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Can the negative of too much zinc (greater than 1400 ppm) be clarified?

Here is the technical data for Shaeffer "V-twin motorcycle oil" : https://www.schaefferoil.com/documents/229-707-td.pdf

Nice! This may be some of the explanation of my 1200 ppm impression: "In effect, an engine oil that contains about 1000ppm or 0.1% phosphorus (approx.1100-1200 or 0.11-0.12% PPM Zinc) or higher, will easily provide the required anti wear properties for older engines. " But also, when the SG specification that my 2000 Sport was introduced under changed to SH: "When you add Zinc to an oil, you also add Phosphorus and there have been limits on it since the days of API SH (1994) when a 0.12% (1200ppm) limit was imposed."

Ah, yes, to wit (and I paraphrase): > Phosphorous is harmful to catalytic converters. Not a V11 issue. > High performance, flat-tappet motors should still use high ZDDP oil. [Yes, I would rate the V11 as "high performance" considering that it is an end point development of the V700 designed in the 1960s.] And I quote, " The camshaft and lifters are responsiblefor triggering the precisely tuned movements of the valvetrain. Without the protective film barrier provided by ZDDP, the cams and lifters wear from the force of operation, negatively affecting cam and valve operation." "Too much" ZDDP does not appear to be an issue for the V11 motor. No mention of engine damage that I can see in the article, only catalytic converter damage.

In what way would the engine be damaged? Somehow, my brain has retained that 1200 ppm ZDDP is desirable for the V11, but I have no reference where that idea came from. It seems the RedLine 20W-50 Motorcycle Oil I have been using is 2200. Too much of a good thing? How would one assess this?

With fuel prices up lately in the USA, someone mentioned my bike thinking it makes impressive fuel economy. I had to admit that it is almost double that of my passenger cars, yet . . . The commute to my office in the passenger cars is 9 miles/ 15km. On the V11 Sport, the commute is 50 miles/80 km.

Indeed, @thelonewonderer's V11 is in the range of those that benefit from the added 6th Kiwi_Roy Relay to relieve the burden on the Ignition Switch. The battery actually can be load tested on the bike: Key off - an AGM battery is 100% at 12.84v and 50% at ~12.50v. Key on /lights on - Good if the voltage stays above 12.0, but okay even above ~11.8. Engage the starter (in your case only the solenoid) and look for values above 10v.

I'm not familiar with that brand, but have heard of that country of origin. You could take that by any auto parts store and they will load test it for you. There will be a date code on it somewhere. That is certainly the likely culprit and an easy fix.

Good to see you back @thelonewonderer! What kind of battery is in your V11?

RedLine specifies its ZDDP content: https://www.redlineoil.com/Content/files/tech/20W50_MC_PROD_INFO_2020.pdf

+1 on the VintageCar LED ! https://vintagecarleds.com/shop/bulbs-only/vcm3-bulbs-only/

Is that a complete LED unit or LED "bulbs" installed in a new factory headlamp?

I've been running the 1.2 watt coil CIT about seven months/ 1800 miles/ 3.000 km with no issues. Yes, these are the best specification next to the OMRON G8HE. You can run the same unit in all positions and even for the additional Kiwi_Roy/6th Relay for the starter on the later V11. Whether the coil wattage difference is significant remains unanswered. It certainly seems worth choosing the higher power coil if available. IIRC, the High Current OMRON G8HE coil is 1.8 watts.

The Scura is the later plastic bucket, @PJPR01 ? (The earlier, Bosch, steel bucket of the RedFrame Sports can be opened without damage.)

What is that? "A hub?"

I mean, these statements so describe this community's technical raison d'être, IMO: " Over time, maintenance programs are supplemented with sporadic best practices, lessons learned and technical alerts (all usually triggered by Maintenance observations). " " However, the business lacks a holistic prioritization process for reliability investigations, appropriately trained people (especially in the current DIY Maintenance mindset) , and necessary data access to drive concrete failure analysis efficiently for lower visibility (and often more frequent) failures." And the truth of this observation: " There is no Motorcycle manufacturer effort to drive the process. Their involvement seem to stop after they have designed the bike, industrialized it, and sold it. " I have long said that passenger vehicles, in particular, and consumer products, in general, are designed with two purposes: to assemble, and to sell.

Okay, so, open your images hosted at Google Photos, click on an individual image, right click on the image opens a menu, select "Copy Image Link", and paste into the reply . . .

Yep. That's what I meant to say.

This is brilliant and so applies to our community experience. I had to save this and print it for future reference. @p6x, could you help with some definitions? > " . . . high visibility (C, M) failures . . ." ["C, M" = ? ] > " . . . visibility on TCO is exceptionally poor . . ." [ "TCO" = ? ]

My observation is that the oil check after the pump stabilizes the oil distribution (not necessarily "warm") has more to do with how much volume is distributed through the engine, and into the rocker/valve covers ( a lot!), in order to ensure adequate oil volume remains in the sump for the pick-up.

The "spray foot powder" will help solve the mystery. It very well could be more than one source.

Here are the oil cooler lines at the right front of the sump that should be evaluated (check tightness; clean, dry, spray foot powder, ride and look for discoloration). [These are the earlier "AN"/JIC flare fittings. Later V11 have double O-rings that could benefit from renewal.]

Possibly, you could benefit from snugging those "worm-screw adjustable collars." Yet, still good to inspect that breather hose along its full course. If it is the culprit, the top of your motor well be wet as seen in jimmyegypt's images. There is the method of cleaning everything and spraying on a coating of dry "foot powder", go for a ride and observe where the powder discolors, revealing the leak source. Gently snugging the sump fasteners may reveal loose ones. Same for checking tightness of the oil lines at the right front of the sump. This image is of the crankcase vent oil return line ("retour de fuites") at the rear of the sump from the left side of the spine frame, but illustrates that the later oil lines, for the oil cooler as well, have double O-rings . . .

Best post I found on the breather hose, with images of both ends, from @Jimmyegypt: Coming from the clutch area behind the motor, looking from the left: Into the bottom of the spine frame at the front:

Here is an image looking from the front, right side back between the cylinders at a place where the breather hose can be abraded by contact with the engine oil feed lines to the top of the head. I have isolated the contact, here, with a plastic "Zip-Tie: