BigLenny

Not sure how hot it can get up where you're at, but I have a concern about it being air cooled, and the corrosponding engine heat that might come from the motor during the hot days of summer. Down here in the south, it's not uncommon to hear about air cooled bikes putting off a lot of heat from the heads during the summer, and sometimes needing to stop and let the bike cool down when riding at slower speeds for an extended time. Beautiful bike though. I'm really glad you're happy with your purchase.

Glad to hear you guys are okay. I agree, crazy weather weekend. Here in Arkansas, it started Thursday with 11 recorded tornados in the state, then came record setting rainfall Friday and Saturday. We had numerous locations here in the state report 10 or more inches of rain in a 24hr period. 7 people died here in the state from the weather, including a sheriff and a wildlife officer who were trying to rescue two women from a flooded house. The house imploded and washed all 4 of them down the river. All 4 of them died. Just a sad weather weekend. Again, glad to hear you guys are okay. Hang in there.

Absolute must ride: Take the Million Dollar Highway (Hwy 550) north out of Durango to Montrose. It's a right of passage for serious bikers. You'l want to stop in Silverton, Co, or Ouray, Co for a spell. Out of Montrose, take Hwy 50 east and got to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. Beautiful!!!. then continue east on Hwy 50 and ride over and past the Blue Mesa Reservoir. Unbelievably stunning! Just past the Reservoir, go south on Hwy 149 and follow it all the way to Hwy 160 (South Fork). Crazy beautiful stuff!. Then, take Hwy 160 west up over the Continental Divide to Pagosa Springs, Co. Then take the stunningly beautiful ride down Hwy 84 into New Mexico, then on to Santa Fe. Last September my bride and I rode a two weeker in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and all of that stuff is so beautiful it's spiritual. Each state is beautiful in its own different way. Just my two cents worth.

Bet you're enjoying the cruise control too.

Miles, I hope ya have fun on your trip out east, but I gotta tell ya. I've been west, and I've been east, and they are both beautiful in their own right. In the Smoky's when your riding along at an average elevation of 1000ft, and you come up to and climb a mountain that is 5000ft-6500ft, its almost exactly the same depth perception as when i'm in the Rockies scooting along at an average elevation of 6000ft, and come up to and climb a mountain that is 9000ft-11000ft. Both scenarios I'm climbing 4000ft-5000ft. I know, I know, these two areas look totally different, with the east being so full of trees, and the west being so wide open with lower height greenery. But, I prefer to appreciate the differences and not choose one as better than the other. Just sayin. LOL.

Yep, I'm getting more jealous. LOL.

Midnight, Advance welcome to our beautiful state. There's some awesome riding up in the Harrison/ Eureka Springs area. one of the best kept secrets in the country. Eureka is a cool little swiss styled town set into the hills of the Ozarks. If you have time, catch The Passion Play. World renown. Be sure and take Hwy 7 south out of Harrison and ride it down to Jasper. A lot of bikers grab a great lunch at the Ozark Cafe in Jasper, but for a better experience, keep going south on 7 out of Jasper for a few miles and you'll come to The Cliffhouse Restaurant on the left. Grab a lunch there. The restaurant hangs out on a cliff that has a panoramic view of the Arkansas Grand Canyon, as we locals call it. Beautiful. Then after you eat there, head back north on Hwy 7 for a short distance and you will see Hwy 374 on your right. Take 374 down into the valley that you were overlooking at the restaurant. Beautiful ride through rollings hills and farms. At the end of 374, turn right onto Hwy 123 and take it south through Mt Judea and up the hill on the twisties we call The Arkansas Dragon, all the way to Hwy 7 again. Then turn north on 7 and you can ride it back to Jasper, and farther north from there. When are you heading down? I might meet up with you if the timing is right? Can't help you with Chicago issue. LOL.

Congrats! What a beautiful ride! Okay, I'm officially jealous. LOL.

That looks good! I've been thinking about the cooler rack on the back thingy, but, I have a small question. Is there a chance that exhaust fumes could seep into the cooler and contaminate the food contents and such that might be in there? Just wondering.

