bongobobny

Only the MK1 Standard, and perhaps only the '83, did not have the reserve. The Royales had the reserve...

No Steamer, Black Death WAS introduced at MD before it became a staple at the WNY Rally...

Before we leave St Thomas, here's a view of a small area of the harbor. Any guesses as to how many millions of dollars there are in yachts alone?? Some people have waaaaay too much money! At St. Johns, Antigua we took a bus tour and the first stop was at an old fort up on a hill with a spectacular 180-degree view. You can understand why it was a strategic point in the defense of the island! From there we went to Nelson's Shipyard! Our tour guide explained this interesting array of three devices that they would tie the ships to one side at a time, and then they would turn the cranks which would draw them on their side while still in the water, so they could scrape barnacles and service the hull if necessary! We were also treated to a free drink at their bar. The ceiling is an interesting graffiti artwork! After a wonderful afternoon of touring and shopping, it's time to get back on the boat. Hmmm, which one was ours anyway?!!? Next stop, Castries, St Lucia...

We've even had cagers come!!!

Well, here we are in St Thomas! We went to Blackbeard's castle where we met a pirate who told us a tale... [ATTACH=CONFIG]108920[/ATTACH] We were offered a guest room but we kindly refused... [ATTACH=CONFIG]108921[/ATTACH] Later on, in town, we stopped for conch fritters at a place called the Beer Gardens and were entertained by a local musician warming up for an evening gig elsewhere Here's something I want to show you from Cozumel, Mexico! Here they have truth in advertising!!! I applaud them for this advertising!!! Next stop, St Johns!!!

Two VERY good questions!! Without the Ivan's and reshimming the needles you still should be getting around 40 MPG! Chances are, due to being stored for many years, and if the carbs were not drained and/or having any kind of stabilizer in the fuel, the carbs will most likely need disassembling, thorough cleaning, and rebuilding!! Chances are you have plugged jets or passageways and varnish buildup. Ethanol is a very nasty thing for carbs to bear for an extended period! As far as Maintenance Day goes, yes indeed there is some actual maintenance going on with some skilled people present. It is primarily for minor scheduled maintenance but there is also some more major maintenance done in the past such as clutches, forks, etc. No, there has never been a complete engine rebuild done there, but we have seen some serious issues come up and resolved there. Maintenance Day was started many years ago by our site owner Freebird as a get together with a few friends to get their bikes ready for the summer, but continued to grow and grow! At its peak, I think there were close to three hundred people in attendance! Nowadays it is just as much a social event as it is a maintenance event with a M&E dinner on Friday evening, and there was a talk of a band being there this year as well but I'm not sure if it is going to materialize... So, welcome aboard, and if you haven't gotten your issue resolved before then, maybe there will be a carb specialist that can help you out! Regardless, it is a great event to learn things and to meet some of the members here!

Also, if either your clutch switch of the brake light switch is misadjusted, or if the levers are not coming completely out, this could cause it to drop out...

Did you loosen the pinch bolt on the nut side??? Sometimes taking a screwdriver and prying apart at the slit is needed...

Actually, just a couple of pounds of air pressure is a good thing to prevent the fork oil from foaming...

Yup! My feelings exactly, just leave the petcock on the reserve position! The 1st gen petcocks were stiff to begin with and you pretty much needed az pair of pliers to turn them! There was a "mod" using washers behind the screws to remedy this...

On May 11th I am having surgery on a toe, so I will be unable to ride for a while myself! I'm thinking Marcarl's M&E will be out, but hopefully I'll be good to go MD...

Yup, you have to change at least the fork lowers. The bolt spacing on MK1 is 87 mm whereas the MK2, along with the R1/R6 is 100 mm...

Due to man unfortunate double booking, the WNY NE Regional Rally dates have been changed from Aug 10 - Aug 13 TO August 17 - August 20!! The schedule will remain the same, just the dates are changed!! We regret this inconvenience and hope all of you that were planning on attending can still attend!! The original calendar entries have been deleted, so you will have to resubmit your information on the calendar. If you have not already signed up on the calendar, now is a perfect time to do so!! http://www.venturerider.org/forum/calendar.php?do=getinfo&e=493&day=2017-8-17&c=1 Sorry for any inconvenience folks, this was out of our control!! See you at the rally!!!

