GaThumper

It shouldn't be TOO bad if you (or he) is used to doing your own minor maintenance. It took a bit of Google work and I figured out the Vulcan 500 is an inline twin with screw type valve adjusters, so no need for shims! Here's a Vulcan forum where I found the following information. http://www.vulcanforums.com/ The inline twin Kawasaki motor is also used in the Ninja 500 although tuned differently for the sport bike. I found a thread on the Vulcan forum that goes over the valve adjustment process and references some pretty nice documentation from the Ninja forum. You just have to ignore all the steps for removing the Ninja's bodywork. [ame=http://www.vulcanforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2609]How To: Adjust Your Valves - Kawasaki Vulcan Forum : Vulcan Forums[/ame] Here the link to the PDF file (also referenced in his post above) that is hosted on the Ninja site, www.ex-500.com . http://www.ex-500.com/files/2006_EX500_Valve_Clearance_Adjustment.pdf There's also a link to the EX-500 Wiki that would be a good reference for the Vulcan motor. Maybe the Ninja crowd are more into the motor and maintenance? http://www.ex-500.com/wiki/index.php/Valve_clearance_adjustment Now, it's no small amount of work to get down to the valves, but if you take your time and follow the directions you'll end up at the relatively simple screw type valve adjuster. There were also some comments about a 2009 Vulcan 500 valve adjustment that will most likely apply to the '96 model as well. It would be worthwhile to consider, since you may need to get the two o-rings they talk about for the two coolant pipes. [ame=http://www.vulcanforums.com/forums/showthread.php?p=20524]Adjusting valves on 2009 Vulcan 500 ? - Kawasaki Vulcan Forum : Vulcan Forums[/ame] The Vulcan forums look like a good resource for him to get involved in and should be able to provide some good information and help on the Vulcan. Looks like a really interesting bike. Good Luck! James

I might still be suspicious of the front tire. Mine was quiet traveling straight and sang in the curves (more so in one direction than the other) New tires a couple of weeks ago and she's quiet now (and turns and feels much better too!) Does the sound change with the type of pavement? This might indicate the tire. D0 you have any play in the wheel if you try and rock it side to side by hand? Good Luck! It's smart to pay attention to little sounds like this that are different. James

I've got two dual sports and ride a lot of miles on organized (and un-organized!) rides each year. If I could only have one bike, it would probably be the KLR650. (I prefer the pre 2008 for a little less weight and less body work to tear up off road!) It does EVERYTHING, it may not be the best bike for street or trail, but it does both pretty well. There is a huge community of KLR riders online and they are a lot like this community, fun friendly and will do anything for you, and they don't care if you ride a KLR or something else. But, I'm blessed to have a nice pair of street bikes AND a nice pair of dual sports, so for now, I don't have to choose. If you want a dual sport for a second (or third, or fourth) bike, just decide what kind of riding you want to do and get a bike built for it. Dual sports come in all sizes and some are (barely) street legal full on dirt bikes, and some are street bikes with the look and style of an off-road bike, and everything in between. I don't like taking my KLR in the steep and deep, rough and rocky trails, and I hate to take the little DR350 on a ride with a lot of pavement. Each one is built for a different purpose, you can use them for the "other" purpose, but it's not as much fun. BTW, I've got the Corbin seat on the KLR and I love it. There are always used Corbins around for the KLR since they are bought and built up and sold and traded a lot. Love my dual sports! North GA, western NC, eastern TN, are filled with good dual sport riding. Come on , let's get dirty! James

Great Job! I will definately be using this soon, since the '01 I bought has just turned 25k. Maybe I can wait until winter, we'll see. I just finished the valve job on my old '79 GS1000E (inline 4 with big 'ol shims!) and I bought the special tool for depressing the buckets and wouldn't have wanted to do the job without it. One of the guys on the GS Resources had created an Excel spreadsheet that was pretty nice. You entered the original clearance (in inch or mm) and the installed shim and it calculated the probable replacement shim. I'll probably come up with one for my Venture. If anyone is interested, I'll be glad to share. One comment, and this is just what I was told about the GS. They recommend NOT touching the shims with a magnet. The concern was magnetizing the shim and attracting any metal shavings/bits to the shim and possibly wearing/scarring the cam. I'm not sure if this is really an issue, or an issue that is specific to the GS, but I'll probably not use a magnet on mine if I can get them out without one. On the GS I used a small screw driver to pop them up, and a couple of different small needlenose to remove them. Thanks again for a great writeup. Together with the manual it will make the job a little less intimidating! Definately looks like a job NOT for the feint of heart. If I trusted anyone else to work on my bikes, I might pay to have it done, but to them IT's just a JOB, to me SHE's my BABY! James

When I'm going from the highy pegs to the brake I sometimes don't put my foot down on the board right away, but if I'm riding with my foot on the floor board I just lift my toe and swivel on my heel to get the brake. This is my first bike with floor boards and/or forward positioned controls and it has been a bit of an adjustment for me to get used to. My background is off road and all my street bikes before the Venture had pegs, and for me it seemed more natural to cover and access the brake (and shifter) with pegs. I've adjusted nicely and don't really have any trouble with it, and the trade off in comfort is worth it!

