zagger

Not crazy at all. I've never been paid to work on bikes or anything else. For quite a few years, I would spend the long winter months tinkering on bikes and then spend the summer riding them. Right now, I have two bikes, they both run great, and I'm not very excited to start any new projects. Not having winter bike projects has kinda left a hole that needs to be filled with something, but not sure what. Last summer I did have a complicated and strange electrical problem with my Honda Sabre, but I believe that I got that sorted out and I'm planning on a long trip with it this summer with an old riding buddy who moved to Kansas City. We used to go on rides every weekend when he lived nearby and when he moved away I was surprised by how much I missed having a riding companion. Although I've been on rides with a couple other folks, most of the time they were more of a struggle than companionship. I did join a motorcycle Meetup group and went on a ride every month, but most of the riders were pretty inexperienced and dangerous to be around - really made me stay on the alert for crazy stuff. Maybe things will change this summer. While looking up pictures of the work I did on my venture, I was sort of surprised to realize that the first cutting and welding was done in the winter of 2007 - eleven freak'n years ago! I remember my wife commenting that at least she knew where to find me (in my basement shop). I enjoyed customizing my venture - as compared to simply fixing stock stuff on bikes that I had been doing for over 40 years. But now that I've done one, I don't think I'll ever get fired up enough to do another. A good friend of mine has built a Triumph Bonneville (650cc) to set the world speed record in that class. I'm going out to Speed Week to help him - and then his lifetime dream will be complete. Then, he will be like me, wondering what to do next! zag

I suggest that making notes on pieces of masking tape that can be stuck onto parts and even taking pictures (with a smart phone?) would help you reassemble everything. If you run into bolts of different lengths, make a little diagram and number each bolt with a piece of tape so that you know where everything goes. A few minutes spent organizing your thoughts will save a lot of confusion when you put it back together. My lasting impression was that most things were more easily torn down and reassembled than I was imagining. I think that the only thing which required making a special tool was replacing the two little rings on the transmission shaft. As you can see in the picture I posted, I just rigged up something with two brick carriers (the yellow things) and a cheap hand operated hydraulic lift. I'm sure that something similar could be rigged up with wooden supports. The entire 2nd gear split ring replacement probably only took a couple of minutes after the shaft was out. It is hard for me to even remember anything about it since it really didn't take much time. zag

Yup - those are the parts - I have all three pieces in my workshop's hanging mobile of engineering disasters! They are included with other things like a Suzuki intake valve that broke in half (totaling the engine) and a water supply splitter for my laundry sink and washing machine that broke in two and flooded my house. Oh, the memories! I really cannot understand skipping 2nd gear while riding around since the fix will probably only consume one weekend. And the parts are cheap. As I remember, it went pretty quickly without any major complications. Relieving the spring pressure on the shaft was the only part that required some extra screwing around. My old venture has all gears and is quite fast. I forgot to mention that I also installed the Vmax boost valves on the intakes - operated by a 5-click bicycle shifter on the left handlebar grip. Turned out that it really wasn't practical to quickly hand operate the boost valves at high rpm's but the engine really likes running with all of the valves open "one click" on the shifter lever (just a little bit) and I leave them in that position at all times. zag

I have forward controls and the shift pattern would have been reversed - except that I added a little rotating linkage to make it go back to normal. zag

The press is needed to simply relieve the spring pressure on the split ring. Once the split ring isn't under pressure, you can pick out the two halves and stick in the new ones. They are just sitting there loosely if the spring is compressed a little. It has been many years since I did this and I don't remember the part numbers. I vaguely recall that Yamabond was used to seal the case halves - but that is just my fading memory. You don't have to do anything with the engine - nothing on the crankshaft or whatever. The shaft is part of the transmission. You do need something to compress the spring and relieve pressure on the retainer ring. I have a small arbor press, but the shaft was much too long to fit. Perhaps there are very large presses which can hold the shaft (standing on one end), but I'm not sure if a regular machine shop would have one that big. Plus you do need to allow the end of the shaft to move as the spring is compressed - so a plate of some sort is needed on the end which has a hole through it. If you find the exploded picture of the transmission in the service manual, you will be able to see the small retainer which is formed by two half circle pieces. The manual that I have doesn't really give a good idea of how all of the parts fit together, so don't drive yourself crazy if it doesn't really make sense. Quite a few venture owners have done this fix and there may be other step-by-step posts which help understand the process. I'm guessing that this little fix would be very expensive if you tried to hire it done. Doing it yourself is probably the only sensible approach. zag

Yeah, it isn't the easiest job. Rigging up something to press on the big spring to relieve pressure on the split ring requires some ingenuity. My setup used some odds and ends that I happened to have - and surprisingly, I wasn't immediately killed. zag

Do you know if the 2nd gear fix was done on your bikes? There is a little split washer which wasn't properly hardened and will gradually wear down until it allows 2nd gear to slip. The first thing I did on my bike was to pull the engine, take apart the transmission, and replace that little ring. A lot of work for such a tiny part. Unfortunately, the alternative isn't very nice and I prefer to have all of my gears functional. zag

