summer picture

[don_vanecek]

old man on Vision

[don_vanecek]

vision and John Deere. This tractor dealer somewhere off highway 30 in mid Iowa is also a Yamaha dealer.

[don_vanecek]

Vision at VJMC booth, Davenport, IA  The other 500 Yamaha is show only, it does not work. Man in the green shirt is Hal Johnson, current VJMC president.

[don_vanecek]

On the Mississippi river after just driving accross Iowa. Sorry, the light on this picture isn't too good.

[Raj1988]

really like the Bullet!!! looks like its very functional as well!! Is that a Yzf shock on your bike??

[don_vanecek]

Well the little Vetter Bullet does give a dead air pocket for my chest area and it weighs almost nothing but notice the silver looking piece above the headlight, that is just a piece of tin so I could raise the fairing high enough to actually do some good (otherwise that is the opening where the headlight would be). Yes, that is the YZF shock remote reservoir you see sticking out AND the reason you always see the Vision parked on a small block of wood. As previously posted you have to compress the spring to install that unit and that raises the rear end and without the block of wood it leans over further then a person is comfortable with (center stand also needs a block of wood) but otherwise it seems to work well, I have no plans to go back to an original shock. The little block of wood is always fun to pick up before taking off however, is a pretty good stretch!
 

[Lucky]

The little block of wood is always fun to pick up before taking off however, is a pretty good stretch!

i have a trick for that:
Get a piece of cord like you would find on levelor shades, about 3-4 ft long. screw one end to the wood, the other end make a loop large enough to fit over a grip.

get on your bike, straighten it up pull the wood up & wrap the cord around the wood.  I use a piece of 1/2" plywood so it fits inside my jacket chest pocket.  easy peasy

might be a bit of additional protection if i should go down (or might make things worse, lol)

--Lucky

[Rikugun]

That is an interesting looking fairing. I also like the substantial fuel filter and remote mounted R/R.

In the bike group shot, is that a TX 500 in the back? Also, that little Honda single in the foreground resembles an S-90 I had as a kid. Except mine was stripped of it's street gear, had knobbies, a foam Uni filter and upswept pipe with no muffler or heat shield. The really trick part was it's ferocious oil consumption that caused it to smoke like a 2 stroke at 16:1. On the plus side, it had a 6v points/coil ignition for better reliability. 

[don_vanecek]

Hey, I use a man's fuel filter, not those wimpy little plastic/ceramic one's everyone else is using.  (that should get a comment out of em, huh?) The filter is purchased from most any auto parts store.

Yes, it is a lovely TX500, too bad it doesn't work (no, it's not mine). And, yes, the super 90 is a bike Hal has owned forever and it does work.

Thanks for the idea Lucky.

[Tiger]

  The first bike I ever owned was a Honda S90!!! Neat pictures Don...

                ......TIGER.......

[AdvRich]

Hey Don,

Good to see the pics. Boy that 9330 JD looks like a giant green bull breathin' down on the Viz!
Your Viz is looking good too. I had a black '82 as my company bike and wow now that I think about it was my first full street bike. That '76 TX500 brings back some memories. I still can pull up part numbers for Honda cables and such... man that is gonna sound weird if Alzheimers ever kicks in... 17910-369-010...

Looking forward to some of your RR's coming up this summer. Thanks for sharing. Rich

[Kenny]

  I see a nice 1976 Yamaha XS 500c bike, what an awesome machine, that was my 1st Bike, Dorothy & I where both trying to buy it (not married at the time) I won out on that one!
   Later on we  had a lot of great riding on it - very sporty machine : twin o/h cams , 4 valves per cylinder. At the time my brother was riding an earlier model TX750, can't remember but I know they had a few issues.  I sort of overdressed it with a Vetter Winjammer fairing, Rack Factory trunk, but it took it all in stride and we had a few great rides with it.
   Never ran out of Fuel on it Don.
       Cheers Ken S.

[don_vanecek]

Yup Kenny, I still remember that well!  Sitting on the side of the road as all the traffic I thought we were going to beat out passed on bye (as I had ran out of gas).

I still have to wonder to this day, who were those, what was it four, five, guys all on those FJR Yamaha's that came by to help? There must be a story there.