great white
Well-Known Member
I wasn't sure where this thread should go since it's not a VMax, but it has VMAx parts so this seems like the right spot. I'll take a chance and post it here and a mod can move it if needed.
Last year, I found myself facing forced retirement (26 years of military SAR tends to beat you up pretty good) and went looking for something comfortable for my beat up old bod to ride and keep me entertained in the later years. Besides, fully pensioned or not: 51 is too young to just lay down and die.
I happened across a bike I always liked in my youth but never gave much thought to owning: Yamaha Venture. Too much of an "old mans" bike for me at the time. The one I happened across was a 1 owner 1983 Yamaha Venture, base model (no radio, cb, etc).
That suited me fine, I didn't want that stuff and makes it a touch lighter over the full boat "Royale" version. It only means about 50 lbs less, but the extra weight is all up very high in the fairing (radio, amps, cb, etc). These are top heavy bikes to start with so 30-50 lbs less up there makes a big difference.
Pics in the ad looked good:
Now, I know it's possible to tour on a VMax, but it takes a certain type of commitment to do it. My bod is long past that level of commitment, so a Venture is the next closest thing.
This one was pretty "cherry" too: Guy bought it off the showroom floor in 83 and had only put 31,000 kms on it. Didn't have any time for it and finally decided to let it go. It was two provinces away so we struck a deal via phone, I borrowed a friends trailer and off I went with the missus in the co pilot seat. I snagged and FJ1200 on the same trip for 800 bucks, but that's another story.
The Venture was close to ready to go. Just needed some maintenance attention from all the sitting.
I rode the Venture pretty much "as is" the first year. Good power (just shy of 100 Hp at the crank), comfortable for an all day run and even fun in the corners (handling was surprisingly good for such a boat). Just a great old hack, ready and willing to go anywhere at the drop of a hat:
I thought I could be happy with it as a "cherry" survivor bike and never spend another dime on it.
But I should have known better, I can never leave well enough alone. Winter hit and plans started forming;
More power would be great, more luggage room, better handling, cruise control (throttle wrist is one of those things I've broken a couple times), etc......
Thus began project: Heavy Cruiser.
Seems to fit. Heavy cruisers were naval ships and generally defined as fast long range large ships with max 8" guns. One step down from battleships of their day. This bike has also been called a "boat" by more than one of my riding buds. Well, this thing is going to be fast, capable of long range, large and generally one step down from today's 1800 touring bike battleships. Although, I had a devious plan for not having the same firepower...
So, I bought a wrecked 86 Royale (sans engine) for parts, a bunch of Vmax bits, a sprinkling of Royal star venture parts, some aftermarket bits and started the DNA splicing.
There's a lot for one winter, so I'll just start with a list from the front of the bike and work my way back:
1. 1986 front forks. Allowed me to bolt up R6 brake calipers and 1986 rotors.
2. Tossed the linked brakes. I hate linked brakes. Works much better with isolated front and rear control. Not looking to discuss it, it you prefer linked brakes, that's cool. I don't. Chucked on the 86 master cylinder in order to get the proper sized piston for the R1 calipers.
3. Cartridge emulators. They aren't racetech ones, they're knock offs I actually bought off ebay for 30 bucks. I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived as they are quality units. They were listed for a Harley something-or-other-model on ebay, but that model had the same diameter forks as my Venture when I looked it up. Then I went to the racetech web site and they called for the same part number for he harley-whatever and the 83-92 Venture forks. I took a chance and am glad I did, they work fantastic! It also made the original anti-dive non-functional, but that never really worked anyways and the emulators work great in that capacity. I just snipped the wires off flush on the AD units and will remove them completely when I get around to making bypass plates.
