mikev

I ended up with Michelin Road 5s, definitely pricy. 6s not available. Shop said they have customers who get 15k with them on guzzis and heavier bmws. The tune up and new tires greatly improved the performance and ride.

lol ... hope so ... i will let you know how long they last ...

I thought I posted this AAR but apparently not. Swapping out Relay 3 for one of my Chinadians from ebay did help with my neutral light issue.

I'm getting new tires / tyres for my v11 this week, going with the Michelin road 5s or 6s. Stock sizes I believe, will have to check once I get it back from the shop. Revzilla report I saw said the rear 5s they tested were good for 18,000 miles. 6s are supposed to last 10% longer.

Last year in December we paid 2.89/gallon for oil. (Massacusetts) Today we paid 4.67 that is a 47% increase in the price of oil. Additionally, last January we put in a new oil burning furnace. We were shocked to find the state no longer offers rebates for new equipment, and only wants to incentivise electric heat (furnace guy told me this). The state didn't publish their 2022 incentives in January, not until February but we were't grandfathered in to 2021 which did have oil burner incentives, just got rejected. Wrote all my state and federal reps. One responded his aid could help us get money from state if we qualified for low income heating assistance....Thank you for your response. Rather frustrating answer. How do you explain a near 50% increase in less than 1 year? It's outrageous. What are the root causes? Is anyone on Beacon Hill talking about this? Surely there are some policy decisions you are able to vote on that are in some way related. Are you able to speak to people in the state government who do have influence on oil prices or the regulations to reintroduce incentives to homeowners for buying new oil burning home heating systems and not just electric heat? Is the only option for voters accepting state funded handouts?

I recently bought these. https://www.mgcycle.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=422

I made myself some new spark plug wires with the red NGK racing from mgcycles. Cut to length with new connectors (marxparts) and reused old coil boots. No corrosion in the terminal. I was able to swap them out without removing the fuel tank. It's a bit of an awkward spot but doable.

I think I will modify how my bags mount to the hangers to give me some more clearance. Really want a tail box.

Do your side bags touch the exhaust pipes? I have a set, I want to use (my other ones lost a door while riding the other day so I swapped out the rack clips onto these). They physicaly touch the exhaust which gets warm but not too hot to touch.

it looks like it *might* be possible to change spark plug wires without taking tank off...

bike runs better with the new plugs, idles smoother, fewer sputters. old plugs looked dirty.

Yeah that looks right. How does the ignition wire attach to the coil? I’ll have to look at my bike and see. I assumed there was some metal spring or something inside the boot like the other end at the spark plug. That just looks like a rubber cover.

I changed spark plugs today and left boot came off wire so I jammed it back in. Right boot is torn, but wire didn’t come out. Bike started and sounded normal afterward….. so I ordered 4 new red boots from UK, red ones unavailable in us? thinking I should just buy the NGK racing wire and boot assembly from mgcycle, but they don’t come with coil boots. What kind of coil boots do v11s require?

ebay uint sacrificed, resistor color bands go left to right, blue to gold - docc's look opposite. I'm no electrical engineer but that seems like a difference

I'll sacrifice one of my Chinese (Canadian) ebay relays and post a pic later this week. Ordered 5 CITs from onlinecomponents as well, just to be prepared. Maybe the relay position info is posted somewhere on this forum but I haven't found it yet. I got a sticky note from a previous owner in my manual that lists them as: 1 - starter 2 - headlight, (I gather from reading this forum its also the tachometer) 3 - sidestand 4 - ECU 5 - Fuel Injection

Thanks to Chuck, I have a Lucky Phil Extender and plan to install it soon. All the pics on this thread are really helpful & interesting. Read all 7 pages this morning, my second pass thru this thread maybe. Not sure I *totally* understand how the shifting mechanism works but am learning more each time. Sounds like after installing the improved extender, switching out 2 internal springs and examining some internal parts they touch are next steps. Where does one acquire the chuckskud super spring? Installing the Lucky Phil Extender *seems* like its a fairly simple job. Remove 3 bolts, remove old part, install new extender, attach 3 bolts. I *think* I can do all that without removing anything else. Do I need to keep tension on the shifter while doing this? Let me know if I am missing any obvious steps or anything you think might help that I need to know before I try the install.

looks really cool

Here are the relays I received from ebay. The description on ebay was "made in USA" but item ships from China. Took about 2 weeks. These obviously are "Made in Canada", aye. I think there are a lot of Chinese knock offs out there, and I've seen Docc recommend elsewhere on the forum to open one of these and seeing what the guts look like. I'm not sure I'm qualified to do that. But am willing to sacrifice one and take pics if you want. Thanks Chuck for the Lucky Phil Extender!

Yeah, I assume they are Chinese knock offs but I thought I'd give them a try before I spend $20 per relay on ebay for the "branded" USA or Canada ones. There is a seemingly endless chat about relays here, and I saw at least one other person who tried them so hopefully they are ok. I will definitely get the Craig DeOxit and silicone grease. Do you spray both the relays and the ports? I'll probably change spark plugs this weekend. Manual recommends something. What do you use? I am very interested in the "Lucky Phil Extender" as the shifter issue is my biggest issue with the bike.

I bought 5 relays on ebay after wading thru the forum relay threads for a while. Cheap ones from China should arrive in a couple weeks. Others listed were $20 ea. https://www.ebay.com/itm/115003630292 got 5 for ~$26 with shipping. Also ordered the manhole cover tool and will change the oil and do some other maintenance after it arrives.

The bike was well maintained, bought it from my neighbor and the original owner is 1 town away. Thanks for the info everyone

Thanks @pressureangle, I'm kinda new to motorcycle maintenance. I have been reading that massive thread and while I've found a lot of interesting things, like people really seem to dislike the stock steering dampener. I didn't find anything by searching 'oil change' or 'how to change the oil'. So, I search youtube I already described what I found. I guess 'how to change the oil' is like 'how to scramble an egg', you never see it in the cook books. Funny thing, my brother-in-law had to teach my niece how to scramble an egg when she got an apartment. I'll keep searching.