I left it in the garage today and rode my 48FL to work instead

 

The bike sat for 3 years before I bought it in 2007 with 8,000 miles on it. First belt broke at 12,000 miles in Nov 2008. I chalked that up to the bike sitting, with belt in the same position for years. There were also rumors of bad batch of belts in 2001. Never any issues or wear since then. I check the belt every 1,000 miles or so, it's probably been about that long since I checked it. Currently 31,500 miles so this belt only lasted 19,500. It's a HD belt. I don't see any wear/damage to belt, but rear sprocket chrome is starting to wear. I'm going to change both sprockets, swingarm bushings (probably upgrade to spherical bearings) make sure engine/trans/wheels are aligned. Probably add bagger brace or similar at the same time.

 

Not my bike, not my garage, and not my mess, but a buddy learned a lesson today that he won’t soon forget.
He tried to lift the bike from the jiffy stand side and this was the result…





His workspace was a wreck before he started, but that oil mess is really my worst nightmare; after flipping my bike on its side, that is!

 

I don't know if real. But there was forum story about factory worker bending belts getting caught on camera. More likely a story. But not impossible.

My 07 came out around the strike. If they were not sabotaging, then they were useless and should have bad contract.

 

So. Not to hijack but those diy trans vents…
@Cornpipe
a) how do you know where on the cover part to drill and put the barb fitting? And…

b) isn’t that one already vented? It’s like mine with a little vent on like a 90 elbow facing forward.

I’m new to M8’s by a few weeks and been reading about the vents but I thought it was already done. Or is that elbow on all of them?

 

The vent you are speaking of is for the gearbox or transmission only. If you look at the pic of the open trans case and the lid you can see the individual chambers. Two are for the trans and the far right one is the crankcase. My pics are from the right side of the bike. I chose a spot in the lid that I could get tools in to tighten the nut on the fitting. You only want to vent the crankcase portion of the lid. I also used a fitting that had the washer and nut welded on one side to the barbed fitting. This way I had no worries of the parts loosening and falling into the case. If you expand the pics you can see it is all one piece. I used a deep well socket on the inside of the lid to hold the fitting and tightened the nut on the outside of the lid.

 

Poor jack placement? I roll the jack in from either side depending on which side I'm working on. I actually prefer the jiffy stand side, as I can keep an eye on the stand to make sure it's in the proper locked in position when lowering. When the stand first touches down, a gentle pull on the left grip guides the lean towards me.

 

I ordered a new saddlebag Got rear ended leaving a gas station. I stopped and waited for a car on the street to pass by before I pulled out.. The guy behind me wasn't watching and caught the bag. Bike went down. Wasn't injured, fortunately just the bag was damaged.

The bike is only a year old. Ins. co. ordered a factory painted bag and lid from HD. Since it's factory painted, it's supposed to take at least 6 weeks to come. I feel like an idiot riding around with a big chunk of bag missing.

 

That sucks big time. Let me guess he was on his cell phone? Glad you weren't hurt and it was slow speed.

 

you have a better story than my buddy who had to ride with one bag. his fell off somewhere in wyoming when he was on a road trip.