The CB1100 Community Forum

Enter #5 to Harlan’s Conversion Shop. This one is former Riverside County Sheriff. The side cases said “Proudly Serving Moreno Valley”.

After a full mechanical service, she’ll get the decal livery, lights and cameras. Plus a new windshield after a life of sandblasting on Inland Empire highways. Oddly, this is the most visually worn and highest mileage, yet is the smoothest shifting bike so far.

This business is expanding quite quickly. It occurred to me to wonder why the owner has gone for such large bikes. Surely something like your NC750 would be more manageable in traffic?

(05-24-2026, 05:35 PM)Cormanus Wrote: [ -> ]This business is expanding quite quickly. It occurred to me to wonder why the owner has gone for such large bikes. Surely something like your NC750 would be more manageable in traffic?

There are a lot of good reasons why the BMW RTP is a perfect bike for our purposes. 

The traditional European Blood Bikes are BMWs, and ready-made decal kits for the R1200 and R1250 police models are easily purchased by an English company called Blue Line. This morning, I inspected all of the parts of the kit for bike #5 to make sure everything was there. The decals cover the body panels and the police-specific side cases. This will turn a black-and-white bike bright, reflective yellow. We certainly can't be missed in traffic!

As the California Highway Patrol and many L.A. area police departments use BMWs, California drivers recognize these bikes as a vehicle with some authority and give them room for the most part. In fact riding one like this that's still in black-and-white is somewhat annoying, as many drivers ahead of me will slow ahead of me assuming that I'm trolling for speeders to issue citations to. One of the first things I like to do is install the front-facing decals, so that the yellow and red graphics break up the "cop look". I won't be able to do that to #5 here until I meet up with someone from FB Marketplace who's going to sell me a near-new used windshield, as #5's is pretty blasted with sand pitting.

As big as the BMW looks, the police (RTP) models are made for sliding through traffic. They have narrower side cases than a standard RT touring model, and even with the front and rear crash bars no part of the bike projects any further out than the side mirrors. So when you're gauging width for lane splitting, if the mirrors fit, the whole bike will. And those mirrors are positioned low, perfect to fit below truck mirrors that stick out further than car mirrors. Plus, all of that bodywork up front blocks wind and rain to most of the rider (with the electric windshield in full-upright position) for long-distance comfort. A typical riding day for any of our riders and me can be 200-300 miles, most of which are bombing along at pretty high freeway speeds, and it's nice to not be exhausted at the end of the day. 

Also, low-speed handling is unbelievably easy. I can turn these bikes in a tighter circle than anything I've ever ridden. They're surprisingly nimble. I rember being petrified when I arrived for "a nice casual ride to get acquainted", arriving on my CB1100, and finding out that I was expected to take one of the BMWs headlong into heavy traffic. I quickly realized that the size is not a factor once you're moving and felt at ease within minutes. 

Finally, maintenance is a breeze. Shaft drive and single-side swingarm mean no chain service and easy rear wheel removal. The cylinders hanging out both sides mean easy valve inspections. The battery can be removed easily behind one side panel. Oddly however, nearly all of the front and tank bodywork needs to be removed to access the air cleaner. They had to make something difficult. 

These are used machines that led hard lives before we got them, and they're not perfect. One bike got to the end of my block and would not respond to throttle input. With no time to spare, I nursed it back to my garage, transferred the thermal bags to my NC750, and took off for my day of deliveries. After about 250 miles, I was a bit worn out. The NC has some wind protection with a touring windshield but not nearly the "car on 2 wheels" effect that the BMW offers. I was very happy that my trusty Superbird saved the day, but it really showed me how well-suited the BMW is to our purposes. A quick Google search led me to wiggle the cable connection to the ride-by-wire throttle on the BMW, which is prone to working loose occaisionally. That turned out to be an easy fix thankfully.

That all makes good sense. Thanks, Gone.

good night that's a lot of decals to affix.