Any chance of sliding the date a week or so either direction next time? I'm really not sure if it will be a conflict every year, but the GA State CMA Rally is the same weekend this year. Not sure either how many Georgia VentureRiders are also CMA members, and I wouldn't want to cause any body any grief by changing the date just for me, but if it's no big deal and not set in stone? I lead a dual sport ride on Friday at the CMA rally, last year it was 8/22 and this year it is 8/21. So I definately won't be at Vogel on Friday. Kinda puts a kink in any camping plans, too, I'll have to think about that. I plan to come over to Vogel Thursday and maybe split the day Saturday somehow or another, I'm working on it. I'm not sure, but the CMA appears to be sticking to the third weekend in August, too. We have two other Ventures in the Cleveland CMA chapter, so it might be nice if the events didn't conflict. Later, James

Those are cool! I'll definately save that link for future reference. I bought some a little different from Reid Supply a few weeks ago. The price was right and the service was outstanding. I ordered one day and they arrived the second day after I ordered by first class mail. (First Class Mail was not listed as a quoted shipping rate, but I called and they said it would be the least expensive for a small order) These can be pressed on to a M6 socket head cap screw. I may use a little glue, too, but it's not supposed to be necessary. http://www.reidsupply.com/Default.aspx knobs are made by Shear-Loc Shear-Loc® Thumb Screws Plastic Knobs Make your own thumb screw knobs with any socket head cap screw. Knobs press-fit onto screws with arbor press or between jaw plates. Made from Delrin 500 Acetal Resin. A real money saver! See page for socket head cap screws. Assortments come in break resistant box. Metric dimensions are shown in millimeters. http://www.reidsupply.com/GrpResults.aspx?pid=10022035&aitm=SLK-7&apid=10022035&bi= Haven't tried them out yet, but I got some 26mm knurled ones for .53 each http://www.reidsupply.com/Detail.aspx?itm=SLK-600 http://www.reidsupply.com/images/products/photos/300/SLK-1_ImageC.jpg and some 38mm diameter lobed (or fluted) knobs for .78 each. http://www.reidsupply.com/Detail.aspx?itm=SLK-800 http://www.reidsupply.com/images/products/photos/300/SLK-1_ImageC4.jpg

I prefer NGK plugs for all my bikes and just bought a set of DPR8EA-9 for my '01 from Advance Auto Parts for $1.99 each. I didn't check the price at the dealer, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was $4-$5. The Iridium plug (DPR8EIX-9) was quite a bit higher so I went with the standard plug.

'64 Spyder... belonged to my dad, I was about 8-10 and I loved that car. I'm just trying to figure out the significance of all the Venture owners who also had Corvairs...

Green for Mr and Mrs Thumper, XXL and XL please. (matches my eyes, and my '01!) I'll get a registration mailed off to you this week.

I guess that was a little bit confusing, I didn't mean to say that the Works shock has the same body and internals as the OEM. I know they are completely different. I was just guessing that all the RSV Works shocks probably use the same body and internals, just with different weight springs and preload set for each bike based on the customer input. Also, I'm not sure if the Works shock has adjustments for damping or rebound? Thanks, James

I just bought a set of EBC organic pads for my '01. I would normally buy the HH "sintered" pads for the better friction rating at the expense of a little more rotor wear, but in this case I decided to go with the organic pads. Here's my reasoning. I read some threads here about the rear brakes being REALLY strong on our bikes. So strong that they may have contrubuted to some accidents! There has even been a product developed by Rick Butlar to reduce the amount of brake pressure produced by the rear brake. You can read more about it here. http://www.venturerider.org/classifieds/showproduct.php/product/979/cat/7 I haven't decided whether to mod my brakes with the proportioning valve or not. Unfortunately I may not realize it was a good idea until AFTER I experience a panic stop locking up my rear brakes! This information was enough for me to decide to go with the organic pads for a little less friction to compensate for the powerful RSV rear brakes. Here's a comment from the EBC web site... Organic pads have attracted many enthusiasts because of the way they work. They are inherently “Softer” easier on rotors and have a brake “feel” preferred by many riders. This is one of those "personal choice" things that each rider will have to decide for their self. There is not one right or wrong choice. Some may want to add the "Butler Mod" and/or choose organic or sintered pads, others may decide to leave the stock brake hydraulics and choose organic or sintered pads. This is my .02 and YMMV James

