Pressureangle

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.

On the way home from the SSR, I had to give up the tunes to Nic; of course everyone likes what they heard when they were a teenager so, here you go; I know every word on the album because I used to travel with the kids a lot...

SO much better than the original. I hate the original.

The 'park' position does, but not 'lock'. Is my scheme, or switch, the same as your V11? from L bottom clockwise, park-lock-push-off-run I mean to say, I never tried turning the key from 'off' to 'lock' while the offending lights were illuminated to see if they went out.

I wish now that we'd made a test of the parking state; I never turned it to the 'lock' position to discover whether that would turn the lights off, or prevent them coming on. Oh well, we'll know soon enough.

I don't know that the V11 is the same, but the fork lock is an entirely separate housing riveted to the top fork clamp, to which the switch screws into the bottom of. I did not explore how the key cylinder itself comes out.

Yes! I should have made mention. The first came easily, then the whole thing rotated out easily while I was working on the second retainer. Still to note, the pick must be thin, and pointed enough to penetrate your finger when you slip. No blood, no glory

So the Spine Raiders will remember this year's Ghost in the Machine- shut my key off, then some time between 5 minutes and infinity, the instrument lamps and tail lamp would come on... Eventually, the wiggle test pointed to the ignition switch or wires, and the following morning after the ride home I simply unplugged the switch at the connector and all went dark. SO. I'm not certain I'm happy about it, but sort of, that I could remove the switch with 2 phillips screws without touching anything else like the fairing. The bottom of the switch housing has 3 small snaps to carefully push in and pry loose, easy enough. The switch itself was a little more challenging, also with 3 snap retaining lips. The trouble is, the switch with the ramp retainers is not compressible, so one must use a thin pick to wiggle in between the switch contact plate and outer housing, and raise the flexible housing enough to get the retainer past it. It seems this would be the part where the housing usually gets broken, but not so today. Fortunately the switch contacts, springs, and detent balls are all captive so no church dancing or expletives. Nothing obvious presented itself but a small defect in the insulation of the green wire, rubbed through by the plastic post of the rotating switch plate which protrudes through the contact plate. The copper switch contacts on the rotating plate had a little green on them, in whatever sort of grease the Italians used, very sparingly, on the switchgear. This green was also spread around the contacts of the stationary plate; the money shot here is that I think the green stuff is oxidized copper from the contact shoes and may have some capacitance, though I could not discover any circuit faults with a multimeter. One notable point is that 2 of the switch shoes have detent balls below them and share the spring with the detent balls; if the housing itself with the detent ramps is contaminated with something conductive (like grease, brake dust, road grime, contact corrosion etc) it could conceivably create a circuit and cause these symptoms, but I could detect no circuit at all with the meter. So the only thing left to do, is route the rubbed wire away from contact with the moving part, clean everything up and reassemble. I use laundry soap and nail brush for this sort of degreasing, and balsamic vinegar with table salt to clean any oxidation and corrosion. Squeaky clean with dielectric grease and hopefully it will be back in normal service.