circa1968

You could likely be fighting two issues at once - electrical & carb related. Sounds more electrical, but I have a set of carb sync gauges I'm happy to send you on loan if you want to at least clear that off the table relatively quickly and easily. I'm not sure how well they will sync if you are having electrical/voltage issues @ the coils or ignitor but worth a shot to at least give you some peace of mind. PM me if you want me to send the gauge. I just finished a sync a couple weeks ago, so it will be sitting unused until later this year anyways.

Check with Mike Eykamp @eusa1, I think he's about same size as you and I think he might use the corbin. I'm ~5'9 and first thing I noticed is the back part of the corbin that rises up is further back from the front of the bike, which changed my reach to the bars. I installed 2" Rox risers and now have a perfect fit/reach. Also, just as fyi, the corbin does sit you down lower closer to the ground. I needed that for flat footing and anything that lowers the center of gravity on the RSV is a bonus, to me. Another idea, if you have a nearby upholstery shop is to buy a 2nd stock seat on ebay, rip off the cover and experiment w/ foam adds/subtractions, then when you have what works, get it recovered.

Maybe a Corbin saddle?

Rats! Oh well, PM me and we can work out something on the windshield.

If you are ready to dig into the front fairing....here's what I did. I took the cassette out & turned it into a small storage cubby and added a bluetooth receiver to the AUX connector inside the fairing. The cassette player comes out as a complete assembly, with the door. It took some patience and wriggling to get it out. Once out, the cassette electronics has to be separated from the surrounding box as the box is what the front door attaches to. There's a black plastic face behind the door that has the cassette opening, that needs to be kept as well. Dremel that opening to a size that allows you to get your fingers inside but be careful to retain enough material for structural integrity. If you are handy, it will all make sense when you dig into it. Any BT receiver is fine, just find switched power and tap into it. If I recall correctly, I tapped into the power going to the 12v plug on the inner fairing. While in there, I also wired up a phone holder that converts 12v into usb power. Now, with a short usb cable to power the phone, I have non-stop BT streaming to the stock radio. I use either pandora or the couple hundred tunes I have stored directly on my phone. Could it use more power, better sound, more features? Yes, but for me its good enough when out on the road.

I have one, from show chrome. It’s 14” What I need is a set of better looking clamps for the HD pipes I installed. Got any of those lying around for a trade?

@Patch I'm definitely a problem child, but definitely not picking on your english. Was just pointing out that the scenario you created is what we all experience in married life - the killed mood, hence the fewer words version of "are you married?" My bad attempt at a joke. Should probably get used to it, its one of the things in life I'm really good at.

Agree on the more hand pressure than I like and yes, squeeze hard enough and you get results. To me, the increased braking power of the R6 brakes makes them less sensitive. Again, I may be using the wrong terminology here, but with the stock brakes I was going from squeezing hard to squeezing harder in order to come to a controlled stop. There always seemed to be little little range between the squeeze hard & harder. Now it feels like the braking force is more linear to the pressure I apply to the lever. I can go from a light squeeze for light braking with a linear feel from there all the way to a hard squeeze. I didn't necessarily feel like I need more braking power, just more linear range in the squeeze and the R6 brakes seem to give me that.

"Are you married?" Fixed it, fewer words

I noticed no difference on the one FM station I occasionally listen to after installing the superbright LED. No issue with bluetooth either. Sorry, but I have not checked AM stations or any weak radio stations.

Any luck chasing down the source of the oil leak?

So, after making two changes in my bike's setup, I'm going to leave it as-is for a while. So far I think I've solved my main issue of nosediving during a relatively quick stop. #1, added 6psi to the front forks. #2, replaced stock front calipers with a set of R6 4-piston calipers (thoroughly cleaned, painted silver and rebuilt w/ new seals, just waiting on new ebc HH pads, using what they came with for now). I'm not sure which of the two makes the bigger difference for me, but with the stock brakes, never felt like I had good feel or modulation (terminology?) of them. It was either not enough brake power or stabbing them hard, causing the nosedive. And in retrospect, I had not changed the fluid since I bought the bike, so that might have been part of the issue as it was a bit on the brown side. In any case, I now have brakes that have good feel and I can modulate the pressure better. Will see how she handles with a few more rides, but between the brake upgrade, increased fork pressure and lowering the front end 1/2", it really feels like a different (better) bike and I love her even more!

