Pressureangle

Pete's in here infrequently but persistently. I have the pattern. PM me.

The consensus, I think, is that all 6 speeds need it. Nevertheless I put one in my 1100 Sport 5 speed, just because all the cool kids do it. No meaningful updates on production, except that it's still happening.

I was pretty severe with my kids and motorcycles, and they took me seriously. I bought them a Honda CB125 to tool around town on, individually and together so they knew how to carry and be a passenger properly. Told them if they went to jail on a motorcycle, don't expect to be bailed out. If they got hurt of their own accord, they'd never put a leg over a bike within my reach again. Taught my daughter a proper rear choke so she could get off the back if she needed to. Seems it's funneling down to parenting again.

I am no longer sympathetic to stupidity ironing itself out. My lament is that such stupidity affects me personally by increasing insurance premiums and bringing negative attention to motorcycles in general amongst the driving public and particularly law enforcement. I did my share of dumb s**t and got away with all of it, but at my dumbest I never did even once what these fools do on the daily. I don't know where it went wrong, the parents, the culture, the advertising; I think part of the problem is the death of amateur track racing. There is nowhere to turn anymore unless you want motocross.

I believe the R and the GS actually share the same chassis, just different shocks for ride height. I haven't had the GS over the ton, but it feels good there given the upright seating and wide bars. But, if I had to bet money on times through the Dragon, I'd give 5-1 odds on the Bimmer. Below 50, it's nimble, stable, and planted. Not so much 'nimble' the 'Sport. Who had the one in the Garage in the Lodge a couple years ago?

Just so. One has to have it in mind beforehand or chase it like the horse it is.

Nice! We went out about the same time in S. Florida, got about a half cover. I bought some pairs of welding goggles back for the last complete eclipse 5 or 6 years ago, drug them out again today. No pics, though. I forgot about the weird shadows, a total eclipse is some spooky weirdness. No wonder the oldsters used them to terrify the masses.

Seems most of the servo problems are caused/resolved by properly maintaining/flushing the system which is directed to happen every 2 years, a bit of a PITA. My plan should the servo fail is to trash the entire system and just pipe the masters to the calipers. Not like that's rocket science. Part of lessons learned early, is try to end your rides at the end of the gas tank. Don't park it full. Another demon while bulldogging is the brakes; without the servo active, the lever moves 2/3 of it's travel before braking and takes x10 more effort. It tends to roll away while you're trying to find your balance.

Seems to me that even an upgraded ball bearing isn't the whole answer, when angular race ball bearings are available in this size, and in high quality. I'm going to try it out, as I have a spare final drive. Seems too easy.

I'll add the argument that if there is no mechanical damage in your engine, your filter has little to do anyway; the narrow sump filter is upside-down, so it should drain most of the oil back into the sump to be drained at change. On my internal-filter bikes, I don't bother to change the filter every time.

I can bring an extra bike for you next year.

It's been apparently well-attended wrt upgrades/maintenance. There's a quick disconnect in the spares- I haven't looked to see if it's a take-out or a what-if. The rear drive did crap out the main bearing right on schedule, though. Replaced at about 40k miles, now 91k. "They fail because they're too tight. If it failed and you replace it with the same preload, it will certainly fail again". So I bought a replacement on eBay and I'll have a crack at rebuilding this one myself.

A big change from the 'Sport. Super tall, monkey motion front end with no dive took a minute, power brakes I'm still not sure I like. But I have to admit it's comfortable (though it has risers and aftermarket bars, tough on the shoulders) and from 0-50mph it's a terror on tight pavement where the 'Sport likes higher speeds. I'm not sure who thought it was a good idea to put 550 pounds and 8 gallons of gas on a Giraffe, but I did make it down one horror of a gravel 'road' without much event.

