zagger

Thanks Tooch, My problem was that I had picked the "gray" color scheme. I changed the site color scheme back to red and the signup section appears. It disappears if gray or green is chosen. Duh! zag

Well, I've tried but I cannot seem to figure out how to sign in on the calendar. I see a bunch of names already there but don't see how to add mine. I'd like to ask for clue #1. Thanks! zag

Yup. Know the feeling. Gotta get pumped and just do it to it. Kinda cold in the garage today so I'm thinking I better wait until it warms up a bit to get started. zag

A belt driven supercharger for the black beast. We just got the first snow, so it's time to winch it down the stairs into my shop. zag

Very nicely done! zag

http://www.frpoffroad.com/fredette-racing-products-motorcycle-ice-tires-frp-studded-left--right-turn-detail.htm?productid=-162909

Maybe you should think about chains. Seems like a good plan to me! http://www.thesabregroup.com/forum/get_attachment.php?webtag=THESABREGROUP&hash=7ba949f72e72cf79b789c8ce5e5f0afe&filename=Image.jpg zag

Thanks for filling us in on Yooper's condition. zag

I think the author of the article needs to get up early, head out on some small roads, blow the stink off, and just get over the idea that there are many kinds of people and many different ideas of what they enjoy. Why get your undies in a bunch just because other people don't prefer your choices? zag

As part of your gas tank cleaning efforts, you might want to consider putting in some stuff called "Red Kote": http://damonq.com/techsheets/red-kote.pdf My '83 gas tank seemed generally ok on the outside but I noticed quite a bit of rust sitting down in the "crevasses" where the sheet metal sections are welded together. Rather than fight with dirty gas forever, I simply used Red Kote to encapsulate and trap the rusty bits. Of course, I first cleaned out the inside of the tank as well as I could and made sure it was completely dry before using the Red Kote stuff. As I remember, after banging chains and soapy water around inside the tank (water lowers the spark/explosion risk), I rinsed the tank very well with water and then with denatured alcohol simply to remove as much of the water as possible before trying to dry it out. Then I let a small fan blow air through the tank (in the level sensor location, out the filler) for several days before doing the coating. As I remember, the Red Kote stuff is kind of syrupy and wasn't very easy to get it to flow around inside the tank. Diluting it a little with MEK helped a lot. By the way: Red Kote and MEK are not good to breath in - work outside and leave the tank outside for a day or two to fully dry. Both are very flammable/explosive so be careful and don't smoke or do anything that makes sparks. Hope this helps, zag

Kinda shiny for me, and the passenger pegs seem to be set a bit high. http://www.mrzip66.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/easy_rider_peter_dennis_and_jack_on_cycles.jpg For $1.2M do you suppose they would sand it down and paint it flat black for me? And lower the pegs? zag

Maybe you should drop the year from the search. No reason to care about the year as long as the parts are for the correct engine. I cannot imagine that parts will be hard to find. zag

Poor snake! Probably just found a cozy spot down inside the engine compartment until you decided to fire up the car and drive it away. Ya know, they don't have any arms or legs so when they are thrown from a moving car, they might land in an awkward position and really hurt themselves! zag

Are the other two cylinders more in the normal range? Just curious since you are going to have to tear into it anyway just to know what is what. For the low compression two, it would seem like tearing into the engine would give you the answers. Who knows. Cylinder/piston scoring could have low numbers like that. Once you have the pieces sitting in your lap, I'm guessing that the problem will be obvious. Lots of parts can be found online from the usual sources. I have an 83 venture and I've never had any trouble locating parts. Even the internal engine bits and pieces. However, if your engine has suffered a major lack of lube for a period of time or some other calamity, it may be simpler to locate a used engine which is more functional with fewer problems. Of course, it is just a roll of the dice to find something at the moment that you decide that you need it. I rebuilt an 83 and didn't have any serious shortages of parts. I'm gonna guess that everything you need for your 85 is out there and available. I don't know where you live, but in the north, we are gradually drifting into "building season". If you aren't in a major rush to locate each thing, you will likely find the parts you need without huge expense or struggle. At any rate, that is my experience. zag

Hmmm. The Ol' Faded Blue Beast might be fast, but the flat black beast is pretty quick also. Wonder how we can put this to the test? zag

And the Zumo also stores tunes. Lots of tunes if you add more memory! Verbal turn directions interrupt the music when necessary. I chose the nice, polite sounding female voice that says, "Excuse me, sir. I must ask you to turn left in one half mile. Many apologies, sir, it won't happen again." zag

A couple of weeks ago I passed a long line of harleys riding nose to tail. By the time I got to the leaders of the pack, I was going over twice their speed. Pretty zippy for a big bike. zag

