LilBeaver

Yeeeeouch. Although, I've got to admit - that guy had to have pretty good aim to crash into a fork lift like that :crackup:

I had the same thought a few days ago. Hopefully everything is alright.

I've been eyeing these for quite some time... Actually since I saw Dr_Bar's in person (I don't recall what brand it was, but same idea). I don't have that kind of cash laying around, but I am saving up my pennies!! I hope you get lots of enjoyment out of it!!

I have yet to ride a first gen, but I have ridden a number of goldwings. (Haven't made it onto a GL1800 yet though - 2002 & newer). But they are smooth, quiet, amazingly easy to drive and maneuver. Other than the seating position (it kills my knees) I have no complaints about them at all.

Meh, what can I say - I bought my scoot to ride, not just look at... My riding is probably split 75%/25% 1-up/2-up. With respect to the front, I'll tell you in a month or so when I replace it for wear (if the cracking doesn't get much worse), as I've got 10k on it already :stickpoke:

That would be a deal breaker for me. Since that kind of seems to defeat the purpose of a reservation, but maybe I'm just a little crazy like that

Alright. Got it all done. I guess I can't complain too much, considering this one lasted ~15 years. I definitely was not worried about the warranty on my new one, since I will only be here for another 2-3 years, max.

Thanks Eck, I appreciate it That would have been pretty sweet. I would have settled for some knowledge about what to look for in a new one too. The one I have, I believe is the original one that was put in when the house was built. There are no markings on it that I can find (I haven't looked closely at the backside yet) other than the 'energy consumption' sticker that has a copyright date of like 1994 on it. My house was built in 96. The home inspector took one look at it when I was looking at buy my home (2 years ago) and the first thing he asked was "you are getting a home warranty, right?". Anyways, long story short the inspector was amazed that the thing still worked and didn't leak but told me to make sure that warranty was paid up because it could go at any time. It is a beige unit, 58" tall, 18" diameter, 50 gallon capacity, 4500W elements, and runs off 240V at 30A. I replaced the elements in January because I was finding that the water was not seeming to stay as hot as long as it had in the past. When I replaced the elements, the old ones were ridiculously corroded and had a good coating of (what I assume was) calcium build up. While I had the elements out, I drained the tank and vacuumed out as much of the sediment as I could (since it was partially covering the bottom element). Yesterday while I was in the shower, I had about 3 minutes of nice hot water then BAM it went cold. I had assumed my housemate started the washer or turned her shower on or something. Last night I heard a strange noise in the garage, went to check it out, and my drain pan was filled with rusty water and draining, as it is supposed to. I turned off the water to the water heater then turned it back on to watch and I saw lots of bubbling around the metal ring on the bottom of the unit itself as well as watch the pan fill up. I looked over everything else and saw no obvious leaks anywhere. So here we are. Yee-haw. When I take it out (later today) I'll look around it carefully to try to figure out what kind it is - I assume there will be a plate somewhere with a serial number, model number or whatever, I just can't get my head around to the backside of the unit with the way it is setup in my garage. Yup yup. This was one of the first things I did when I moved in. What did I find happen? the plastic (plastic, really plastic? what kind of design is that?) valve at the bottom of the tank shot out some really awesome looking water then stopped. Turns out the crap in the bottom of the tank (as mentioned above) is QUITE deep. Wow. I couldn't imagine trying to get one up to the attic. Yikes. I'll be doing it myself, so that wouldn't even be an option (short of mounting a winch in the attic or something). Sheesh! Sadly, with the way my schedule is today, I might be taking a cold shower tomorrow too I just needed to vent a little. Thanks for listening ya'll.

like a puddle of rusty water surrounding the base of your water heater with no obvious drips from the pipes, pressure relief valve, or the drain. I bet ya'll can guess what I will be doing tomorrow...

