XV1100SE

Happy New Year !

Merry Christmas ! With the weather the past couple days hope everyone stays warm and safe. For us, had my kids over for dinner two weeks ago, family get together was last weekend (although some couldn't come due to weather). Should be a quiet weekend for us.

That is a nice house you've lived in for 25 years Don. Was great for maintenance day....camping, parking....pond monster. But....the time comes for all of us to reduce the maintenance we have to do on home and relocate. If you move before the next maintenance day....I can see Carl going in the direction of your "old" house and have to do at least one u-turn. Worst thing about selling/moving though....is the packing. After 25 years you accumulate a lot of things.....and you'll wish those things you kept because you might need them some day you'll regret not disposing of them sooner !

@Davvid What are you riding? The Venture has back seat, trunk, speakers. Do you have the Tour Deluxe? Any speaker used on a motorcycle would need to be waterproof/marine grade. The Polk speakers are 4" and marine grade.

Doesn't have much in the way of lower leg protection...other than legs being behind the cylinders. Nice that it has LED lighting, high output, shaft drive....not sure about the big screen (how costly to update the onboard maps?). And also noted the oil/air cooled.

BMW must have been listening to Puc. Nice looking and well equipped bike ! And starting at $24k ? Wow.

Puc - almost 100% agree with your list of what the 3rd gen shoulda been. Shoulda coulda. Yamaha blew it and had they listened to us, at a reasonable price (somewhere between what a 2013 RSV cost and a HD) they would have taken Honda Goldwing and HD tourer sales away .... as well as BMW, Kawasaki.... Whatever group Yamaha said they listened to were the wrong people. Maybe a division at Yamaha wanted to cheap out and jump into an overcrowded v-twin market. Mind you, Yamaha marketing seems to be like what IBM marketing used to be. Produce a great product but not tell anyone about it. Someone at the time said that Yamaha monitored VR.org ... obviously not. On Puc's list....only thing I would change would be heel/toe shifter with floorboards. Heel/toe shifter has spoiled me and I wouldn't want to go backwards to just a toe shifter. With heel/toe you don't have to worry about how tall the toe is on your riding boots.

All you have to do is post a date/time and location.

Check out MPC in Brooklyn Ohio https://www.mpcplating.com/about

For the air intakes...consider getting the plastic OEM covers chromed. Given the price and availability of the polished aluminum Yamaha intakes....chroming the original intakes looks great and isn't that expensive (couple hundred $ at most). Frankly...chroming them looks as good as the expensive intakes. I had a set chromed for someone and they turned out great.

An '18 Venture with the VMax engine, water cooled and shaft drive would have been nice. We can all dream about that as being the upgrade for the '99-2013 RSV. Looking at the market now though, with Honda and Kawasaki getting out of the big bikes (European emission requirements from what I heard, as well as poor sales numbers), had Yamaha given us the bike we thought they would rather than the v-twin, odds are that it would now be end of line as well. Touring bikes are a small market and not enough for a manufacturer to continue with. Maybe a V-4 would have taken away sales from Honda but we'll never know. The future is electric bikes. Until they develop technology to give comparable range for a day's worth of riding (600 miles +), big cruisers and tourers will be a thing of the past. E-bikes don't have the capacity to haul a big bike and are going after a small segment of in-city casual riders. I'll be keeping my '09 RSV for as long as I can ride. Nothing out there now or for the foreseeable future compares to the range, comfort, or reliability.

For passing lights I still run the GE H7616 - halogen spot lights. Really bright and throw the light a long distance....but not the white of an LED headlight. My concern was more about how much they light the road in front and not the light colour. I haven't seen an LED for the passing lights that has as good a distance.

Yamaha part number for the seat.... 4XY-2470F-10 Partzilla - $248. Surprised it is still available - https://www.partzilla.com/product/yamaha/4XY-2470F-10-00 Entire seat - 4XY-24710-10 - $297 You are right....better just to replace the entire seat !

What headlight did you use? Just put in an LED bulb or replaced the entire unit?

I believe Yamaha still sells the seat covers as a replacement part. You can get just the cover if that is all you need.

Looks great Don !

I'm surprised no one mentioned blinker fluid ! LOL

Do as Eileen tells you....women are always right. Look for a trike. If she is suggesting a trike that shows she is still interested in riding. Hopefully that means that her health is in a better position. The rain may pass by you by noon today. You just might get a dry ride home.

Carbon_One (Larry) used to make an adapter to lift the bike. Some have used hockey pucks and use an ATV lift (pads minimum 13"...longer is "safer") to get the bike off the ground. The adapter Larry made also came with legs which is great for Winter storage or when working on the bike.

2012? You should post this question in the 2nd Gen section. A moderator can move it to the right section ( @Marcarl ) I have a 2009 RSV Venture. With the trunk there is a capacity limit but even full you won't notice it. I've even had a trunk rack bag on top and no difference in ballance. Same with saddlebags....there is a weight limit per side but again you won't notice it unless you load one side a lot heavier than the other. The Venture is top heavy to begin with having a 22 liter fuel tank and with the way it is designed. You do get used to it. On the cassette...there was only limited/minor changes between 1999 and 2013 (colour, seats....). In 2009 they offered a 6 disk cd player which went in the left saddlebag. You may have noticed a connector there same as for the intercom/headset connection. For bluetooth... I use a Garmin Zumo 660 GPS and have my cell phone connected to it thru bluetooth and used the "BuddyRich" cable to tie into the bike's audio system. GPS loaded with mp3 files and play them with the audio system set to AUX. Some people have added a bluetooth adapter to the bike. There should be a write up in the 2nd Gen tech section. For a 10 year old bike...did you get service records? If you didn't get the owners manual it can be downloaded from here. General maintenance to check is oil (change ever 6,000-8,000km), coolant (every 2 years), rear gear oil (every 2 years), brake fluid (every 2 years). If you don't know when these were done, should do it. Tires - check the date code on manufacture date. Anything more than 7 years old should replace. If the bike has sat for a while, with around 1/2 tank of gas put a full can of SeaFoam in the tank. That will help (but not totally) clean the carbs. Depending on the oil condition SeaFoam can also be added to the oil but expect blue exhaust until it burns off (use it if the oil hasn't been changed in a long time (cleans the bottom end of the engine). If the trunk was removed....did they leave the audio/cb system in place? If they removed the trunk (and saddlebags?) make sure you get all the parts/bolts/spacers.

Don't know what I would replace the E3's with when it comes time. Long lasting tires (and I use the 150 front and wouldn't go to 130 - I'm comfortable with the handling).

Good suggestion mid-summer. Out of curiosity....what are the sizes of the Metzler 888's? OEM sizes? Would like comments regarding how they compare with the E3's especially for wear. I got up to 30,000km on a set of E3's.

Was a good turn out and great to meet Adrian...hopefully we made a good impression ! If there is interest again...could consider a day early in September.

With the E3's mostly highway I got around 30,000 km on a set. That was 2-up (combine rider/passenger weight of about 310lbs). After replacing the Bridgestone (OEM) tires that I only got about 8,000 km on I've used E3's. Shame they are no longer available for our bike in the OEM sizes. See this chart for load index (borrowed part of a document from Venturers). Note Max Loads.

There is a write up in the read only/electrical section for installing a tach. @Carbon_One advised before on one he had purchased off ebay (I got that one but 10 years ago). Baron's is mentioned as having a lot of bounce. The one Larry advised on is stable. Issue to keep in mind of is the spark fires twice...one is a waste burn.