I use a "wideband" exhaust gas analyzer made by innovate motorsports. Note that this type of sensor is similar to ones used for fuel injection systems - except that it is designed to function and give readings at fuel/air mixtures that are well away from optimum. The sensors and electronics typically used with fuel injection systems only operate over a limited measurement range since it is assumed that the entire system is stock and never very far away from the design conditions. http://www.innovatemotorsports.com/products/db.php The biggest advantage with a guage is that you can actually see the engine combustion conditions while it is loaded, in different gears, different speeds, etc. While most people would probably argue that this can be done while the bike is stationary, in actual fact the airflow around a bike can have a big effect on the air pressure at the engine air filter location. If your setup is stock, then I guess you can hope that the Yam engineers thought this through and the effect is minimal. If your setup isn't stock, then you are "wandering around in the forest" hoping to luck out and find the perfect setup by randomly trying different things. The biggest hassle of this type of system is that it requires you to weld a threaded connection into one of the exhaust pipes - upstream from the muffler. The sensor has to be placed well away from the open end of the muffler where outside air would influence the measurement. I just used the gauge on one pipe and made the assumption that all four are the same since they are set up the same. Probably not perfect, but MUCH better than not measuring anything! When you are done adjusting everything, a threaded plug with crush washer can be used to seal the unused hole. Or you could just leave the sensor in place if you like to watch the gauge permanently. I have more than one bike so it is nice to be able to move the system from one to the other if I have done something that might affect the carb operation. My venture is highly modified and I simply could not get it running well without some means to actually measure the engine's operating conditions. I never used the software supplied with the system since just watching the gauge while riding really gives a good idea of what is happening inside the engine cylinder. Hope this is a help to you. zagger

Families are God's personal blessing. Just be thankful for the time you had. zag

I almost stopped reading on the first post when you said "you seem an intelligent group". Obviously some guy who is completely out of touch with reality! I also reconstructed an '83 venture and just love the engine. I'm sure you will prevail in the end, just keep plugging away. zag

Well, somebody has to say it. I'll bet your neighbor's complaint has more to do with your Bub exhaust than with you personally. Lot's of folks don't like the motorcycle melody and just want vehicles to be quiet. This is the sort of fight which spawns new laws like those California just passed (http://www.ridelust.com/motorcycle-exhaust-bill-passes-in-california/). I guess we only have ourselves to blame. zag

Sorry guys, I cannot attend. Just found out this afternoon that my wife is going in for some fairly nasty surgery on Friday, Oct. 8. It might seem pretty insensitive if I headed out of town for a colored leaf trip with camping to enjoy myself. I'll join you another time. zag

While some cupping could be caused by an out of balance wheel, I think that most of it is caused by the way the "islands" of rubber on the tire deflect and wear. If you rub a pencil with an eraser along the top of a table while pushing down against the table, you see the eraser deflect and the most eraser wear happens on the leading edge. Each island of rubber (the areas surrounded by grooves) on the tire works the same way and wears the same way. My bikes have tires which are worn down in "cups" that you can see from 10 feet away. I hate that but I don't believe that balancing will help. Balancing helps keep the center of mass at the axle and minimizes the shaking. My most recent experiment with beads is the most interesting. Last winter I built a custom front suspension for my venture chopper. Riding it this summer, the front wheel would literally bounce right off the road when I hit about 65 mph. Most unpleasant! Slower was ok, faster was ok. I thought that the damping and spring constant of the front suspension was the problem and I wrestled with those ideas. This last weekend I put beads in the front wheel and found that the bouncing was caused by an out of balance tire (professionally balanced when the tire was installed). Apparently, the frequency of the wheel vibration at 65mph matched the resonant frequency of the front forks and all hell broke loose. With the beads it runs nice and quiet regardless of the speed. Pictures of my new front end:

The point is: your axles are not fixed and unmovable. And neither is the rest of the bike. A spinning out of balance wheel causes the suspension to compress/extend and that loading is transmitted to the frame of the bike and to you, the rider. Every part of the bike, including you, move up and down with the wheel motion. That is the shaking you feel. And that motion is what moves the beads. If you mounted the unbalanced wheel to solid steel posts mounted in 10 tons of concrete the out of balance condition would still exist but the resulting amplitude of vibration would be much less - not zero but much less. In this situation the beads would not find the light side of the wheel (the point furthest out from the center of rotation) because the amplitude of the off-axis motion would be too small. In fact, the beads can never totally balance any wheel. As the beads start arriving on the light side of the tire, the amplitude of the vibration is reduced and the forces propelling the beads to that location go lower and lower. Eventually the amplitude of vibration is so small that the beads don't move anymore. As the rider, you would conclude that the wheel is now balanced. However, it is only balanced to the extent that the bead motion has stopped - a slight out of balance condition still exists. Of course, how is this any different than a spin balancing machine? The machine has a measurement resolution limited by the sensing system and the electronics. In other words, it cannot detect microscopic imbalances. The mechanic does not have an infinite choice of lead weights. The weights come in specific sizes and he must choose the "best match" for balancing the wheel - leaving a slight imbalance that cannot be fixed by his selection of weights. The design of the wheel may limit the locations for attaching the weights causing further complications. The early venture cast wheels have 3 "spokes" which block clip-on weights from being attached in that area. And the valve stem area is another place where clip-ons don't work. Stick on weights have less restriction on mounting locations but they are off-center unless you spread the weights onto both sides of the wheel. There is no "perfect" solution for balancing a wheel other than to make all of the components (wheel, disks, tire, etc) perfectly balanced to start with. You would also need a zero-wear tire so that nothing changes as you put on the miles. I know! How about a solid steel wheel (no tire) machined to be perfectly balanced and hardened so that it cannot wear down! Don't take corners too aggressively! zag

Can't see any reason why a fluid wouldn't work except that water/antifreeze is much less dense than the beads and therefore 2 oz would take up more space inside the tire. Certainly would be easier to get into the valve stem! But there is also air inside the tire - giving problems when the water dries up and leaves just humid air inside the tire. Maybe mercury is the answer. A little messy at tire change time - but that is not my problem. zag