4. Big chunk of a fork brace. Combined with the cartridge emulators, it really tidied up the front end handling.
5. Tore down the 86 wiring harness and parsed out the things I didn't want (radio, CB, etc). But I kept:
a. The 86 instrument cluster for the clock, gear indicator, dim-able lighting, etc
b. The Venturecruise electronic cruise control. It is a touring bike after all
c. The C.L.A.S.S. air suspension. It's a touch taller than the standard suspension and this thing needs ground clearance. Air adjustable is not my preferred suspension, but hard to argue it's practicality on
a touring bike that can be 1 or 2 up at any time and/or empty luggage or loaded to the gills
6. I removed the glass fuses and went to a standard ATO fuse panel. Easier to find replacements and a bit more reliable panel. Moved it the the LH fairing compartment instead of leaving it under the fake tank cover. Easier to deal with looking for a blown fuse under a dark overpass in the rain somewhere...
7. Ditched the OEM spark box and went with an Ignitek V88 controller. Other than a programmable timing curve, the reason why will show up a few items down the list.
8. Went to coil on plugs from a CBR600. Ignitek runs these without any resistors, just the flick of a flag in the programming. High tension wires and plug caps are a major source of trouble on a stock venture, not a problem anymore.
9. I dropped a set of Vmax heads (complete, cams, etc) on the engine. Bolt on change, easy peasy.
10. A complete VBoost system. This is run by the Ignitek and makes the VBoost completely programmable.
11. Custom Airbox. Really not much more than a chopped up Venture airbox to get it to fit with the taller intake manifolds.
12. complete 2002 Royal star venture transmission. This gives me a deep 5th overdrive for the highway and all the transmission improvements. Although my 83 transmission wasn't skipping, 2nd gear is no longer an issue waiting to happen. I also get the improved shift sector which eliminates the "pins falling out" issue. Working with #13, it gives me a slightly lower overall ratio 1-3, 4th is the same and 5th is a deep overdrive highway gear.
13. Vmax rear differential. Lower gearing than the OEM venture. Helps get my 700-800 lb bike moving better (we won't discuss my "personal" bulk!)
14. SH775BA series Reg/Rectifier (Polaris RZR). Better charging, easier on the generator. Used a triumph wiring harness to get it up and running. Made it super easy.
15. Generator cooling kit. OEM Yamaha service bulletin part.
16. 86 rear subframe assembly. Needed to fit #17.
17. 86 side luggage. (near 100% capacity increase over the 83 luggage)
18. 85 top trunk. I went with 85 because it is still removable like the 83-84, but it is the bigger size of the 86-92 trunk. Pretty much a 1 year option, I was just lucky to come across one for cheap
19. Yamaha R1 mufflers. Made my own intermediate pipes to join the stock collector to the muffs. They're a bit of a "tart it up" item, but it also dropped a good 16 lbs off the rear of an already "arse heavy" bike. R1's are Ti, Venture's are boat anchor weight chromed steel. They're pretty quiet at idle, but start sounding pretty mean at around 3 grand. The new pipes also let me suck the centerstand up higher too. That was a good thing as I would often end up levering the rear end up on it in hard left handers if I wasn't paying attention.
20. I spun up my own Al engine mounts on the lathe.
There's also a gagillion little things that have been cut, welded, burnt, bent, fit, adjusted, etc that are too numerous to list. Anyone who's done a major project knows what I mean.
:whistlin:
I'm currently waiting for some jets to show up as it's running a bit rich. Won't pull cleanly from the lower RPMs and it will foul the plugs after a week or so. For the mains I went to 140's as a first try (VMax 152.5 and the Venture is 117.5), but it's still a bit much and if the mains aren't right: nothing is. I suspect it's my stuffed up Venture exhaust bits that are calling for smaller jetting. Can't be the airbox as the top is effectively pretty much cut wide open in order to fit under the tank cover. Not much more than the lower box and enough to hold the filter in to seal up. More carb tweaking is needed.
