Faults:

One cylinder began to fail when water got into the electric harness on a rainy trip from Florida to upstate New York.

Head light got dimmer and dimmer, I checked the voltage with the meter and found only 5 volts were reaching the lamp, so I wired it direct from the battery.

On my trip from N.Y. to Mexico and back, I felt very uncomfortable at times for fear of running out of gas.

At 800 lb. this machine is getting the best of me. If I lay it down, I cannot pick it up by myself any more, I'm 71. So my eye is on the FJR, at 522 lb. it's going to be a relief.

General Comments:

This darn bike is definitely going to outlive me!

People don't believe me when I say it's got 150 K miles. I have to show them my maintenance log.

Faults:

Over the 8 years I've had the machine, the most costly replacement was the stator. I understand these usually go out around the 50k-60k mark.

Recently, I replaced the carburator diaphragms, seems they also tend to wear out around the 50-60k mark.

I also recently replaced the clutch, it began slipping under acceleration in 4th & 5th gears. Actually, I'm surprised the clutch lasted as long as it did considering the PO used to haul a rather large trailer behind the bike.

General Comments:

The 1st Generation Yamaha Ventures were direct competition to Honda's Goldwings. In my opinion, Yamaha did a great job in keeping the pressure on Honda. The Venture handled better than the Goldwing, & when Yamaha bored the engine out to 1300cc, even Honda's 1500/6 Goldwing could barely match the Venture for power & acceleration.

The Venture was as comfortable as the Wing, though it had a more sporting seating arrangement. You feel like you're riding "in" a Venture, while you feel like you're riding "on" a Goldwing.