saddlebum

There are foot prints available for most tents and they do give the floor a lot of protection, specially when camped on fine granular sand. You would be surprise how that sand can rub little pin holes through your floor. If you can't find a foot print made to fit your tent you can make a decent one from some tyvek house wrap. Just make sure you make it a bit smaller then the tent floor. You do not want the foot print sticking out from under your tent so that it can catch rain water, otherwise you will end up with a pool of water between the foot print and the tent floor. As far as Tents go I am a firm believer in buying a Quality tent such as MSR or Eureka for example. I have tried the cheaper tents and I find most of them almost always find a way to let water in. I have Three tents the eureka spitfire 2 for when I want to travel ultra light and just need enough room for me and my gear and this packs up not much bigger than a lunch box thermos bottle and sets up in ten minutes. https://eurekacamping.johnsonoutdoors.com/tents/backpacking/spitfire-2-person-tent For a bit more room but still very compact I have an MSR 2 person tent which packs up about the size of a foot ball both these tents have gone on long back country backpacking trips and many motorcycle trips including VR rallys. https://www.msrgear.com/ca/tents/backpacking-tents/hubba-hubba-nx-2-person-backpacking-tent/10316.html My third tent which will house two military cots yet still packs up small enough to pack with the rest of my gear on a motorcycle but too large for back packing I have a Big Agness flying diamod 4 person ten. I like this one if I am staying put in one place for any length of time. https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5024-443/Flying-Diamond-4-Person-Tent All three of these tents have kept me dry through some of the worst thunderstorms with 60 MPH winds. When it comes to tents I lways consider a 2 person comfy enough for one and a four person comfy enough for two. That is not to see they won't sleep the number they say they will but it means packing in like sardines and sleeping with your head in the opposite direction of the person or persons beside you.

Those instructions are incomplete. ...There is a whole section left out.... Not one word about the best time to stop for a beer or coffee.

Weel somebody had to come and help drink that big tank of coffee I mean supervise ... Good thing I was there to Cause Carl's idea of maintaining a .004 clearance for the intake And .006 for the exhaust btewwn the lobe and shim was just to leave pieces of feeler gauge in place and throw the covers back on. He mumbled something about this way the distance between the cam lobe and shim would always stay the same

I notice in the second pic Don seems to be eyeing Phil's parts...Mnnnn Best keep a close watch on what part goes on what bike Phil.

You is supposed to toss the old oil out not add food coloring to make it look like new oil with updated additives. Leave it to a dutchman to stretch a penny

These may be of some help Testing for a Battery not Charging..pdf TESTING CHARGING SYSTEM 1ST GEN.pdf

Actually the lighter one is closer to normal, indicating proper fuel mixture the sooty ones are indicating abnormally rich mixture. sticking enrichment valves commonly referred to as the choke is one possible cause that often gets overlooked when checking for carburetor causes of too rich a fuel mixture. A good indicator of this is if you almost never need to use the choke to start the bike no matter how cool it is. Other possible cause outside of the carburator are low compression due to improper valve set or ( hopefully not ) worse like bad valve seats for example.

As well as the wear bars you can measure the tread depth. For motorcycle tires minimum tread depth is 1.5mm or 2/32nds, at three equally spaced areas around the tire. This is to eliminate a single flat spot caused by braking for example from condemning a tire when the tread depth around the rest of the tire is acceptable, ( unless of course that flat spot is down to a dangerous level such as near or at the cords ). Anything less and you need to replace those tires. Other factors you need to look for are hairline cracks in the side wall or in the tread grooves. Abnormal sidewall bulges or signs of tread separation. Lastly a tire may appear perfectly normal with lots of tread but got hard with age, so when you feel a tire loosing road grip when they should still be biting replace them. The last thing you need is a tire breaking loose, from the road in a curve or corner. The manufactures date stamp, is a good guide line but I have had tires go hard and become dangerous within three years of the manufacturing date stamp and have to admit it hurts to replace tires with plenty of tread left but I am sure road rash or worse would hurt a whole lot more. With regards to those dots I am pretty sure they are also wear indicators. easy way to find out is measure the depth of the dot with a tread gauge and compare to the tread depth adjacent to the dot if the difference is approx 1.5 mm or 2/32nds than you know.

Hey Earl @skydoc_17you got my attention on this one. Would love to hear your point of view. Always like to hear the pros and cons on things. Makes for informed decision making me thinks.

sounds normal to me Keep in mind also the fuel bowls are vented at the top and evaporating fuel will escape through these vents lowering fuel bowl level, hence allowing the needle seat to start to open relieving pressure on the fuel line which signals the pump to run. As pressure builds the pump begins to struggle and slow down eventually stopping. This is all very normal. Since fuel evaporating is one of the key factors in a normally healthy fuel system it also stands to reason that both time and temp such as sitting in a heated garage or in the sun increases the amount of fuel evaporating from the fuel bowls. The fact that the pump will build enough pressure and the bike runs quite normal would tell me there is no fault with the pump. IMHO from you description I would say you have nothing to worry about. Ride the bike and enjoy any real full system problems will come to light on its own without you try to look for any. BTW despite how it sounds, that last sentence was meant to be reassuring not chastising.

