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Posted by rob f
- April 27, 2018, 04:11:38 AMThe 2001 Royal Star Venture was a beautiful bike but trust me on this...... you better have a long ,strong set of legs on you because the bike is a Behemoth @ 1000lbs with rider and luggage.
I bought this bike because I was going on this ride: "The MPNMR is the world's longest annual motorcycle relay, travelling more than 10 000 kilometres from coast to coast with stops at Canadian Armed Forces establishments and points of interest along the way"
The bike handled the open road just fine and could easily keep up with the 1800 goldwings. Only difference was that the goldwings had a reverse assist. The RSV was a very top heavy bike with no reverse. Parking lots were always a challenge. Never felt completely safe a low speeds so after the ride I sold her off.
That 1300 cc V4 was a smooth, lots of torque ,bulletproof engine.
For comfort and ease of ride this 800 Drifter suits me fine. As for long distance riding, well ,we shall see.
R
Posted by Tfrank59
- April 25, 2018, 17:52:09 PMYes well even though we've had San Diego type weather for the last few days the rain shall return in Seattle for the weekend. That's life next to the ocean in the Pacific Northwest. Happy to report that so far today I've already put over a hundred miles on my girl 
got to take whatever you can get around here
Posted by CDNRatMan
- April 25, 2018, 17:18:45 PM 
Tom we have a 40% chance of snow falling tonight and up to 70% of snow in the next 2 days.......
Posted by Tfrank59
- April 25, 2018, 11:30:50 AMQuote from: rob f on April 25, 2018, 07:04:52 AMYes Rob you have to keep me happy.Thanks for the verbal kick in the arse T59....Anyways just to make T59 happy I will try to take it out more this week.
Rob
Seriously I'm glad you had a good first ride on your bike, and like you it's hard for me to tell the difference whether I'm in fourth or fifth gear --they are very close. Also how did you like that Royal Star? I'm fascinated by the thought of a V4, in fact I almost traded my Drifter for one last year 
Ride safe!Tom
Posted by CDNRatMan
- April 25, 2018, 09:02:18 AM rob f glad you got a ride in on the bike and really happy that you found it so nice. I have been running the 18/38 set up on Red now for almost 4 years and have no clutch issues. I also have a digital tach on Red, fuel gauge is that little counter on the tach when it hits like 150 time to start looking, 175 stop at the next one, 200 oh pray to find one soon, 220 your walking....lol....
as for the fan I seldom hear mine come on and have never had it come on when I shut Red down. So the rad guard might be the issue.......
Posted by Zoar
- April 25, 2018, 08:11:37 AMQuote from: rob f on April 25, 2018, 07:04:52 AMI have the BELT conversion on mine and the gearing is terrific!Thanks for the verbal kick in the arse T59. I did take mine out yesterday (23rd) for an hour.
My wife and I had just returned April 22 from a 14 day South American cruise at temps of 85+. The day before we left our home here in Alberta ( 1.5 hr north of Calgary) I was snow machining on 30" of snow. Coming back on the 22nd we still had snow in the fields but road were bare.
After buying my bike back in Dec and tinkering for 4 months i couldn't wait any longer and took it out for it's inaugural ride. This is my report:
First of all.....She is definitely a "keeper"
Very smooth ride and am impressed with that 800 cc engine. I have had a few V-twins in my day... Harley 1500, Royal star 1300, Buell 1200,Virago 1100 and V-strom 650. This little Kawi is in a class all its own. Wouldn't win any 1/4 mile times but very impressive low end balls. I did the sprocket conversion and first gear is a bit to tall for my liking. Was expecting the bike to stall or chug out when I first took off but surprised the hell outta me and just took that tall first. i hadn't rode this bike with the original sprockets so I can't compare. I may switch back to a 17t . Maybe just have to get used to it but have a feeling that this setup may shorten up the clutch life .
What else can I say.......... I like the sound of the oem muffler. Handles great on gravel roads. Easy maneuvering , good seat height and looks cool. Only negative thing can think of is too much wind coming in past the windshield in the signal light area. Will have to build some extensions on windshield or install lowers on the forks. Also trying to get used to the clunky shifting from 1st to 2nd. Must have something to do with the auto neutral system. Seems that if I do a little double shift from 1 to N and then from N to 2 it is not so bad. Other than that the gear spacings are very well engineered. Really like that 4th gear. 4 to 5 is just a little blip and can't really tell if I am in. A high gear indicator light would be handy. So would a tach,a fuel gauge and a temp gauge. The previous owner had installed a fancy chrome rad guard and I think that it is blocking the rad too much and making the fan run more than it should. Yesterday was only +14c and shouldn't of needed that fan to come on at all. Surprised me after I shut the bike off , walked away and then the fan kicked on all on its own. Sat there running for quite a while. More than I think it should have. I noticed that that big old pipe stays hot for quite a while. Had to wait for 20 min before I could install the storage cover.
Anyways just to make T59 happy I will try to take it out more this week.
Rob
Posted by rob f
- April 25, 2018, 07:04:52 AMThanks for the verbal kick in the arse T59. I did take mine out yesterday (23rd) for an hour.
