Ace

You got that right. I have a strat in my collection and it eats tires, best I can do on any rear is 6000 miles and the cords are showing, front maybe 10,000.

These are the experiences that is motorcycling!! I had an almost identical experience in 2006 in Nevada on most likely the same piece of road you were on.

Ahhhhhhhh...........wind therapy............. Awesome!

Sounds like your shock is probably toast, sounds as if there is there is no oil left to dampen the spring. I , like Bumblebee went with a heavy duty Hagon shock and could not be happier, it rides and handles excellent and I can adjust preload and dampening of the shock.

I tried the smaller front years ago on my 06 RSV and found a similar experience to yours. It seemed marginally ok when new but as the tire wore it got more and more "skittish" and unpredictable in the twisties. I far prefer the stock size on the front.

The wife had her heart set on riding the canyons in Colorado after Yeller stone, but maybe I can talk her into heading to Oregon so we will see.. Thanks for the invite!

I would be interested as well. I do have a couple of trips planned already, one at the end of June to Yellowstone and Colorado and one in the middle of August to BC. I was born in Swift and my parents were both from a little town 30 miles east of Swift current Herbert, SK

On my previous RSV I had the stock bars with the GenMar risers and then I turned them up some, they were the right height and reach but a little narrow and a goofy wrist angle. The bars I have now are the Baron StarBar. They are 36" wide but you have to use the 1 1/2" riser extensions with them. The angles are just right although they don't have much pullback so I landed up getting some 3" risers and making a 1/2" thick adapter plate to make the risers work, now the reach , angle and width are just perfect for me.

Don't worry, soon enough you will have LOTS to work on.

" Is the crankcase oil separate from the tranny or do they use the same oil.. " Cowpuc, Crankcase oil is separate from the engine oil, it holds around 1/2 quart of gear oil (would need to consult my service manual to verify exact amount). The way Yamaha says to change it is to pull exhaust off to get to fill and level plugs but most strat riders have devised ways to get around this so the exhaust doesn't need to be pulled.

I have an '09 Stratoliner and let me tell you it is a beast! The bike just has massive power but is well mannered. Things I don't like about it are the smallish fuel tank and just like cowpuc said, it eats tires. The best so far that I have done is with a 200 series Michelin commander II and I only got 6000 miles and it was completely bald. Front tires don't last much longer. Not a bunch of tire brands to choose from if you go with the stock sizes.

Don't know how the bars will be as the weather is just starting to break so I should be able to try it out within a week or so (I hope!!!!) I cant see wind being a problem, I think most of the wind will get deflect around the ends of the bars, if it doesn't, I'm not worried about it. My last venture I had bars above the fairing which wind didn't seem to bother too much. This bike I wanted wide bars, a big heavy motorcycle is a lot easier to manage with wide bars.

1300 miles is nothing..........maybe I'll ride the 1300 miles. Yea, I live about an hour from where they filmed that show.

I know what you're saying. I just bought this bike so I went through everything, I had an advantage because I had owned a '06 Black Cherry RSV that I put 100,000 miles on it so I know how to work on them. Just for info this is what I did: -pulled final drive, changed pinion bearing as previous owner said he thought it was noisy. I believed him as he is a mechanic and a close friend but job didn't need to be done. - pulled swingarm and serviced pivot bearings and added grease nipples. -serviced rear shock transfer mech. needle bearings -replaced rear shock with Hagon HD shock -reinstalled final drive, lubed splines, lubed drive fingers in wheel -tore front apart to check/service steering head bearings. Plugged hole in back of neck tube and added grease zerk. -dismantled forks, changed oil to 10wt Amsoil Shock Therapy -raised forks into triple tree 1" (rear has 1 1/2" lowering kit already) -replaced bars with Baron Star Bar including 1 1/2" riser extensions -replaced throttle cables, front brake line and clutch line, used Tour Deluxe lines as they are 2-3" longer than Venture cables/lines. -flushed/bled all hydraulic systems -installed heated Avon grips -cleaned/applied dielectric grease to ALL electrical connections on bike and grounds. -installed ignition contact bypass relay. -set air fuel mixture on all 4 carbs by ear (need to get my morgan colortune back from the guy who borrowed it!) -synchronized carbs -changed engine oil. I went through the bike from top to bottom but found absolutely nothing wrong, the bike only has 24,000 miles on it and the PO was extremely meticulous. I just wanted piece of mind that I could rack up some serious miles this summer and next, and the year after.............

