Jfundo

Nice work! It is such a relief to pinpoint the problem. As you seemed to understand, adding the grease was probably just a band-aid and new bearing will be on your shopping list before too long. There is sure to be some level of uneven wear on some of those balls.

My experience has been the bike is easier to start in the spring without stabilizers, so I don't use them contrary to what everyone tells me. I always use non-ethanol gas, not necessarily intentionally. I always use high grade and in my area the high grade is always ethanol free. I attribute that to being some sort of scam to get teetotalers to spend more. My conclusion to the F9 video is that just stick with non-ethanol and forget the stabilizer. Those F9 videos are very good at letting you draw your conclusions. For example the chain lube, he said to just use gear oil, but my conclusion from his tests was to use the best of the actual chain lubes. I am willing to live with a little dirt pickup so as to not have oil flinging all over the place. So if my chain only lasts 5 years instead of 6, then my yearly chain budget will be $25 instead of $20.

I'm wrong about the caliper sliding. Apparently our calipers have opposing pistons. So you have 8 pistons and it only takes one of them to have some crud under the seal to cause this problem. The pads themselves slide on pins, so that could be the source of the problem too.

The cold water from the hose might be enough to cause the brakes and brake fluid to contract just enough to make this much difference. Or the thin layer of water on the disk is putting a little pressure on the pad pushing it back. Or there is now soap in there reducing friction between the pad and rotor. The real test would be if he squeezed the brakes again and then spun the wheel. I bet the resistance would go right back to where it was before he started. And who wants their brakes to work worse anyway? I think the noise your wheel is making is a stone or something caught either in the wheel spokes or in your tire. The noise isn't rhythmic enough to be a part attached to the wheel going back. The spin rate and the frequency of the noise don't match up. The extra friction in your brakes does seem to be a bit much. I just went out and spun my front wheel, the bike hasn't been ridden in 4 months and I never used soap on my disks. With a decent push, the wheel made one full rotation, which is much more free than yours, so I agree that you have an issue. Mind you, this is a very small issue. I'm sure you are aware that it doesn't take a lot of pressure on the brake lever to make it so you can't possibly turn the front wheel by hand. As everyone suggested, I think you need to start eliminating sources of the extra pressure. It is likely either in the master cylinder or the caliper (unless you have a very serious kink in the hose which I'm sure you would've found by now). Disconnect the hose to see if it fixes the problem. If it does, then the master cylinder is the issue, if it doesn't, then it is in one of your calipers. I would then remove one caliper and then the other and see which one makes the difference. Whichever it is needs to be taken apart and cleaned or re-built. I haven't needed to do this on a motorcycle before, but I've run into it with cars that when the brakes are dragging like this it is because the slide (or slide pin) is corroded and the caliper can't retract smoothly. A quick sand, polish and grease of the sliding surfaces and it is good to go. Half the piston has calipers that need to go in and out, but the other half of the caliper slides on the first half, and this sliding needs to be smooth too.

The 2016 and 2018 are different bikes with a lot of updates in the 2018. Probably the biggest that I've heard about is much better throttle response. You probably should do some research into the differences and decide if any of them are worth $2,000 to you.

Ok, sorry, but that Delboy video is total bogus. What exactly is soap and a scotchbrite pad removing that doesn't come off under the heat and friction of using the brakes? Crystals? Really? The tiny little bit of friction turning the wheel by hand is standard by the nature of brakes. There is nothing that pushes the pads away from the disks so they will always rub if they are working properly.

Got my Corbin the other day. Only been on a couple short rides with it. Not sure how I feel about it. It doesn't slide me into the tank anymore, but it doesn't let me sit back as far as the stock seat did, so I feel out of balance. The seat is definitely more comfortable, and I think it looks great. I probably just need to tweak the handlebars to resolve my issues. I already have the risers flipped around to push the bars further away, but I need more. I have very long legs and arms and a short torso for reference. 37" inseam, 6'-2" tall, 6'-6" wingspan.

I didn't know that Jim's was a corbin dealer. I learn my lessons a bit too late. I ordered off the corbin website. I'm not worried about height, in fact taller would be better. I long legs/ short torso kind of guy at 6'-2" I can stand flat foot on the tallest of the big dirt bikes. My issues are typically the opposite, too much knee bend. Tracer has been great though.

Just bought this yesterday for the wifey! 2013 Bonny T100.

My Shoei came with pinlock and a fog insert. Works perfect, no optical issues unless wearing polarized sunglasses. Lots of rainbows. That was an easy fix though.

Great day to ride in the Syracuse area yesterday wasn't it metallion? I'm not far away, I live between Auburn and Weedsport. As for on-topic discussion, I just ordered this without the heat. They said 4 to 5 weeks:

It is there to be dirty and impossible to clean.

She didn't like the riding position on the Z400. Very uncomfortable for her. Plus the lack of any windscreen was an issue (I know that is resolvable). The Ninja 500 was a perfect fit. Perfect amount of power. She loves the the Yamaha SR400 too, but never sat on one. She is a tough nut to crack. Which is why I lean towards the ninja, I know she will like it.

It is a great place for riding. I'm in the middle of the fingerlakes. I can go for a ride and see less than 5 cars per hour on wild farm roads, or I can ride around one of the lakes (circled Owasco lake last night), can ride north up to Lake Ontario, and it is only 2 hours to get into the adirondacks which have amazing roads and scenery. Plus I can hit about a dozen waterfalls within 90 minutes of my house (many of them are amazing). There are places with better rides, but hard to find the variety.

Yeah, I love the pics of seats that came from Terry's. I don't want to go without my bike though. I should've taken care of this over the winter. How long does he take typically? I've always like the versys, I'll mention it to her. I've been trying to push an SV650 on her. She isn't going to listen to me though, I'm just along for the ride.

Bought a 2019 Tracer last summer after a 5 year hiatus from bikes (last bike was a 2009 V-strom 650, and I'm starting to think that I stopped riding because that bike bored me). Added on a quickshifter. Loving the bike. Been my only outside activity for the last few weeks when the temps get up into the 50's. Want to change out the seat, stock isn't terrible, but I don't like the feeling that I'm always sliding into the tank. Not sure which path to go down with the seat. Not a fan of corbin single piece, not a fan of the poor fitting sargent. Big surprise with the bike, my 14-year old daughter loves to ride on back. She wants to go out no matter the weather, so I always have a good built-in reason to head out. Wife got a new Z400 that she doesn't like so we are trying to figure out a replacement. Her last bike was a '95 Ninja 500 that she loved, so thinking maybe we just track down another one of those. This is the end of your debriefing.