Love my Vision

[vern748]

Hi All,

I am very impressed with my trusty Vision.
This weekend was the start of the AFM racing season here in California. Since I did not get my racer ready for this first round, I figured that I would do my part and be a good spectator. The race was in Buttonwillow, 236 miles from home.

At 6:30 am I hop onto my trusty 1983 Vision and head out. The night before I packed my Givi hard bags up with the required equipment for a long trip. A change of pants, shit, socks, and some walking shoes. A well worn ball cap and my cool Oakley glasses went into my newly mounted Givi WindRack system.

Not 20 miles into the trip, disaster almost struck. I noticed oil on my left boot. Not the little splatter, but a good pasting like if I kept going something was really going to burn up. I pulled off at the nearest gas station to see what was happening. Low and behold, the oil filler tube, found on the 83 with fairings, had come off of the filler hole. Oil was blowing out of the hole and at good rate. A quick purchase of some hose clamps remedied the situation.

Well, I am sure that you are all impressed with my mechanical skills, but here is the crux of my story. I drove my little Vision with 36,000 miles on it down to Buttonwillow. That was a 236 mile journey over 3 hour 20 minute of non stop riding. Made it on time for the first race. Well, not really non-stop. Did stop for gas every 100 miles or so.

Not overly impressed, I rode back the 236 miles to the house. That is 472 miles in one day. The ride back took about 3hours 10 minutes. 6.5 hours at an average speed of 73 miles an hour. Add in the stop for gas every hundred miles or so and that equates to a road speed of about 90 mile an hour.  The little bike just kept chugging along. Love my Vision. May it live long and do this many times more in the future.

Vern

[Glen_H]

I hear ya Vern.  I got my V last year from a friend who had given up on it and sure learned a lot about bikes during that time.  Managed to get it running with the help of the guys on the forum and some hands on help from Rick G (many thanks to him!).  Put on over 5k miles last year and cant wait for spring to get it back on the road.  Update:  I found a replacement float for my carb today through a salvage yard, I was stressed about that whole situation.  Wish you all many great rides this year gang. :)

[QBS]

The V is an outstanding Sport Touring bike.  Over the last 18 years I've taken my '83 on many long distance rides, usually to the most remote places I could find.  The longest one day ride so far was from the El Paso TX / Carlsbad Cavern NM area to Houston TX (approx.1100 miles) in 17 hours.

Last week my 21 yr.old daughter and I spent 7 days wandering (and often getting lost) through Cajun Country in southern Louisiana and east Texas.  The bike was loaded with large Interstate Eclipse soft bags, my usual large tank bag, a tent and one sleeping bag.  The loaded bags weighed approx. 40 to 50 lbs.  With the rear shock spring preload and rebound dampner both set to max., the bike handeled remarkably well in the twistys.  The rear end bottomed under only the most sever provocation.  The front fork air setting was my usual 6 psi. The front end never bottomed, as is almost always the case.  However, under heavy braking, the load took its toll on braking distances.

Any desired cruising speed was available, including well over 80 mph.  The bike was always completely stable no matter what.

The first two days of the journey were spent at a motorcycle rally in Liberty TX, about 60 miles west of Houston.  The drunken Hardly riders put on quite a show. A never to be forgotten occurance happened on our first day out after the rally while attempting passage of the hurricane washed out 43 mile Gulf Coast coastal beach road between High Island TX and Port Arthur TX.  The road had deteirated into nothing more than a sand wash and we were cruising on the beach, sometimes within inches of the water.  Upon approaching a group of parked pick up trucks and cars,  we noticed the usual assortment of lawn and beach chairs.  Closer inspection soon revealed that their occupants were naked.  It seems we were cruising through a nudist beach.  Shortly therafter, the beach became so narrow that I gave up on reaching Port Arthur via the beach route and had to back track our previous route.  My daughter thought the adventure was a hoot!

It only rained on us for part of one day.  The bike ran faultlessly the entire time except two occasions when it acted like it had run out of gas but really wasn't.  Putting the fuel petcock on prime worked around the problem.  I think I might have an intermittent petcock vacume source problem.

The bike is sitting in the garage just as it came off the trip.  Absolutley filthey.  I may give it a bath this weekend.

The V is a Wonderful Bike.  On this trip I've decided that it is permanently Not for Sale.  It fits all my needs perfectly.  I'll eventualy get another bike, probably some type of BMW.  When the V gets too tired to excite me anymore, I plan to rebuild/restore it with a different color (maybe BMW car red) and a 642 cc bore job.  Other than that, it will be left stock.  Current milage is estimated at 83 to 84 k miles.  Cheers.

[glennw]

Boy.... this sure makes me feel better!  
Sometimes this site get king of depressing as most of the time we read about some kind of problem the V has.
I have nine days planned on the back of my 82 "naked" V in May. I was wondering if it might be up to it, ( at 33,500 miles) and how good a long distance bike it might be. My longest rides so far on it has only been about 100 miles at a time.
I'll let you know how it goes after I travel to northern Calif. and Arizona.