Great White

Some guys are not physically able to attend meets. Some guys are not mentally able to attend meets. It is what it is. I don't see these forum members having any less value than those that attend. I enjoy reading and sharing tech info. I enjoy riding solitary. It is my quiet time. It forces my mind to be focused. It quiets my soul and my mind. It pushes out the memories and unpleasant thoughts that live in my unconsciousness. It quiets the demons that chase me every day. I also prefer to head out into my quiet and safe garage and spin wrenches than go to a rally where there's noise, crowds and just generally a bad scene for me and my "issues". That's my "excuse". I, like many others, enjoy motorcycling for different reasons. Nothing wrong with that at all. Freedom to experience as you want is what makes motorcycling enjoyable. Start throwing conformity and everyone doing the same thing and you might as well just sell the bike and get into the car.....

Wife and I are in!

Whenever I have plastic fail, I just plastic weld it. Plastic welding is a fancy name that keeps the average joe from thinking it's something they can do at home or need special equipment to do. As long as the plastic is thermoplastic (IE:melts with heat) and not thermosetting (IE: hardens with heat) anyone can plastic weld with a wood burning tip or soldering iron, an assortment of shaped tips and a little extra material for some filler. Almost all bike plastic I've seen is thermoplastic and welds easily. Usually ABS, which is cheap and plentiful. You can even cut strips out of a piece of ABS pipe to make filler rods. The material chemistry is sometimes a little different, but it works just fine all the same. Like all things, It take a little practice to do it well, but it's a pretty simple process. I alter/build plastic on bikes all the time this way. For example: http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/Interceptor/image_zpsmtpwtwsm.jpg http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/Interceptor/image_zpssleaxb1o.jpg http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/Interceptor/image_zpstkryxlrv.jpg

Great ebay find at a great price! I just grabbed one for my 83. Made seller an offer at a couple bucks off to help deal with exchange rates and he took it. Only one left now.....

It will be the oem Venture stuff this year. Next year may change. Might get custom exhaust, 1300 carbs and vboost. Only so much money in the pot for this year. It's also getting VMax heads, cams, vmax final drive, a 2002 RSV transmission and a v88 ignitech. Changing luggage boxes to 86 boxes, 86 wiring harness going in to get Venture cruise, CLASS and the later style instrument cluster. Also getting modern brakes and doing away with the linked brakes scheme. There'll be some painting required to match up all the components. Thinking about building a power windscreen too. There's some other little bits of brik-a-brak on the list to be done also. Lots of tuning and recalibrating to be done when it rolls out next spring. I've also got lots of work to do to my fj1200. Most involved will be adapting a venture cruise unit to it and a 17" radial tire conversion. But it also has to come down to the frame and be rebuilt. Nothing really serious, its just a bit beat up and tired. Mostly cosmetic work and fixing the sins of previous owners. Not getting into the engine (FJ engines are solid as a tank) but carbs need complete rebuild, right down to yanking the emulsion tubes. Bike has 144,000 on it. That's enough to do for one winter downtime period.....

Interesting. Seems like the "switchable tunes" we do in OBDII. This would seem to indicate that the Ignitech can hold more than one set of tables at a time. I even looks like it uses the same scheme of grounding a pin to switch curves. seems to be what the black wire would indicate. If that's what it's doing, any 3 pos switch would work. Switching tunes has more of an effect in OBDII vehicles because the switch means different, fuel, ignition, shift tables, etc. I personally prefer to tune for the best all around performance when setting up OBDII vehicles, but there can be some benefit from manipulating only the ignition curves in a vehicle like a bike that only gives you the ability to tune the Ignition. After this winter, my engine will be more VMax than venture, so that's the curve I'm going to start with and tune from there. Gawd, I hate saying "tune" but it's what most guys undersand these days. Say "re-calibrate" and you get that dog tilted head thing as a response.....

The question at hand is whether you want the advance to be tailored to the throttle position (TPS) or the load (IE: map). There are times when a linear curve to the throttle is not ideal and vice versa for the MAP. The stock TCI uses MAP, as it compensates for the load and is kind of a "poor mans" knock retard, without actually using a knock sensor. With TPS only, you can get into a knock situation in some conditions that could be "lugging" the engine. Neither is good, but lugging combined with knock is very bad. Ideally, you would have a "look up table" that compares RPM, % TPS and BARO (ie: MAP) to determine the ignition advance. So far, all I can see in my V88 is an either/or type deal for TPS or MAP. A knock sensor would also be beneficial as it would pull timing when knock is detected. That, of course, would require more programming and hardware inputs. Alas, it seems the Ignitech is a little bit too "primitive" in it's tables and hardware for any of that good stuff. More digging into the guts of the programming and hardware specs is required, but I'm not overly hopeful that it can be made more than what it already is.... I've also got lots of personal projects on the go and digging into the ignitech is super low priority for me right now. I "tune" cars/diesel trucks on the side in my spare time and there's no shortage of kids wanting more power. I'm just very careful who I give it to and how much I give them.....