I too have a CPAP. I used it religiously for 7-8 years. I used to snore like a freight train, and my wife constantly prodded me to get something done about it because she said I was stopping breathing a lot, and she was worried I was gonna croak in my sleep, what little of it I was actually getting. Right off the bat, the machine creating a suction of sorts that kept my mouth shut was weird to me because I hadn't been able to sleep with my mouth shut for years. I never really had a hard time adjusting. The machine worked wonders for me for many years. Over time, I came to the realization that before I got the CPAP, the snoring was not only caused by my throat relaxing while I slept, but it was exacerbated by my mouth being open and the air that I was breathing in through my mouth was severely dryiing out my relaxed throat and causing the flapping (snoring) sound. On more than one occasion my throat actually dried up and stuck together closed resulting in me violently waking up in a panic struggling for air because I couldn't breath. The CPAP trained me to sleep with my mouth shut. A couple years ago I went on a business trip and forgot my CPAP. A traveling coworker suggested that I go to the store and get some BreathRight Extra strips and wear them on my nose and sleep on my side instead of my back, because sleeping on your back automatically makes your mouth pop open. Well.....IT WORKED! I slept that way for 5 nights on that trip and slept like a baby. After I got home, I continued to put a BreathRight strip on my nose, and slept on my side, and my wife said I was as quiet as a mouse. I've done that for a couple years now with good results. I still have the CPAP in the chest beside my bed just for a security blanket I guess, but I don't use it. The trick to the whole snoring thing is learning to sleep with your mouth shut. I know how hard that is because you feel like you don't get enough air through your nose alone, so you open your mouth. Thats when your mouth dries out your throat and all the ugliness starts. Sleeping on your back pops your mouth open. Try to sleep on your side, and use a BreathRight Extra strip and maybe that will work. It did for me.

Mike, Ya know, I'm not sure if Earl (Skydoc) is still selling them. I assume he is. The spring kit and friction plates I bought from him really made the bike pull stronger. The clutch lever pull was a tad bit harder, but I got used to it after the first ride. The thing I like most about it, is I don't have to throttle the bike as much to take of, and/or creep around at slower speeds. Lynn

I'm sure you will get some discussion on the possibility of clutch slippage. With an older bike, and the stock diaphragm spring in these bikes being known to be a weak point, slicker oil might start you down the road to purchasing one of Skydoc's clutch kits. That's what happened to me last year, and my RSTD only had 30k miles on it.

Man! I tried soooo hard to not put my verbal poop into this conversation, but I just can't resist it. LOL. Since the beginning of time men have had pissin matches about who has the best this or that. I could imagine a situation like the Jews bragging about who had the best horse or waggon could've been one of the reasons God included "though shalt not covet" in the ten commandments. LOL. Every single brand out there has pros and cons. And, believe it or not, every single brand has arrogant small thinkers that think what they ride is far superior to anything else. Yes, Harley has more of these folks than any other brand, but that's because they out number every other brand 3-1. It'd be best if people just bought what they liked best and rode hair off of it, and not put themelves on a pedestal about what they own as compared to what other people have. But, that'll never happen. A few thousand years of mens past behavior proves that true. Now, I'll step down off of my preaching post because it's a beautiful day today and I'm gonna go for a ride on my Yamaha RSTD that has a V4 motor in it that is far superior to any other bike in it's class. LOL.

Miles, The whole time I was typing my "cruise control message", I had this little voice in the back of my mind asking me, WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS! LOL. The instant I hit the submit reply button, I knew that I was opening a can of worms that you were going to smear onto my face with a very intelligent and appropriate response. Thank you Sir. You did not disappoint. Now, as for the Alaska trip question. We've decided it won't be this year, however, it is definitely in the vacation pipeline for us to do in the next couple years. When we do, I will certainly accept your kind offer of assistance.

Miles, (I'm jesting here) After you riding a non-cruise controlled Super Tenere from Washington to Brazil and back, shouldn't that disqualify you from discussing any logical reason for the need or no need of that feature with the rest of us cruise addicted brethren? LOL. Or.....did you install an after market one before you left on the trip?

Or.......use a Nord-Lock washer in all of those applications.

okay

Very nice sled! You're right, the price of these trucks nowadays define the term sticker shock. But it sounds like you went the smart money way and took advantage of the incentives they load onto the 2012's.

Ride2much, Lets address your original question first. Is that a fair price for a "2013" RSV-S? The answer is yes. However, the question that needs so much to be answered is.......WHY? Assuming you are not interested in buying a used or slightly used bike like so many of us would do, lets talk about why you would spend $20k+ on a new 2013, when the bike has been identical for the last umpteen years? I agree with some on here that make a case that there is a certain value in buying new because you know that you and only you will be the first and only owner. No guess work needed as to how well it was treated by the previous lover. So, why don't you save yourself a chunk of money and look at the scores of brand new 2012, and 2011 models that are out there. It's the exact same bike with different color options. There are 2012 and 2011 brand new ones sitting in dealerships all across the country. You still get the 5 yr warranty. There is absolutely no change in mechanics of the machine for the past several years. Heck, just last month the Yammy dealer down the road from me finally sold a brand new 2011 RSV that he has had on his floor for over a year. It went for $14700.00. If money isn't an object for you, well crap, run down and grab that 2013 for $20K+ and get to ridin. But, if you're interested in buying the exact same bike AND saving a chunk of money, somewhere there's a brand new 2012 or 2011 waiting for you to come get it at an awesome price.