So, I have this maniacal Canadian friend who lives in Maine. He bought an '04 BMW GSA. Then he found another, price so low it was theft due to a tank full of water. So he 'bought it for me'. 'Come get it whenever you can, pay me whenever'. So after a year of telling him he could triple his money on it, he still insists it's mine; He planned a trip to Ohio with a few other friends, and since I was going to Ohio anyway there was no avoiding it. Flew to Maine, rode it back to Florida. Never saw an inch of interstate, about 3k miles worth of secondary and back roads. I forgot to record some of it, but here are the links to the parts I did. https://www.relive.cc/view/v36AxYYm7GO https://www.relive.cc/view/vRO78Mk2oy6 https://www.relive.cc/view/vPOpr5L7XRq https://www.relive.cc/view/v8qkpzj1n3v https://www.relive.cc/view/vNOPQkLppY6

Hopefully to put a nail in this thread, it's 10 days since the last time I turned the key to 'off'. I had the cover up so I could see the taillight and looked every evening; it was never lit. Today, put the key in it, battery said 12.5v, started immediately and significantly, went straight to 14.0 volts in only a couple minutes; at the Spine Raid, the day we left it took nearly an hour to recover the battery to a steady 14.0, so I know that despite the easy start the battery was significantly discharged. Strange Magic.

I used Brembo T-Drive rotors, for the way they look; I use Braking brake pads exclusively where I can, and have for 30 years. There's something about the feel of Braking's pads that is buttery smooth while being very progressive and as strong as you can ask for and most importantly, as kind to rotors as anything I've ever abused.

"Local Market" lol hey, familiarity is a huge part of marketing. So is Nationalism.

Re-watch (or watch the first time) the original "The Italian Job" movie. It's easy to miss, but the gold they stole was Chinese gold brought to finance auto factories in Italy. Released in 1969. The Italians have been in bed with the Chinese WRT vehicles since WWII. I suspect this motorcycle will be found to be made under license to MG for the Chinese domestic market only.

Cute, if weird in that Pininfarina way

No, I think you're right; if you grease it manually and annually, the bung is really just a dust shield anyway.

Driveshaft spline lubrication is more complicated than it seems it should be, not just ours. The main problems are 2; firstly, distributing the grease from the single entry point equally around all the splines. This is usually done by a circumferential groove under the zerk, or as it appears in the V11 shaft by putting the zerk in the endspace where it can find it's way through everywhere. The other problem is the hydraulic one; if you have a relief in the endspace, the grease finds it's way out without going through the splines. The hydraulic action is what drives the lubricant through the splines. On big heavy stuff like trucks, the pressure isn't an issue because the motion is very slow with little travel- by the time it's left the driveway, the shaft has generally gone through most of it's range of motion and made space. On ours, this may not be the case and that first big bump could hydraulic the shaft and um...interfere with suspension movement. My shaft has the zerk in the middle of the splines, and I'm not sure whether it has a distribution groove or not- but I don't grease the zerk anyway, I disassemble the shaft and apply open gear & cable lube manually. That way I'm assured everything is clean and lubed as it can be. So I'm with Phil on the sealing of the yoke end, and after greasing compressing the suspension manually as much as possible to get the range of motion freed up.

Nope. A physical fault would not explain the time factor, that without being touched the lights eventually come on, and every time. The capacitor effect explains. And, so far they're still off after cleaning. Interesting to note, my switch has 3 contact plates; nor are the 6 small contacts connected to anything.

Yes. I misunderstood what he was saying. Of course, the switch activates that circuit separately from the ignition and headlamp, whether in 'run' or 'park'.

But the 'park' is below the 'lock' position, available only after the fork lock is activated. So, stuck in place. Talked with Nic about the lights- he's humble about it but he's the youngest Certified Naval Nuclear Powerplant Operator the Navy ever graduated, so knows electronics to the atomic level. He suggested that the debris in the ignition switch actually created a capacitor, which I'd considered but don't have the depth of knowledge to more than imagine. He says capacitors are nothing more than basically dielectric grease with some current-carrying stuff mixed in it, which is precisely what was in the switch. <shrug> We'll know soon enough, I guess.

Verified, the instrument lamps light as well as the taillight.