not sure what you mean unbroken? ~ blender/cycles is evolving constantly (sometimes I think too fast or maybe I'm slow/old lol )

ps NICE work on the forks but that level of detail on a full bike and most "poser/ds" users wont be able to use it ! I know they should upgrade a little ;-)

I normally set samples to about 500 # more if I think I need it (lots of reflections and glass) but set clamping on indirect light will help with fireflys , but numbers depends on scene, start with about 5 NOT .5 then interpolate on a logarithmic scale