With great sadness, I hate to do it but no room in my garage and I could use the money so I have to sell my 96 V-Max, $4000 obo. Bike's in great shape and motor runs strong. Mileage is 55000km, engine completely rebuilt 10000km ago. Here's a link to the Kijiji ad...
I have a Corbin seat that I use for long trips which makes it quite comfortable for all day riding. I've easily spent 10+ hour days without any issues. The only drawback about the Max for distances is the limited fuel range... having to stop every 100 miles for gas is a pain in the ass.
Funny you should say that... I enjoyed that adventure yesterday!
Battery died yesterday, was showing 12V but would drop down to 8.5 during cranking... not even close to enough to start it. Tried a few times to bump start it... damn that bike is way too heavy to push on your own and get...
If the vise grips alone isn't working... see if there's enough room for you to get the edge of a screwdriver under the bolt and pry up as you undo it. Even better, get someone to help you and have them do that while you use the vise grips to pull and turn.
If all that fails... the only thing I...
I do like the MT-03 headlight and the VROD headlight... but both those are $250+ by the time i mount them, which is a fair bit just to replace the headlight.
The other is $45!! Even if it only lasts a handful of years... it's cheap enough to play around with.
My headlight keeps slipping off the internal clip on the headlight bucket which leaves it held in place only by the springs, causing my headlight to vibrate as I'm riding which is fairly annoying. This coupled with the low light output has me itching to replace the entire headlight.
While...
By the way you're describing it, your starter clutch is gone. If it previously sounded like there was a bag of marbles in with your starter when you used to turn it over, the bolts attaching it to your flywheel have come loose or completely off... a fairly common problem with VMax's.
Search...
I replaced my signals with 2 wire LED ones and used this device to convert it into a running light configuration:
http://www.customled.com/products/magic_blinker/magic_blinker.htm
Works great!
The fender bolts onto the bottom of the fork brace so you will need to remove the front wheel to access the bolts. The benefits are slight, but coupled with other upgrades makes it worthwhile. I put one in and the process took me all of 10 minutes.
Wish I could be there. Gotta work and too many things around the house that need to be done... just can't manage to get away.
Hope the weather holds out for you and that you all have a great ride!
Ed