Yup, and turns out a few are missing. It’s pretty relaxing, like building a three-dimensional puzzle.

(05-26-2026, 06:49 AM)the Ferret Wrote: [ -> ]good night that's a lot of decals to affix.

Also, what you're looking at are layers of decals... each one is a base of neon yellow with one or more reflective decals on top of the base ones, each carefully taped in place. 
Amazes me that they go to the time and effort to make the kits that way. Must take quite a long time.

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So far, I've seen our other Blood Riders on the opposite side of the freeways. Makes sense, as we're all going to the same end point right now, a research clinic in "The Valley". But yesterday I had the very unique experience of having one of our other riders come up behind me in very tight, almost gridlocked traffic on the 101 (What we call the Hollywood Freeway). I've been modifying the bikes with LED headlight bulbs and yellow LED auxiliary lights, along with the yellow decal kits. 

What initially caught my eye in the mirror were the bright headlights and yellow LEDs. And they were on full solid, whereas I would have them in flasher mode in traffic. Saw him at almost a 1/4 mile behind me as we were both threading our way slowly between the near-stopped cars. It was a great sort of "proof of concept" that even being semi-cheap LEDs from Amazon are still extremely eye-catching. I love the kit, bascally two lights, a controller, a switch, and they all plug together with only power and ground needed. And the headlight bulbs, also cheap, thankfully don't trip up the BMW's very German CAN-Bus "don't you dare make any modifications" electronics.

I've been on #5, still in black/white "ex cop" mode and haven't had much time to do more than mechanical work, chasing some cold-start and idle gremlins. But, seeing the other bike in the mirror made me stay up late last night to get the new lights on her, and to give her a "bloody nose" with the yellow windshield decals to catch some eyeballs. The rest of the decal kit will have to wait for more idle time.

Had from 1:30 to the evening free, so time to take the DR650 out...











Back home by 8pm.

Breathtakingly beautiful landscape; perfect motorcycle for taking it all in. David

Wow, Pdedse, continuing to make me jealous with all of the beauty around your area! I'd love to get up there... someday...

Superbird was busy this weekend. I had hoped to take my CB1100 to the Petersen's annual Japanese Cruise In. This dovetails with a huge Japanese car show in Long Beach, and other than private fund raisers, is the largest public event of the museum's year. It's crazy-hectic, but I love seeing what people bring. However, my boss told me that there wasn't an inch to spare in the show area, which occupies the upper two levels of the museum's four-level garage. 

I was a bit crestfallen, but that was short-lived as the need to do some hauling of stuff to our cousin's place just a few miles from the museum made it more practical to take Superbird and her top and side cases. Just as well to park her in the general motorcycle area at the bottom of the museum garage as the CB. As I rolled Superbird out of the garage and was attaching the top and side boxes, a neighbor quipped "Must be nice to ride one of your own bikes on the weekend, huh?" That is true. While the BMWs spoil me, I do love my own rides more.

Met some friends at the show, and among all of the really cool entries, both four and two-wheeled, was one of my "Guilty Pleasure" cars. A Toyota Century V12 Limo. 
I have "I'd kill for" cars - McQueen's Jaguar, a supercharged Duesenberg...
I have "Desert Island" cars - '71 Plymouth Road Runner, '57 Eldorado Brougham
"Guilty Pleasure" cars are what I'd have if I had an imaginary unlimited garage that could continue to expand to hold them. And an imaginary budget to go with it.

Also took the 'Bird to meet up with my former boss (from the drag racing organization that shuttered at the end of '24 ending my 20-year tenure). He's also one of my closest friends, but with us both reorganizing our lives after the closure, and both of us going through fits and starts with new jobs, we hadn't seen each other in all of that time. It was wonderful to catch up and to learn that we're both doing quite well and are happy over a year after the unfortunate demise of our business. 

Lunch took me through Santiago Canyon, a popular windy two-lane with the local moto-crowd. Hadn't been through there in a while!