The Yamaha Venture

For this ride, I'd leave the Hayabusa at home, and ride my rickety old Venture instead.

Ya see, it’s not everyday when you get to relive the past, but that’s exactly what happened when I came across an old Yamaha Venture for a mere $1000 awhile back. I couldn’t pass it up and bought it on the spot as is. I had owned this motorcycle a decade earlier churning up 50,000 miles in three years traipsing all over the continent. Best described as “rickety”, this one comes rather weathered with 60K on the clock, a bad 2nd gear, and one or two zip ties holding the fairings together.



It has several mismatched parts from other bikes, and the previous owner even created his own hot rod touring machine with a V-Boost system & a V-Max rear end bolted on. But now it’s all stock, dead set reliable thus far and I haven’t put a dime into it. Used mostly for commuting (my Hayabusa holds down the sport-touring duties), I think I’m going to just ride it until it’s just zip ties holding the entire bike together.

Like my counterparts, I’d only paid $1000 for this bike. It’s not perfect you can image. These bikes often had a plethora of options, CB’s, radios, computer leveling, but this one is just the raw model. In terms of luxury, it has a radio.

But the old Venture is great for commuting to work soaking up the miles with an eagerness of a 16 year old on their first date. The 1200cc motor was known for making the bike a bit of a hot rod, and she pulls well when the hammer falls.