Funny thing, the early mad max movies used pretty much stock bikes, mostly dirt bikes. But the impression was so crazy, most people think that they remember crazy bikes. Lots of people call my chopped venture "the mad max bike" but it is way more customized than what was seen on the early movies. I've kinda forgotten the later mad max sequels. I like the old ventures because of the low cg - which is mostly the result of the under-seat gas tank and fairly flat engine. They can be quite fast - a few years ago I was riding by myself on twisty roads in western Wisconsin and came up on a long line of harleys. I followed for a little while but got really tired of the pace and so I started passing. By the time I got to the front of the long line, my bike was still accelerating hard and I was going 120mph - I never saw them again. Probably the only problem I have had over the last 10 years is with cops. My bike attracts their attention and they start following. My most recent ticket involved the lighting. I designed the lights to have "low beams" which were lights mounted a bit lower on the frame and "high beams" which were in the normal front light position but with very bright bulbs. The high beams were great for spotting deer on rural roads at night. But a cop in town didn't like this arrangement, and I got a ticket for not having headlights. Deviating just a little from the norm can be a problem. Since then, I installed the lowest wattage bulbs that fit into those lights and angled the lights toward the side of the road. Can't see a darned thing out in the hills, but in town I should be good. Who knows - sometimes stupid is best. zag

To get the carb tuning correct, I had to temporarily install an air/fuel sensor and display made by Innovate Motorsports. Replacing the airbox (which has a pretty small hole for air to enter) with the pod filters caused the carbs to operate much too lean. I had to machine air restrictors (basically disks with a hole) which are mounted under each filter. Once the carbs got back into their proper operating range, the air/fuel ratio on the display went into the normal range. The air/fuel sensor does require a threaded port welded into the exhaust pipes. I moved the battery down below the transmission just to help keep the cg on the bike as low as possible. I built a hinged rack which the sealed battery rests on. Taking out a couple of bolts allows the rack to swing downward so that the battery can be removed. I originally bought an 83 venture (one that had been wrecked) because it has an under-seat gas tank. Keeping as many heavy things sitting low in the bike as possible really gives good handling. The bike feels much lighter that it actually is - simply by having the weight sit very low. Since much of the stock wiring is concealed behind plastic covers, I put in all new wiring which I routed to follow the frame that remained. I junked anything that wasn't actually required for the bike's operation. The stock wiring was quite a big pile of wires. Yeah, the overflow tank had to sit on a little metal shelf and is held in place with a big zip tie (the kind which has a push button clip) so that it can be easily removed. Since the stock radiator was quite short and wide (hidden in all the plastic stuff), I put in a new radiator (some Honda one as I recall) which is tall and narrow. The radiator had to be mounted upside down to get the hose connections in approximately in the right place. I cut the frame to allow the front forks to be raked forward and I installed longer fork tubes to give it a chopper look. But with the straight forks, the trail dimension was very long and the handling was very slow. So I built the current leading link type forks which actually moved the front wheel even more forward, but shortened the trail dimension down to about 3 inches - about what a sport bike has. Handling now is very good and, oddly enough, there is zero "flop" on the front wheel when the bike is parked. The front wheel just sits there. Pretty weird. Good luck with your project, zag

The new goldwing does have more legroom since the engine appears to have been moved forward a few inches. I sat on one at the Chicago show and it seemed pretty comfortable. At least for the 15 seconds or so that I had to experience it. Of course, if the engine doesn't stick out to the sides, you have all the legroom you could want. zag

Another issue is that the bike must not be modified in any way: ​"A motor vehicle at least 20 years old from the current calendar year that is being preserved because of its historical interest and has no alterations to the body may be eligible for Collector license plates." So, I'm out! zag

Seems to me that 4 wheels = automobile. "Automobile: a road vehicle, typically with four wheels, powered by an internal combustion engine or electric motor and able to carry a small number of people." zag

Hey Cowpuc, Thanks for all of the advice. The new filter did not have the replacement orings so I'll need to keep using the ones I have. As I vaguely remember, that was true on the last couple of oil changes. From my experience, long front ends lead to very slow handling. The first extended forks on my beast were just lengthened straight forks and the handling was really slow and annoying. Then I built the leading link front suspension which has around 3" of trail and then the handling became super good. Pretty weird. Front wheel moved forward another 6" or so, but the handling became very quick. zag

Thanks Cowpuc! Didn't do anything to the oil filter situation when I cut into my venture. The new one certainly looks like I remember the old one, but I will measure the old one after I drain the oil. Almost getting into bike season even though it still drops into the 20's every night. Thanks again, zag

