CantWin1

I had a stock pillow top that was pretty worn, and needed to gain some length for my midget legs so I did it. Carved it up real well, bought some vinyl, and spray adhesive and was able to make it look half decent. First time I tried anything like that, so it can be done. Probably have about $50 into it with staples & staple gun. But probably $100 worth of frustration trying to stretch flat vinyl into a curved seat! I would definitely send it off and let someone else do it if I were you! I ride mine daily, which is the only reason I didn't send it off to Rick Butler. Recently picked up a used Corbin, but this one isn't one of the deeper cut ones, so now that I have a spare I'll be shipping my original off soon.

no....not only in Canada....thanks to the link. I can listen & enjoy it all the way down here about 10 miles from Mexico!

Appreciate the comments. Will take a look at the manual, and check out the TPS. Thanks, will post what I discover! Thanks. John

Update: Grabbed a truck & trailer at work, and some help to push the pig onto the trailer. For good measure I decided to try and start it. Started up immediately, rev'd fine, rode the 7 miles to work, no issues across any rpm range. Think it may be time to pull the tank and put dielectric grease on any connections under there. Was just settling my mind yesterday that this bike's a keeper vs buying something newer. Picked it up with 97k miles, now at 108k. Had decided to drop 7-800 into it for my birthday this month, LED brake light, new brake & clutch lines, new windshield (tinted ones suck at night), & a used corbin seat. Hope it doesn't happen again....

Hi, Didn't find much using the search.... On the way to work this morning my '05 Venture died. Trying to restart I noticed the engine warning light was on and blinking. Started, ran about 20 feet, enough to pull into a gas station. It will crank over and start for a second or two, rev's ok, but then dies and the engine light flashes. I think it's flashing three times...but I did see there's a code with 9 flashes, maybe I didn't let it keep flashing before trying to start again...? My bike resides outside all the time, we did have a good rain last night, roads were wet this morning, so moisture somewhere may be an issue. However I did a 1500 mile ride over labor day and part of that was in a heavy blowing down pour with no issues. I did pour out my cup holder over the gas tank this morning, maybe that water got somewhere that rain doesn't? Any help would be appreciated.... John

Pretty awesome! Now I can see why there's no 'ride events' on this side of the country...need to work on that!!

I've got a Venture with just over 102,000...started seeping a bit, pulled the fake cyl. covers off and the little plugs is where mines leaking. Any particular place to get them....other than find a site that has the engine diagrams and find a name/part no...?

The nose diving I guess is better explained as a rocking horse type action when coming to a stop, slow down, let off the brakes a bit and the back would sink, brake and it would rock forward, ease off at near a dead stop and sink in the back again. The 'oil in the air bladder' is what has me confused. I've seen several posts about turning the shock upside down to drain the oil. If the air valve only accesses an air bladder then there should be no oil drain out, correct? I've been trying to figure out how people can have a leaky shock that will still hold air. A separate air bladder would explain this, but then it makes no sense that you could drain and refill the oil thru the air valve. When I pulled the valve from the air inlet no air came out. So it has been running on 0. How does a good (or bad) shock feel with no air at all in it???

