The CB1100 Community Forum

Wow, Tev, what a cool trip! That makes me think about all of the MotoQuest emails I get about taking one of their luxury travel-and-ride trips. I'd really like to do that someday. Looking forward to more updates!

Somewhere there's a German engineer who thought he had gotten the best of me today.

I checked my delivery app last night before I went to bed, and nothing was lined up for Berta and me today. Checked again when I woke up this morning, and still nothing. Texted the boss, who confirmed we didn't have any deliveries for the day. I suggested that Berta needed a little more love. We didn't have a full maintenance history on her since the boss bought her for our medical delivery fleet. I changed the oil and flushed the brake fluid late last week, but had to wrap it up for an afternoon delivery. With down-time today, we decided that my time would be well spent doing the rest of the work I was able to in the garage to get a base line to start from on maintenance history. That meant an air filter, spark plugs, differential oil and a valve check. 

I saddled up Superbird and her now copious luggage capacity and headed to Long Beach BMW. Not the closest dealer, but the closest one open on a Monday. Walking in, I was immediately tempted by this:
[attachment=1176]

But, with a full garage, plus one bike at Mom's and another in a friend's garage, adding something else was not even a consideration.
Back home with parts, I set to work, and grabbed a YouTube video to figure out how to access the air filter for replacement. Basically, all of the forward bodywork needs to come off along with panels on the gas tank to access the four screws on top of the air box, which is located forward of the gas cap . Some of that bodywork required the removal of the police-spec crash bars forward of the cylinders, and the four screws on the air box were further obscured by a rail on the handlebar for mounting of former police communications stuff. 

Lots of T-25 screws, plastic body panels, tugging, pulling and praying later, I had access to the air box and changed the filter. Putting everything back together, I only had two screws left over. Not bad!
[attachment=1177]

The diff oil change and valve check were a breeze compared to the air filter. Mrs. G came home in the afternoon, just as I was finishing up the bike and tidying the garage. She gave me a gift! It's her tradition to give me a bell every time I take on a new bike, and the work bike was no exception. Now I'll be safe!
[attachment=1178]

Very nice work and the temptress motorcycle is lovely. Mrs. G is a good woman who clearly lovers her man. David

(03-24-2026, 02:24 AM)rdprdp01 Wrote: [ -> ]Very nice work and the temptress motorcycle is lovely. Mrs. G is a good woman who clearly lovers her man. David

Yes she does, David! And I’m very lucky. I just attached the bell with a zip-tie, as I’ll have to say bye bye to Berta in a few days for another bike, and the bell will be transferred.

Speaking of lovely orange bikes, we might be getting some storage in my area for the company bikes soon, meaning my orange Enfield can come home from our friend’s garage.

It was funny… yesterday while I was working in the garage, our neighbors across the street were playing with their very young son. Seems it was his birthday and I thought that he’d probably be thrilled to come sit on a big yellow ex police motorcycle.

They thanked me but said he’s currently “going through his trash truck phase”. Seems every young boy is fascinated by the local trash truck for a while. (We confirmed this with friends who also have a three year old boy)

The neighbors said when he moves on to his motorcycle phase they’re sure he’ll want to sit on the bike and go vroom-vroom.

I'm enjoying reading about your new adventure, Gone.  Love that the great cornholio adorns your garage wall 

This brought back nightmares of my BMW ownership and the fun of my 1960 Anglia. I had that Anglia for ten years and had so many left-over screws, I could have built another car. Every time I'd fix something, I'd have screws left over and it never seemed to make any difference - still ran and worked fine. I decided they were just built with extra screws or something. I had two BMWs over the last ten years, and I swear they each had thirty thousand teeny-tiny screws that had to be removed just to get to anything. They were obviously not made for the person who likes to change his own oil or anything that might involve getting his or her hands dirty. Gone, you are obviously a man who loves a challenge.
The bell is a beautiful touch and a nice reminder that someone loves you and wants you home for supper.

I can vouch for this.  We lived in AZ for our son's first 3 and half years.  Probably when he was around 2 he noticed the recycle trash truck with it's big arm that would swing out, grap the container and deposit the contents n the back.  He was hooked.  From then on we'd try to plan Tuesday mornings so that he could watch the process. 

(03-24-2026, 07:50 AM)Gone in 60 Wrote: [ -> ]It was funny… yesterday while I was working in the garage, our neighbors across the street were playing with their very young son. Seems it was his birthday and I thought that he’d probably be thrilled to come sit on a big yellow ex police motorcycle.

They thanked me but said he’s currently “going through his trash truck phase”. Seems every young boy is fascinated by the local trash truck for a while. (We confirmed this with friends who also have a three year old boy)

The neighbors said when he moves on to his motorcycle phase they’re sure he’ll want to sit on the bike and go vroom-vroom.

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(03-24-2026, 12:12 AM)Gone in 60 Wrote: [ -> ]...Texted the boss, who confirmed we didn't have any deliveries for the day. I suggested that Berta needed a little more love. We didn't have a full maintenance history on her since the boss bought her for our medical delivery fleet. ...

That's cool that he let's you work on the bike, but a little surprising--not that anyone is doubting your skills to do so.  It just seems that companies are so liability-focused.  In reality, you as the rider, are the one who is most interested in having that bike in tip-top shape, and would likely take the most care in that everything is done well.

(03-24-2026, 09:31 AM)pdedse Wrote: [ -> ]That's cool that he let's you work on the bike, but a little surprising--not that anyone is doubting your skills to do so.  It just seems that companies are so liability-focused.  In reality, you as the rider, are the one who is most interested in having that bike in tip-top shape, and would likely take the most care in that everything is done well.

My thoughts too, but also why I do all of my own maintenance as well. I've seen what some shops are like, they LOVE impact wrenches... and in reality I'm already putting myself in a more risky situation riding a motorcycle to begin with. I don't need some shop tech rushing the work on my bike just because its end of the work week on Friday, that then causes something to go wrong on my bike and put me at more risk. 
Plus, I do enjoy wrenching and learning more about motorcycles.

I finished my Boise area trip.

Begin Day 5

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/its-a...t-54581117

Ola, ID




Day 6: Return to Leslie Gulch

https://www.advrider.com/f/threads/its-a...t-54589651







With new suspension on the DR and getting it adjusted, the bike feels really solid on the non-paved surfaces.  

6 days of sublime riding that is likely my best "un-asphalt" focused trip.

(03-24-2026, 09:31 AM)pdedse Wrote: [ -> ]I can vouch for this.  We lived in AZ for our son's first 3 and half years.  Probably when he was around 2 he noticed the recycle trash truck with it's big arm that would swing out, grap the container and deposit the contents n the back.  He was hooked.  From then on we'd try to plan Tuesday mornings so that he could watch the process.

- Ha! Yes, our neighbors bring their son out when they hear the trash truck coming. In our case, it's emptying four large dumpsters out in our parking area, so there's lots of mechanical theater, banging and howling from the truck, and little Mateo seems to love it. When the truck goes past him he waves and the driver honks.

pdedse

That's cool that he let's you work on the bike, but a little surprising--not that anyone is doubting your skills to do so.  It just seems that companies are so liability-focused.  In reality, you as the rider, are the one who is most interested in having that bike in tip-top shape, and would likely take the most care in that everything is done well.

- I very much appreciate the level of trust the owner has put in me regarding my riding and mechanical skills, as well as having me train the new riders. Our plan when I started was to have me be the first full-time rider, then train new guys, then become our "Chief Rider", in charge of the fleet of bikes and supervising the riders. Since we've had some down time, I offered to do some much-needed work on the bike I'm riding, and his response was "that's not in your original job description but I'd love it if you did it". Basically if I'm being paid a salary and we have down time, I can either twiddle my thumbs or work on the bikes. 

This trust is 180 out from my last job. He's basically telling me "Hey, you've got this, I'm going to go grow the business." I've spent the last year being micro-managed, second-guessed, and afraid to blow my nose without an approved work order. I'm finding this very refreshing.  

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(03-24-2026, 08:51 AM)Nachodaddy Wrote: [ -> ]This brought back nightmares of my BMW ownership and the fun of my 1960 Anglia. I had that Anglia for ten years and had so many left-over screws, I could have built another car. Every time I'd fix something, I'd have screws left over and it never seemed to make any difference - still ran and worked fine. I decided they were just built with extra screws or something. I had two BMWs over the last ten years, and I swear they each had thirty thousand teeny-tiny screws that had to be removed just to get to anything. They were obviously not made for the person who likes to change his own oil or anything that might involve getting his or her hands dirty. Gone, you are obviously a man who loves a challenge.
The bell is a beautiful touch and a nice reminder that someone loves you and wants you home for supper.

Ha! I was thinking about having my last BMW worked on for warranty or recall repairs. I went to two different dealerships for these, and no matter which it was, when I got my bike back, I'd have holes with missing screws, and have to go get the service manager to count up how many were missing, put them in my hand and I'd say "thanks, but I'll put them in myself."

As I put each piece of the RTP back together, I stared intently at every location where I removed a screw, and for the life of me, I swear I didn't miss any holes. But, yeah, two screws left over. I just came back from the daily runs and nothing was rattling or loose, so she must be OK. Plus, being a used police bike, she had been taken apart and put back together more than a few times, probably by the same dealers I used to use, so despite BMW using three different types of body mounting screws, which I'm sure are supposed to be used in very specific locations, when I pulled them out, they were pretty random.

I did gamble and lose, however. I reused the old valve cover gaskets when I checked the valves yesterday, and before I left my last stop, I gave the cylinders a wipe with a clean paper towel and they're seeping oil. So, stopped back at the dealer on the way home, picked up some new valve cover gaskets, and drooled on that orange R12 again...