Venturer Adventure

[Radioguylogs]

I always dreamed of doing some touring on a motorcycle, and now that I'm retired and we finally finished building our dream home.....I have no excuses.

So, I dipped my toe into the water with a 5 day camping trip in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.

I bought the Venturer with the hope of tavelling, so I wanted to ride it on this trip.

I packed a small tent, air mattress, and sleeping bag with the other small necessities:



I rode 2.5 hours to my campsite about 15 miles north of St. Ignace. Honestly, I had some fear about driving over the Mackinaw Bridge as I am uncomfortable with heights,.. but I wanted to do it and get over it. I had some apprehension when the wind was buffeting me unpredicably, but I learned how to expect sudden changes in wind as I passed vairous wind shadows. I survived and and now I am mostly cured.



There are bears in the area, so precaution is advised:





The bike began running strangely after I arrived. It was hard to start, required long cranking at half throttle to start. It idled perfectly at 1100 RPM, but when I accelerated, it stumbled and hesitated until I got over 3k RPM until it ran normally. It would run fine over 3k RPM.

So, I shouldn't take such a risk, but I decided I had to try to enjoy the trip as much as possible, so I decided on Tuesday to go about 60 miles to DeTour Village, where the ferry departs for Drummond Island. I stopped at Hessel and Cedarville in the Les Chenneaux Islands which is the capital for wooden boat building.






Got rained on but not bad. Arrived in Detour Village, but did not want to wait an hour for the ferry to cross to Drummond Island.



Swung north to take a different route home for variety, and was happy that I was able to enjoy my first day without becoming stranded.

[Radioguylogs]

Wednesday the bike is still behaving the same way, so I decided to ride without going too far away. I decided to go to Sault St Marie and see the (water) locks. The new lock is under construction and is planned to open in 2030. I was surprised it will be no bigger than the existing Poe lock.



It's amazing how tight the freighters fit into the passageways. This is the smaller MacArthur lock:



Here is a general view down the length of the MacArthur lock:



On the way back to camp, I stopped and bought some hose and a drinking glass so I could drain the carb bowls on the bike. I drained them when I got back to the campsite, and the fuel in each bowl looks perfect. Hmmmm.......

[Radioguylogs]

I had originally planned a 3 day trip, so Thursday was supposed to be my trip home. However, I was really enjoying this experience so much I obtained a permit from the wife to extend my trip 2 days and come home Saturday.

The bike was still running unpredictably, and I couldn't trust it. Yet I wanted to make this trip worthwhile. I decided to "go for it", and go to Whitefish Point and Tahquamenon Falls.

Whitefish Point is a nice ride and kind of touristy destination, but it's an excuse to ride somewhere. The museums have good stories and artifacts from shipwrecks, including the overemphasized shipwreck.



This squirrel figured out how to benefit from the tourism:



The bike was still behaing the same, so I started out for Tahquamenan Falls. Within a few miles it began stumbling badly. I turned on the fuel petcocks and it stumbled slowly back to normal. It took much longer than I would expect to recover. However, it seems to lose the low RPM stuttering problem after that. Maybe some snoticle blew through a pilot jet? I doubt it because everything is really clean inside the carbs, but who knows?

I made it to the Lower Tahquamenon Falls and enjoyed the views:




I planned to go up the Upper Tahquamenon Falls before heading back to camp, but as I was leaving the Lower Falls, the bike began sputtering badly and it ran on maybe 2 cylinders intermittenly. I barely got up the hill to exit the park. I decided I must head straight back to camp without pressing my luck any further. I rode 1.5 hours back to camp and the bike ran perfetly the whole way. Maybe I didn't warm it up before I left the falls?

[Radioguylogs]

All right. The bike ran perfectly on the way home from Tahquamenon and during my evening trip to St Ignace on Thursday for dinner.

Maybe there was a pilot jet that opened up. Maybe running out of fuel unstuck a float (believable since I had just fixed the sticky floats a few weeks before the trip). Maybe I didn't warm it up at Tahquamenon. The bike was running perfectly again and I decided I would run everywhere I could on my last day.

