Thanks, Dave. The oil temp. gauge idea was sparked mainly out of my curiosity. I always wondered what temps I would hit on a longer jaunt or even in stop and go traffic with quite a bit of idling at those long red lights. You ain't lyin about those high revs though. This bike does sound quite amazing!
As far as the O-rings failing on my like that, I figured they would have at least started with a small leak and not a deluge such as it did.
But I suppose there is a huge chunk of the story I didn't really want to mention but here goes. Let's just say that I had uh...*ahem* one hell of a Sunday.
I never really had a destination, I just wanted to get out, ride and have a good time. After making it through those roller coaster hills I decided to stop at a gas station. I was going to top off the tank, then turn her around and do it all over again.
I geared back up, checked her all over after that awesome run through the hills and fired her up. I hopped back onto the road and made it about 200 yards away as I made a turn onto the highway that would eventually spit me back onto those hilly country roads. As I was leaning into the turn, I no longer felt any engine vibration under me. The bike stalled out.
I thought, "OK, just steady her out then bring her upright." I had no choice but to finish the turn and I figured I had more than enough speed with me to coast over to the shoulder. As I was about 70% of the way through the turn, the rear tire came out from under me like I was sliding on ice. That moment happened extremely fast. I only caught a glimpse of my bike as it slid away from me down the road. I was now laid out on a highway with traffic behind me.
Fortunately for me, I fell relatively close to the shoulder and was able to crawl out of the way. Fortunately for my bike, (and the driver behind me) he was maintaining a good distance and avoided steamrolling my Maxim which had also ended up just short of the shoulder. I popped up off my ass, picked her up, and rolled her off the road.
I looked back at the turn I was making and noticed a trail of fluid. The rush was still going strong so I propped her up on the center stand and this is when I noticed oil POURING out of the oil filter cover. I looked over the tires and saw that the back tire was ABSOLUTLEY lathered up with what seemed like all of the bike's oil. I looked back up the road towards the gas station and saw that the oil trail started a good ways back.
At that point, I felt real tired so I just chilled out for a bit. My left knee, my left arm, the left side of my butt and my left hand were thumpin pretty good from the impact. I looked over myself and noticed the polymer sliders on the heel of my left glove were ground down pretty good but did their job. They could probably handle another round if they had to. The armored knuckles on my gloves were lightly scratched up but did their job as well. My pants were not ripped or damaged. My jacket did not show any signs of damage. The armor plate in my forearm sleeve left a red mark on my skin from being pressed into it but did not hurt me. I don't think my helmet contacted the road as there were no visible signs of damage but I am not 100% sure. I didn't sustain any road rash.
So all in all, my rear tire was soaking up every drop that oil leak had to give as I road away from the gas station.
My bike surprisingly suffered no major damage. I have a bent gear shifter but I was still able to shift it into neutral(new one on order). The foot rest hyperextended then simply came off as I tried to bend it back. I may have to get another mount for the foot rest but I think I can save it as is. The handlebars look fine but they are tilted up by about 6 inches. I think I will simply be able to loosen them and then reset them. The plastic that extends passed the left handle grip was shaved down at a 45 degree angle all the way down to the outer edge of the rubber grip. The rear left directional light was bent upward but still works and I was able to level it back out. Talk about a bullet proof bike. Whew! All that over 9 dollars worth of O-rings.