Quick update. I talked to Rick @ Cogent Dynamics today and the testing and measurement he needs to do is not destructive. He would just take some physical measurements and then put it on the shock dyno for further measurements. I've PM'd SaltyDawg and Rick Butler who both have spare shocks available for testing, so we should have something to send him. I'm waiting to hear the condition of their shocks. The better the condition of the shock being tested, the better the measurements will be. This is something I had not considered, but it makes sense. I guess springs do lose their energy over time? He did say that if the shock has already leaked all it's oil it would NOT prevent him from getting the necessary measurements, but I expect it would be preferable to have an intact shock for testing. If anyone just happened to have a new OEM shock that has not been installed, or a low mile take-off, this would probably be the best scenerio for testing and I'd be glad to pay for Priority Mail back and forth to Cogent Dynamics in NC. He can do his testing in a couple of hours and send the shock right back. I was also thinking more about the failure of the OEM shocks and the Works replacements. I'm not sure if it's just poor design/engineering/construction causing the failures or if the shock is too small/light for the bike? Any thoughts? I know Works takes into consideration your weight, and if you ride two up the passenger weight, and weight of cargo and/or trailering when they spec the replacement. I'm guessing they have different weight springs they can use? and adjust the preload and/or dampening and/or rebound? But as far as I know all the Works replacements use the same body and internals? Thanks for all your help! James

I wish I could join you! Reverse the route I rode bringing my '01 home from Cleveland (Chardon) a few weeks ago and get to hang out with the guys and thank Don in person for checking out the bike... But, my CMA chapter will be working the US Rider News Reunion Run in Helen GA this weekend. Stop by the and look up the CMA tent for some free cold water and fellowship if you're not going to Maintenance Day. Here's the info if interested. http://www.usridernews.com/reunion_run_details.asp http://www.usridernews.com/images/2009_reunion.gif

I just got the same kit from PCW for my '01. I called just intending to order the new spring and leave my half disc in the back of the pack, but the guy I talked to advised me to replace the half disc with a full disc. He said the half disc absorbed some of the energy from the spring, so to get the best clutch I should replace the half disc. I think I'll be happy with the full disc in there since I've been driving with a clutch (m/c and car) for orver 40 years so I don't expect it to be any big deal. He also said to look closely at the metal plates and if they were smooth and shiney to re-surface them. His 1st recommendation was to get them bead blasted with medium glass beads if I can, or to cross hatch with sandpaper as an alternative. He did say if they still have a nice matt finish (the factory finish) to leave them alone. My riding buddy said he always scrubbed his on a concrete block and while that might be OK, I'm probably going for the bead blasting if needed. Good Luck!

$3500

He's in Fletcher NC, about 10 miles south of Ashville. I'll check with Rick and see what he's got. I remember reading his write up about the shock when I was learning about the shock problems.

If anyone has a take-off shock from the RSV that they would consider donating, please let me know. It will be analyzed and probably taken apart and I wouldn't expect it to be returned, but we may end up with a good alternative to the Works shock to replace the Yamaha OEM shock on the 2nd gens. It would be good to have another option, right? Anyway, I have a contact who has a suspension shop and he has done some great work building shocks for other bikes (Ducati, KLR650, DR650, SV650, and Honda TransAlp). He is located in North Carolina and is well respected in the road racing and dual sport community. This is a small family business and he rides and races bikes himself. I have one of his "moab" custom shocks on my KLR650 and I love it. Everyone who has one has nothing but praise for the work that he has done giving the 400+ pound pig some manners in the dirt. He can't promise anything, but when I talked to him about my failing shock and the replacement options (oem and Works afaik) we discussed the possability of him coming up with a replacement. He would need to examine an oem shock to determine what he can do and what he would recommend. I believe that if he was able to build a replacement, it would be a good one! There is also a chance he could come up with a modification or re-manufacturing process for the oem shocks. It all depends on him getting a look at the oem shock. Thanks! James

I haven't tried it on my Zumo, but from what I've read, you first copy the new splash screen to the Zumo via USB from your computer and then from the maintenance (wrench) screen, choose display, then change (next to splash screen) and select the new screen. I'll try it out this evening and see how it goes.

