Anguish

Hi, Sorry to hear of the demise of your first gen venture! Glad you have filled out her organ donor card though. I am looking for a RHS set of case and luggage guards if they are available please. Thanks, Brian

As I said, "a wet curve" was the cause. Apparently it was more slippery than most, since I had ridden an hour to that point in the on again off again rain of that afternoon. There was no warning or feeling of uh oh, ........ I'm loosing traction. One moment i was vertical and the next I was horizontal as if a cartoon bannana peel had tripped me up. I was only doing about 40 km/hr (25 mph) as I entered the curve and the bike and I slid about 3 meters (12') before coming to rest. Fortunately in the residential street there was not much other traffic and neither of us met immovable objects like the curb, during the slide. It was kind of surreal watching the bike slide away from me. Yes, my RHS case guard is pushed in a bit but thank fully not far enough to impact the water pump plumbing. Both the rear bag guard rail and the case guard on that side have deep grind spots on them and are aesthetically irredemable although still servicable otherwise. I plan to replace both as ebay availability permits. I had always worried about having my ankle crushed beneth the bike if it went over sideways. Fortunately the case and luggage guards demonstrably give enough clearance that I can stop worrying on THAT score. HOpe this is of interest. Brian

Good plan............ and the sort of thing that really appeals to the cheapskate in me BUT, I am thinking that the odd angles and compound curves involved would make fabricating these somewhat complex. B

Hey, Thanks to a little low speed OOPS on a wet curve at the entrance to my subdivision yesterday, I now have a bit more road rash on the bike. All seems ok for the most part, but the farring plastic at the starboard edge, outboard of the speaker grill, has suffered the most. Seems to me I recenlty saw an old online Markland catalogue somewhere. If I remember right there were some chrome caps that fit onto that edge that would likely neatly cover up my bit of damage. I have never seen a set of these in person or on ebay, despite years of browsing, so I conclude that I'm not likely to find a set of these in this lifetime. Strikes me though that this edge is quite vulnerable and damage there must be fairly common, even if the bike never leaves the vertical plane. What do others do to either protect against or cover up road rash on this edge? Thanks, Brian

Hi, I modified my starter to add the recommended ground wire from the brushplate to the motor case. Much improvement is obvious after one day of riding. I am really looking forward to not having to plan my stops against how hard it will be to restart when the motor is hot (even though I got pretty adept at using drive throughs, rather than turning the bike off). Thanks all for the insights and benefit of the collective experience! Brian

Why don't you ask these guys: http://www.yamahaventureclub.co.uk/ Maybe someone there would be interested in a time swap of use of their m/c while you are in the UK for use of yours while they visit north America sometime in the future? Hope this is of interest. Brian

I have this problem too. I know exactly where the lube needs to go but it's such a pita to get at I haven't found time, energy or inclination. Here's how I live with the problem. Mine is only afflicted in cold weather, so on cold mornings, I take the core of the speedo cable out (by extracting it at the wheel end) thus disabling the dash speedo. I then rely on the gps display for my speed. Later when the day warms up, I put the cable core back in. I've got quite adept at it and can do it by the roadside if necessary. I carry a rag to wrap the greasy core in. I'll do it right one day but for now, that's how I cope. Hope this is of interest.