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Venturing Sole

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  1. Venturing Sole
    I'm planning to camp in Don's yard like last year. Gene, Duke, Jeff...I'd like to hook up with you for the ride up. Thoughts on where to hook up as I'd be coming from Northern VA? Say, somewhere out near I-66/I-81?
  2. Venturing Sole
    I ride every day to work year round. 20 F to 95 F. As long as there is no ice. last winter I tried the Oxford wrap around grips that velcro around the existing throttle. They barely fit my stock RSV grips. I wound the extra wire around the handle bars and ran the battery leads under the gas tank. When I didn't need the grips, I un-velcroed them from the grips and wrapped them around the bars further up. They increased the size of the grip from 25mm to 35 mm. Noticeable difference in grip thickness, but not unmanageable. They kept my palms warm enough, but the tops and tips of my fingers would not stay warm enough when the temps were 20-35 F. I just got a pair of heated gloves. I hope these work better. Have to wait for it to get cold first.
  3. Venturing Sole
    I'll second that. I wear my Nelson-Rigg suit over my Fieldsheer mesh armor jacket. Even though the rain suit has mesh lining, so it doesn't stick to your skin, I still wear the armor underneath it which further helps wick away sweat when it's hot outside.
  4. Venturing Sole
    My 06 RSV came with Bridgestones and I’ve put 13,000 miles on them. I bought new Dunlop OEM model (but in white wall) tires via the web (OK, my wife did, because she’s the web shopping guru). I’ve read a lot of posts about tire preferences and handling and mileage life and opinions are all over the map. I figured I would try the Dunlops and next time, probably the Avons and after that the Michelins, etc. until I had my own opinion based on how I ride. Anyway…I’ve got a torque wrench, lift and Carbon One’s adapter and I plan to remove the wheels and take them to a tire place (not a MC dealer) that will break off the old tires and mount the new ones, then I will reinstall the wheels (replacing brake pads and greasing the rear splines like I saw at Freebird’s Maintenance Day and tightening the fork head) utilizing the combined knowledge of 3000 experts/mechanics/advisors/family that is VentureRiders. Some specific questions though: 1. The tire mounting shop prefers I remove the rotors – do I need to reinstall the rotors in the exact same (hole for hole) position as they come off? Torque requirements? Tightening sequence (like lug nuts)? 2. The tire mounting shop has no means to balance a MC tire – how much does this really matter? 3. I know the tires are directional. The rear wheel can only go on one way, so I only need to confirm that they mount the tire so the forward direction results in the rotor mounting on the right side (facing forward). The front tire is also directional, but does it matter how they mount it on the wheel? 4. I know the brake pads on the rear wheel are exchangeable (inboard to outboard), but are they the same configuration for the front wheel (a pad is a pad is a pad)? 5. I have come across several threads that I’ve copied for procedures for rear wheel removal, greasing the splines, tightening the fork head, etc. I hope they will be as helpful when my hands are covered in grease “in the moment” as they appear to be sitting at the computer. Not sure if I have all the right wrenches and socket sizes for the various tasks – I have the “normal” sizes 17mm and smaller. Anyone have a list of “special” sizes or tools needed for these tasks (or substitutes, like Crescent wrenches)? Thanks in advance for all who contribute. David
  5. Venturing Sole
    Maybe it could qualify as a limo. Guess you'd need a chauffeur's license.
  6. Venturing Sole
    Uummm...wear a rainsuit? I ride in all weather conditions except snow/ice. 20 degrees to 100 degrees, sun, rain, humidity, thunderstorms, fog, high winds and occaisionally great days. I keep a full rain suit and waterproof boots and gloves in one saddlebag. If it starts to rain during a ride, I pull over and don the rain gear and continue on my way arriving dry and comfy.
  7. Venturing Sole
    My 2006 developed similar traits. Several months after getting it new, I discovered that at about 30 mph coasting, if I lightened up on my grip or momentarily released the handle bar the front wheel would begin warbling and feed on itself getting more pronounced until I gripped the bars again to dampen it out. A few months later I added some air to my tires (front tire was showing about 26 psi) :sign07:increasing it up to about 37 psi (added air to rear tire too). Bike handled much better and I tried to see if the same warble would occur. Seems to have changed the conditions. Now I only feel a slight burble at about 35 mph as I’m accelerating through that speed or if I hold that speed constant. I can’t seem to duplicate it while coasting. :confused24:I guess tire air pressure is important.