But even running a bit off, I can drift the front wheel on nothing but throttle in the first two gears. I can get it up in 3rd if I'm trying. Vboost is programmed to hit at the oem 4750 RPM and it feels like a two stroke coming on the pipe! Great fun! But you better be pretty much upright and pointed at where you want to go cause when Mr Max makes his presence known behind all the Venture plastic; the scenery goes into serious fast forward mode. If you hit it at juuust the wrong time the rear wheel is going sideways and you better be good at "riding the slide". This thing goes from superslab tame to ex wife crazy in the blink of an eye. The narrow old bias ply rear probably isn't helping in the traction department either. Still, it does not suffer fools lightly.....respect will be given.
I painted the luggage myself in the garage. I was planning to send the whole bike out for a fresh coat, but there's only so much money in the well. I used chrysler Dark Cranberry pearl. It's a pretty close match, you can tell if you're looking for it or looking really close, but otherwise no one is going to notice. It came out plenty fine for me to ride this year so I'm good with it for a while. I just have to give it another week or so to harden up properly before letting the outside world take a shot at it. No big as I'm waiting for jets to show up anyways.
This winter will (hopefully) see the completion of a 17" radial conversion (just have to find someone to tig my venture hub and ZX7 rim together), a Royal Star Venture starter clutch assembly (sitting on the shelf waiting), a Harley D hinging backrest (waiting on the shelf, I'm broken remember) that will mean a custom seat build and HID headlight (G35 assembly waiting on the shelf).
It might not be quite the monster Morely built out of one, but I'll wager I don't have the same amount of cash into this one as the one he built. Might not be as trick or even as fast, but it works for me (and my wallet!).
I'll just drop some general progress pics in here since everyone loves pics!
After getting a good look at it this spring, my riding buddies have pretty much dropped the term "boat" and have started using "sleeper" when they talk about it.
Sure, it's got more power but it still tips the scales in the 700-800 lb range. It's got teeth, but "baby's got back" too.
But they don't really know how much power it has (i don't either really). All they know is that it leaves the lights awful damned hard and has scared them more than once already this year as they look over and see me still hanging right beside them on my old mans bike.
No one really knows what it's capable of and no one really wants to find out (me neither really). All they know is that there's VMax teeth hiding behind all that burgundy plastic.
And that suits me juuuust fine......:coolgleamA:
Last year, I found myself facing forced retirement (26 years of military SAR tends to beat you up pretty good) and went looking for something comfortable for my beat up old bod to ride and keep me entertained in the later years. Besides, fully pensioned or not: 51 is too young to just lay down and die.
I happened across a bike I always liked in my youth but never gave much thought to owning: Yamaha Venture. Too much of an "old mans" bike for me at the time. The one I happened across was a 1 owner 1983 Yamaha Venture, base model (no radio, cb, etc).
That suited me fine, I didn't want that stuff and makes it a touch lighter over the full boat "Royale" version. It only means about 50 lbs less, but the extra weight is all up very high in the fairing (radio, amps, cb, etc). These are top heavy bikes to start with so 30-50 lbs less up there makes a big difference.
Pics in the ad looked good:
Now, I know it's possible to tour on a VMax, but it takes a certain type of commitment to do it. My bod is long past that level of commitment, so a Venture is the next closest thing.
This one was pretty "cherry" too: Guy bought it off the showroom floor in 83 and had only put 31,000 kms on it. Didn't have any time for it and finally decided to let it go. It was two provinces away so we struck a deal via phone, I borrowed a friends trailer and off I went with the missus in the co pilot seat. I snagged and FJ1200 on the same trip for 800 bucks, but that's another story.
The Venture was close to ready to go. Just needed some maintenance attention from all the sitting.
I rode the Venture pretty much "as is" the first year. Good power (just shy of 100 Hp at the crank), comfortable for an all day run and even fun in the corners (handling was surprisingly good for such a boat). Just a great old hack, ready and willing to go anywhere at the drop of a hat:
I thought I could be happy with it as a "cherry" survivor bike and never spend another dime on it.
But I should have known better, I can never leave well enough alone. Winter hit and plans started forming;
More power would be great, more luggage room, better handling, cruise control (throttle wrist is one of those things I've broken a couple times), etc......