Drove over to the Yamaha dealer and bought a new Yamaha oil filter for my '83 venture. When I got home, I noticed some tiny printing on the side of the box which says that it is for Vmax '90-'93 and XVZ13 '90-'91. Nothing about the older 1200 ventures. It looks about the same as the ones I have been using - but I cannot be sure unless I drain the oil, yank out the current filter and measure it. Anyone happen to know if these filters are identical? If not, do you know of a source for the correct filters? Thanks, zag

[TABLE=width: 100%] [TR] [TD=colspan: 3, align: right]7220.1 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD=class: postbody overflow_content, align: left]I had to run some errands this morning and on the way home a Jeep SUV type car merged onto the highway right beside me. Apparently it had just been in an accident and the front bumper was angled upward above the level of the hood and one of the front wheels was missing its rubber tire and was just running along on the metal wheel. Pretty crazy. It did eventually pull off at a gas station, rather than continuing on the highway - I guess the driver must have noticed that something was wrong! Ya gotta wonder sometimes! zag[/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

It might be nice to have a gas gauge but it certainly isn't critical and I wouldn't struggle very much to get it working. I just use the trip odometer along with a general idea of the total miles that it can do on a full tank. Not a big deal. Over 50 years of riding, I've never had a bike with a gas gauge and so I've just grown accustomed to watching the miles. BTW, when electrical stuff flakes out for a short time, you probably have issues with corroded connectors someplace in the wiring leading to that device. Personally, I prefer to not have connectors at all or only have individual bullet type connectors on each wire that are completely sealed using heat shrink with meltable sealant inside. You cannot get this stuff at a hardware store, but it is easily ordered ( https://www.mcmaster.com/#heat-shrink-tubing/=1c1vmlj ). If the bullet type connectors have a plastic sleeve on each end, it can be easily cut off so that the connector diameter fits into the heat shrink tubing. zag

Tech Support This is nothing to do with my bike, but I thought it illustrates the problems with tech support. I bought an outdoor thermometer to replace one that was always wrong by 20 degrees or so. After getting the new one out of the box and mounted outside, I noticed that the blue alcohol stuff inside was separated into sections with fairly large gaps between each chunk. Pretty hard to guess the temperature with all of the blank gaps. I finally thought to call the company that made it to see if there is some top secret procedure to make it work again. Sure - no problem - they emailed me instructions on how to fix the thermometer. "Thank you for contacting Filament brands regarding your thermometer. There are a few ways to rejoin the liquid in your unit. First would be to grab the thermometer with the bottom portion facing down and shake the unit so that the motion is almost like pitching a baseball. The ending motion should be your arm extended with the thermometer "pointing" in front of you and the bottom of the thermometer at the very front. When doing this, be vigorous but keep a firm grip on the unit. That should force the liquid into the bulb. Should that not work, leave the thermometer in the freezer standing upright between 5 - 10 minutes. If above procedures do not work, please contact us once again so we may further assist you" I tried their methods and emailed back:"I tried both methods and the air gaps in the thermometer remained unchanged. I finally tried rapping the bottom end of the thermometer on my knee about 10,000 times (just a guess) and I'm finally left with two narrow gaps which I can live with. The previous gaps were so large that the thermometer was completely useless. Now it is good enough. Thanks." And they were nice enough to get back to me: "You are very welcome! We constantly strive to provide the utmost in service for our customers. Please feel free to email us again if we can be of further assistance, we are always happy to hear from you." Well - thanks again for all the great tech support! zag

Yes it is. Cell phones and texting really reduce the time many drivers spend looking where they are going. "I never saw him" is the excuse but the reality is that they don't notice anything smaller than an automobile as they glance up from their phone. I purposely ride for pleasure on small rural roads just to avoid this problem. I never commuted to work in busy traffic with a motorcycle because it is just to darned dangerous. Get real - do drivers think it is ok to read a book or newspaper while driving in traffic? Probably not, but reading and sending text messages must be ok, they do it all the time! zag

Hey Randy, A good riding friend of mine has asked me to travel out to Bonneville Speed Week with him and help set a new speed record. He has a 1972 Triumph Bonneville T120 650cc that has been carefully reworked specifically to set the record. Speed trials have been cancelled due to rain for the past couple of years but he hasn't given up yet and hopefully the weather will cooperate this year. Unfortunately the dates conflict with the Asheville trip and so, unless the weather causes another cancellation, I won't be able to ride to Asheville and meet up with you guys. Wish that I could do both. zag

Try using earplugs. I cannot fire anything without some hearing protection. The cheap little things that you jam into your ears work pretty good. zag

Did you get the brass catcher with the idea of reloading - or you just didn't feel like picking up all the brass? All the best to you, zag

They need photo's, not just a little sign saying "new photos coming soon". zag

The Blue Ridge Parkway is very beautiful and well worth a visit. As I remember, the speed limit is quite low (45mph) which does detract somewhat from enjoying the roads on a bike. Of course, if it happens to be cold, then the slower speeds might help the situation. zag

http://www.worldfuturetv.com/live/world/video-hailstorm-kills-sheep-damage-cars-in-australia/ Imagine running into that on a bike. zag