  8. Venturing Sole
    When I bought my 2006 RSV, I ordered a low boy windshield, which is about 9" tall. I rode with that for months and the buffeting on my head started to annoy me, especially on longer rides. I put my stock shield back on and cut it down, but I didn't spend enough time measuring or confirming the new height. So now it is too short also. The head buffeting is less, but I wish I had left it a few inches taller. I wanted to see over it just a little, but it turns out I can see over it too much. I traded my low boy shield with RebelKen's factory shield and now I have the opportunity to try again. Haven't found the time yet, but when I do, I will measure twice, cut once as the saying goes. I will probably place a thin piece of tape where I think it will be and ride with it for a week or so and make adjustments. Don't want the tape to obscure my vision, but give me a vision line to focus over. When I cut my other shield, I used a Jig Saw after laying on wide tape to keep scratches away. Then I used a belt sander on the edge to smooth it out. Came out looking good...but dang...cut too low. Live and learn. Patience will assist me next time.
  9. Venturing Sole
    I tried jumping on the back end of another thread fishing for comments, but may have confused folks on what I was looking for. I'll try again with a new thread... I've been looking to get a 3/4 helmet. My HJC shorty doesn't position the headset speakers over my ears and I get a hot spot at the top of my left ear. I like HJC, I have a Symax flip chin full face helmet I like alot, but I want a "Summer" helmet. I've seen the catalog pictures of the AC3 and the testimonials on previous threads here are encouraging, but then I came across a catalog listing for a Cyber U-12. I'm wondering if anyone has this Cyber U-12 helmet and what you think of it. It looks like it has the best of both worlds. A skeletonized visor and a face shield that seems to flip up under the visor. I wonder if there are ear pockets in the lining for speakers and whether the bottom edge of the helmet will take the headset boom clamp (J&M). I wonder if the visor will stay up in the wind or if the wind causes it to close. I like the styling of the Cyber U-12 helmet and the price is comparable to the HJC. Anyone with any history with this Cyber U-12 helmet? Thanks. David
  10. Venturing Sole
    I've been looking to get a 3/4 helmet. My HJC shorty doesn't position the headset speakers over my ears and I get a hot spot at the top of my left ear. I like HJC, I have a Symax flip chin full face helmet I like alot, but I want a "Summer" helmet. I've seen the catalog pictures of the AC3 and the testimonials on previous threads here are encouraging, but then I came across a catalog listing for a Cyber U-12. I'm wondering if anyone has this helmet and what you think of it. It looks like it has the best of both worlds. A skeletonized visor and a face shield that seems to flip up under the visor. I wonder if there are ear pockets in the lining for speakers and whether the bottom edge of the helmet will take the headset boom clamp (J&M). I wonder if the visor will stay up in the wind or if the wind causes it to close. I like the styling of the helmet and the price is comparable to the HJC. Anyone with any history with this helmet?
  11. Venturing Sole
    I saw a black Venture trike very much like this on Saturday, 12 May on Virginia Interstate 81 heading south (around 1:00 pm). Man rider and woman passenger with stuff strapped on to the fenders of the outriggers. It started to rain and the trike exited the highway (probably to put on rainsuits). It rained like crazy for about a minute, then stopped. Remembered seeing pictures of a trike like this. Wondered if it was you.
  12. Venturing Sole
    I noticed as well. Didn't do the math, but thought it was closer to 100%
  13. Venturing Sole
    I also commute everyday, half of my trip is on dedicated High Occupancy Vehicle lanes (2 lanes) at 50-80 mph. While I practice much of what has been said in the posts above, what frosts me are the other riders who are sooo aggressive they nearly ride the white dotted lines, floating from lane to lane to get ahead of the traffic one vehicle at a time, often splitting the lane to get between two cagers who are side-by-side. What must the cagers think of us when they see this type of riding. I've been in a collision before...and I ride very conservatively because I shiver at the thought of it happening again. It's tough to try to own your space when the cagers see other riders violating this double standard. My
  14. Venturing Sole
    I have two HJC helmets. One is a full face Symax flip-chin convertible and the other is a shorty with a zip off collar. I ordered the “standard” J&M headsets appropriate to those types of helmets through the Yamaha dealer when I bought the bike. The installation instructions were pretty straight forward. For the shorty, I sent the collar in to J&M and they replaced it with a collar that has speaker pouches and sewed on my zipper. The wires can generally be tucked under the edge of the helmet lining or the lining could be un-snapped and re-snapped after hiding the wires. My only issue with the shorty collar is that the speaker pockets don’t sit directly over my ears. Once I scrunch the collar up so the speakers are over my ears, it sounds great. The Symax full face was simple enough since the lining snapped out and in, plus the helmet had a niche in the lining over the ears to accommodate speakers. I think in most cases the speakers are pressed onto a peel and stick, hook and loop material to keep them in place. My only issue with it was that the speakers were a little too distant from my ears, so I inserted some foam underneath the hook and look to bring the speakers away from the helmet shell and nearer to my ears.