In Western New York (Not in the NYC area) it generally starts in mid-November but it is not totally unheard of to see snow as early as September but that is very rare. Snow is usually gone by the end of March but it has snowed as late as May, and I even remember once seeing snow in June, but it didn't last...

OK, I left off at the Ruins in Mexico. Well, besides the ruins... we also saw a monkey in a tree!! Coming back from the shore excursion, I wonder how these guys liked their expedition! On the way back to Tampa at the end of part one of the cruise, we went under the Tampa Bay Bridge. Talk about just clearing... After doing pretty much nothing in Tampa, the next stop was Key West, FL. We had been there a few times already so all we did was walk around. It was St Patrick's Day weekend there (Hey, Key West finds ANY excuse to party) so the party crowd was out in force! We stopped for some corn fritters and spotted this radical bike... I think he has some kind of alignment issue here! Next stop, San Juan, Puerto Rico. They had a rather unusual choice for their motorcycle cops! We shopped in the afternoon, and in the evening we saw a latin traditions show. The guitarist is a world famous flamenco guitarist and even was on the Ed Sullivan show! Next stop, St Thomas...

I just bid on it, now at $86...

I mostly agree with Carl on this one but if I owned a CO sniffer I to would have all 4 cylinders richness balanced for efficiency myself, it can make 1 or 2 MPG difference and, just like syncing the carbs, will make the engine run a little cooler. It is much more accurate than just turning the richness screws out 2 1/2 turns each. Like Carl said, those sniffer port plugs are probably really seized up at this point and just manually adjusting the screws will work quite well unless one of them is really buggered up. That being said, there is a device called a color tune plug which is a specialized spark plug with a window in it that allows you to adjust the actual color of each explosion to near that perfect 5.1 sniffer reading for maximum efficiency. They cost about $75 which is one heck of a lot cheaper than what a CO sniffer costs!! I notice you are from Syracuse, like in NY? If so, try to make it to the Western New York Northeast Regional Rally this August! We are only a couple or three hours from you!

Pretty much the same view out my window Don...

OK, I spent a little time today resizing a couple of the pictures today so here's a rundown of just part of the cruise. This won't quite be in chronological order but I'll try to do the best I can... Our second port, after Cozumel (which Becky and I both do not like at all,) was the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. There we saw a biker gang out terrorizing the local neighborhood... This I think was their biker bar hangout... We found some naked chicks in a club next door... The next day found us in Guatemala where we took a bus tour, and they wouldn't let us off the bus in the city. It is a very impoverished nation as these housing pictures show... Once again we found yet another biker gang... And a motorcycle mama! Here's Becky checking her purchase from a one-armed pirate... I found out how he lost his arm, he obviously P.O.'ed his girlfriend... The next stop was Costa De Mayo, Mexico where we visited some Aztec ruins. I'll continue the story in a couple of days as soon as I select and resize some more pictures!

Yup, the diamond cuts were the first thing that I spotted this AM!!

Well, we finally got home last night around 8 PM. The place is still standing and everything is intact. So now we have to go back to cooking for ourselves, make our bed, etc! Becky is going to be busy with laundry for the next few days!!! I'll post a few pictures in a couple of days, I took around 4 or 5 thousand...

Yup! When properly done, the Western Union splice (named after the famous telegraph company) is just as strong if not stronger than the original wire...

Go with speed bleeders, they are pretty cheap, and make the job a lot easier! A speed bleeder has a one-way valve built into it, so you do not have to keep opening and closing the bleeder to properly bleed the system...

Welcome aboard!! Yup, Ventures are one of the most comfortable bikes out there, reliable and plenty of power (or at least the 1st gens do). There are plenty of events for you to attend starting with Freebird's Maintenance Day in the suburban Cleveland area in June...

I meant come up on the original date, that's when the Elvis impersonator is playing on the stage where we hold the Rally. That is why we are rescheduling, seems the owner of Pioneer Motorsports booked the guy last fall and forgot to put it on the calendar...