During my little expedition I found assembly errors!
Those vent tubes were both kinked beyond recognition when I pulled the tank up! As best I could tell simply lowering the tank placed the vents in a position that wadded them up and both had two severe kinks which likely hindered operation. When I picked the tank up all was good so I held there for a long while and nothing leaked. Nothing. Then I straightened the kinks from the tubing and water smelling of gas instantly made a 3" puddle!
What I learned from this is to pull the tubes back towards the rear of the bike through the opening in the frame like this as you lower the tank to prevent kinking the vent hoses on both sides:
Here you can see the kinks:
It was water I smelled it and ran my fingers though it. It did smell of gas but was by no means gas. Almost a rust color too! Don't be kinky folks, pull the hose back when you drop the tank. You should be able to see them though the frame openings as shown in the first picture.
Hopefully this helps someone else!
As for the other thing I found, the ground cable was not secured in the battery tray properly. I didn't look like it could touch anything it was just sloppy. Oh - and remember this bike is new to me as of 3 days ago w/ 4,188 miles on it. The good news is the oil was dark but nothing scary on our first oil change together (bonding you know! lol). No chunks, one sliver of metal shaving but it seemed OK. . . .
Thoughts:
1) I'm thinking on a full tank doing a non stop run if they didn't let air in the tank (might have valves to prevent this, IDK?), it could cause issues fuel starvation issues and running lean if the vents are plugged.
2) In the sun the tank may not vent enough and build pressure. Doubt it would leak past the injectors tho. . .
3) Both tubes had accumulated moisture. I'm not sure why this would happen other than heating and cooling cycles pulling in moisture. Add to that it was trapped and me moving it allow the moisture to come out.