  15. Venturing Sole
    Dang. I've got the tick tick tick sound when I back up. Wondered what it was. I've got an 06 black cherry with about 5,000 miles on it. Guess I'll have to figure out how to prop the bike up without a lift. Couple of jack stands maybe and my floor jack?
  16. Venturing Sole
    Easiest solution is to get a pair of rain boots. I use Firstgear boots that have a membrane in them that keeps my feet bone dry. Also keeps my feet warm in the winter with an extra pair of socks down to 15 degrees F. For the rest of me, I use a Nelson-Rigg rainsuit over my mesh armor jacket and pants. Never gets my dress clothes wet during my commute. Gloves are Tourmaster GX summer weight rain proof. Only gripe with these is the lining material tends to pull out a little when I remove the gloves, making it more of an effort to put back on the next time.
  17. Venturing Sole
    ...and of course you have to rotate the spare in the trunk so it gets some use too.
  18. Venturing Sole
    I think I read in the operator's manual that the signals turn off after the bike has traveled a certain distance with the blinkers on. I have learned how near/far away I can turn the signal on as I approach a turn, so that it turns off just after completing the turn. I guess I've also just gotten into the habit of periodically pressing the cancel button every couple of minutes just to make sure the signals are not on when I don't want to broadcast an unintended movement (plus my last bike - Intruder 1500 - did not have any cancelling capability). I'd hate to get cut off by a cage because I wasn't paying attention to my signals.
  19. Venturing Sole
    …from past threads seams to be missing some details and I hope some of those past contributors (or anyone) can fill in some gaps for me. Here is the scenario I was thinking of: Fieldsheer Air-Tex mesh jacket with zip-out “water-resistant/thermal liner” (on-hand). 30-40 feet of 30 AWG multistranded Teflon coated wire ($4) WarmGear Heat-Troller Single Portable Temp-Controller WG-SPCOAX ($70) WarmGear SAE to Coax Jack (Female) WG-DCJK150SAE ($5) In theory, I could plug the SAE-to-coax adapter to the existing SAE jack that came already attached to my battery, then plug the heat-troller coax to the coax adapter (in lieu of using the battery harness that comes with the heat-troller), and plug the jacket coax into the other heat troller coax. (right?) …but naturally I would have to wire the jacket liner in such a way as to end up at a coax connector. This is where I am lacking information. I assume I would turn the liner inside out (?) and lay out the 30 gage Teflon wire back and forth around the jacket and hitch it down so it will stay put. I further assume I would leave a pigtail of wire near the waist/bottom for attaching to the coax jack. What I don’t understand is how to attach the 30 AWG (isn’t this a single wire?) to a coax jack. I thought I read somewhere that the 30 gage wire has to be upsized into an 18 AWG wire (if so, what kind of wire is this [two-wire?]? I.e. red/black zip cord from bulkwire.com? how is this connection accomplished?) and then the 18 AWG is attached to the coax jack (how is this accomplished? Where can I find a coax jack to match?). I’ve seen all the comments about just buying a heated vest, but dang they’re expensive. This looks like a project I could spend the summer doing since I won’t need the liner in the jacket. I’m pretty good with a variety of hand and power tools and a civil engineer by education (but by definition merely dangerous in the electronics department). Bottom Line: I don’t quite understand how to make the wiring connections for a DIY heated jacket. Hope someone can help. Thanks. David
  20. Venturing Sole
    ...Aside from possibly having to change your underwear:starz: Your insurance should end up covering the cost and your premiums may increase:happy34: . Uninsured motorists are supposed to pay an uninsured motorist fee, but I never quite understood the purpose of it as it relates to the other person involved who may not be at fault. I querried my insurance company after my collision and they said they could handle getting the woman's insurance to cover everything, but they could not guarantee it and I would still have to pay my deductable just to have them involved. Fortunately, her insurance was very accomodating as I went to them direct.
