The craziest thing

[Mid Life Crisis]

Okay so I was out on my V yesterday and was stopped at a stop light.  I hear a guy hollering "hey is that a Yamaha Vision?"  of course I respond YES IT IS!   He then tells me he has one at home.  We exchange thumbs up and I am on my way.

Next stop, my jeweller.  I park in front of his store  and go in.  The first thing out of his mouth is "hey is that a Yamaha Vision?"  The standard yes was given as he was walking out the door to look at it.  Turns out he had one a few yrs back and regrets getting rid of it (for a Triumph no less).

Off to walmart to get my glasses adjusted.  Optician sees my gear and asks "what are you riding?"  I respond a 1983 Yamaha Vision.  Next thing I hear is I'm going out into the parking lot, I'll be back.  He and I go out he looks at my ride we start it and he tells about the hype that this thing stirred back in the day.

My point.........in about 2.5 hrs of in town riding I had three encounters with m/c riders who were all familiar with this 28 yr old bike that has been out of production for as many years.  That is cool and certainly speaks to the longevity of this rare ride!

[YellowJacket!]

yeah, thats happened to me a few times too.  The most memorable was when Lucky and I were up at Deals Gap and two guys from England stopped to talk to me about my bike.  Both were on fully decked out Harleys wearing full Herley gear - a rather costly investment.  One of the guys was telling me about his Vision that he had for years and how much he actually misses it.

David

[spectre]

Haha, both of those stories are really cool!!!  ;D

[Lucky]

Ed Hoyle isn't around too much anymore, but we went to a rally/swap meet several years ago, and while we were just hanging out near our bikes, two guys walked by & one was talking about the piece of shit Vision he had when they first came out, right to my face! we almost got into it..

[supervision]

 Lucky, many people didn't like them, they were truly ahead of their time.  They are a lot of trouble to keep running, I think most bike shops will touch them, being 30 yr old, hard to work on even if you know what your doing.

[YellowJacket!]

Several years back I rode my Vision to the local Yamaha dealer and was talking to one of the salespeople and told him I had a Yamaha Vision.  His response was, "Um, I think you mean a Victory."  I couldn't stop laughing but told him that it was probably older than him and that it was the "original" Vision.  He asked another guy if he ever heard of one and he told him that Yamaha made them in the 80's for only a few years and that they were not such a great bike.  I told him that I had one and the first thing he asked was "does it run?".  I told him that it runs quite well and that I rode it here.  At that point he got several other people and a few from the shop and they came out and looked at it.  One of the shop guys was old enough to have worked on them before and he said that he hadn't seen one in quite a while.  I told him about Lucky and ROV and that there were at least two around here running.

I went back there last year after getting the bags mounted and with the newer paint job and showed them again.  I "talked shop" with the older tech and he was amazed at all the things that had been done to it to make it an 82/83 with the Venture hard bags.  Told him again about ROV and how we have over the years figured out a lot of the quirks and worked around them to make the Vision a good riding, fun and reliable bike.  He said it was one of the nicest ones he had ever seen.

David

[munkyfistfight]

Great stories!

I was at a bike night on Thursday and the only comment I got was "Is that a v-twin??"... To which I replied "Yes, and it's the only one of it's kind here".

Actually, I put an ad up on Craigslist a few weeks ago, keeping my eye out for a decent parts bike and got a response from a guy who bought one off the floor in '82. He said he loved it but his brother wrecked it. He rides something much newer now, but wanted to see my Vision sometime.

[spectre]

"Um, I think you mean a Victory."

My MSF instructor (a major *ehem* jerk (for lack of a better word)) said the exact same thing, and it made me mad, because throught the entire course, he thought I had no clue what I was doing because I am 16 >.< The only difference was that he was about 50. Was a shame. :p He didn't even know the correct way to put his bike on the centre stand...  ::)

[Brian Moffet]

A friend, his girlfriend, and I rode up to Alice's restaurant on Highway 35 in California (http://www.alicesrestaurant.com/). He was on his brand new 600F2, she was on a Honda Hawk, and I was on my 83 Vision.  We watched someone walk up to the Hawk, look at it, go to the 600F2, look at it, go to the Vision, look at it, walk 3 times around it looking at it, kneel down and look at it, go back the front and look at it, go to the back and look at it....

My friend was staring out the window and I was surprised the guy couldn't hear him saying "You're supposed to look at the Goof2!!!"

[YellowJacket!]

go to the Vision, look at it, walk 3 times around it looking at it, kneel down and look at it, go back the front and look at it, go to the back and look at it....

My friend was staring out the window and I was surprised the guy couldn't hear him saying "You're supposed to look at the Goof2!!!"

Hmmmm... Seems like he was reliving his "starting routine".  Sounds a bit like mine.   ::)

BTW, were you able to get anything you want?   :P

David

[spectre]

BTW, were you able to get anything you want?   :P

HAHAHA I was going to say something if no one else did :D I too would like to know. ;D

[Rick G]

In 1999, several Vision riders in the Minneapolis area , went to the "first Thursday"  event. There were at least 1500 bikes of all types and sizes, from a Moto Rumi 125 road racer to a Boss Hoss. Several  people commented that they hadn't seen a Vision in years and there sat a half dozen of
the things!!! Some one started to explain what a piece of shit they were and of coarse I straightened him out . First I asked him how many miles he had put on a Vision . Oh, I see none !  I told him that the bad mouth came from those , who knew nothing of the bike and mechanics who were unable to learn.

[The Prophet of Doom]

Some one started to explain what a piece of shit they were

There are XZ haters everywhere - even the guy at reproductiondecals.com.au told me it wasn't worth doing a decent job on sidecover badges for my bike because it was such a heap of shit.

Strangely our bikes still go well and look great, theirs were crashed or parted out, or rusted out, and though they might have been popular at the time, nobody thought they were special enough in the end to save them. 

[VFan]

I must admit that without this forum I'd have the same frustration that other Vision owners have had. There are a lot of nuances that need to be navigated through to keep the bike running smooth. Most people, like me, wouldn't be able to solve many of the isues that come up. Access to experts are essential to enjoying this bike (which if they left this forum life would really suck).

Having said that, the Vision is the only standard styled (I don't like bullet bikes or cruisers), shaft drive, mid sized bike around so I don't know what else I would own. I did come very close to buying Honda's new NV700 but it's quite bulky and isn't near as nimble or fun to ride as the RJ. Years ago I did borrow 1988 Honda Ascot VT500 a few times . For me, I didn't think the VT500 handled very well.

Long live the RJ.

[Re-Vision]

Likely couldn't find bikes or parts if everybody thought Visions were as great as we know they are.     BDC