Hi, 2005 Venture, picked up in March this year, advertised as needing a shock, and nearing 100k miles, but at a good price. Talked to the guy on the phone, big guy...maybe twice my size, so I figure maybe it's still rideable at my weight of 160. Sure enough, it appeared the shock was blown as even with me on it it rode like a '73 Buick with eight of your buddies in the seats and the rest in the trunk headed for the $2 a car drive-in. And the bottom of the shock had some semi wet residue on it. After reading a bunch of threads about shocks I recalled having read something about tilting the bike and allowing fluid to run out of the shock to quiet a 'groaning' seal. Well when I bought the bike I was told it had been laid down on the highway in traffic a couple years earlier, don't know how long it was laid over. So I got to thinking the other night...maybe most of the oil ran out of the shock. In haste without doing any digging as to what to put in it other than a note I had read about someone putting 20W shock oil and some Automatic Tranny fluid...I wound up with all I could find at a Pep Boys at 8pm...A quart of ATF. Figured I'd squirt an ounce or two into the shock, see how bad it leaked and go from there. It took the first couple and there was a noticeable 'feel' of a difference bouncing up and down while in the driveway. So I fed it a couple more shots, even better! Couple more and there was a real difference. All the time checking underneath expecting a puddle. Took it for a quick spin around the block and it was still a bit 'rocking horse' feeling if I tried to make it bounce. Had never checked the air in it, thinking if the oil leaked out how could it hold any air!? Put about 50# of air in it and it felt way to stiff, so I dropped it down to about 35#. That was Monday evening. Rode to work and back past couple of days, about 40 miles total, hitting every rough spot and little whoop ti do I normally avoid and not a single drop of oil has shown up under it. In addition to this my 'nose diving' at stops has been reduced by about 80% which is huge when you're short legged and that nose diving really screws up your stopping stability and confidence. I'll be putting some miles on it this weekend, going on a 600 mile round trip run to Vegas. So we'll see how it holds up. Any thoughts as to why it wouldn't be leaking now if it had in the past? Did the ATF just swell the seals and they'll rot away now? Should I take it off and drain it so I can get the correct measured amount of fluid put in? (Read somewhere, but only 1 post, that there's roughly 7.5 oz of fluid.) What is the proper fluid to put in it?

I was digging around trying to find the lengths, but no luck. Wow...3" would be a real pain to try and deal with. Thanks for the info! John

Anyone know of someone who has done this on a Venture? I'm needing a shock really bad on my 2005, might just have to jump in and be the guinea pig on this one. Don't know about the length, but otherwise it sure doesn't seem too complicated from reading ALL the threads on the link posted above. Anyone know if the lengths are off? Mine's lowered, but there is a post on the above thread from someone who did it with a lowering kit and didn't have issues...but not on a Venture. I was ready to pull the trigger on a Hagon tonight but thought I'd do some reading first...glad I did. Thoughts? Suggestions?

I'm 5'5, about 160#'s. I backed out of my driveway opposite of every other time I've backed out and my 'untrained' foot slipped and down my Venture went. Nice and easy onto the bars, no damage, and I just sort of straddled off. I had seen the following video, and watched it several times and it was a piece of cake to pick up! [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8Er4FFEQ8I]How to pick up a Goldwing up off the ground- YouTube[/ame] If you do some digging there's even one of that guy showing a short 'older' lady how to do it and she is successful!

My shop is between town and the foothills, off of 4E. I have to watch my weight so I don't know of the donut shop, I try to limit my calorie intake to a quiet little bar on 4th Ave!! Have a few from up north that make it their yearly hangout while in town.

I've got a business in Yuma, on about a 1 acre lot. No room inside but I'm sure there's a spare 20 square feet outside if you don't get someone with a garage.

I'm 5'4 1/2" 29" inseam. Road an '86 goldwing for a few months prior to getting the venture. The wing 'felt' like it wanted to stay on two wheels, I could only touch with the balls of my feet, but no issues. When I went to pick up the venture I could get a tad bit more of my feet on the ground, but the venture just feels like it wants to take a nap and lay over. I put a Baron's kit on the back, and dropped the front forks about an inch. I can get about half of each of my feet on the ground, heels just don't quite make it. About a month ago one of my kids got me a new pair of work boots, turns out the soles and padding are probably about 1/2 - 3/4" thicker than my old boots. I can flat foot it comfortably now. I had done alot of reading on height issues and found alot of recommendations for shoes/boots with 'lifts' built in them. After seeing the difference in my new boots I still may grab a pair of 'lifted' boots just to gain some more leverage. tallmenshoes.com is one source, just checked and even searching amazon.com for calden boots brings up some options. Somewhere on one of the venture forums I recall reading a post from someone that was 5'2 with a 25" or 26" inseam. So anything is do-able!!