  21. Venturing Sole
    Wise words from the big Kahuna. Thanks Monsta. I talked about it a lot with a lot of folks in the office and other friends, but I found that the only ones who really seemed to "get it" were other riders. There was a guy in my office on a HD dresser who had an amazingly similar accident, but he ended up in a coma for three weeks and some broken bones (similar young woman driver, similar pull out from a side street, similar speed at impact, similar type of bike, etc. - wierd). I'm blessed with never having broken a bone in my body - and I grew up riding and jumping bicycles without a helmet, skiing and going through Army Airborne school at the ripe old age of 38 when everyone else was 17-25 (My knuckles are bleeding from the knocking on wood). Yes, the insurance company took ownership of the bike...after I removed the aftermarket stuff I had added (low windshield, highway pegs, license plate, etc). I can only assume it was sold at some kind of auction, but I didn't follow it.
  22. Venturing Sole
    I’d be curious to know how many riders have experienced survivable collisions with other moving vehicles in the course of their riding careers. I thought others might be interested in some of the details surrounding a collision I had in September 2006. I got my new 2006 black cherry RSV in January 2006, trading up from a 1500 LC Intruder. I’d been riding for 15 years before my first (and only so far) collision. It was a temperate rainy Virginia morning, riding to work in a light steady rain. The time was 0745 and I was about 12 miles from home on a two lane road. I started from a stop light and had gone about 500 yards and was up to about 30 mph when a young woman pulled out at the last second from a side street on my right (she was trying to turn left, opposite my direction of travel). I locked up the brakes, slightly angling to the right with no opportunity to avoid the collision. When we collided, my left side smacked into her left side back near her sedan’s rear wheel well. My momentum came to an abrupt halt as our vehicles separated and I and the 06 RSV flopped over on the left side – no sliding or tumbling involved. I landed on my left butt and left elbow. I was wearing Firstgear rain boots, a Nelson-Riggs rain suit, HJC full face helmet, and gloves (don’t remember what kind). Underneath I was wearing a polyester dress shirt (sans tie) and dockers. There were no tears or damage to the rain suit, nor my shirt, but I had a silver dollar sized road rash just below my left elbow. Lots of soreness over the next few days, but no other injury. My poor baby (black cherry 2006 2nd Gen) was lying completely flat on her left side. I had dropped her a few times in a parking lot when I first got her due to the top heaviness (embarrassing moments), but she always just leaned on the engine guards causing little to no damage. In this case though, she was seriously wounded. The most visible damage was the crumpled engine guard, shattered left lower fairing and broken left mirror. At first I though I would ride her home and call it a day, but after the ambulance crew checked me out and the police took my statement, I discovered the shift lever was bent and it wasn’t rideable. The ambulance crew was kind enough to drop me at my office close by and the tow truck took the bike to the dealer. Over the course of the next month, the dealer identified all the parts that would need to be replaced (since it was nearly new, all the damage was a result of the collision) and the parts total not including labor was over $8000. The girl’s insurance (USAA) considered it totaled – paid off the loan, compensated me for 30 days time without the bike and threw in some extra cash (probably because I didn’t have a hospital bill). I was fortunate enough to be able to acquire another black cherry 2006 from the dealer and came away pretty much break-even. I’ve included some photos of the damage. It’s a sample size of one, and a few milliseconds either way could have changed the nature of the collision, but I believe the big heavy RSV really helped mitigate the impact with the foreign mid-sized sedan. Now I wear jacket and pants with armor religiously and the first thing I added to the new bike was passing lamps and a rear LED brake light. I also watch very closely as I approach side streets to see if there is any indication some idiot may jump across my path.
  23. Venturing Sole
    I commute about 25 miles to work each way, each day. Mostly parkway and highway riding. I have also had the fortune/misfortune to own two of the exact same 2006 RSV in the span of 9 months (accident claimed the first one). My low fuel light comes on almost simultaneous with the fuel trip meter starting at 0 miles. Between 6 and 15 miles later, the engine begins to starve and I rotate the reserve petcock. From that point I have gone about 30 miles before hitting one of my usual gas stations. My first RSV got typically 42 mpg. My current RSV gets about 40 mpg. I have wondered myself about leaving the reserve petcock in the forward position all the time and just using the low fuel light and fuel trip meter, but I haven't had the nerve to inconvenience myself in the event the result surprises me.
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