johnnydemonic

I gutted my mufflers by simply cutting the tapered end cap off, they look like megaphones now. I removed all the baffling and got some universal megaphone style baffles to replace the stock stuff I ripped out. I did not gut the collector, which I believe provides some slight muffling action as well. The tone is mellow, not too loud, unless I am really kicking it in the flanks, but far more pleasing to MY ear than the FFFFFFFFTTTTTTTHHHHH sound it used to make. It sounds like an actual motorcycle now, instead of a farting cow. I have seen others simply drill out the spot welds on the end caps, gut the mufflers to the extent they desire, and then spotweld the end cap back on. I liked the megaphone look. While I had my mufflers off for the gutting procedure, I stuck some temporary straight pipes on in their place...THAT was LOUD! Imagine two of the loudest harleys you can think of. I did NOT rejet or spend any time on a dyno, pray to any unholy dark gods, spend thousands on tuning, etc...BUT...I also did NOT completely gut the system, and I DO have baffles back in there...just not stock baffles. The danger here is, of course, that opening up the exhaust system creates a lean fueling condition which if severe enough, can cause overheating and even melting of important internal components, like pistons and valves. I have been riding it for years now that way (up until about a year and a half ago, when I tore it apart for different reasons) without any ill effects mechanically, without being shot at by the neighbors, (or even flipped off), I haven't had the police muffler task force hunting me down, my face is not on any wanted posters at the local post office, cats and dogs are not lying together in unholy union, babies and old women do not spontaneously weep when I pass... I am certain that if I DID completely gut the exhaust system or switch to straight pipes, I would need the assistance of a skilled carb tech/black magician as well as a pact with the devil, signed in my blood, to get the jetting correct... or maybe just a wideband 02 sensor and gauge, about 3 or 400 bucks at most performance supply shops, plus the price of welding in a bung or two to the modded exhaust, an assortment of jets plus the time and patience it would take. Disclaimer: I do not recommend doing this. (your results may vary) Also, I live in washington state, there is no sort of vehicle inspection here that a motorcycle is subject to, your state may have more stringent regulations. There are a few threads here with a pictorial guide, if I recall. Good luck!

Exactly what I needed, thank you so much for taking the time. Johnny.

Well thanks, that's helpful info, but I am not looking for a TANK, only looking for MEASUREMENTS of a tank and I couldn't find any of those for sale on ebay, so I came here to appeal to the spirit of helpfulness and generosity I have come to know and love here in the last couple weeks. When I am ready to buy a tank, I'll give that ebay thing a try, thanks again....

Brilliant and more importantly, simple, solution. I would try that if I were you. As long as you have the tools, it can't cost much more than 10 to 20 bucks for some steel plate.

Yeah, with 3/8 plate, you would of course be moving the pegs 3/8 of an inch further outboard, as well as lowering them. I figured 3/8ths because I think 3/8ths plate is stiff enough on its own to avoid too much flex, but 1/4 might do the trick too, and the linkages might allow for 1/4 outboard movement without too much massaging.

I am usually thinking of ways to rig a forward control style setup, rather than lowering them, but... Theoretically, lowering the pegs should be relatively simple, take a couple pieces of 3/8 inch steel plate, drill holes and make a couple of lowering brackets for each peg, bolt the peg to the bracket and the bracket to the original mounting holes, and viola! The difficult part will be adjusting/reworking the linkages so they still work correctly. Depending on how far you lower them, there may be enough adjustment/range of motion for the linkages, at least on the brake side. The shifter linkage might be an issue. Take that all with a grain of salt, I am sitting at my work desk trying to picture the whole thing in my head, so please, anyone who sees a glaring mistake in my thinking, feel free to point that out.

My mistake, thanks for the correction. Utilizing the incorrect schneider flange has been known to cause total particle reversal, basically destroying the shielding on the quantum decapitation valve.

haha! I already suspect from eyeballing pictures that it will not come close to fitting. But I have to confirm before I move on. I had an xs750 tank that I cut out into just a shell and widened by stretching, and it fit in a decent manner...but it was only a shell, I want a tank that holds fuel, and preferebly comes from a yamaha. If it's close enough, I might cut one out and rework the "tunnel". I just don't really want to buy one until I know how long and how wide.