Thus began project: Heavy Cruiser.
Seems to fit. Heavy cruisers were naval ships and generally defined as fast long range large ships with max 8" guns. One step down from battleships of their day. This bike has also been called a "boat" by more than one of my riding buds. Well, this thing is going to be fast, capable of long range, large and generally one step down from today's 1800 touring bike battleships. Although, I had a devious plan for not having the same firepower...
So, I bought a wrecked 86 Royale (sans engine) for parts, a bunch of Vmax bits, a sprinkling of Royal star venture parts, some aftermarket bits and started the DNA splicing.
There's a lot for one winter, so I'll just start with a list from the front of the bike and work my way back:
1. 1986 front forks. Allowed me to bolt up R6 brake calipers and 1986 rotors.
2. Tossed the linked brakes. I hate linked brakes. Works much better with isolated front and rear control. Not looking to discuss it, it you prefer linked brakes, that's cool. I don't. Chucked on the 86 master cylinder in order to get the proper sized piston for the R1 calipers.
3. Cartridge emulators. They aren't racetech ones, they're knock offs I actually bought off ebay for 30 bucks. I was pleasantly surprised when they arrived as they are quality units. They were listed for a Harley something-or-other-model on ebay, but that model had the same diameter forks as my Venture when I looked it up. Then I went to the racetech web site and they called for the same part number for he harley-whatever and the 83-92 Venture forks. I took a chance and am glad I did, they work fantastic! It also made the original anti-dive non-functional, but that never really worked anyways and the emulators work great in that capacity. I just snipped the wires off flush on the AD units and will remove them completely when I get around to making bypass plates.
4. Big chunk of a fork brace. Combined with the cartridge emulators, it really tidied up the front end handling.
5. Tore down the 86 wiring harness and parsed out the things I didn't want (radio, CB, etc). But I kept:
a. The 86 instrument cluster for the clock, gear indicator, dim-able lighting, etc
b. The Venturecruise electronic cruise control. It is a touring bike after all
c. The C.L.A.S.S. air suspension. It's a touch taller than the standard suspension and this thing needs ground clearance. Air adjustable is not my preferred suspension, but hard to argue it's practicality on
a touring bike that can be 1 or 2 up at any time and/or empty luggage or loaded to the gills
6. I removed the glass fuses and went to a standard ATO fuse panel. Easier to find replacements and a bit more reliable panel. Moved it the the LH fairing compartment instead of leaving it under the fake tank cover. Easier to deal with looking for a blown fuse under a dark overpass in the rain somewhere...
7. Ditched the OEM spark box and went with an Ignitek V88 controller. Other than a programmable timing curve, the reason why will show up a few items down the list.
8. Went to coil on plugs from a CBR600. Ignitek runs these without any resistors, just the flick of a flag in the programming. High tension wires and plug caps are a major source of trouble on a stock venture, not a problem anymore.
9. I dropped a set of Vmax heads (complete, cams, etc) on the engine. Bolt on change, easy peasy.
10. A complete VBoost system. This is run by the Ignitek and makes the VBoost completely programmable.
11. Custom Airbox. Really not much more than a chopped up Venture airbox to get it to fit with the taller intake manifolds.
12. complete 2002 Royal star venture transmission. This gives me a deep 5th overdrive for the highway and all the transmission improvements. Although my 83 transmission wasn't skipping, 2nd gear is no longer an issue waiting to happen. I also get the improved shift sector which eliminates the "pins falling out" issue. Working with #13, it gives me a slightly lower overall ratio 1-3, 4th is the same and 5th is a deep overdrive highway gear.
13. Vmax rear differential. Lower gearing than the OEM venture. Helps get my 700-800 lb bike moving better (we won't discuss my "personal" bulk!)
14. SH775BA series Reg/Rectifier (Polaris RZR). Better charging, easier on the generator. Used a triumph wiring harness to get it up and running. Made it super easy.
15. Generator cooling kit. OEM Yamaha service bulletin part.
16. 86 rear subframe assembly. Needed to fit #17.
