Well, I managed to get the rear wheel back from powdercoating early Saturday morning, drive to another state to get my tire swapped, and save a ride with Dad this weekend.
I thought I had the radiator problem nicked, but it reared its head again pretty much all weekend. Coolant would spray out of the radiator cap, eventually almost emptying the radiator and causing the bike to run warm. It also wouldn't pull from the expansion tank. I took to just topping off the radiator every 150 miles or so, and the bike continued to run well.
On my way home last night, I was getting really frustrated. I pulled into a gas station to top off the radiator again, and when I opened the side cover, I decided to mess with the expansion tank for some reason. I thought the cap was tight, but I tried to tighten it some more. It kinda popped (I thought I had stripped the threads) but then tightened up. Kicked myself a little bit for not trying this before, and rode the rest of the way home with no coolant spraying out, and the bike running considerably cooler. Man, sometimes it's the stupid stuff.
I may still have an unrelated cooling issue, but it's better than it was...more investigation on that front coming this week. I made the mistake of loaning out my bike jack to a friend to help lift an unwieldy gas tank back up under his truck, and I haven't seen it in a few days...might have to go snag that back.
Overall, I had a blast on the bike this weekend. Still racking up miles, still working out kinks, but it's coming along pretty well. I stopped at Wedge Brewing in Asheville yesterday evening and spent awhile poking around the bikes hanging out there. Really cool stuff.