My guess is that you will not be able to find it at an autoparts store since it isn't really a 'standard' plug of any sort. A good Yamaha dealer ought to be able to get one to you next day or a 3-5 days out (max) IF they don't have one in stock. So, if I were you I'd be on the horn first thing tomorrow morning (if not go into your local shop) and see what you can do locally. If not, give a call to a shop that will be in the area of the M.D. and maybe someone can pick it up for you (if you don't go by yourself). Good luck!!

While I agree with you, I will also point out that depending on how fast that guy was going he may also be guilty of not slowing sufficiently while passing an emergency vehicle on the side of the public roadway with the emergency alert equipment activated (ie the flashing lights), which may have prevented the whole crash all together; that is had he slowed sufficiently. Of course the spirit of that law is to protect emergency service personnel, not people like this...

I'm not trying to be a fly in the ointment here but to keep things in perspective there are (as of the time I am posting this, according to Condor's tracking: http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?t=46573) there have been 14 cases (for 7 different members) of the sidewall cracking. I know that there are a few more folks on here (or at least were on here) that have had issues because if we go to the search and do the search for "Avon cracking" or something similar some other names show up. Almost all of the instances were addressed and handled (by replacing) by Avon. There are also many more members that have had Avons for quite some time and have not had a problem. The 9,000 registered users includes folks that are supporting members, trial members and expired trial members and while this forum is open to be read by anyone with internet access, out of these 9,000 people, my guess is that many of those 9,000 probably are not regular readers. Also, the page that keeps getting sent around by Avon addresses some common issues with dry rotting, uneven tread wear, etc. It is important to note that those of us having 'problems' with the tires are NOT suffering from dry rot. It is a cracking issue that is much different than just a simple 'dry rot'. In some cases on only one side of the tire, some are hairline cracks all the way around, some are cracking in the tread, some are very deep and long that run all the way around the tire, etc etc. Point being that it is seemingly abnormal to have such cracks/splitting and the reps that I have talked to all agreed that it was quite strange how the tires developed this business over time. In the interest of objectivity here I do think it is important that none of us know anything about what was going on with the tire BEFORE they made it on to our bikes. There are a lot of variables here. So, for us to point the finger at Avon, may or may not be appropriate. In my case, my first set of tires came from a warehouse in southern California somewhere. My second set came from a warehouse somewhere in Texas. Both have exhibited very similar signs of cracking. In other's cases (that have reported on the issue and have posted pictures) it is clear that they are dispersed across the country (U.S. and Canada) so that does support that there is a possibility of this problem being some sort of manufacture problem - but not conclusively at that. My motivation for being in contact with Avon regarding these issues have been 2 fold. First and foremost I felt that, as a consumer and from a safty, it was my responsibility to inform the company that I am having, what has the possibility to be, a severe problem with their product. Second, I felt that there ought to be some sort of consideration since there was an obvious problem with the product. My last comment here for now will be this. My last communication with Avon, was talking with a rep in person, that ended with again, a good experience with Avon customer service. After discussing and showing him the issues with these tires he was very apologetic and after a conversation between me, the Avon rep and the service writer with the dealership I was at, they (the dealership and Avon rep) offered to take tread measurements and replace the tire with an Avon (if I wanted) or that they would work out putting a different set of tires on my bike (they both suggested Dunlop E3s). My front tire is almost out of tread, so that one cannot be 'warranted' and the rear one is close but the cracking on the rear, while it just started, it is not bad enough for me to honestly feel not safe on it. So I am going to watch it over the next couple of weeks and if it gets any worse, I've got a new rear Dunlop, courtesy of the Rep. I do have about 10k on these tires, so it is getting close to that time anyway. Sorry about the long post, I just like to stay objective about things and want to make sure that we all keep this in perspective. You don't have to agree with me, and quite frankly I don't care if you agree or disagree with my approach. I respect your opinion and will be happy to simply agree to disagree and all I ask for is the same in return. As I told this last rep I dealt with, of all of the people that have had Avons and been happy with them, I will take that into consideration but cannot ignore my past experience either. So, I'll take a break from the Avons and possibly consider them again in the future. Again, sorry for the long post. I'll shut it now. EDIT: Oops, I pushed submit and walked away to come back to seeing that I must have missed the submit button or something. It looks like much of what I said above has been said already - sorry for the double post with some of the info here.

Wow, that is pretty cool lookin'

I guess that is one way to rough it

Don: First of all, thanks for taking the time to contact Avon regarding this issue. I do have to say that I have been very pleased with all but one of the interactions that I have had with their customer service people. Every communication I had with an Avon rep was followed with that papers that she sent you. Next I am curious about a few things. 1) If they really did change anything about how they produce the tires in an effort to correct the problem. 2) If they did, what production date did the change take effect on. I am on set number two that is cracking. There is a 3 year difference in the production (DOT) date on these tires. **I hope that everyone that has had this problem posts/messages condor so we can maybe get some insight as to what our group has experienced.

It probably is not too late to get ahold of that Days Inn to establish a group rate. At least for the 10 reservations that were canceled, if not all.

You are a WISE man!!

Wow. I wonder how OSHA feel about that

I read about a lot of people having this problem, and I actually didn't have an issue with the slippage at all. I think the diameter of the crash bars vary as you move down the bar - which may explain why some do and some don't have issues with the slippage.

Yikes. Glad no one was hurt physically. My guess is that there are plenty of people that will be hurting financially now though...

:clap2: Hey hey!! Glad you like your new ride Great picture too, by the way - at first glance I thought it was one of the 'official' yamaha pictures...

Your "date" column, do you want the date on the tire or the date of the replacement? Front and Rear tires (Avon Venom), cracked sevearly, less than 1,000 miles on each, replaced under warranty, Tires dated 2005 Replacement tires Dated late 2008, within the last 2 weeks started showing lots of cracks on sidewalls and in some places within the treads. Will replace but will not be Avons. Sorry about not responding to your thread. I had considered setting up a poll to take care of this, but I never did it. Honestly, I saw the title and thought "oh boy, another Venom cracking thread" so I didn't open it until I saw it pop back up a few times...

Well... Sadly, I cannot say I have a 'favorite' ride yet from my house. Yup, things are that exciting here in the panhandle... Although one that is of potential interest would be the following: 1) Leave lubbock 2) Head up to Floydada, go N on HWY 207 up towards Caprock Canyon state park. 3) Cruise around the park, then continue N on HWY 207 past lake Mackenzie and along the East side of Palo Duro Canyon Park 4) cut west, tour Palo Duro Canyon 5) Fill up and head back about the same way but on the next highway East Total ride distance would be ~375 miles, but could easily be cut to about 300. Although it is quite a bit over your 5 hour time limit. An approximate map: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=33.578015,-101.865578&daddr=114+U.S.+82,+Crosbyton,+Crosby,+Texas+79322+to:Farm+to+Market+Rd+651+N+to:TX-70+N+to:TX-70+N+to:TX-207+N%2FTX-86+W+to:Farm+to+Market+Rd+1258+to:Farm+to+Market+Rd+1258+to:W+Farm+to+Market+Rd+1151+to:Palo+Duro+Dr%2FTX-217+E+to:State+Hwy+Park+Rd+5+to:19th+St&hl=en&geocode=%3BFVecAQId-jn3-Smj9M8b7cn_hjGYhaXqRpc5fA%3BFZRoBgId2vj2-Q%3BFT47BwId3E_9-Q%3BFcw5DwIdtnb7-Q%3BFaIYDgIdSwb1-Q%3BFRDdFQIdKBH1-Q%3BFSD0FgId0G3w-Q%3BFYxzFwId1uzt-Q%3BFQfXFQIdWBzw-Q%3BFcIDFQIdWh_x-Q%3BFbZbAAIdxpPt-Q&mra=dme&mrcr=0&mrsp=0&sz=12&sll=33.590885,-101.752625&sspn=0.197334,0.308647&ie=UTF8&ll=34.386513,-101.233521&spn=1.572999,2.469177&z=9

Or at least a return policy... Without restocking fees or other penalties.

I closed all of my browser windows and then opened this up to try again and found the same thing - that is, only the last one working.