Hi Carmine, the bail failures on kirbys are minimal in contrast to the hoover convertible,how many bails did you replace because of breakage on the left hand side of the fork where the casting got thin and broke at the same spot?I use dto do do at least 10 a week in the old days,it seems like every uprights weak spots at the pivot point between the handle and the base of the machine.It seemed that the older kirbys without the transmissin wre more prone to breakage that the G series uprights.
I see a lot of handle grip breakage on these machines than bail fork failures.The harder people are on the vacuum the more stuff they can break, most repairs come under misuse and abuse,than just parts wearing out.
H.S. i dont agree with you about the kirby on bare floors,these machine really do quite well on bare floor surfaces, I agree about the attachment use though they really need on board attachments,but would have to redesign the whole system from front to back. Dont think thats ever going to happen...........
MOLE