1983 1200 yamaha venture

[cowboybob998]

Does any one know anything about these bikes, thinking about doing some tradeing for one, are they any good ?

[Ivan]

www.venturerider.org

I have an 84 that I have been trying to restore. The plastics are getting old and brittle, and getting very pricey. If the scoot is good cosmetically, the rest is probably good as well. They were pretty well bullet proof like the XS11. The biggest problem mechanically is the carbs, since there are no kits, and each gasket and piece must be sought individually. There are a few kits that might work on eBay for V Maxes, but it is a crap shoot, since the tuning of the engine is so different from a venture to a vmax.

Other than that, they seem to be pretty good bikes.

[cowboybob998]

www.venturerider.org

I have an 84 that I have been trying to restore. The plastics are getting old and brittle, and getting very pricey. If the scoot is good cosmetically, the rest is probably good as well. They were pretty well bullet proof like the XS11. The biggest problem mechanically is the carbs, since there are no kits, and each gasket and piece must be sought individually. There are a few kits that might work on eBay for V Maxes, but it is a crap shoot, since the tuning of the engine is so different from a venture to a vmax.

Other than that, they seem to be pretty good bikes.

Things like this is what i need to know, thank you, looks like a nice crueser, I like the design of the V-4 venture, the XS 1100 is going to be my low rider street bike, got lots of work ahead of me, gona trade off my 81 naked goldwing on it I think, need to check it out first, it is about 5 hours away from here and may be awhile, gona wait till some of this bad weather gets out of here first, snow, I hate it.

[cowboybob998]

Well did not buy the 83 but ended up buying an 86 instead, found out the 83 to 85 had the second gear problem just like the xs1100 had, they changed the gears in the middel on 85, wonder if the transmishions are the same ? This one is going to be my over the road bike, S**T and get it will, this thing is fast.

[motoman]

Glad to see you came across a later year Venture. The early ones with the second gear issue were a bit of a pain to fix. Same type of fix as the 11's, but a bit more involved taking apart,etc.

[TexinMaine]

Pardon me for hikacking your post here. But it closely matched my question and I thought it would take up less space then starting a new thread. Anyhow, I too am looking at a 1983 Venture. Cosmetically it looks great and according to the owner runs great. He say's he doesn't know if the 2nd gear issue has been fixed but he has no problems with it right now. My only real concern is that it has 75,000+ miles on it. Is this too high or can I expect plenty of more miles to go? Thanks.

Tex

[TexinMaine]

Pics aren't the greatest, he sent them via his iPhone.

[tcoop]

I just picked an 83 Venture up a few weeks ago. Mine has cab issues but other that that it runs great. I was luck to get one that only has 28,000 miles on it but I have heard of people getting 150,000 to 200,000 miles with out to much problems.

Some of the know issues

1. 2nd gear
2. Carbs
3. Fuse box (like all old Yamaha's)


I can say that they are very comfortable bikes to ride.

[LuckyEddie]

1983 1200 Yamaha Venture

A good friend of mine just picked up one of these about a month ago. 2nd gear and carbs have been repaired before he got it. He loves that bike.
The question that I have is where can you get a shop manual or Clymers etc for these bikes?
No hijack intended, just looking for answers.

[coltrain5000]

ebay is a good start for manuals. I used to have a brown 85. The 83-85's are faster. They also do have second gear issues but its random.. Mine never had an issue and I had almost 40k on it. Crazy power that V4 produces! Also a very good handling bike! Especially for a full blown touring bike! I loved mine!