Repairing and reviewing your motorcycles strengths and weaknesses

As many on TD have a motorcycle/scooter as a first or second form of transport, I was wondering how many encounter inheritant model specific problems and how many do their own repairs. Also what are the pros and cons of your motorcycle and where does it shine? Around town in traffic or out on a dusty track? Good or bad for short and long trips?
As I do all my own mechanical repairs on my motorcycles, I will start with my latest repair. The starter clutch replacement. ( Approx 6 hours from start to finish). The new bearing has been beefed up since the original. My costs to repair $300 (6,000 baht) including oil. Quoted $1250.00 AUD from Yamaha dealer for repair.(approx 25,000 baht)



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The starter clutch is a known weakness on the Vstar 1100. Thankfully about the only one. This is the faulty bearing that was replaced.
The bike itself is a good cruising bike and handles quite well for a large bike, even at low speed, although a bit big for lane filtering. The motor is smooth and reliable with adequate power to get you to the legal limit. Its shaft driven and very reliable as you would expect on a Japanese bike. The seat is large and comfortable for some long rides although the upright seating position may not suit some. There is absolutely no storage so panniers are a neccessary item.

Good for you doing your own maintenance. I do what I can for convenience but I don't take wheels off. I have a bloody awesome performance bike mechanic just 25mins away run by a Thai guy with his father and brothers. They do an excellent standard of work, their shop is spotless clean and they are all really passionate about bikes. The thing is, I take my bike in and when I get my bill it is always ridiculously cheap. I think they must be laundering money through this place or some shit cos they all have very, very expensive toys.

I have my Hypermotard 939 for round town. It's a Ducati, it rides like there's something wrong with it. They all do. But it's beautiful, a show bike and a real head turner.

For anything resembling proper riding including my 15min commute to my work's yard I'm on the Speed Triple, which runs, rides and handles absolutely flawlessly in every way.

Panniers or saddlebags are gay, I prefer to strap a kayaking bag to the back seat with a spider bungee or a tank bag at a push.

We have a Honda dream 110cc Cub, affectionately known as the yellow peril. It's 8 years old now and maintenance is done at home or village. It has drum brakes front and rear, which makes it simple to maintain. Mainly used to go back and forth to the farm with occasional trips to market or doctor about 25 km away.

Four stroke single used for pottering doesn't warrant discs...

A friend of mine has a hypermotard not sure what year or model as they aren't my flavour although i do like the Penegale. Says it costs him a fortune every time Ducati touches it. I heard the early 2000 triumphs had a few problems but the later ones are quite good. I was thinking of a Sprint for my second bike. Any thoughts? Other alternatives are K1200 RT, Honda ST 1300. The Vstar Yamaha is good as a cruiser for a 100k/m or so but I like a decent fairing and panniers for long distance overnighters.

^ Was that due to Ducati desmo valve system? I heard they were a pain to adjust. I guess the modern bike doesn't have the same problems with valves that used to affect them in my time. Kawasaki used shims in those days so couldn't service at home, unlike the older tappet system on the Hondas I had.

Why the Ducati desmodronic valve system (which I believe was originally invented by norton) is expensive to service.
While the idea originally was to overcome the problem with valve springs at higher revs the improvement has been fairly negated by the improvement in modern valve springs, although there are still some smaller mechanical losses than in valve springs, it's probably insignificent to the average biker unless racing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyPFJFXbGrg