is easier than working on the carbs and most shops don't take the time and care to clean and examine carefully. My guess is your floats are set incorrectly, the needle valves are worn, the orings on the seats for the needles are leaking fuel by or some combination of these three.

There was a good discussion on this several years back. I tried searching for it but search keeps saying no results found. Here is a link on basic theory http://www.crossmfg.com/technical/basic-hydraulic-theory I want to say Skydoc posted some decel runs showing the braking improvement also, but not sure if he also compared the master cylinder types.

Thats too bad. A shop that knows what they are doing should be able to swap the tire with out damaging the rotor. Its their bad, not yours- They are the professionals, They owe you a rotor IMO. Its not that much slower to just spoon the tire off with irons. Guys that are good with irons are faster than a tire machine. Becoming a lost art like truing spoked wheels. Not sure if trying to straighten it would be worth it.

Thats a good write up. The Yamaha four piston calipers, whether source from an R1, R6, or Roadstar/Warrior are all the same from a piston diameter ans size standpoint. The Roadstar ones have chrome buttons that hide the "star" you see in the R1 R6 caliper. IOW the R1 caliper does not perform better or differently than a road star 4 piston caliper.

I would be surprised if a bike with only 7000 miles on it had a bad wire or coil. Now a six year old bike with 7000 miles having a fuel related issue is much more likely. Did you get any history on the bike from the seller? Did it sit? That year and those miles it almost had to have sat at some point. That's an average of only ~20 miles a week. At that rate your are only buying gas every 8 weeks on average. If it did sit (highly likely) and carbs weren't gone through properly and thoroughly, that's most likely your issue. Your troubleshoot logic is a bit flawed IMO. If seafoam doesn't fix it (treats a fuel issue), why immediately jump to plugs and wires (spark issue)? Seafoam won't fix all fuel issues. It won't clear a plugged pilot jet. Plugs may help , but only if you have a fouled plug that won't clear up/clean out. Looking at plugs will probably tell you which cylinder or cylinders are suspect because the plug(s) on the miss should look different from the others. Have you checked for cold/cool/ not as hot as the others exhaust pipes yet? That will also point you to the offending cylinder.

Regarding your starter issue, DON'T TRY STARTING IT AGAIN UNTIL YOU REMOVE ALL FOUR PLUGS AND TURN IT OVER BY HAND. Watch your eyes, if I'm right, gas will come out of one or more cylinders. Depending on the time that transpired from your first attempt at running it, it is probably now hydrolocked with fuel (Stuck float pouring gas by the carb into cylinder). You mentioned seeing Raw gas in the exhaust? Is Oil way over full or smell like gasoline? Carbs man, keep reading. Unfortunately, a can of seafoam ( or can of anything) and fresh gas won't fix a bike (correctly) that has been sitting for two years. YOu may have ran it out of gas, but unless you drained the carbs afterward and blew air through them, there was still fuel left in the bowls and hanging inside the jets and emulsion tubes ( Don't you just hate surface tension of fluids). Running on the side stand, The two carbs on the right will run out of fuel before the two on the left (side stand side) and kill the engine. Left side carbs probably still had at least 1/2 their fuel still in them. If that was stabilized non-ethanol fuel there may have been a SLIM chance, but you will need someone to go through the carbs and fuel system complete at this point IMO. If it was running fine when it was parked, and it was parked inside, removing the TCI and checking connections is largely a waste of time IMO. If it had a running issue when you parked it, then those would be suspect with everything else. Sitting two years is classic carb and fuel system restoration time, all things being equal and a correct running bike when parked. When you get the carbs apart, let us know how the left ones look relative to the right. Regardless how they look, Clean and service all four complete. ddog

I really liked my Hagon shock on the RSTD. It went with the bike. I got the Heavy duty version. I weigh 190 and the wife 160. I think I added a 1/4 turn clockwise (more damping) and that seemed fine 1 or two up. I added no spring preload at all. I prefer the ride a little stiffer, Hagon was never harsh. For reference I would ride my RSTD solo with 45 lbs of air in the OEM Yamaha rear shock. Similar to what DJH3 mentioned about the damping adjustment screw on the bottom of the shock body, there is also a set screw in the collar for the spring preload adjuster. Make sure that is pointing in a direction where you can get at it in case you need too. With an HD Hagon shock (on an RSTD anyway) the ride height was the same or maybe a tad higher than when the OEM Yamaha shock was fully charged with air. You probably don't need leveling links in my opinion. Best way to set the preload is with a tape measure (and a friend) . Spec Rear travel is 4.1". fully loaded you want loaded static preload at 25-30% of max travel . Find a fixed point on the frame/fender at or near the axle center line ( you will be sliding a tape measure behind the saddle bag) and measure with no load on the bike to the ground. Then with you, wife and gear on board, measure again (here is where friend comes in handy) ideally that loaded dimension should change by 1"-1 1/4" max relative to the unloaded dimension. If you set it up for fully loaded condition, it will only be slightly stiffer feeling when solo, but not enought o warrant changing the preload. YOU are better off having set up for yor loaded condition. Want to know the bad news about the Hagon shock? It will make you want to change your front springs too. Front will feel mushy by comparison.

Both the Warrior and the Road star also use Floating Rotors in conjunction with the 4 piston caliper. Source some stratoliner/roadliner floating rotors to complete the job. The Road Star and warrior floating rotors may also fit. WD40 is a temporary fix on the clutch and brake pivots. Best method is to remove the brake and clutch levers completely. Push the brass pivot/pusher out of the handle and clean ( if you are super anal, use brass polish on it and the aluminum lever). Clean that, the lever bolt pivot surface and all mating surfaces on the lever itself and on the master cylinder where the lever rides, Light grease on everything that pivots/rotates and reassemble. Smooth action, no squeaks, no noise on engagement and release. You will ask yourself why didn't I do this sooner.

Warping rotors should not be common issue unless you have put alot of miles/wear on them or use aggressive pad compounds. Be sure you don't have a sticking caliper or you may warp another set. Check that shaking on brake application is not related to loose steering head bearings. If you haven't flushed changed brake fluid and cleaned out the master cylinder and brake components, now would be a good time. Rtsd/Venture rotors are fully interchangeable. The floating Rotors from the Stratoliner/Roadliner (as well as the front wheel assembly from those bikes) will also work. ddog

These bikes will run really well on 3 cylinders. Doing a check on cylinder temps on start up is not too bad (wet your finger first). Start it and see if all cylinders warm up get hot at roughly the same rate. If one is staying cold/colder (as in not as warm hot) as the others, that's the problem child. Could be fuel or spark. I agree should be able to cruise around all day in 5th at 55-62. Don't expect quick acceleration from there or good two up hill climbing, but other wise should not be dying spitting? How about some history on the bike? How many miles? Owned it since new? New to you? has it sat for an extended period in it life? Have you checked the oil lately? Is it over full? if so there may be fuel in the crankcase. Last time it had Spark plugs? Another easy thing to check- Are the battery cables tight?? If I had to guess, the spitting you are describing is float valves not set correctly (too much fuel in bowl) or needle valves leaking fuel by, or some combination. 52-60 in 5th is not alot of fuel demand, if floats aren't aren't set or sealing, raw fuel will start rising in the emulsion tube and into the carb throat. You only need one carb to do this to make it stumble/spit. Running around in 4th keeps the fuel demand up and therefore the carb bowls stay at a lower fuel level. There are somethings Seafoam or any in-tank cleaner won't correct. I'm personally not a fan of Seafoam due to the alcohol in it. There's enough of that in fuel already. While Expensive, either get Yamaha Ring Free (Highly concentrated techron) or get Chevron Techron Fuel system Cleaner and use the Big bottle ( for up to 20 gallons). Drive enough to run a a gallon or so through then park it, preferably with a lift or jack stands under the pegs to keep it level so the float bowls are all equally full. Let it sit a day or two and then run it again and run it hard and run that tankof fuel out. Change the oil. If you still have the stumble issue, and you have ruled out spark and spark plugs, it will be time to go inside the carburetors. If you think you like 4th gear? Try Third gear, its good from 30-90. In the mountains, its almost the only gear you need.

You could be first and report back? Price the parts, you won't be baffled for long. Besides Injectors, throttle bodies, TPS etc You need a place to install O2 Sensor(s), MAF sensor at a minimum. The bike will also need a custom tuneable ECU and you will need to have a feedback loop so you can create fuel maps till you find one that works. If I had to Venture a guess, $5k not including all the custom labor, machining,mods. You can buy a bike with FI (just not a venture) cheaper than you can convert one. If you could score a salvage Vmax 1700 that might be one way to get everything you need in one shot, but my guess for one that runs you'll pay at least 5K. I think Dingy measured one up and dimensionally its not a straight swap even if you used the complete engine. If you follow his build threads, its alot of work what he is doing and he is sticking with carbs. So as not to hijack the OP's thread completely, try to PM Dingy about those adapters. He may have a line. Another option would be if you could swap an entire motor from either a 2nd genVenture or an 05 and newer tour deluxe. Not sure if those will swap clean into the previous Royal Star. That gets you to 98 HP (and balance shafts)which is probably the best you can do.