At the historic LeMans circuit in France, Repsol Honda riders Mark Marquez and Dani Pedrosa had a character building event. Marquez eventually placed fourth despite starting in pole position and Pedrosa showed considerable courage to finish the event following a crash, considering his recent surgery.

A little bit further south in Europe meanwhile, team Honda – RedMoto – Zanardo had a lot to celebrate at the GP of Portugal. Alex Salvini won the E2 class of the FIM Enduro World Championship qualifier on the first day of competition and was again placed on the podium on the Sunday. He was the fastest rider on four tests on day one, improving to 5 on day two, in the CRF 450R Enduro.

The Castrol Honda team returned to the podium on the latest round of the World Touring Car Championship at the Nurburgring. Tiago Monteiro equalled his season best finish with second place in Germany. Gabriele Tarquini also finished in the points.

Get more details at http://www.iRaceHonda.com

I actually have two . To me they are quintessential to the CB. The tail light (that many hate), and the awesome green faces of the speedo & tach. As I keep looking at my bike I often wonder what clues, and nods to the past I'm missing or am unaware off. So I thought I'd ask what visual feature really does it for you on this bike.

I just finished a 650 mile trip to the White Mountains this past weekend. It was the 21st annual trip with this group. We had two CB's-my 2013 and a 2014. Both bikes attracted much attention. The size and power appealed to the older members of our group who are finding the dressers to be a bit heavy in the parking lot. There were many guesses as to the vintage of the CB's which was fun.

The bike has enough power at all speeds to keep up and pass cars. It was remarkably stable in the 40-45 MPH gusty winds. 4000 RPM at 70mph in 5th gear. As advised, I constantly ran through the gears as part of the break in and 70mph in 3rd gear did not challenge the bike.

That being said, I wonder how the Power Commander or new pipes will help the performance. I love the Air Hawk 2 and the Rox 2" adjustable handlebar risers. I still think I might like handlebars to be a bit taller, however. There is not much room to place holders for radios, fuzz busters etc. I dumped the drink holder after the first 20 miles. The bars are just too shallow to accommodate it. Kept scratching my tank.

Anyway, here i am, over packed but ready for a successful trip. As much as I worried about highway pegs, with and without the wind I hardly used them. At 6'2", my position on the bike was perfect using the regular pegs.

I am so happy with this bike. I have never enjoyed riding a bike so much-ever. (I did wear a helmet)

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Ok I searched, honestly, I saw lots of references to Kaw Gators and some nice pictures. But I finally have to break down and just ask.
Specifically which model of kawasaki gators fit the CB. And how are they installed? I'm thinking front wheel off and slip up to place?

This is photoshopped, but will give you an idea of how it will look. The Kawasaki eblem has to go! lol

Parking the CB1100 next to the CB750 tonight I noticed the rack on the 750 looked like it might just fit the 1100. It isn't anything special, but would get me by until I had the cash to buy a better solution.



I pulled the rack from the 750 and the seat from the 1100 and did the eye ball check. The bolt pattern was right. Angle wasn't great but it was only to be a temp solution.







So I went for it. The side brackets were going to hit the tube but I found swapping sides gave me clearance and more stuff to unbolt. I had to drop the fender and pull the turn signal wiring.





Looked great up to this point. But I didn't want to start putting it back together right away and went to test fit the seat. This is where it came to a halt. The rack was in the way of getting the seat back into position.





After that I put everything back to the stock configuration. Guess it's time to figure out if I'm designing/building my own rack or buying one.

I could use a recomendation on where to find an aux power source for my gps I am highly directionaly challenged and would love to have one mounted somehow on the bike. Some velcro on and off configuration. Maybe an ear plug.

Washed, waxed, and polished the old bike today. Then, took it for a ride to the summit for some pics.

What do you think of this?

