aharbi

I have one and use it for travel as it packs small. It is waterproof (waterproof coating of some kind) does not have grommets around the bottom nor protective windshield liner, nor the protective silver heat panels (put on when exhaust is cold). Just a basic cover. I also use a Covermax and Dowcow covers which are quit a bit heaver with the grommets and the windshield liner but no trunk liner (never seen one). I'd go with it. Not as light weight (but waterproof) as the nylon covers and not as heavy as a "lined cover. Mine is the all black one on the left as viewed from the rear. Hope this helps. http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/aharbi/Montana%201%202009/P8031619.jpg

Brian, For the first time this summer (August) I rode straight down thru the pan handle. I came in 287/385 from OK. Stayed the nite in Amarillo. Continued on 287 to 83 to 84 into Austin on 183. Man that is some ruff riding. Ran over a six foot rattlesnake and the winds! Saw the sign that said Severe Winds Ahead. Not wind gusts, not possible winds, not caution winds. But a matter of fact sign Severe Winds Ahead. What an understatement! I sat up, put my feet down (on the running boards), clicked off the cruise, slowed down to 60ish and just past the silos WAM got hit with the wind, almost knocked me off the bike, moved me over 3 feet. I have never experienced something like that before. Only lasted about a mile or two but that was enough. Some desolate boring country north of Amarillo.

Everytime I sit on it... I heat it

I agree. I can't see paying that price for something that goes obsolete in 2-3 years. I use a Garmin Quest II and when/if it dies I will get either a Garmin nüvi® 500 or 550. Both are waterproof, can load routes and keep tracks. If you dual sport or backpack the 500 has the topos too. Both have 8hr rechargeable battery and can be had for $200 on the net at places like megaGPS.

My girl friend at the time had a 1959 BelAire. The seats were like sofas, no center console, lots of room to move around and stretch. We would take it to the drive-in movies. Aaahh the memories, all those years ago, I miss her... the car the car.

That's for sure. We may end up with another Zar or two. A warm weather Zar, a cold weather Zar, a Night Zar and Day Zar, a spring Zar, summer Zar..... where does it stop?

That's pretty clever, thanks

Yep, and it will even play power point presentations. For a powerful photo editing program try Gimp. But I have not loaded that on my Netbook.

Never had my stolen, but always use a cable lock thru my jacket sleeves and chin bar on my ff helmet. I trust NO ONE. as previously stated, I wouldn't want to ride home without it and wish to save myself the loss/inconvenience/hassle/cost of replacing it.

I have the Gateway Netbook, same as Acer Aspire one (Acer bought Gateway). It has 1gb mem and 160gb drive, wireless, 3 usb, multicard reader slot, vga, web camera, power, lan, 6 cell (7hr) battery, Wondoze XP home. I paid $200. If you shop around and wait for a sale. I would not pay $300 too close to a laptop price. I got this speciffically for the bike to do email & gps routing/tracking, and have loaded all my gps map data on it. I find it easier to route plan and transfer to my gps when I travel. Although not a laptop I do find it quite sufficent to use on the road. The 1024x600 screen is a little hard on these 58+ year old eyes but I'm not using it for hours on end either. To load programs that require a CD/DVD drive I copy them to a 4gb SD card first then plug the sd card into the netbook. I also bought a portable DVD lightscribe drive that I can use with it or my laptop or my desktop. I removed all the MS crap demo/spam MS word and loaded OpenOffice and Mozilla Thunderbird.

+1 you beat me to it. Nope, I cover it with my license plate. Actually I covered it with the Harley Davidson License Plate Rail and Light Kit Part # HD-68280-97 http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/aharbi/HarleyLite.jpg

I have found the cheap $9 cellphone earplug/mic works best. I wear a full face helmet. I use a little piece of velcro to the inside of the chin bar if not already part of the helmet. I wrap a small piece of foam from packing material and again velcro. I wire tie the velcro and foam to the mic. The foam blocks the wind noise. Works good to about 70mph before wind noise is too great. http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/aharbi/IMG_0598.jpg

