What determines how much slippage will happen? To me it still leaves an unsettled feeling about the reliability of my bike. Obviously the slippage problem has been noted in quite a few cases by members of this web site. Is it being ignored because the overall numbers are small enough that the Mo Co can use their typical denial tactic?
I feel like it is half a fix. It may also simply forestall the problem and mask it until several thousand miles down the road.
That's a great question. Don't know the answer. I'm pretty confident that the liner movement is the root cause for the majority of leaks. The first revised gasket changed the nature of where the leak appeared, but didn't solve it. The new gasket, while not fixing the liner issue, at least does a better job of maintaining an oil-tight seal while allowing the liner / cylinder mismatch to occur to a degree.
Steel and aluminum expand a different rates when heated, so differing amounts of movement for the steel linner and aluminum cylinder is inevitable. Hopefully they'll figure out how to keep the liner tops flush with the cylinder castings so these leaks won't be a problem any more on the 110's.
They seem to have a handle on it for the other models, just not the 110's. A new cylinder design for the 110's is the obvious answer, but they'll keep going with new gaskets until it's proven that they can't solve, or hide, it with gaskets.