I used this stuff to rebuild the plastic on my buddies '84 GL1200, it is amazing stuff but a word of caution, it bonds instantly!!

The ground that I attached to is under the right side plastic neck cover, gas tank has to be off to access the ground, I only chose that location because I had everything off and just saw it there. An option for switched power would be the white accessory plug that is in the battery compartment under the seat.

Cool beans! Glad it turned out for you.

Here you go. Sorry for the wait.

You're welcome. If you run into a snag, which I am sure you won't, just message me and I'll so my best to help you out.

Sorry, I never took any pictures while doing the install, I just get in the zone and forget to take any pictures. As for the heat, I have not ridden it yet due to mother nature throwing her last cold at us but I did run them and they get plenty hot. Also there are 4 heat settings, the controller seems to work excellent.

I agree with Phoneman1981, I prefer tandem axles as well. I had a 6x12 single axle which I hated because you really had to have everything just right (hitch weight) or the trailer wandered. I now have a 7x16 tandem and it is great, can haul 2 bikes or pretty much whatever I want plus it is great for storage when not towing. I have seen 6x12 tandem axle trailers that look sweet!

Just finished installing the Avon heated grips yesterday. It is very straight forward and Avon has very detailed instructions on installing the grips and wiring them up. You have to drill 2 holes in your handlebars, one where your controller is going to be (it will fit clamp on clutch or brake side, they also supply a backing clamp for the controller if you don't want to mate it up with the brake or clutch clamp) and one hole between risers facing fairing for the controller wires to exit the bars. Each grip has a red and black wire, controller has a black, white and yellow wire. the grip wires are external (leave slack for throttle to turn), I just run them with the cable bundles and around the back of the triple tree and run the controller wires around the back of the triple tree. I took my gas tank off to make connections under the tank. -Tie the 2 black wires from the grips to the yellow wire from the controller. -Run the black wire from the controller to a ground. I run it to the ground that is under the right side neck cover. You will need to splice in a piece to reach. -Tie the 2 red from the grips to the white wire from the controller and tie these all to wherever you choose to get your 12 volt positive from. I ran mine to a switch I have mounted where my schrader valve to add air to my rear shock used to be which gets power from my sub fuse panel located behind my battery. Everything you will need (except if you want a on/off switch which isn't really necessary) including wire splicers/connectors, extra wire etc. etc. is included with the kit. I didn't use the wire connectors because I always solder all my accessory connections. Hope this helps.

I had the same "flat spot" you describe on my 06 RSV after opening up the air boxes with K&N's. I had to go back to stock air boxes to get rid of the flat spot but I did leave the K&N's in.

I had the identical problem last summer. Each time I synced the carbs the bike seemed to run worse an milage dropped. I thought, "couldn't be my carbtune" but I ran a test on my morgan carbtune and found it to be way out of calibration. How I performed the test is by warming the bike up totally then putting one of the lines from the cabtune on the #1 carb, then checked the rest of the lines on the same carb. I adjusted the carbtune so they all read the same off the #1 carb, then resynced the carbs and BLAM the world was right again. I have friends with the same carb syncronizer and have noted the same problems. Ace.

I have avon tyres and the front is a MT90, when I bought the tires I did not specify the belted and I find no indicators on the sidewall to indicate the Aramid belt. I got 28,000 miles out of the front and get around 15,000 out of a rear, which is belted. I guess you can make your own conclusions form this info. I know that I am not putting another MT90 on the front, I am going back to stock because I feel that the bike gets squirrely as the narrower front tire wears.