When I bought my CB, the muffler had a scratch on it. I noticed it upon inspection on delivery. The dealer said they would take care of it, but didn't want to order a new muffler ($800 MSRP/Less than $600 dealer's cost), and instead would wait until they got another CB1100 in to swap the can with that one. They did get a brand new '14 Black CB1100 in, a couple months after I got mine, and yesterday I went in to have my exhaust swapped. I really thought that was weird, and ask how they could do that to the next customer. They told me that the next customer might not care at all that there is a scratch on the muffler. I took that as "the next customer might never notice as you did". It took them 20 minutes to swap the muffler, and I was on my way with a brand new, scratch free, discoloration free, 2014 muffler on my 1200 miles '13 CB. On the way home, I couldn't stop thinking that a brother who is gonna get that CB, most likely his dream bike, will go home on a brand new '14 CB1100 with a discolored and scratched 2013 muffler. I don't think it's right. It makes me feel dirty, but I'm pretty sure the fault is on the dealer's part and not mine. That's how THEY chose to fix my bike. It happened with my Triumph and my Harley too! I was telling the Triumph sales manager that I liked the chrome mirrors of a floor model better than my black ones. Even though I had bought mine six months earlier, and since he wanted to customize the floor model a little, he decided we should trade mirrors. He came back with a wrench, took the brand new chrome mirrors of the show room bike, and put them on mine, and put my black used ones on the new bike! I was so surprised that I didn't know what to say, and let him do it. I really should have said no thank you, it's not right. On my '14 Harley Seventy Two (which I traded in on the CB), I had noticed that my rear wheel wasn't perfectly centered. I thought it'd be a matter of centering it, but it turned out that the spokes (and the hub) were brought a little too much to one side at the factory, but posed no danger. No being happy with that, the dealer simply swapped my wheel with a brand new 2015 bike off the show room. They didn't bother to take off the tire, and the rotor. I got brand new everything, and the new '15 model in the show room got my '14 wheel sightly offset, with a used tire, and used disc brake.

Is this standard procedure for dealers to save money, when fussy customers like me (rightfully) demand that the bike be up to brand new standards?

It's gonna make me doubt about what kind of goods I'm getting in the future, on any new bike I ever buy, and I'll want to go through every single bolt on the bike... Any of you ever experienced that kind of none sense?

Here is my '13 Red CB, and the '14 Black CB donor.

[url=http://s429.photobucket.com/user/ghislainsabre/media/IMG_6182_zpslzee8xul.jpg.html]

This morning after watching the MotoGP race I was itching for a ride (always am after watching MotoGP for some reason) especially after not getting to ride yesterday because of heavy rain. 1st day this month I didn't ride.

Anyhow I grab the CB, and go out and hit some of my favorite local roads. At one point I look out ahead of me and see another rider. (look center of picture)

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The blue jacket and form look familiar. I gas it a bit and catch up and follow for awhile

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Finally the rider spots me in his bar end mirrors and pulls over. It was my son Brian. B as we call him is a very good rider (better than his ol man by a bunch). We gave him his first bike, a Z50 Honda, when he was 5. He has always had at least one bike since then. He has 3 now, this FZ-1, a Ducati Monster and a KX 200 Kawasaki. At 36 he loves riding as much as and maybe more than I do.

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/CB%20riding%20with%20Randy%20and%20Brian%20034_zps33jmhpkx.jpg.html]

Does he look familiar?..only younger? lol

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Anyhow we chat. He is not headed anywhere, just "free riding". Care if I join you? Please do he says, and off we go.

I lead for awhile

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then wave him around and follow for awhile

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/CB%20riding%20with%20Randy%20and%20Brian%20066_zpscciec5il.jpg.html]

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When we get a few miles from home, we stop and I tell him I have to go because I promised his mom a ride on the ST, so we split up and go our separate ways. Was great running into him and riding with him for awhile. Good kid! (guess I should say nice young man)

Got home and switched bikes and took his mom out for a 50 miler, but that's a story for another day.