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- Jan 25, 2015
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- 2,558
A few years ago, I decided I wanted a "road couch". Now, I'm a racer and sport bike aficionado at heart, So something at the top end of "cushiness" wasn't going to be very satisfying for me.
Which brought me to the Yamaha Venture. V4, 98 hp, decent handling for a couch (best for a tourer in it's time) and a raft of options to choose from. I looked for a while and finally turned up a 1983 Venture two provinces away. 20,000 kms and garage kept. Pics from the ad:
Rode it that way for about a year. Was great fun. But, I'm a gearhead and just can't leave well enough alone.
The VMax 1200 is basically a factory hot rodded Venture 1200, so parts swapping was the way to go. Can't beat factory engineered go fast parts!.
Out came the engine and a near complete tear down. A complete vmax top end was dropped on the cylinders. Then some oiling modifications in the crankcase to support the extra HP. A set of vmax carbs and Vboost manifolds went in as well.
The mark I Ventures had a couple faults in the gearbox, which meant that required some attention while it was apart. The two big problems are a soft thrust washer on the #2 shaft and a sector shaft that had a tendency to bend the little sheet metal retainers and allow the shift pins to drop out. Well, rather than mess with that I just bought a used RSV transmission. The RSV is the same transmission as the Venture MKI, at least dimensionally. The RSV has higher gears since it's set up for highway droning, so that would have made my MKI a slug in town, even with the VMAx engine specs. So in went a VMAx rear diff:
The vmax diff doesn't fit on the MKI driveshaft, so I had to swap in a MKII venture swingarm and drive shaft. The Mk II shaft is more robust, which was a welcome change with the new found power. The VMax diff is geared lower than the MKI, but when combined with the RSV transmission it gave me a lower overall ratio 1st to 3rd, 4th became a light overdrive and 5th became a deep overdrive (suitable for highway use only). So I got lower, peppier gears around town and a nice deep overdrive for crushing miles on the highway.
Next up came electronics. My MKI was a "standard" model, which means "base model". I wasn't interested in things like intercom, stereo and cb radio, but I did want cruise control (bad wrists) and the air suspension. So I bought a wrecked 1986 Venture royale and proceeded to pull it down for the parts I needed. I redid the main harness to strip out what I didn't need and incorporate the circuits I needed into the oem harness:
I needed a way to run the engine ignition as well as the Vboost system and neither the MKI ignition box nor the vmax box was going to work. Just too many differences and odd pieces to try and marry up. So I just bypassed the whole snafu and went with a new programmable ignition. I went with an IgnItech box, which can run the ignition as well as having a programmable output to control the VBoost manifolds. The Ignitech is 100% programmable, so getting the right outputs and advance curves was a piece of cake. It now functions as if it were a factory installed vmax induction setup. I chucked on a set of coil on plugs while I was at it since the Ignitech can run them "as-is". The ignitech also helped make it simpler to dial in the carbs on the 5 gas anaylizer:
On to suspension, I rebuilt the 86 forrks, slipped the into new bearings in the steering stem, dropped in new progressive springs, a cartridge emulator and a nice thick fork brace:
The bike handled better for sure, but the real improvement was how the forks now dealt with things like pot holes and rr tracks. Smoooootttthhhhh......
The rear end just got a rebuilt stock air assist shock.
Then I decided I wanted more luggage room. The 86 boxes were just sitting there, albeit in very poor condition. So I stripped them down, did the needed repairs and sprayed them with a paint code as close to the OEM yamaha as I could get:
While doing the bodywork, I did a switch up and installed a set of R1 mufflers. I was going to have to change the 83 pipes anyways as they have to much upsweep to fit under the 86 lower boxes:
I've had guys ask me why I didn't switch to the floorboards from the 86 model, but I wanted pegs, now floors. I just don't feel right if I don't have pegs on a bike to stand on, hook my heel on etc. I feel like I have more control of the bike with pegs.
Along the way, the bike got mono-block gold dot front brake calipers (86 forks had proper mounts, the blue spots in the pictures were replaced with golds) and braking got sooo much better.
The engine now makes around 150 hp, which is around 40-50 hp more than it came from the factory with. It's still a big couch, but when you whack the throttle you better be upright and pointed at where you want to go because it's going to get there RIGHT NOW! I've scarred the heck out of more than one crotch rocket at the stop lights and Ive even gone inside a couple of them on corners. Black snakes are never more than a throttle pull away and lofting the front wheel is mostly a throttle only evolution. You still have to give a little rug a the bars, but very little.
I eventually got a bit tired of the "fat butt" look of the 86 luggage and have swapped it back to the 83 luggage and mufflers. And because it was doing mainly short haul local trips now, I installed a cut down smoked windshield.
I rode it that way for a couple years and eventually got a bit too broken up to enjoy riding it. So it's been "winterized" in the shed for a couple years now. I've got too much work into it to sell it, so it will sit there until I roll it out again for a little summer fun or when my wife sells it off once I'm pushing up daisy's.....
Lurking in the background you might have noticed and FJ1200, a V45 Interceptor and there's also a CB650 hanging around. I'll drop some pics here and maybe each will get it's own thread:
What you see in the pic is mostly going in the trash. I built that bike about 25 years agao and thought it had been...."set free"...by the ex wife when we parted ways 20-odd years ago (ABSOLUTELY no regrets!). She sent me a text one day out of the blue and said come get it or it's going to the curb. Well, she had rolled it out into the back yard behind the shed and left it there for a good 15-odd years, so most of it is junk now anyways. The CB is getting a full custom frame and just about everything else. The frame will be in the style of the Moto Martin frames:
About all that will be left of the CB is the engine and the seat/tailpiece/side covers. The rest is all going away for r1 forks, cbr600rr swingarm, YZFr6 wheels, mono-block calipers, ignitech ignition, complete rewire, vfr750 fuel tank, etc, etc, etc
Which brought me to the Yamaha Venture. V4, 98 hp, decent handling for a couch (best for a tourer in it's time) and a raft of options to choose from. I looked for a while and finally turned up a 1983 Venture two provinces away. 20,000 kms and garage kept. Pics from the ad:
Rode it that way for about a year. Was great fun. But, I'm a gearhead and just can't leave well enough alone.