Hi, my name's James and I'm a geek. I got started by taking a computer programming course at technical college in '77. Fortran, punched cards, batch processing, no VDTs. Went to work as a user of MIS systems at a manufacturing plant in '79. VT100 dumb terminals and a DEC PDP 1170. Took to the systems like a duck in a pond. MRP (Material Requirements Planning system, APICS (American Production and Inventory Control) certified as a CPIM (Certified Production and Inventory Manager), worked as a user of the MRP systems in Shop Floor Control, Production Control, and Warehousing. Everyone came to me to figure out how to do things, when things went wrong, etc. Moved to a support role, still on the user side of the business where I began to get behind the scenes. Went outlaw when my boss went outside the corporate MIS mold (mini computer, dumb terminals, data entry, batch processing, and daily reporting) and leased a CBM (Commodore Business Machines) 80xx, a really early "personal computer". It had a 6502 processor running at 1Mhz, 2 5.25 floppy drives, 16k of ROM and 32K RAM. It went in my office and I was the one tasked with putting the thing to work. From this point I was forever a "cowboy" refusing to fit the mold, which was a bad thing back then, but later was a good thing cause I was "Thinking Outside of the Box"! We also bought VisiCalc (The visible calculator) software and a dot matrix printer. Visical was the first spreadsheet program and was released in 1979. (Lotus 1-2-3 was releases in '83 and Excel in '85 for Mac and '87 for Windows 2.0) Our version of VisiCalc was originally written for 16k and a guy from Texas (I think) came out to modify our version to allow it to access our full 32k of RAM! Where the "corporate" system stored data input during the day and processed it each night producing lot's of fanfold reports to look at the next day, I could input some of the same data into my spreadsheets and print reports instantly! It was 1980-1981 and I was a geek! Had a job rotation as computer operator while I co-op'd some more business courses, did training and support for some newly developed sales and marketing systems. Then our little support group was merged into the Corporate MIS department and I went from systems analyst (we did user support and training, requirements definition documents, functional specifications that we gave to the programmers, and then we tested the programs, wrote the user training and documentation, trained the users and supported the systems) to my first programming job. By now we had a DEC PDP 11780 VAX (Virtual Address eXtension) using VAX VMS Operating language, BASIC (Beginners All Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language, and RSTS/E (Resource Timesharing System). I did BASIC for a while then we converted all our corporate systems to IBM mainframes using the IDMS Integrated Database Managment Syslem) database, the IDD (Integrated Data Dictionary, ADSO (Application Development System Online), OLM (On Line Mapping) OLQ (OnLine Query) and COBOL the COmmon Business Oriented Language. Yes, I am a geek and a dinasaur! A geekasaurus? Years of mainframe programming carried me to exotic locals such as Boston, Baltimore, Rochester, Toronto, and more. I went from manusacturing and business information systems to Nuclear Plant managment and reporting systems. All along the way I had been involved with the personal computer revolution. PC, PC/XT, PC/AT, PC DOS, MS DOS, Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, NT, XP, 3270 IRMA cards to emulate the 3270 IBM terminals, TCP/IP, Token Ring, Ethernet, Novell Networks, etc. I was internet when internet wasn't cool. Implemented IP addresses, downloaded all sorts of things with FTP and then I downloaded MOSAIC from the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications). MOSAIC was the first web browser and and is credited with opening the WWW (World Wide Web) to non-geeks. MOSAIC later spawned Netscape Navigator, and ultimately the Godzilla of browsers MS Windows Internet Explorer. (NOTE: If you haven't tried FireFox, google it up and give it a spin) So, I got out of programming and moved to "Client Services" supporting all things telcom, desktop and laptop workstations, servers, LANS, WANS, leased circuits, phones, PBXs, switches, routers, printers, mobile radios and most recently the mobile computing revolution with laptops in vehicles, handheld computers, Blackberrys, Smart Phones, Windows CE devices of all flavors. I've left the corporate environment and have been in Field Operations for the last 15 years. I haven't been involved in any programming and enjoy traveling around in my assigned region once again helping my clients figure out how to do things with Information Technology! I have come full circle.

+1000 Get good REAL aloe and keep applying it often. Another thing that might help is some vitamin E. I have used the gel caps and just cut a couple of them open and rub it in.

Any members close to Watsonville CA? I could use some assistance with a purchase there. Thanks, James Never Mind! I can't figure out how to delete this message, but I have everything handled through the UPS Pack and Ship Store there. Mods, if you would like to NUKE this post, make it so.

Please add me to the list and a BIG thank you! GaThumper in Cleveland GA

Thanks for all you do! I appreciate you!

Boxer briefs on a long ride for me instead of the normal jockey briefs, but I'd like to try the bicycle type shorts and under armor type shorts. I'm betting they would work well. On the top I "discovered" the $5 generic wicking or dry shirts from Wally World two years ago and love them. They seem to keep me dry longer and when wet they dry out quickly. I seem to stay cooler with the wicking shirt layered with another T-Shirt than I do with just a T-Shirt. Ditto on the washing them out int he sink and air drying over night. Bonus points if you hang them outside in the breeze for a fresh clean smell. (I don't care what dryer sheets I use, they can't beat my mom's clothsline for great smelling clothes!) If you haven't tried the wicking shirts, give them a try, I'm sure you will be impressed.