Great White

I'm not even close to that.....180 kms is the best I've seen. Last time I calculated, I was getting 35-38 MPG straight highway miles running around 110 kph. Occasional bits of 120, but very short. Never more than 5-10 mins at a time. 260 just seems impossible on this bike, given the history. I'm hitting a solid 1 bar on the guage at about 160 kms. I've just learned to live with it. The V mostly sits these days anyways. The FJ has become my around town bike. The V does long distance duty (ie: anything over an hour or so).

Maybe it's that I don't wait for the light. Once I'm on the last bar (or flickering back and forth between 1-2) I'm looking to fill. Not having a res position on the petcock has me super warry of running out. Im not a "trust the fuel gauge" kind of guy and its not like pushing an RD400 to the next gas station. This thing is HEAVY! Where the V stops, is where the V sits..... When i do fill aroind the 1 bar level, it usually takes around 15-17 bucks to dribble out the vent line at $1.15-1.19/ liter.I'm usually around 160-180 kms on the trip at that point. I've never seen north of 180 on the trip. Maybe my V is just a gas hog, comparatively. Or if could be my riding I guess. My FJ seems to burn through fuel super quick too. Most guys say they are in then40-50 MPG range. I've never bothered to calculate it, but there's now way in heck its getting much over 30-35. It drains that huge FJ tank in about 180-200 kms. On the FJ's defence, it does have 140,000 kms on it and I know I have to at least change the needles and emulsion tubes when I rebuild them this winter. Can't help but wonder if the VMax bits I'm going to throwing at the V this winter will make it better, worse or just the same....

With holes punched in the mufflers you've changed the dynamics of the exhaust system and thus, the carburetion. An engine is a system. It all works in concert together. What you have done is reduced restriction in the exhaust. This usually leads to a lean condition. I recommend you pull your spark plugs and see what they look like. If rich, they will be black and sooty looking. If lean they will be whitish looking. Just about right will have a light tan look. You can adjust the carbs to match the new dynamics of your system, which should eliminate the "pops". Probably messing with the idle screws will help the pops if your sparks support a lean or rich condition as popping on decell is usually a closed (or parts closed) throttle condition and then; not on the main jets or needles. If the plugs look good, the mixture is still good and the engine isn't going to be hurt by the popping. In this case, its likely (as mentioned) a lean condition in the exhaust caused but the ais system introducing too much oxygen and causing lean pop....

Jeez, I'd be happy of I just got a consistent 180kms, let alone 180 miles. Maybe I should drop in the v88 ignitech I have one the shelf and see what it does.....

Jeez, you guys are making me want to sell my spare! .....must....resist....urge.... to....sell!

I recently put in a set of NGK iridium plugs. Sure they cost a few bucks more. About all I can say about them is that I'm never going back to standard NGK's ever again. The difference is just that big from the standard NGK's (the ones I replaced were only a week old). I was always a standard plug type guy, as most of the E3, splitfire, and other "special electrode" plugs I tried made no noticeable difference. Not so with the iridium's. I also install plugs with antiseize. Besides the obvious, it prevents thread galling...

without trying to be insulting: DR - doctor AU - chemical symbol for gold WNG - phonetic for wing So, " my therapists name is Dr Goldwing, the antidote for the blues". Pretty creative actually. Don't feel bad, takes me forever to figure out some of these plates guys use. My wife usually gets em right away, I don't.

R6 brakes won't just drop on to your 83 forks. You either need to fab up some adapter plates or you need to swap to 86+ forks. You will also need an 86+ master cylinder to drive them properly. The 83 master cylinder piston is too small. The 86+ master is already sized for for piston calipers.

They go for around 2-2.5K here and that's a pretty top notch condition specimen. of course, there's always those who want too much for their ratty old bike, and those that price their bikes on what seems like their personal opinion. Those guys end up not selling or selling it at a more appropriate market price. Your local market kind of determines how much you're going to get....

I'll see what I can do about filling in those dimensions. We're off to the cottage for a week tomorrow....

I've got a spare from my 86 parts bike. It's in good shape, so I've been saving it. Shipping would be stupid though. Stupid both ways. I can take measurements for you if you'd like.

Do not forget to cover the tank and any other painted parts when doing brake fluid change. Brake fluid eats paint. Any spilled fluid has to be flushed away immediately. I throw a couple old bath sheet sized towels on/around the areas where it could spill. That way, if I spill, I just pull the top towel off before it soaks through the second towel to the painted surface. I also use old towels like you would a fender apron when working on a car. It's saved me more than a few paint nicks when working on bikes. I find towels work better than car apron like materials because they form to the bikes shapes better and stay put. You can also toss them in a washers when done and they're clean for next time. Just don't throw an oil soaked towel in the same washer you do you clothes with or the missus is going to be p!ssed!!!!! If you do spill on paint, flush with a hose immediately. A bucket of soapy water and a sponge is my preferred weapon for brake fluid spills......