The VMax 1200 is basically a factory hot rodded Venture 1200, so parts swapping was the way to go. Can't beat factory engineered go fast parts!.
Out came the engine and a near complete tear down. A complete vmax top end was dropped on the cylinders. Then some oiling modifications in the crankcase to support the extra HP. A set of vmax carbs and Vboost manifolds went in as well.
The mark I Ventures had a couple faults in the gearbox, which meant that required some attention while it was apart. The two big problems are a soft thrust washer on the #2 shaft and a sector shaft that had a tendency to bend the little sheet metal retainers and allow the shift pins to drop out. Well, rather than mess with that I just bought a used RSV transmission. The RSV is the same transmission as the Venture MKI, at least dimensionally. The RSV has higher gears since it's set up for highway droning, so that would have made my MKI a slug in town, even with the VMAx engine specs. So in went a VMAx rear diff:
The vmax diff doesn't fit on the MKI driveshaft, so I had to swap in a MKII venture swingarm and drive shaft. The Mk II shaft is more robust, which was a welcome change with the new found power. The VMax diff is geared lower than the MKI, but when combined with the RSV transmission it gave me a lower overall ratio 1st to 3rd, 4th became a light overdrive and 5th became a deep overdrive (suitable for highway use only). So I got lower, peppier gears around town and a nice deep overdrive for crushing miles on the highway.
Next up came electronics. My MKI was a "standard" model, which means "base model". I wasn't interested in things like intercom, stereo and cb radio, but I did want cruise control (bad wrists) and the air suspension. So I bought a wrecked 1986 Venture royale and proceeded to pull it down for the parts I needed. I redid the main harness to strip out what I didn't need and incorporate the circuits I needed into the oem harness:
I needed a way to run the engine ignition as well as the Vboost system and neither the MKI ignition box nor the vmax box was going to work. Just too many differences and odd pieces to try and marry up. So I just bypassed the whole snafu and went with a new programmable ignition. I went with an IgnItech box, which can run the ignition as well as having a programmable output to control the VBoost manifolds. The Ignitech is 100% programmable, so getting the right outputs and advance curves was a piece of cake. It now functions as if it were a factory installed vmax induction setup. I chucked on a set of coil on plugs while I was at it since the Ignitech can run them "as-is". The ignitech also helped make it simpler to dial in the carbs on the 5 gas anaylizer:
On to suspension, I rebuilt the 86 forrks, slipped the into new bearings in the steering stem, dropped in new progressive springs, a cartridge emulator and a nice thick fork brace:
The bike handled better for sure, but the real improvement was how the forks now dealt with things like pot holes and rr tracks. Smoooootttthhhhh......
The rear end just got a rebuilt stock air assist shock.
Then I decided I wanted more luggage room. The 86 boxes were just sitting there, albeit in very poor condition. So I stripped them down, did the needed repairs and sprayed them with a paint code as close to the OEM yamaha as I could get:
While doing the bodywork, I did a switch up and installed a set of R1 mufflers. I was going to have to change the 83 pipes anyways as they have to much upsweep to fit under the 86 lower boxes:
I've had guys ask me why I didn't switch to the floorboards from the 86 model, but I wanted pegs, now floors. I just don't feel right if I don't have pegs on a bike to stand on, hook my heel on etc. I feel like I have more control of the bike with pegs.
Along the way, the bike got mono-block gold dot front brake calipers (86 forks had proper mounts, the blue spots in the pictures were replaced with golds) and braking got sooo much better.
The engine now makes around 150 hp, which is around 40-50 hp more than it came from the factory with. It's still a big couch, but when you whack the throttle you better be upright and pointed at where you want to go because it's going to get there RIGHT NOW! I've scarred the heck out of more than one crotch rocket at the stop lights and Ive even gone inside a couple of them on corners. Black snakes are never more than a throttle pull away and lofting the front wheel is mostly a throttle only evolution. You still have to give a little rug a the bars, but very little.
I eventually got a bit tired of the "fat butt" look of the 86 luggage and have swapped it back to the 83 luggage and mufflers. And because it was doing mainly short haul local trips now, I installed a cut down smoked windshield.
I rode it that way for a couple years and eventually got a bit too broken up to enjoy riding it. So it's been "winterized" in the shed for a couple years now. I've got too much work into it to sell it, so it will sit there until I roll it out again for a little summer fun or when my wife sells it off once I'm pushing up daisy's.....
Lurking in the background you might have noticed and FJ1200, a V45 Interceptor and there's also a CB650 hanging around. I'll drop some pics here and maybe each will get it's own thread:
What you see in the pic is mostly going in the trash. I built that bike about 25 years agao and thought it had been...."set free"...by the ex wife when we parted ways 20-odd years ago (ABSOLUTELY no regrets!). She sent me a text one day out of the blue and said come get it or it's going to the curb. Well, she had rolled it out into the back yard behind the shed and left it there for a good 15-odd years, so most of it is junk now anyways. The CB is getting a full custom frame and just about everything else. The frame will be in the style of the Moto Martin frames:
About all that will be left of the CB is the engine and the seat/tailpiece/side covers. The rest is all going away for r1 forks, cbr600rr swingarm, YZFr6 wheels, mono-block calipers, ignitech ignition, complete rewire, vfr750 fuel tank, etc, etc, etc
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