That could well be the origin of it and would make sense. It was going on long before I arrived. Here's a good article on it. https://www.kqed.org/news/11680481/10-things-you-need-to-know-to-understand-lane-splitting-in-california

I've lived in CA since '89 and when I first moved here, I thought motorcyclists were nuts for splitting lanes. Then I started riding and found the perspective from inside the car is dramatically different than on a motorcycle. There is much more room than you realize. That said, there are speeds and circumstances where it is not safe. When I had my 1st venture in the early 2000's, I had no problem splitting lanes, even with my wife on the back. But, this was with traffic at a near stop or a crawl and I was not going much faster myself. I have not done any lane splitting since getting back into riding last year. I no longer commute and not sure I would trust today's drivers who care more about their phones than anything else, didn't have that issue back in the day. Somewhere back in my faded memory cells it seems that a cop told me that lane splitting wasn't technically legal, but the law allows two vehicles in one lane if they safely fit, or something like that, so if you were not being safe (i.e. weaving in & out of lanes @ high speed) could still be ticketed. The only close call I can remember was going to work one morning and someone opened their door to dump out their cold coffee one car ahead of me. I'm pretty sure he did not look before doing so. As a side note, I was nearly hit by a distracted driver today on my bicycle! She missed my rear wheel by about a foot. I was going through a 4-way stop, she was rolling up seemingly ready to stop, looked to her right, didn't see any cars and blasted through the stop sign - right at me! I tried to speed up & yelled to get her attention to which she got the OH SH** look and swerved around me. All my prior years of motorcycle riding taught me to be defensive and anticipate such an event. A murphy's law approach that if a driver can do something stupid, they will - expect and plan for it. Glad I didn't take my eyes off of her because she never saw me.

I did the same, except turned the cassette into a storage cubby & added a phone holder that is tied to 12v inside the fairing. It has a USB charging port that I plug right into the phone. I stream either straight from tunes stored on the phone or Pandora over BT.

From the true and official office of the organization of redundancy department, herein referred to as TOOORD. 😉

I think I have the same one, from F4 customs, without the vent. Wish I had the vent.

I'd offer to come help, but we're on opposite coasts and I just saw in you're profile you're a caterpillar mechanic so you'd probably want to bop me on the head with a wrench in no time! You should be fine. Very much worth the time/effort.

Agree. I can also now walk my bike around in the garage like it weighs 100 lbs less. With some practice, I was getting pretty good at low speed handling before lowering. Some good videos out there on how to do that.

It's a fairly big job, to be sure. I removed the tank to protect it. You will have to remove windshield, split the front fairing, pull the inner fairing away, etc. Search the site, there are some instructions on how to do it.

Lowering the front end by raising forks in triple tree will also help. I just recently did mine, lowered by 1/2", others have done more but I'm happy w/ the results and can sit flat footed at a stop light now. I would not have believed that lowering by 1/2" would make such a difference on the top heavy feel, but it does. I didn't expect that, was mainly going for being flat footed at stop.

I had a similar issue with a low-mileage 07 RSV that sat for a long time. In the end, the carbs were all gunked up, causing a lean running condition, which made it run hot. I believe there was also an issue with one of the diaphrams. A carb rebuild solved my problem.

Thanks guys! I'm starting to lean towards the progressives.

where did you install the sensor?

So y'all got me doing more research on progressive vs linear rate springs and now I'm just more confused than ever. But, my layman's take on it is that linear springs are best for racing so that you have a consistent feel through the fork compression, making it more predictable. I see that being of value in running this beast through twisties. On the other hand, progressive will give a more comfortable ride soaking up smaller bumps on the road and give more resistance to bottoming on a hard hit. Why did you chose progressive springs over linear? Do you still get front end dive on hard braking, or at least less dive than stock? That's my main goal. If I can get other benefits of better twisties handling, that's great but not my main goal as that would just make me want to go faster and do something stupider.