pilninggas

FFS - that's awful.

I really feel for sorry about your run of bad luck: attempted bike theft and the disc gets trashed, you injure yourself putting it on the stand and then the disc is a pain to remove. The pads skimming on the discs is normal - they'll do that less once bedded in. If they stick on [unlikely as it all looks clean and mint] then you need to deal with it.

The oem cable is probably co-ax. If you can get a male and female connector [that fits the loom like the ABS connector] you can make an extender without cutting the cable and risking a bodge. Ebay will probably have the right connectors.

Feel your pain. I have been making a little cafe racer out of an XJ600H. I was doing the finishing touches and had it up on the lift. Forgot to secure the front wheel and it rolled back. I managed to catch it, but still took a chunk of paint out of the recently painted bar ends. The next next day I went out on my Royal Alloy scooter and dropped it on it's side. FFS. Bikes are amazing, but dropping them is [a] inevitable and [b] crushing (occasionally literally).

All brake pads are in contact with discs [rotors], however friction only occurs once pressure is applied [think back to your physics lessons]. If the discs and pads are new then it is quite likely they are still bedding into each other. If the system is only slightly dragging on the stand, only gets warm to the touch after a ride and isnt causing the bike to slow down, then I'd say it is fine. Brake binding manifests itself as a lot of heat, smell and the brakes sticking on.

The A68 is a great road.

Ham-fisted tyre change?

I'm going to respond to this with a very simple reply: Wet clutches are fine. Running in the same oil that lubricates the bottom end and top of the engine is less good (as I said it's contrary design). There is no reason for wear residue from a wet clutch [a high friction compound] to circulate an entire engine and potentially contaminate surfaces that depend on low friction. It would be very easy to separate the lubrication of the transmission and engine; heck have the clutch run in it's own bath of oil with it's own replacement schedule. It remains cheap and lazy convention by the Japanese manufacturers. i definitely would avoid conflating Ducati's crappy dry clutches with the contrary engineering of wet clutch running in the engine oil.

I did read the workshop manual - have a dodgy knock off copy and the front end service looked like half a day's work [by memory] and involved some greasing. I'd look in there and follow that procedure - think it was either every 24 or 36 months or the equivalent mileages. Might be different for your guys across the pond [although the reasons for variation, as always, will be nebulous].

As above - it's more probable that the reg-rec is faulty or there is a bad earth. I'd check earths [grounds] and do the above voltage checks. Stators on motorcycles are run very differently to altenators on cars and do fail if other stuff malfunctions (they get shorted and burn out) - so the stator could be faulty.

Yamaha's market research should be able to map a realistic product lifespan cycle. They should be able to accurately predict the customer's demand for the model over the standard implement-adoption-decline curve. Presumably they did that early on in the development of the model. The mind still boggles that less than 4 years after first announcing it that the market for new purchases might have already dried up. I can only assume that Yam expect the technology [the front end] to survive either into a mark 2 or into something else.

In some ways this make sense - the equally quirky GTS1000 only ran for production of 2 years - althought they sold for a bit longer. The mind boggles that Yam makes these products with short lifespans - the industry seemed to have moved away from that model a decade ago with lifespans of products much longer. I wonder if they will bring out a new version [goodness what the R&D costs of the front end were, +large number of niken specific steering and suspension components]. Here in the UK, there are a glut of new and used models, which isnt a good thing. I'd love another, were i not so short.

This is probably intentional design. It is far better that the stanchions bend, than the force is transmitted into the frame and bend that. Yamaha specify the fork strength and rigidity for normal use anyway, impacts fall outside of those design criteria. The WP forks might be more robust, if subjected to a force which they are not designed for [an impact] then they may well plastically deform anyway. If i rear-ended a car on my bike [i have done it in the past!] I would want to be assured that the forks are not bent so even the WP forks might need a strip down and check even if they are apparently undamaged. I would just replace like for like and put it down to experience.

i run a bead of clear bathroom silicone sealant in the channel on the cover, stick the gasket in and leave to cure whilst i do the valve job.

To be fair most cars have hydraulic lifters that automatically adjust the clearance/lash. Motorcycles dont/cant have this as the rev ceilings tend to be much higher and the mass of the valve system has to be a lot lighter to avoid exceeding the stress limits of the alloys used. Unless a lifter packs up on a car [sometimes you can hear an engine that has a habitually stuck lifter when cold - a tick that goes away after 20 seconds] then there is zero chance of a valve burning out due to not closing fully, where as a bike which has clearances out of adjustment runs a real risk of burning out a valve and doing some expensive damage. Having said all that I have checked a lot of valves of a lot of bikes [including some 20-valve heads] and have only seen a few exhaust valves that really made me think: 'wow, that is close to valve not sealing and being burned-up'. The maddest thing about jap bikes is that the clutch material wears down and into the oil - which is circulating to lube the entire engine. It's a very contrary design imo, but the manufacturers like it as the costs of manufacture are low and the japs really are quite stuck in their conventions on engine design (very little has changed in 25 years in their engine designs) - it just means oil should be changed at the designated intervals to ensure the oil isnt excessively loaded with clutch particles. Oil threads are the work of the devil....