Just an update. Went for a 2 hour ride Sunday, no twisty's around here, so I varied as much as possible. Quite a bit of in town stop & turns, few country roads with some curves, and a bit of 4 lane riding. I'm alot more comfortable on the bike now. Rode almost as agile as my kids Suzuki M50. Rear lowering kit came in today. Still wasn't sure whether to do the seat first or drop the rear. The seat I'd probably send off, worse case do it myself, but would be tuff to undo if I wasn't happy. With the kit I figured I could put it on, see if the handling went back to feeling heavy, if so, I could just take it off and sell it. So after work I started yanking things apart. Went pretty smoothly, jack stand and a bottle jack on the rear crash bars was enough to get it in the air. Just a note to anyone doing the lowering kit...READ the instructions. It says to bleed the caliper in an upright position BEFORE mounting. Spent like a half hour trying to bleed the darn caliper and couldn't get any pressure to stop the bike. Went back and looked at the instructions...duh. Took the caliper off, flipped it over, bled it, re-mounted...ah, how nice to be able to stop. Don't know the physics or logic of it, but the lighter feeling and quicker turn response are still there. I guess if you look at it we've shortened the wheel base a tad, but now we're back to stock angles, maybe a bit more leverage involved...??? But for anyone thinking about doing both the front and back....I'm happy. I don't have any roads around here that I have to worry about scraping on turns. I am going to consider swapping the kickstand, it is a bit more upright at rest than I'm comfortable with, but still not as bad as my wing. Thanks for all the info and help guys!! Been a wonderful couple weeks with the new-to-me bike!

I'd take a look at http://www.goldwingfacts.com/forums/ as mentioned above. Just got my Venture after spending the past 6 months or so on an old Wing, '86. Tons of info on all years of wings. Alot of technical info isn't necessarily exclusive to Wings, 4 carbs, shaft drive, lighting, plastic work, etc. Hope to make this my new home, tho!

Thanks so much for the pics! Didn't realize there were extensions like that. I'm sure those would fit what little space I have since I didn't change the angle. I'll have to hunt some down at Autozone or someplace.

Wes0778: I was afraid someone would say that dropping the rear will take away the 'lighter' feeling. I'll have to see how much the new angle effects the ride to and from work for a few days. Maybe instead of dropping the rear I'll have some work done on the seat to get my feet a bit closer to the ground. Saw a post from someone that is 5'2 w/ a 26" inseam, I'm 5'5 with a 30" inseam so I know there's hope for me!! I'll have to go out and measure how much I'm missing from flat footing it and get some advice on here before I drop the rear I reckon. WrenchRob: I have right at 1" of fork sticking our of the top of the triple tree, don't know how you could get 1 1/2", my airlines are only about 1/8" from my handle bars, think they're worthless now. I didn't understand you could turn the fork tube (I think) and was afraid of breaking the seal if I turned the actual caps of the forks. When I got to thinking about it more we had just gotten the triple tree back on and wasn't about to tear it back down to try. My three hour mod turned into almost 5 with the problem putting it back together. Mike G: Lol about the mirrors. I bought my bike used from a guy twice my size, guess those mirrors hadn't ever seen the angle I needed. Was quite a task to get them to move! So I got on it after dropping the front and couldn't see a darn thing...I started blaming my kid (in my head) for screwin up simple stuff, then realized what we had just done to the angle of the bike! And about the air valves...have to take a look to see if they have a 'slim fit' flexible line a couple inches long...that would solve my air issue.

Yea, I'll bet it would have dropped alot easier with the weight off, too! Just took a short ride from my work to my house. Definitely feels like a different bike! Feels lighter, easier on the turns, nice to have a bit more of my feet on the ground at stops. Been riding a GoldWing 1200 so I can manage pretty well on my tip-toes, but want to be flat footed before doing 2 up. Thanks all!

Thanks....with that my kid and I went back out and jacked it back up a bit. Had dropped it off the jack to 'force' the forks up. Just lifted it not quite to the point the front tire was in the air and it dropped into place. All is well!! Can't wait to go for a ride...I'm short, hoping this helps, and have the rear lowering kit on order.

Hi all, Just lowered my front end, 2005 Venture. All was going fine until trying to get the triple tree back on. It's not quite centered on the middle bolt so when it get's down to the 'neck' of the bolt the triple tree is hanging up. Have tried pushing rearward on the front tire, and forward with the front brake on. Doesn't seem to change. Can't think of any way to get any leverage between both fork tops and the bolt to get it to 'lean' in. Any suggestions? Looks like I'm about a half hour from being done if I can get past this..... Thanks John