My wife and I had just returned April 22 from a 14 day South American cruise at temps of 85+. The day before we left our home here in Alberta ( 1.5 hr north of Calgary) I was snow machining on 30" of snow. Coming back on the 22nd we still had snow in the fields but road were bare.
After buying my bike back in Dec and tinkering for 4 months i couldn't wait any longer and took it out for it's inaugural ride. This is my report:
First of all.....She is definitely a "keeper"
Very smooth ride and am impressed with that 800 cc engine. I have had a few V-twins in my day... Harley 1500, Royal star 1300, Buell 1200,Virago 1100 and V-strom 650. This little Kawi is in a class all its own. Wouldn't win any 1/4 mile times but very impressive low end balls. I did the sprocket conversion and first gear is a bit to tall for my liking. Was expecting the bike to stall or chug out when I first took off but surprised the hell outta me and just took that tall first. i hadn't rode this bike with the original sprockets so I can't compare. I may switch back to a 17t . Maybe just have to get used to it but have a feeling that this setup may shorten up the clutch life .
What else can I say.......... I like the sound of the oem muffler. Handles great on gravel roads. Easy maneuvering , good seat height and looks cool. Only negative thing can think of is too much wind coming in past the windshield in the signal light area. Will have to build some extensions on windshield or install lowers on the forks. Also trying to get used to the clunky shifting from 1st to 2nd. Must have something to do with the auto neutral system. Seems that if I do a little double shift from 1 to N and then from N to 2 it is not so bad. Other than that the gear spacings are very well engineered. Really like that 4th gear. 4 to 5 is just a little blip and can't really tell if I am in. A high gear indicator light would be handy. So would a tach,a fuel gauge and a temp gauge. The previous owner had installed a fancy chrome rad guard and I think that it is blocking the rad too much and making the fan run more than it should. Yesterday was only +14c and shouldn't of needed that fan to come on at all. Surprised me after I shut the bike off , walked away and then the fan kicked on all on its own. Sat there running for quite a while. More than I think it should have. I noticed that that big old pipe stays hot for quite a while. Had to wait for 20 min before I could install the storage cover.
Anyways just to make T59 happy I will try to take it out more this week.
Rob
Posted by mittico68
- April 25, 2018, 02:39:36 AMNice neighbors... 
Posted by CDNRatMan
- April 24, 2018, 11:06:41 AMHere is some pictures from one of my trips to Alert....or was it Churchill Manitoba......the coyote was taken here in North Bay a few years back.....
Posted by Tfrank59
- April 24, 2018, 10:22:30 AMIt sounds all very fascinating, especially the part about the polar bear and the Aurora Borealis
Posted by RockinRollin
- April 24, 2018, 08:07:09 AMTo tfrank, I'm in Ontario (southern) and I rode 200+km (that's 124 miles ) on Sunday, started off at 8 deg C and went all the way up to 15 deg C. And we don't live in igloos like our northern cousins.
Posted by CDNRatMan
- April 23, 2018, 20:52:38 PM 
Wow Tom you can convert from metric to American Standard, very good. But your subject sadly comes up almost every year, and sadly it has lost its punch and such but I will forgive you for your lack of understanding another culture and lifestyle. Just an FYI for you, this is the most southern location I have lived in for the majority of my adult life other then when I was stationed in Colorado Springs. So let me put our northern life style in proper perspective for you. This morning I was awoken to a hellish racket of the dogs fussing and 15 dogs can raise a lot of noise, so getting my slippers on I went to look see, and outside by the glow of the Aurora Borealis (north wind of the dawn) let me see a large nanook (Inuktitut for polar bear) rummaging about the snow for food, So I went through the tunnel of my igloo Inuktitut for house) and yelling and making noise chased him off. So went back inside and removed my karlik (Inuktitut for trousers) and went back to sleep till at least 0800.
At 0800 I got up and went for a drive into town and picked up my parts from the Kawasaki igloo, and went to the powder coating igloo. I can not recall the last time I locked my house or my truck. Yes we have crime and we have assholes, but not as prevalent as down south, so I will remain living in the north and every year I'll hear from someone about moving down south and I will smile and just pass on that and stay here. Where it happens we get a real infusion of Americans to come here and enjoy our hunting and fishing......and one more FYI the Inuktitut language has some 30 words for snow, so once you learn them life is fairly easy........you should come for a visit over to this side of the country and explore some............. 
Posted by Tfrank59
- April 22, 2018, 23:03:23 PMQuote from: cja on April 22, 2018, 20:26:49 PMWhen I first read it I thought you meant Fahrenheit but what is 10°C like 50°F? That's plenty warm enough; I've ridden in about 38°F for an hour anyway :-). You just gotta have the right gear.Finally hit double digits here today got out for a quick tour to break the ice sort of speak
Posted by CDNRatMan
- April 22, 2018, 21:56:29 PMcja, I have a coffee for you next time your here.....need to come up for a drive.....
Posted by cja
- April 22, 2018, 20:26:49 PMFinally hit double digits here today got out for a quick tour to break the ice sort of speak