I get that too sometimes. I just cancel the script. That's on my desktop, which we almost never use anymore. On my laptop, i use script block and add block. Never hangs on the laptop. Firefox was "da bomb" when it first came out. Fast and light on the system. But the Firefox of today is not the Firefox it used to be. Firefox has become fat and bloated. It's resource hog. It chews up memory like no bodies business. You can see how huge a hog it is in processes. Every so often, I have to do a reset though the options menu to keep it from slowing down. This is a pain because you have to reload all your plugins and re-enter yoir options. It's kind of like old windows xp where you would have to reinstall about once a year or it would slow down and have all kiknd of spurious code hanging around. I don't like Firefox's "push" updates either. Make me wonder sometimes what else they "push" on to my system. Same thing that is making me hold off on windows 10. I really dislike anyone else getting to my system without having to at least ask permission first. Seems a little to "open" for me. But, I still find it preferable to the other browsers available. I just wish it would work better and not bloat up so much....

Keep in mind that control trumps comfort every time. Being comfortable on the bike is nothing if you can't make emergency maneuvers with confidence and control. Or if just might be the most comfortable ride you ever had right into the rear 1/4 panel of the soccer mom's minivan that just pulled out in front of you.....

Actually, the FJ is pretty good. But I also push the FJ harder than the Venture. Counterpoint to that is the Venture is heavier by a good 300-350 lbs. I'm wavering back and forth. The Venture could probably benefit more, as long as I'm not pushing the FJ hard. Of course, I've yet to get the oem calipers on the FJ to fade. Just looking for my best bang for buck with what I have available....

Somewhere around forearms level to the ground is supposed to be the most comfortable. Wrist should be angled out and down, as is the mostly normal position with forearms level. Just like your knees, you want your elbow joint open as much as possible for comfort and blood flow. The real issue (I find) is shoulders. Riding with the weight of you arms forward of the body tends to tire my shoulders. I like to have my upper arm as vertical as possitble, as is the normal hanging posture for them. Of course, everyone will be a little different (no two people are built exactly the same) and will have a variation on what feels the most comfortable for them...

I was going to ask where you saw it last.....

Ok, so here's the situ: Ive got a set of the R6 blue dot brake calipers. I was planning on putting them on the 83 venture (had set of 86 forks to put on also) this winter and getting rid of that stupid front/rear brake link thing. Those linked brakes have got to go. It frigs up my riding style almost every day, bordering on damned near dangerous for me. But, I'm finding myself riding the FJ more and more lately. So now I'm thinking of putting the blue dots on the FJ. That would free me up to use the FJ calipers on the Venture. This seems like it would give me the best brakes on the FJ (which I run harder than the Venture) and good enuff brakes on the Venture. The Venture is my heavy bomber, the FJ is the p-38. The FJ calipers would still be a step up from the 83 single pots and even be appropriate for a de-linked braking system and I would end up with those different rh/lh caliper pots that the linked Venture 4 pot calipers had. Simple answer would seem to be just buy another set of Blue dots, but I just don't have the cash for it with swapping the FJ over to radial tires and needing new rims for them. What I have on hand right now is all I've got to work with. I'm not totally sold on using R6 calipers on the FJ, but it seems to make the most sense for what I've got to work with. Thoughts?

I've got a 6 plus too. It's a hard but to find accessories for....

Venture and FJ: yamalube. My diesel truck: Rotella T-6 Wife's minivan (and pretty much all my gassers before oit): Mobile 1 synthetic. Personally, I prefer to use a product that I know was designed for the application. I prefer yamalube in my Yamaha's beciase I found they shifted a little better with it in the cases. My interceptor gets hp4. It's still got the original "chocolate cams" from 1985 in it and runnin fine. That's not to say others won't work as long as you understand you may (or may not) be leaving something on the table in the process. Price is pretty moot in my experience, especially when talking 3-4 liters. Usually the price difference is only 5-10 bucks between "special" oil and "regular" oil on a change. If I can't afford that, I'm in big trouble anyways.... But, at the end of the day, it's your choice what you use.

My 83 fits me just about perfect as delivered: http://i1174.photobucket.com/albums/r618/justonepict/04wi0689HoSkJUyUyUyUyUy0n_zps8qfhgbea.png At least for comfortable cruising on the highway. When the pace picks up or the road gets beat up I prefer to have me feet back under my weight more. Chuck in the Highway pegs and the big V is a perfect all day long heavy bomber for me....

Nope, not completely. Irving has refineries on the east coast. Can't say for the rest of the country though. But when you're talking "Irving" you ain't getting nothin' at a fair price......

Don't hold yer breath, they're pretty stubborn down there.....

Actually, we're an oil exporting nation so the exchange rate doesn't come into play so much on fuel. Although, I can't understand why our fuel is so frikin' high being an oil exporting nation. Well, except for the Tories and provinces rediculously tax rates on fuel....

Used to do it, very rarely now. I don't ride fast enough on the V for my sportbike buddies and i ride too fast for my touring buddies. Swap to the FJ and I pretty much ride too fast for all of them. Mostly because I pick where I think it's safe to step it up and where to back it down as i see fit or where injust feel like it. It ends up being a big yoyo and no fun at all. I will ride in a group if it fits, but no one rides my exact pace and it changes when I see fit. Or I see an interesting side road, or a coffee shop, or something shiny...... So, I'm mostly just a lone wolf these days. http://www.thecheapplace.com/image/cache/data1/data/Product-images/patches/2015/04/05/2/PL4626-green-lone-wolf-no-clubs-no-rules-just-ride-large-biker-back-patch-pl4626-320x200.jpg