Good news on the brakes front: I went home at lunch time, and the brake lever was still tight, with no indication of leaks in the system. I think five hours at pressure should be sufficient to prove the system sealed.

These are details of the upper and lower banjo fittings. The upper is a 90 degree fitting oriented exactly opposite to the way the OEM 60 degree fitting was. This lets me put the brake line up between the triple trees immediately, and carry them down near the front of the fork leg.




I took the opportunity, while I was home, to do just a bit more disassembly towards the rear shock install. The pannier lugs came off, as did the side plastics. I had removed the right side muffler this morning, and I sprayed and loosened the nut holding the left side muffler just now. I also sprayed the joint between the pipes, and gave the rubber/steel hanging interface a bit of grease. This evening I can pull the muffler and proceed to raise the subframe.

Here's a picture of how I held the subframe up for the shock change. I used a ratcheting strap between the cargo rack and the handlebars. Instead of following the official directions to completely pull the subframe, you can easily remove just the lower two bolts, loosen the other two a bit, and swivel the whole thing up. Watch the electrics! You need to move a few things out of the way to avoid damaging them.