17. 86 side luggage. (near 100% capacity increase over the 83 luggage)
18. 85 top trunk. I went with 85 because it is still removable like the 83-84, but it is the bigger size of the 86-92 trunk. Pretty much a 1 year option, I was just lucky to come across one for cheap
19. Yamaha R1 mufflers. Made my own intermediate pipes to join the stock collector to the muffs. They're a bit of a "tart it up" item, but it also dropped a good 16 lbs off the rear of an already "arse heavy" bike. R1's are Ti, Venture's are boat anchor weight chromed steel. They're pretty quiet at idle, but start sounding pretty mean at around 3 grand. The new pipes also let me suck the centerstand up higher too. That was a good thing as I would often end up levering the rear end up on it in hard left handers if I wasn't paying attention.
20. I spun up my own Al engine mounts on the lathe.
There's also a gagillion little things that have been cut, welded, burnt, bent, fit, adjusted, etc that are too numerous to list. Anyone who's done a major project knows what I mean.
:whistlin:
I'm currently waiting for some jets to show up as it's running a bit rich. Won't pull cleanly from the lower RPMs and it will foul the plugs after a week or so. For the mains I went to 140's as a first try (VMax 152.5 and the Venture is 117.5), but it's still a bit much and if the mains aren't right: nothing is. I suspect it's my stuffed up Venture exhaust bits that are calling for smaller jetting. Can't be the airbox as the top is effectively pretty much cut wide open in order to fit under the tank cover. Not much more than the lower box and enough to hold the filter in to seal up. More carb tweaking is needed.
But even running a bit off, I can drift the front wheel on nothing but throttle in the first two gears. I can get it up in 3rd if I'm trying. Vboost is programmed to hit at the oem 4750 RPM and it feels like a two stroke coming on the pipe! Great fun! But you better be pretty much upright and pointed at where you want to go cause when Mr Max makes his presence known behind all the Venture plastic; the scenery goes into serious fast forward mode. If you hit it at juuust the wrong time the rear wheel is going sideways and you better be good at "riding the slide". This thing goes from superslab tame to ex wife crazy in the blink of an eye. The narrow old bias ply rear probably isn't helping in the traction department either. Still, it does not suffer fools lightly.....respect will be given.
I painted the luggage myself in the garage. I was planning to send the whole bike out for a fresh coat, but there's only so much money in the well. I used chrysler Dark Cranberry pearl. It's a pretty close match, you can tell if you're looking for it or looking really close, but otherwise no one is going to notice. It came out plenty fine for me to ride this year so I'm good with it for a while. I just have to give it another week or so to harden up properly before letting the outside world take a shot at it. No big as I'm waiting for jets to show up anyways.
This winter will (hopefully) see the completion of a 17" radial conversion (just have to find someone to tig my venture hub and ZX7 rim together), a Royal Star Venture starter clutch assembly (sitting on the shelf waiting), a Harley D hinging backrest (waiting on the shelf, I'm broken remember) that will mean a custom seat build and HID headlight (G35 assembly waiting on the shelf).
It might not be quite the monster Morely built out of one, but I'll wager I don't have the same amount of cash into this one as the one he built. Might not be as trick or even as fast, but it works for me (and my wallet!).
I'll just drop some general progress pics in here since everyone loves pics!
After getting a good look at it this spring, my riding buddies have pretty much dropped the term "boat" and have started using "sleeper" when they talk about it.
Sure, it's got more power but it still tips the scales in the 700-800 lb range. It's got teeth, but "baby's got back" too.
But they don't really know how much power it has (i don't either really). All they know is that it leaves the lights awful damned hard and has scared them more than once already this year as they look over and see me still hanging right beside them on my old mans bike.
No one really knows what it's capable of and no one really wants to find out (me neither really). All they know is that there's VMax teeth hiding behind all that burgundy plastic.
And that suits me juuuust fine......:coolgleamA:
Last edited:
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