I rode along Lake Michigan until I turned north on M33 to Curtis:



I rode around the Manistique Lakes in the Curtis area and on to lunch in Newberry.

I decided to really go out on a limb and drive 20 miles out of the way to Muskellunge Lake State Park and back. I was now 2 hours away from camp, but so far the bike was running perfeclty and life could not be better.

I went to The Upper Tahquamenon Falls that I missed the day before:



Oh, yeah, now I was able to check most of the boxes on my wish list.

I headed back to camp and was thinking to take a senic ride alond Lake Superior that leads back to St Ignace. But on the way, as I approached Paradise, I went through some sweeping curves and sideways bumps across the road,....and the bike began to lose power even though I was taching 5k. I was going to stop for gas in Paradise, but I was afraid the bike would not start again, and maybe my best chance was to keep up the RPM and try to make it 60 miles home.

After I limped through Paradise, things got worse as the bike began to lose power and finally just died. It never backfired or jerked, It just gradully lost power and went to sleep. Sh!t. Now I'm I'm in a really remore place with not many options. I deserve this because I knew it might happen.

As the bike coasted to a stop, I turned around and aimed back toward Paradise in case I might be able to get it run enough to get back to this tiny enclave they call a city. I turned the petcocks off in case a float was stuck.

I let the bike sit a couple of minutes while I collected my thoughts. Then I turned on the key, pushed the start button, and bike roared to life and ran perfectly normally!!!

Instead of the scenic drive, I drove directly back to the campsite and had a gourmet meal from my food stash.




I rode home Saturday with no trouble at all.

[DEEBS11]

Awesome trip. Awesome story. Vapor lock? You seem to be starving for gas at times. Are you still running vac petcocks? Do you have added mini fuel filters? Also, when the problem starts to happen, crack open your fuel cap and see if it goes away. Another suggestion is the pick-up wires. My bike acted in a similar fashion (sputtered down low but at higher RPMs ran fine) and it was one of the pick-up coil wires. At idle, I lightly pulled on each wire and when I got to the bad one the bike just shut off. I soldered in a flexy repair wire and it's been good ever since.

[gtem]

I was thinking vapor lock as well.

Looks like a great trip other than bike stress. There's an identical '81 Venturer in the lovely two tone indigo blue locally and I am very tempted by it. It's been redone with pod filters and god knows what for jetting (guy selling it still has the airbox thank God), that's the main thing keeping me away at the moment.

[LAB3]

Pickup wires! That and make sure you lube up that lazy Susan style drum the timing plate sits on so the plate can return to it's normal position after being advanced.

[skids]

Personally, I think the pickup wires are fine. The pilot circuit is more than the pilot jets. There are 4 holes at the top of the throttle plates. I think you had some residue from bad gasoline that worked its way out. You might want to use some "Italian tune-up fluid." God if I can remember the name.

[skids]

PS, I had a Venturer and loved it. It even popped a wheelie once. I have to say, the fuel economy was much improved with that model, and the handlebars were perfect. The seat was very comfortable.

[Socer4m]

Its like going back in time,,,,great old bike,,,unreal scenery and serene,,,,THAT is a beautiful Venturer Mike,,,,,should outlast all of us. I have a beater Venturer and its still ticking at 150k plus,,,,it wont die, must be a Yamaha. Anyway,,nice pics, nice trip,,,gives all of us xs owners the desire to do those kind of trips and remember how great these bikes really are when running right..............Mike in San Diego and Pa.

[Radioguylogs]

Thanks for the ideas, guys.

* I have pulled on the pickup wires while it was idling and it didn't flinch. I think I will try again to be sure. I actually had a repaired spare set with me on the trip. The spare set is from an SF and has different pickup wire routing on
the mounting plate...and it requires timing adjustment. I might have tried swapping them if I was dead in the water with nothing to lose.

* No added fuel filters, just the OEM locations (petcocks and carb needle screens).

* I thought about the "lazy susan" spark advance getting stuck, but I couldn't get to it easily during the trip.. I agree I should check it.

