With last weeks rain and all the snow melting it creates another problem. Flooding along the Ohio. My little town is right in it's path (I don't live in town but on the first ridge back so not an issue for me)

54 degrees and sunny so it was time to get back on 2 wheels. Checked the tires in the ST and added a couple pounds each. Dumped 3 1/2 oz of Seafoam in the 1/2 tank of fuel from when it was parked 3 weeks ago. Disconnected from the Battery tender, rolled it out and fired it up.

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the ice finally melted off our road so I could get out. Snow still has a ways to go

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First stop was the car wash to get some of this past winters salt and grime off the bike

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Had to stop and pick up a script for my wife. The big stores still have mounds of snow that has to melt

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The county and state roads looked pretty good

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the only problem is in this hilly country is the snow melts on the high sides and it drains across the road and you have to drive thru it and any cars ahead of you spray a mist of it in the air all over the front of your bike, windshield, helmet face shield etc

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I headed down to the river to look at the flooding. Not awful. seen much worse. Emptysea I took this on 52 headed west down by the little rest area at Grant's home I took your gang to. That's it on the right. The water is almost in the parking lot. If you remember it was probably 20-25 feet down to the river when you were here

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Since flooding can be an issue, many people are building new homes on these giant stilts. This is right in town and right now the river is just across a single lane road from his yard

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Here is the main drag in town. Water is not ion the road yet. When my son was in high school in 97 the water was 1/2 way up the first floor on these buildings on the right. They closed his high school which is up on the hill and moved police, fire, bank and pharmacy into the high school. In the flood of 1937 the water was over the second floor on these buildings.

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Been 21 days since the last ride. Got in 84 miles today. It was great!

Being in Minnesota, I got a leftover 2013 in January 2015 (good time to buy bikes). Sat in the garage longing to stretch her legs for a few months. Finally some decent weather! 46F today! Took her out for 29 cold but joyful miles. Wow! What a fantastic bike. Buttery smooth. Still basking in the afterglow of the ride.

With all this nice weather in AZ I had to take advantage of it. Since it was warming up in the mountains, I decided to take a ride up the back roads to Prescott, AZ.

Yarnell Hill is a favorite of AZ racer boys. It's about a 5 mile, 1500 ft. climb up the side of a mountain. The road is twisty, wide and has no oncoming traffic. As such it attracts a lot of attention from sport bikers and cops. A state cop had about a dozen of them pulled over as I started up. I followed this surprisingly sedate ZX-14 all the way up.



After getting to the top, I found myself behind this Polaris Slingshot. Not sure if that is motorcycling, but it looks like fun.



As I climbed, the temperature started cooling off and the road got twistier.



Stopped for a stretch and the obiligatory CB11 pic.



Just outside of Prescott the climb topped out at around 6,100 ft. The temp was still in the mid 60s!



After rolling into Prescott at around 2:00 I pulled into the town square for a bit of people watching, then hopped back on the bike for the ride home. Nothing interesting to see there as I took slab route home. Total was 235 miles and about 4.5 hrs. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday afternoon!

Thinking of installing the stock Honda engine guards. Is it as simple as doing one side at a time and retightening the bolts? Do they need to be torqued or is tight enough good enough? Any tips/thoughts? I have never installed anything like this on a bike before.

Disclaimer - I have not association with any dealer, and no family working for a dealer. Just trying to help those that want a Dlx as I have an app that makes searching Craig's list easy.

Ferret and Gurth is this is not appreciated please remove. On my BMW forum other members post bikes and equipment they see for sale to help other users who perhaps don't have the time or skills to search well. So I thought I'd help here.

For those looking for a CB1100 2Dlx I did a nationwide search on Craig's List. No guarantee the search is complete. I found the following

New Price $10,699.00
Interlakes Sports Center
Madison, SD 57042

New Price $11,899
Vern Eide Motoplex
Sioux Falls, SD

New Price $11,499
Huntington Beach Honda
Orange County, CA

And that folks is all I found new and used, dealers and private.

Good luck hunting for one.

Had coffee and muffin at The Grotto with a hoard of other riders. One fellow(regular) on a very nice new VFR1200. Afterwards I headed up to Bartlett to see if the wild flowers were in bloom. Meh. Better than last year for sure, but not too exciting. Here is the bike at my usual parking spot.
From here you can the lake is still a wee bit low....

We're being overrun by spam!!

Yesterday was not yet a very nice day for riding, as winter is still here -no more in the valley, but on every surrounding mountains. But as a historical reconstitution, a 200th year anniversary, was organized not far from Grenoble, we decided to go out and joint the event with the CB1100.
So the goal of the ride was Laffrey, 1000 m altitude. We found the snow on the countrysides, but now roads are quite clear and dry. Good!

A little bit cold when arrived in Laffrey area


About 5 or 10 thousand spectators for the "rencontre" reconstitution (only a little part on this picture). Being there with the bike instead of the car gave a much easier way for finding parking!

North side : Royalist troop

South side : Napoleon troop


Happy end : no gun shot on this event - royalist troop rendered to Napoleon... It seems this guy had a very special charisma


Frozen lakes all around

Strangely, no one using the pique-nique tables on the Pierre-Chatel rest area...


An other place I like in this area, is the "Pierre Percée" (rock arch)

When sky is really blue this picture is better. But we have to take the weather as it is, don't we?


At last, an other large viewpoint on the road back to Grenoble



Eventually, one more nice day riding with th CB1100

Some more photos of the day (and larger size) : follow this link [url=https://picasaweb.google.com/jp.sembely/2015_03_07Laffrey?authuser=0&feat=directlink]picasa Laffrey 2015-0307 album

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Since I've learned to upload pics ... I thought I would let you guys see what a sharp Old 750 I traded in on my 13 CB1100 .... This bike is on the showroom floor at my dealer and I am thinking of buying it back ... I bought it last year from the guy who bought it new in 1977 .... I've been sick over trading it in but I really got a good trade in and felt like it would just sit in the garage and take up space ..... Now that it's gone i can't stop thinking about my plans to loose all the vetter stuff and make a jam up cafe racer out of it .... The dealer gave me more than what I originally paid for it . I see a lot of you guys who have multiple bikes and that really makes me wish I hadn't traded the old 750 in ... I've never saw a slicker old Honda and if business is good this spring I have talked myself into buying it back ..... Thoughts ???

I'm about to take the plunge on a 2014 CB.

Any cautions? I'm an experienced rider; older (50s) and learned to ride on 1970s UJBs. The Retro format appeals to me - although my current two bikes both wear fairings. But the 1999 BMW R1100RT is high-mileage and older - and vibrates to numb me shoulder to shoulder. The Suzuki Burgman...was a nice snooze of a ride; it's fine for stop-and-go traffic, especially in hot weather...but it's beginning to bore me.

Will the CB1100 work as a substitute for the BMW? It's less powerful - but there's a speed limit out there and I don't need to go three-figure speeds. The fairing is nice; but I have good riding gear and a full-face helmet. I'm hoping the four has the balance for a nice, comfy long ride...at least if I get a good aftermarket seat.

Thoughts? Cautions? I can still back out...and no, I'm not trading the BMW in.