Start with plugs, then check and meter caps (should be 5K ohms), then spark wires and insulation. Check electrical plugs in the ignition circuit and TCI for corrosion. Meter coils if you want, but in my experience they rarely are the problem. Last in the ign system is the TCI, but I'd move on to carbs before replacing that (IE: it's $$$) Once you've verified the ignition system is good, head over to the carbs. Verify settings IAW service manual. Then do carb synch. Valve clearances should be checked prior to carb adjustments. If none of that works, the carbs need to come off for a proper disassembly, inspection and cleaning. "Proper" cleaning involves soaking in a special cleaner or time in an ultrasonic bath. I chased and odd miss for what felt like forever. Found it in a spark plug cap that had infinite resistance on a meter check due to corrosion inside the assembly. When running, the spark would jump the corrosion in the cap but the spark would be very weak at the plug. I cleaned mine, but the best fix for the average backyard wrench is just to replace them. Brand new NGK caps are cheap and easy to replace..

Stupid people? No, not really. Just more of what this society is producing more and more of everyday.....I call them "the jackass generation". Self centered, interested in their own satisfaction and no concept of consequences. Just like those fools who make the jackass movies.....

Meh, Harelys do nothing for me. Way overpriced when new, used market is no different. To each thier own...

If that bugs you, you sure don't want to move to Newfoundland then....http://www.scarletuser.com/images/smilies/svengo.gif

I've got a set of the bigbikeparts lenses on the way thanks to Richard. I'll be either making a base or using the oem ones with leds. It will be a while before anything gets done, but I can post up the results once I'm there....

Could not find it. Can you provide a link? Or do you mean their phantom hub? That only works with their rims, according to their advertising....

People asking me what my pet peeve is......http://pics.picturetrail.com/res/album/bling/smileys/smiley_neener.gif

Started when I was 16 with a 1974 RD350. Roaded it and then raced it. Was a street monster, often taking down bikes twice it's size. Temperamental little SOB as a street bike. Front tire clawed for the sky any time that little bugger came on the pipe. Fouled spark plugs on an almost weekly (usually every couple days) basis, even with the injection pump rigged up correctly. Premix made no difference either. Got absolutely horrible MPG. Absolutely FANTASTIC SPG (smiles per gallon). Wadded it later on while racing it. Quick succession of RD350/400's after that. All ended up as tight metal balls in relatively short order. I was a better builder than a racer. I knew I was never going to get that big factory ride, but had fun doing it all the same. Yammy, Kawi and Honda four stroke street bikes peppered in the RD deficient zones and got me from here to there. Had a preference for the Yammy XJ bikes. Mostly Maxim's and Seca's. Almost ended up buying a new off the floor 1984 XJ750RL once. Shortage of funds shot me right out of the water. Too bad, was a b!tch!n' bike that I would probably still own today. Never owned a dirt bike, always rode friends dirt stuff. Never a lot of interest in dirt bikes anyways....

I bought a 6" long set of 7/8 grips off eBay. You want 6" lenght for a Venture) Slid right on. Looks like so: http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/13D78C83-C218-4506-BA0E-6F6DE509E87E_zps8d4e26ya.jpg Love 'em. Paid 25 bucks. They're actually a full rubber grip and the chrome is a sleeve over the rubber. Lots of grip, damps out vibes. I can't believe how good of a buy they were for 25 bucks and off eBay! I did have to make a spacer for the throttle grip, but it was to space it away from the vista cruise. Nothing to do with the grip. The other thing I did (didn't have too, I just wanted it more solid) was put one wrap of duct tape on the L/H bar. I could spin the grip if I tried on the LH, with the tape on, it's solid as a rock. Meh, 25 bucks off ebay. What do you expect? Perfection? Air compressor and an air gun with a nozzle makes getting any grip off a piece of cake. Wedge. Whoosh. Gone. That simple. Glued or not......

83's had the vacuum advance plugged into the ported vacuum point on the carb. I believe it was 84 and up the vacuum advance was plugged into the port on the manifold below the carb. In fact, I think the carbs after 83 didn't have the port on them. So if you've go thte port, you might have 83 carbs on your "junkyard dog". That "little plastic thingy" is a check valve/restrictor, there should be an arrow on it somewhere. Now, yours being a junkyard dog sorta bike, there's no telling which TCI you have in there: 83, 84 or even a VMax. Maybe even newer than 84. Only way to tell is check the part numbers. Since there's no VBoost, I would put my money on there being a stock 84 TCI in there. I can't help you on the vacuum line if it has a VMax TCI in there, but there's lots of places to download a VMax service manual from on the internet. As cool as it may seem to keep it together, I'm betting you'd get more money for it parted out. Mostly out of the engine becuase it has that "VMax mystique" about it. All the venture parts will probably be lucky to just pull in what you're get for the 'Max engine..... What was that puff of smoke from the engine valley close to the end of the video?

Not sure if its appropriate for your area, but we put in a heat pump this year and I'll never have another house again without one....

Umm, what?

And:http://www.venturerider.org/forum/showthread.php?79642-Occasional-quot-Whining-Whirring-quot-noise

Got bored, was listening to the music on my Sena. Next thing ya know: Yeesh....

I've had a "plastic" one for about 15 years now, Works as good as the day I bought it....

Screen grab from some of my helmet cam footage today: http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/bustrailer_zpsdpiirw2y.jpg Not my thing, but pretty neat!

Checked, New NGK iridiums, wires checked and metered, new NGK plug caps, carbs sync'd but not torn down and ultrasounded. Plugs show a nice stoich burn with a nice light tan color. It's either my riding style or this bike is just a gas pig....:dunno:

Sync'd, checked and checked. All good.