Well I think I finally found a shop in my area that does good work. Since I have three bikes there is always something that needs to be done. I have started taking more and more work to them.
Recently it was the XS1100. It needed a new front tire for sure. The old tire tread was okay but the sidewall was cracked and about ready to go. They replaced it with a Dunlop D404F 100/90-19 57H.
While the 1100 was already in the shop I asked them to take a look the front end. The bike tends to drift down the road and it also pulls in some weird ways if you hit a bump while in a corner. They confirmed the wheel bearings front and bake are okay. They ended up loosing the steering bearing nuts. I have never messed with these that I am aware of so the previously owner must have over tightened them, or at least they tightened up over time. I have yet to go on a longer trip with the bike so I cant say for sure that helped. I can confirm that the steering is much easier to turn from one extreme to the other. I didnt realize it before but previously it hung up at a couple points along the travel.
I also had them patch up a leaky final drive bolt. This one I can squarly blame on myself. When I was changing the gear oil this year I determined that the rear drive was stripped out so that the drain plug would not torque down. I vaguely remember this from the last time changed the gear oil. At some point I must have over tightened it and stripped it out. Well I got the bolt in place best I could but it was still seeping gear oil.
The shop ended up putting in a heli-coil. I was unfamiliar with these things. Apparently you drill out the hole, thread it for this heli-coil insert, then install the heli-coil. This gives you new threads to install your regular bolt into. My new drain plug is still magnetic which is a plus. It does not seem to be leaking at all now so thats a good sign. I will inspect this closer the next time I change out my final drive gear oil.
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