After repeatedly purchasing windshields for my other bikes (7 windshields in all, including the laminar lip) I had a pretty good idea what I wanted on the RSV. I wanted a full windshield for wind/rain/weather protection with no buffeting on a heavy bike meant to chew up mile after mile for days on end. The only way I could see to do this was to surrender to the fact I would have to look thru it instead of my original intention of looking over it and ducking behind it for the protection. I'm glad I did. The only difference I have found is either looking thru the rain on my FF helmet shield or thru the rain on the windshield. All around I'm more comfortable riding behind the full OEM shield. In fact after Christmas I'm ordering a taller/wider ClearView (with vent). ps, where can I get the Buddy Rich's knee wind blockers I've done several google searches and don't get any hits except this thread.

I hear what you are saying. I'm getting older too. I do my own work or at least what I can or want to on my truck. I like full size trucks. The engine sits the way it should with the front pointing to the front. Room to work to change plugs without banging your knuckles. The oil filter just hanging there naked out in the open so you can grab it. It sits high enough so that you can poke your head under it and check things out. I like trucks. Now my wifes car. You can't even see the oil filter without it being six feet in the air. The engine is covered up so you can't peek at anything and the "stuff" your allowed to look at or touch is painted yellow. Her car I'm afraid of, it scares me. I take her car to a local Midas shop. They allow me to walk around and under her car when raised in the air. They show me everything, give me a list of what the expect next maintenance cycle. And they put everything back they take off. I first noticed this when they put brakes on my truck and put back them little red rubber plugs in the backing plate (rear drum brakes). I was impressed with the work they did and sent Midas HQ a letter thanking them and mentioning the mechanic that did the work. I only ask for him and schedule my appointments just for him. Although the manager (front desk dude) that schedules the work says anyone can help me I INSIST on only him. I guess because of the letter I can do no wrong in his eyes and have never had a problem. My wife even bakes him cookies! Maybe I'm just lucky or maybe you have to build a relationship with a skilled specific machanic to get the work done right. ps. nobody, ain't nobody touching my bikes but me.

I also ride a Suzuki DL/1000 it has a sixth gear which I would consider a "true overdrive" however I don't use it unless I'm doing 70+mph. Or it bogs down the engine, a v-twin that likes high rpms, at 6k it wakes up on steroids. I like the gearing of the RSV, nice comfortable distribution of power without alot of shifting. At highway speeds of 70-75 the engine isn't working hard yet a flick of the wrist power is there to pass that truck or shake that a*h* off your tail. Without the need to downshift. I hate if I have to downshift to pull a hill, not on the RSV. But as others have said it likes some rpms.

I use a 6 inch Y cable and plug it into the AUX port. One side goes to the GPS the other to my Ipod. When the GPS "talks" it does so at the same time as the song that is playing. I may not understand what was said by the GPS but it got my attention so I look at the screen and not miss the turn. I've tried to have the volume on the GPS louder to hear it over the Ipod but still hard to understand.

That's when I go over to http://www.advrider.com/ and read the ride reports.

My exact thoughts when I saw it. However, riding the Alps and specifically the Dolomite mountains are on my bucket list. We have friends that live in Milan and have invited us many times to stay with them. I just have to talk my wife into flying across "the pond."

You could add the Harley Davidson License Plate Rail and Light Kit By Harley Davidson Part # HD-68280-97B It bolts right on. You have to cut the plug and splice into the Yamaha wire behind the license plate. Took me all of maybe 30 minutes. The best price I found was at http://www.zanottimotor.com/ I paid $166.05.

I guess it depends on how much you ride. I changed my plugs to iridium plugs, changed oil & filter, installed K&N Filters before a 4k mile summer trip. My gas mileage went from 38mpg to 41mpg. I'd like to think it was in part due to the new filters (they aren't cheap).

In reading thru the specs did anyone else notice that both the nüvi® 500 and 550 are waterproof? both do 10 routes and 500 waypoints. MegaGPS has them for $225 The specs are the same on the two units except the 500 also has the Topo maps. Hummm... I may of just found the replacement to my Quest 2 at less than 1/2 the price of a Zumo.

+1 I'm 58.....he's a kid to me too !