I am not surprised as I too was thinking this is not going to happen this year with what is going on so I too will be dropping out. May as well do it now than wait to the last minute and lead every one on. I sure am going to hate missing this event for the second year in a row because if its one thing I looked forward to every year was the WNY rally. I know @BIG TOMis going to be devastated not seeing me me for the second year in a row and I hate to do it to him knowing what a sensitive guy he is but sadly it just can't be helped.

by the look of those plugs I say your running pretty rich or with a pretty dirty air filter

@skydoc_17sells an excellent clutch kit with upgraded 1st disk and heavier spring which is real popular among members here. Myself I replaced mine with the carbon fiber kit put out by Barnett (this was before I knew about skydocs kits) both are real good options specially if your pulling a trailer. You will find plenty of good feed back here on the site for both specially skydocs kits. You will also find skydoc a great guy to deal with he stands behind what he sells and wont sell you something he would not trust on his own bike.

I never got the impression they were much liked by the rest of the crew either because every time you asked around about something it was either one or both of those two guys that got ratted on.

Nooo I can't see that as being true. As a matter fact in my entire 50 year carrier I have only met two individuals that were like that... Not Me and I Don't Know.

I may have some from an 86 I will have to check. According to parts catalog the bucket was used from 86 to 09. Just do not know how much and how long it would take to ship from Canada. I sent a speedo head for the instrument cluster to one member here and shipping was $20 and he had the part in approx 2 weeks. However given that the part fit 86 to 09 someone closer may be a better option.

Reminds me of a funny but true story, that happened about 40 years ago. A crane repair shop across the highway from us received a bomb threat. So a swat and bomb team set up a discrete surveillance around the place.After some wait and coming to the conclusion it was probably an idle threat, they began to pack it in, when one of the officers notice the truck shop across the road, being broken into. After they had backed a van into the shop and closed the overhead door, the team positioned themselves and waited. You can imagine the would be thieves surprise when after loading the van with stolen tool boxes and any shop equipment they could move, when upon opening the overhead door, they found themselves starring at the business end of a team of swat rifles.

Hate to say it but I am going to toss this into the mix because it does have some validity as a possibility, but as the engine warms up valve clearance gets tighter as the heat causes expansion. So if your clearances are too tight to start with than as the engine heats up the valves will not close properly in time this can cause valve damage. I realize of all the suggestions above,all of which are very valid, this is the least likely and I would prefer to be wrong but its not impossible. It may not be a bad idea to recheck your valve clearances. Doing this may also help detect a valve that may be starting to recede into the head. Sounds nasty and it is if you do find a faulty valve but on the other hand if all you find is the tolerances are too tight you may get away with just changing shims (you will need to buy or borrow a shim kit for this). Checking and re-setting valve clearances is a lot less work than removing and overhauling the carbs. Roughly two to three hours work if its your 1st time doing this. If your careful removing the valve covers and don't damage the gaskets, you can reuse them if they are still pliable. I smear a thin coat of red hi temp silicone on the gasket surfaces and around the valve cover bolt holes if I reuse the old gaskets and seals. Make sure to clean the surfaces with brake clean 1st. Venture Valve Adjustment Procedure.docx VALVE SHIM ADJUSTMENT V4 1200 & 1300.pdf

Can still have a failing plug, its happened to me before. Also check for proper spark on all four wires in case you have an ignition fault. Watch for fuel dripping on the ground while the bike is idling or just turn the key on until the pump stops turn it off & 0n again until the pump stops repeat several times and watch for fuel dripping on the ground. If it is you have a bad or stuck open needle seat in one of the carbs. May want to do a compression or leak down test to see if any of the valves are compromised in any way such as not seating properly due to tight valve set or sticking valve stem or burnt valve.

After you solder the class control you should support the harness to the bottom of the control unit. These solder joints crack because all the strain from the harness is on the connector and it puts strain on the solder connections every time you open and close it when checking your coolant level. I even added a bit of length to the harness to give it a bit more freedom of movement.

I would assume in your case you probably have to resort to resister type plugs. With the OEM system the resister is built into the plug boot. With the COP system this may not be the case. If not sure there is no harm in trying Resister plugs. Worst case scenario you may have a weaker spark. But if it gets rid of your noise and you can't feel any difference in how the bike runs you laughing.

I replaced my clutch with the Barnett clutch pack, with the carbon fibre disks. https://www.barnettclutches.com/ Alternatively there are some inexpensive upgrades you can make. One is to replace the innermost clutch disc and spacer's which only has half the friction material with a full friction material disc. If you do this leave out the spacers and the snap ring. You can also add a heavier spring. @skydoc_17 also sells upgrade kits which have become very popular among members here.

I guess I should have mentioned I finish off by using normal bleeding procedure at both bleeder screw and where line attaches to the master to get rid of any last air remains. when I do use the gravity method.

Nice looking buy. Sign up and become part of the family. The only requirement is that you not be 100% sane. All kidding aside this is one great group. Many of us have become great friends both on and off site and been here for many years.