Scud

She looks down at the trip meter and realizes it is near the bike's maximum range.

Ooohhh... I see a Black LeMans in your dropbox links. Well done. I notice the Hepco Becker racks in the pictures. Does the bike come with all three hard cases? Those could come in handy on a long trip. I've found that a tank bag can give a little relief on a long ride - like a pillow on the tank. One thing to consider is the age of the tires. You might be safer with a set of new shoes before you take off on that long trip. Re the Utah to California route... Unless you really want to go to Las Vegas, it seems you have chosen a long route with a lot of Interstate. Consider going through central Nevada instead. I camped at Great Basin National Park once and loved it. From there it's less than 400 miles to Lee Vining (including the fabulous route 120 from Benton to 395 by Mono Lake). Depending on the route, you might need to carry a gallon of gas (ride 50 miles then top off the tank). Central Nevada would likely be very nice at that time - and almost certainly cooler than going through the Mojave desert.

Ha - good reminder on the plugs. Sometimes simple stuff is the answer. Hope y'all have a great weekend. Mine has rain in the forecast, which we desperately need.

^ That one could do with a re-paint. @docc if it comes down to a repaint, I have dark grey fender from a 2002 Champagne LeMans that you can have for the cost of shipping. Consider it a forum donation.

PM just sent - we'll get dowieze back on the road.

I suggest first lifting the rear wheel. See if you can get it to shift when you rock the wheel back and forth. A lot of problems are due to obstructed or sticky linkage. So you might want to pull the starter and get a good view of everything. Check that the pivot bolt is not too tight. Check everything before you pull the cover off (it needs to be removed before you remove the cover anyway, so just take your time with disassembly. Even though your spring was replaced recently, new ones have been known to fail after only a few thousand miles. That happened to me and was one of the reasons I got involved with the effort to re-engineer the shift spring. One more test for you to consider. This is based on the premise that the internal shifting arm needs to be pushed toward the front of the bike to engage (that's what the spring does). If you have a small hill, roll the bike down and hit the brakes hard. Sometimes this will cause the internal shift mechanism to go back into place and you will get one or two shifts before it falls out again. If that happens, the spring is almost certainly broken.

For your viewing and listening pleasure...

I believed you, I just wanted to learn more about it. As they say, sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. And I had to "unlearn" some things I thought I knew.

Ok - you made me go searching. I found a discussion on an R3 forum with post that seems credible. There's a good illustration there that explains the reasoning for the smaller piston being on the leading edge. Maybe @docc could figure out how to borrow that picture and post it here for us?

I'm no expert, but I think, yes, you should expect the small ones to move first. And if memory serves me, when rebuilding the calipers, the small ones usually pop out before the large ones. I read somewhere (can't recall the source) that the small piston on the trailing edge was intentional as you described, with the addition idea that if it were reversed, the leading edge of the pad could bind. I don't know if that is theoretical, or a real concern, but that's what I recall. Anyway, it seems like Brembo was aware of something with the 34/34 calipers as they used one pad per piston instead of one pad per pair of 34/30s. Maybe someone more knowledgeable will be along to explain... or maybe we can get @Chuck to look in his mechanical engineering books...

Cool - I'll await riding impressions to see if you can tell the difference. If not, you have a unique upgrade and got new brake lines in the process. I didn't even know about those calipers that use 4 pads (one per piston). Always something to learn here.

Curious about why you are doing this. As I understand it, two different size pistons in a 4-piston caliper allows the smaller pistons to move first, followed by the larger pistons. This gives a certain feel where you can get a bit of braking power, then a lot of braking power. With all four the same size, what performance improvement are you looking for?

Plastic doesn't patina like metal. Plastic bikes don't age well. My 1989 LeMans is developing some Patina from both age and use. I kind of like it that way and have no intention of restoring it.

1) Glad you're OK 2) Thanks for the honest and full report 3) Better the EV than the Greenie or the Ducati 34Stuff on the road is a real danger, but packing material impeding the front wheel is a new one. (FWIW - I hit a metal piece at speed a few days ago and it popped up and hit my boot hard. No damage, but that could have been ugly). 5) You were lucky to escape without further injury with the modular helmet open. Not only is your face exposed, but the open helmet can catch on something and hurt your neck. I see people riding like that sometimes and it seems like a really bad idea. Just open the visor.

I've seen that color V7 Sport, but never made the connection till you pointed it out.

Yeah that part was really interesting. I had just finished my research when I saw the exhibit, and I found it disappointing that all those panels conformed to the standard narrative of van Gogh, whose story has become somewhat mythical. The standard narrative is that after vincent's death, people took another look at his art and began to appreciate it. But in yet another case where a woman's role has been ignored historically, it was Johanna van Gogh-Bonger who got the world to appreciate Vincent's art. The exhibit made only passing mention of her as his brother Theo's wife, but without her, it is likely that van Gogh's work would have been destroyed. Vincent never sold a painting in his life, so they were all "worthless" when she inherited them. And despite being advise to throw Vincent's paintings away, she worked for many years to get them exhibited. There is a bit of her story here on wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johanna_van_Gogh-Bonger

^agree with Phil on this. I don't want to do do that job again. Kindy02 did a fabulous job on a Scura having all the cases stripped (or media-blasted) then powder-coated. Obviously, this approach is only available after removing all moving parts and bearings. If one wants to repaint the engine or tranny without a rebuild, the stripper is the only (semi)-practical solution.

I used Rust Oleum brand Aircraft Remover on two engines, trannies, and final drives. In some spots it just scraped off, but in others, it still took a lot of work.

There are a lot of V11s that are not V11 Sports... such as bunch of V11 cruisers. Are you sure that kit was meant for a V11 Sport?

I saw this exhibit when it was here in San Diego. Very cool. My next book has a chapter featuring a story about van Gogh's relationship with Paul Gauguin. They lived together in the "yellow house." The chapter subtitle is "lessons from a dysfunctional relationship" and it reveals a lot of new research that causes us to rethink what we know about van Gogh. For example, van Gogh's letters show that it was Gaugin who inspired him to take more risk and explore with his art (Gauguin also influenced Picasso). A recent scientific review of van Gogh's letters suggests that he suffered from bipolar disorder, and was not insane. Bipolar is swinging between bouts of depression and hyperactivity - and yes, he produced nearly one masterpiece per day during that time. There are a few more major surprises in there too, but the book won't be out till next year. And in case you missed it, Willem Dafoe played van Gogh in "At Eternity's Gate" which portrays a credible alternative to van Gogh's supposed suicide. The film draws from academic research that suggests two boys were playing with a gun that accidentally went off. When van Gogh realized what happened and that he would die, he lied to protect the boys.

I just send a PM. But I agree with gstallons that it sounds like a linkage problem.

Rotors, pipes & crossover, belly pan, gauges, bunch of powder coating (including gloss black wheels). I did a topic on the bike with more detail.

Those screws have a tiny hex head, which can round-off easily. I'd suggest getting some replacement screws while they are out. I didn't know those "half-moon" retaining clips were unobtainable - thanks for the heads up.

Are we talking about the oil lines that feed directly into the head as in this picture? If so, you just need a slim spanner (wrench) - not a big clunky one. If you have a cheap spanner that you don't care much for, you can grind it down till it fits. (disregard the measure tape - that was for a different purpose a while back, but it's the only pic I could find of the fitting in question)

Missed this project when it started. Looks like a worthy endeavor. Did the VHT paint ever show up? I probably have a partial can that I could send your way if you still want it.