Hello all, I would like to ask a favor of you. I need some measurements for a royal star venture fuel tank, if possible. If the image upload worked, then the measurements I need are indicated by the red arrow lines. Thank you for your help. Johnny.

You can remove the framistat, as well as its analog equivalent rebazorber, using a 7" ganglion wrench with a .254 schneider flange. However, the turbulator module is a different story.

I rode mine around for a few days with a couple temporary straight pipes coming right off the collector, where the mufflers normally connect, while I modded my stock mufflers. Unfortunately, I don't have any audio, but imagine the sound of two harleys with straight pipes coming down the road, only faster, quicker, more powerful and more pissed off, and you will be imagining the sound of a venture with the exhaust you're thinking of. I loved the sound, but it was VERY LOUD, and once I gutted my mufflers, I had something close to the same only not quite as loud. If I was going to chop my venture, I would do straight pipes because then it would only be making short trips, but the sheer mega volume for long trips would be highly irritating. One another note, it does hurt low end torque to have open pipes, you need some back pressure, but there seems to be torque to spare. Anyway, that's my opinion.

In general, a 150 tire is nominally 150 mm in width, but in my experience, what one manufacturer considers to be 150 mm is different than what another may consider to be 150 mm. I haven't done any checking in the last 10 years or so personally. Maybe there has been a crackdown and specs have tightened up, but I doubt it. I think it would be worth a couple hours of time to check around, for someone who was interested and motivated.

I can't recommend anyone doing this, but if you decide that you want to...... You might be able to fit a 150 on there, I haven't tried it yet, but if you measure the available space and then take your measurements to the local bike shop, you might be able to find a "slightly" wider tire that will fit in the available space. Tire width is not really standard among various manufacturers, what one calls a 150 is not neccesarily the same width as what another calls 150, so you go in looking for a 150 that runs a little bit narrow. A 140 tire should be close to 5 & 1/2 inches A 150 should be close to 6 inches. With my 140 on there, it looks like a have a little over 1/4 inch of room before the tire will rub the swingarm on the shaft, or left, side, so in theory, a 150 that runs slightly narrow should squeak on in there with just a little room. I have done the same thing on several bikes I have owned in the past (not my venture, though) and have had pretty good luck fitting all the rubber possible in the space given, sometimes with just millimeters to spare. One thing to keep in mind is that a tire can change shape and size slightly with temperature and pressure changes, so you need a little "growing" room. I once put the widest tire I could possibly fit onto a z1-900 I owned, and there was literally about 1mm space before the tire would rub the brake torque arm, which was the limiting factor on that bike after I swapped the 18 inch wheel for a 16 inch wheel. I didn't notice it at first, but the tire grew a little after it heated up, and the arm scrubbed about an 1/8th of an inch off the right side of the tire. After that, it fit perfectly and never rubbed again, but I can easily imagine a tire overheating and popping if it rubbed a little harder against a more unyielding surface, so my rule of thumb is to go for at least 1/8th of room to spare.

I've been using a kenda challenger in the rear of mine, works great, lasts well relative to the price pulling a light and lightly loaded trailer, no handling issues as far as I am concerned. Right now I have a dunlop on the front, the exact model escapes me at the moment. When that dunlop wears out, I will switch it out for a kenda, the best of the cheapest in my opinion.

Ok, that coincides more closely with reality than what you said before: which is only true if you add a qualifier, like "wider (than 190) tires slow steering response". All the quibbling about details aside, I have never really had a problem with handling on my venture with the standard 140 series on it, even with a relatively cheap kenda challenger on it. In dry conditions, stuff will start scraping before the rear tire loses traction. Still though, I guess I must be a raging egotist, because I LOVE the way a nice fat tire looks on a chopper....