Yeah, its a huge deal. I don't even want to imagine want my company spends to make it all happen.

Ahhhh, we Americans. We always fall for the, "if it cost outrageously more, it's gotta be better" trick. You know what I mean. Like, yeah, the Toyota is nice, but I think I'll pay $15K more for the same car that looks a little different but has a Lexus badge on it, because it "has to be better because it costs more". Or, I think I'll pass on the nice new $25K Honda Accord and buy the $45K Mercedes E Series with its $200.00 oil changes because it "has to be better because it costs more". NO! IT ISN"T ALWAYS BETTER! I know people with long miles on Mercedes', and I know a lot of people with 200K+ and 300K+ on average old everyday vehicles. Consumer Reports tests and rates products of all kinds every year, and they always give some low dollar version that tested just as good as the most exepensive ones. But, we always buy the most expensive because it "has to be better because it costs more". So, here's my delima. I sit here in the same boat that some others are in, looking at buyng new helmets for my wife and I. I am looking at modular styles only. Let me make this clear, I am not considering low dollar helmets like Bilt, and several of the others. I have seen them and tried them on and operated their latches and the cheaper ones are certainly off the mark in fit and finish, and usually have clunky latches that do not open and close smoothly. However, there are a few mid priced helmets that I've tried on that are very comfortable, and have a quality feeling to them in all areas. HJC and Nolan are two brands that i have tried on that feel just as comfortable and quality built and operate just as smoothly as the Aria and Shoei brands that a lot of people will swear up and down are over twice as good a helmet. I'm having a tough time biting on this notion, and when i'm standing in the store switching tryons between Nolan, HJC, Aria, and Shoei I get a sick feeling that I'm being sold the ole "it has to be better because it costs stupidly more". I have specifically asked more than one helmet sales rep to give me data or studies, or some kind of buld quality comparisons that prove that the Aria, Shoei helmets are twice as good as the Nolan, HJC helmets. They never can provide anything other than verbal stuff like " it just fits better", or "it's tested better" or yada yada yada. So, what I'm asking is; for any of my friends here that might have concrete proof that Aria and Shoei, and Shuberth are without a doubt, hands down twice as good a helmet as some of the better mid ranged helmets on the market. I don't see it, or feel it when I'm trying them on and comparing them. I will gladly plunk the $600.00+ down for them if I need to. Thanks, Lynn

Every year my company takes 12000 of us including our customers to Orlando for a huge trade show and sales convention. Well, next week is the event. I have to be in Orlando Tuesday aftrnoon for registration and start of the event. This year I am going to drive down from Arkansas instead of fly. It just so happens that Daytona Bike Week is next week also. So, I am going to leave Sunday morning and drive to Albany, Ga via Memphis, and Birmingham and spend the night, then get up early Monday morning and drive to Daytona and spend the day there checking out venders and such before I head down to Orlando Tuesday. Just wondering if any of y'all are going to be at Bike Week Monday? Might catch up with you and put a face with a name.

Ya know? This is just a thought. But, why haven't big rigs progressed to installing backup cameras on their trailers like so many of the new vehicles have on them nowadays? Maybe they have but I just haven't noticed them. As common as they are today on regular vehicles, it's amazing the government hasn't mandated them on tractor tarilers.

As some have stated, all bikes have their quirks. I have a cousin and her husband that for about 10 years they owned Goldwings (thats before they had too much to drink one day last year and traded it for a Harley Road Glide Ultra) LOL. They loved them and rightly so because they are world class touring machines. Not much negative to say about them. One weekend they encouraged me and my wife to take it out for the day and see if we liked it enough to by one. The first thing I noticed was the thing had a whine in certain gears at different times during the ride. Didn't bother me much, but it was loud enough for me to take note of it and mention it to my wife. Here was a wonderful nearly brand new Goldwing that had a whine in the gearbox, especially during downshifting. I test rode a Victory Vision last year that did the same thing. Lets me know there's more whining going on besides the Venture/RSTD. LOL.

Your last sentence is why you should buy the bike. THE V FOUR. I guess I'm lucky to not have the whine on my 07 RSTD, but even if I did, I've fallen so hard for the V4 motor, I would still have the bike.