I used to 'hallucinate' when working on bikes and cars - the empty beers bottle on the bench next to the vice, was always a dead give away that i'd been 'hallucinating' whilst spannering.....

Annoying for you that you eventually ran out - but that is decent economy - 61mpg-uk equals 73mpg-us.

I chopped in my Niken for the current (GSXS1000FA) generation. [Loved the Niken and that engine, but my shortness meant it was only a matter of time before I dropped it]. The engine on the GSXS - which is carried over from my model - is excellent. I dont care about outright performance - but itll cruise at 95mph and at 70mph it's so frugal [70mpg-uk]. Very smooth. But the fuelling was dreadful - way worse than mt09/tracer/xsr/niken - almost dangerous so I had to get it flashed. The guys with the new unfaired bike are saying Suzuki have cured that and it pulls cleanly and hard; and i believe them. The suspension was also crap, the rear shock is as bad as the original mt09s, so i bunged in a YSS unit. I am now starting to really like the bike and this new one looks stunning [the model i have is fugly]. The electronics package is also good. I cant justify p'exing mine, but I suspect these will sell very very well.

I've used Italian roads many many times. They tend to be very liberal about speed limits - I wouldnt speed in towns/villages, but lots of italians do. I cant remember seeing a speed camera, the carabinieri do patrols, but they never seem that bothered about motorcycles [or cars] and unless you are being an idiot pay no interest. No idea about parking for cars - bikes park anywhere [on the pavement/sidewalk often] as long as it doesnt obstruct. Most cities have multistories and towns villages are often pretty liberal about parking. The autostradale accepts most forms of payment - ive just used my debit card or euros cash. It's not too expensive, but on a motorcycle often better bypassed if you can use more interesting routes. Love italy, stunningly beautiful, friendly folk. Worst thing is the lunchtime closing that affects so much stuff between 1130 and 230pm. Where are you going?

Not sure about stateside, but surely - with the bike only a month out of warrantee - the dealer will look at it gratis. Here in the UK the end of the warrantee wouldnt automatically be the end of all intervention. Can you call the dealer or Yam USA and see what they say?

Not sure if I should be in here. My Niken GT isnt dead, but it has been moved on. I genuinely loved it, but I am 5'6" and after nearly dropping it on a steep camber (British roads are very, very cambered) I decided that it was only a matter of time before I did drop it and it was gonna be expensive to sort. Traded it in for a Suzuki GSXS1000, which is not nearly as plush or refined, but has a seat heigh of 30.5" and is much narrower. I enjoyed my Niken, but not for the first time my short stature has limited my time with a bike.

I have repaired worse myself (but do so understanding the risks) and not had a problem. Either some pieces of rounded hardwood or better some rounded nylon blocks. One on the side to strike and one on the other side of the buckle. Use a 20oz hammer on the blacks. You'll be able to get that back to almost where it should be (but not quite as it has yielded). My daily NC700 has had a repaired buckle for 40,000 and is fine. Tyres seal and it hasnt cracked. Cheaper than finding someone and easy enough.

I can see some police forces using Nikens. The stability of the bike is a major consideration for them. Yamaha would be sensible to create a prototype for police forces to judge the merits of it.

The wheels are interchangeable, but tyres are directional. So you can flip the rims across, but the tyres would run backwards.

I've bought low octane (RON not MON) when ive been in Eastern Europe (but on other bikes not the Niken) and not had pinging - the timing is set very conservatively to suit, even at large loads and large throttle delta conditions they wont ping-up. Some modern car engines can detect knock by analysing the signal from the CPK - in the same way they can detect misfires, through looking at small changes in angular velocity against the expected values. I think they look for changes in the 3rd order or higher [angular jerk] and if certain patterns emerge [quickly] then it is calculated by the algorithm as knock/pink/ping and mitigation enabled (retard timing) - i had a few 90s cars where you could trigger knock and hear the system kick in when you gave it a large load. I did remember a motorcycle engine designer saying on another forum, that the high revs means that the valve clatter can be mis-detected as knock by knock sensors (basically a very clever piezo microphone/accelerometer). Although I would have though signal conditioning/signal processing would be able to get around that now - which makes me think that the conventions of bike design are the main factor (like the clutch running in oil or the use of springs for timing chain tension - relatively antiquated, but acceptable and cheap). Given as much timing advance as is safe is good for emissions, and knock is bad for emissions (NOx goes through the roof) that EURO4 or 5 would have been drivers to add the extra sense and adapt function, but they do know what they are doing and slightly retarding is cheap [see above].