Unfortunately the 265WT won't allow you to load routes (ie. choose you own route). It will either take you fastest or shortest. The work around is for you to add waypoints and change your route to connect the waypoints as your route. Kinda PIA way of doing things. You really need a GPS that can load routes and tracks where you have been for motorcycling. The 265WT is an excellent GPS when needing directions or how to get somewhere. may I suggest: Dakota™ 10

If I could, I would own one of each. But understanding that is not possible or practical I had to do my homework to identify the model that suited my needs best.It took me close to two years to identify the bike I wanted. During this time I test road every make. As in most things in life I had to compromise and never did find a bike that matched my exact specifications. I want fuel injection, water cooled due to the Texas heat, shaft drive for reliability, and low and inexpensive maintenance. I always found myself returning to the Yamaha Venture although I found it difficult to get over the cassette tape deck. The only bike that met all my specifications was the Honda Goldwing but I just didn't like the looks. I like the looks of a bagger. And so compromises begin. The fit and finished of the Harley Davidson Ultra Classic® Electra Glide was excellent they had fixed a brake problem by now using the ABS Brembo brakes. I didn't care for the way they fixed the heat problem of the rear cylinder with their parade mode by rotating the throttle forward hence shutting off fuel to the rear cylinder nor by them adding the crotch heat deflecter plates. I was not particularly fond of the belt drive either. I just expected more for the price. The Triumph rocket touring bike had incredible torque, once the bike was rolling you never had to downshift just roll on the throttle. However it was not a touring bike, it was a large cruiser, had no electronics, no cruise control, no trunk, and no protection in the form of either a large windscreen or cowling. The bike was extremely heavy taking it off the kickstand although once rolling the weight seemed to disappear. The BMW LT1200 was more along the lines of sport touring but had a fantastic ride and acceleration and electronics like no other. It was a little tight for two up riding with my well nourished wife. I found it a difficult to service and the scheduled maintenance was extremely expensive. I came very close to purchasing a Victory Vision. It had good weather protection incredible handling, very easy to ride it just floated down the highway with plenty of power and a liked the looks. To me, the short Comings of the Vision were for its size a rather small trunk and the side compartments were disappointing lack of usable storage space. Also the rear grab rails were high enough (or the foot rests low enough) that they cut into the back of my wife's legs. The rear foot rest need to be raised to prevent soreness from their rear grab rails on the back of the passangers legs. I waited two years for the Kawasaki Voyager. I like the frame mounted fairing and everything I read. I even took a day off to drive 180 miles to see the demo model at last years motorcycle show. They delayed delivery by a year and by then I gave up waiting and wanted to get "on the road" with my wife. As luck would have it a low milage used Venture (still under warranty, oh ya, no other bike has a 5 year warranty) went on sale by a private owner at less than half the price of the bikes I was looking at. My wife drove me the 300 miles to get it, I rode it home. The longest single trip I have taken to date was a little over 4,000 miles. When it rains hard, my knees get wet. I do my own maintenance. Never have had a problem. Have put over 20k on it in less than the year I've had it. I would buy a new one in a heart beat. I have two other bikes but the Venture is "our" bike and she loves it. (if Momma ain't happy...) It may still have carbs but it has more HP than all the others (excluding Goldwing) Yamaha Venture = 97hp @ 6000 rpm, 89 ft.-lb. @ 4750 rpm Victory Vision = 92hp & 109 ft.-lbs unknown rpm Kawasaki Voyager = 82 hp @ 5,000 rpm, 108 lb-ft @ 2,750 rpm Harley Davidson = 63 Hp @ 3500 RPM, 73.11 lb-ft @ 3,500 http://i278.photobucket.com/albums/kk100/aharbi/Motorcycle/VRS2up.jpg

I fully understand. Don't know if it helps but I believe adding the passing lamps is a safety issue. I helps you be seen, it makes you more visible. Prior to installing mine cars would start to pull out then stop like having a second look at me coming. Now, they stay put and don't move till I pass. For me it was a noticeable difference. My wife (nor I) mind the extra dollars if it improves safety. Hummm... I think I've just hit an idea, safety chrome... HEY Honey I need some more safety chrome for my bike so I can be seen better from the side while riding...