* I did think to pop the gas cap, even though the symptoms don't match this cause. It didn't make any difference to leave the cap loose.

* Petcocks have been replaced by an aftermarker manual ON/OFF style. I have the same ones on a few of my bikes.

* Vapor lock is an interesting thought. None of my other bikes have this problem, but I should look at the fuel line routing and see if there anything prone to heat.

__________________________________________________ __

It took a lot of effort to make the trip report, and I didn't have a chance to mention some important information about the history of trouble. When I first got this bike back on the road around 2019/2020, It had an incident where the #3 float stuck while I just riding along....and the airbox filled with gas the carbs flooded and it stopped while I was riding.

A few weeks later, it died as I was leaving church. It went a few hundred yards, and just chugged and died. I was able to restart it and rode home normally.

Then I rode the bike for 5 years with no problems.

Earlier this season, It died after church...just like before. I went a few hundred feet and it refused to accellerate past idle and then died. I started it again and rode home normally. I kept wondering if I didn't let it warm up enough.

Then It flooded and leaked gas at the gas station a week later. I knew that was a stuck float. I just started it and it jiggled back to normal.

Then the next time I went to ride, it leaked gas as soon as I turned on the petcocks. I knew that was the last straw, so I pulled the carbs and loved the floats and float pins. I ran a drill bit though the floats, rotating it by hand and pushing it in and out. I didn't have a drill to match the diameter inside the float, so I used the next smaller bit that I had. I polished the float pins with very fine sandpaper (maybe 1000#). All of the gaskets I had on hand protruded out into fload bowl area, so I bought new gaskets from MikesXS that looked like they didn't hang out and rub the float. That doesn't guarantee the gaskets might be a problem though.

BTW, during my rip last week, there was one incident where I stopped for gas and the gas pump refused my credit card. I strarted to go inside to pay, but saw that wasn't going to be convenient, so I decided to leave. I found I had a stuck float and the airbox was flooded. I was able to crank @ WOT and get back on the road.
__________________________________________________ __

So, I have history of float problems that I tried to fix a few weeks ago. Some of the symptoms on my trip are consistent with sticky floats, but some of the symptoms seem like there could be something else wrong.

Sorry I didn't share all this yesterday.I really appreciate hearing what others think.

So far, my homework assignments are:

(1) Check the "lazy susan" spark advance mechanism and be sure it's free.
(2) Do something drastic about float sticking - maybe buy a different set of floats and float pins. Run an exacto knife over the gaskets on the inside of the float bowls.
(3) Pull on the pickup wires with the bike running - again.

I'm listening to other thoughts and will add more to my homework if the shoe fits.

The good news is that validation testing will require another trip up north.

I really have an appreciation for the Venturer after this trip. It always seemed heavy and clunky for zipping around the local area. But out on the road, it is sooo ideal. I didn't even mind travelling on the slab with it. It buzzes along at 75-80 MPH so smoothly and comfortably. It carries a tlot of cargo. After riding it 900 miles, the weight seemed normal. I can't wait to get back on the road with my Venturer. BTW, everyone notices it and remarks how nice it is.

[DEEBS11]

Beware of float gaskets that clear when the carbs are apart but "squish down" slightly under pressure of reassembly to expand enough to cause interference.

[Radioguylogs]

One thing I noticed when I had the carbs apart a few weeks ago is that the wire on the float needle was not perpendicular to the float tab on #3 float. It looked like this:




Anybody seen this?

I have K&L float-needle-valves on stock floats.

Maybe this can jamb?

I'm still considering all the possible casues, but I remember seeing this and wondering if it is normal.

[bikerphil]

Drawing #2 is not good, there is a good chance it will cause the carb to flood.

Maybe try turning that clip around 180 deg, I believe they fit better one way than the other. Also maybe adjust the drop-down tang so the float cannot drop low enough for that clip to get cocked into that position.

[gtem]

I'm curious to hear Mike, what sort of fuel economy does your venturer normally get? I just did a decent jaunt on my '79 with a windshield and soft saddlebags mounted up and could never get more than 36mpg even when keeping speeds closer to 65.