This was my first time to ever ride a cruiser, and my first time to ride an American made bike.





My impressions:
It is pretty big and bulky compared to the CB of course. When I first sat down, I was a little worried that I'd have trouble putting my feet so far forward, especially the gear shifting action. But after I first got rolling, I got oriented with that pretty immediately.

It doesn't take off nearly as quickly or as smoothly as the CB in first gear, but it does start to pick up a little in 2nd and 3rd gear. With my usual throttle twist habits, it felt really slow, but I'm sure that if I opened it up a little more it would take off at some point. Hard to fully evaluate this when you just do a few miles around town.

Handling is much easier than I expected for the size and weight, I didn't have any trouble making regular city street turns or the U-turn at the end when bringing the bikes back. Give the bars a little push and it responds in a nice loosey-goosey way, for lack of a better way to describe it. Probably not as nimble in the twisties as the CB, but I'm sure I could handle my usual riding places at a more moderate pace.

When I got back on the CB to come home, that 20 minute ride was enough to disorient me with the location of the foot pegs at first, and the CB felt physically very small, but super nimble and quick. Different strokes, I guess! Gotta say I had a pretty fun time.. if I won the lottery or doubled my salary overnight, I'd love to have one I suppose.

Went to my mail box yesterday and there was my new cycle world I was so excited when I saw on the front cover that it said. RIDDEN HONDA CB1100 went to the page and what a let down! All they said was 6 gears and bigger tank etc!! The end! I really thought they would have a nice write up on it! But they did cover a lot of other naked bikes with speeds up to around 15mph. But I think the CB is the only air cooled bike!! Just to say I was let down by cycle world!

Mr. T is pretty excited about Japanese accessories maker WM (not to be confused with WH). He recently visited their factory and posted pictures on his Facebook page.

WM http://www.wmpdt.co.jp/wm.html has been around for 32 years and are just now coming out with parts for the CB1100 – fenders, seat, tank, chain cover, etc

Perhaps their decision to start making parts for the CB1100 where influenced by Takashi’s sales figures (which are probably off the charts thanks to this forum.)

Here’s a picture of WM’s front fender prototype.



And 2 pictures of their chain guard





Hope to see them soon…..at Samurider!

Just dropped the oil out of my SeaBee.

Filter came off with a mild jerk using the Honda oil filter socket and a ratchet spanner. Sump plug came out easy too, despite burning myself.

But W - the - funk was that oil in there??

It ran out more like coffee than motor oil!

Seriously thin and watery. Now I'm told by the dealer they did the first service at 100 miles before I collected the bike as it was nigh on a year old. I assume they used the correct Honda 10w-30 oil. But holy hell it was thin as pee!

Good news is. Not dirty at all, no visible dwarf in the waterfall like stream of it. Bad news is, the sump plug was too hot too unscrew by hand and so fell in the oil pan. I'll leave it to drain overnight and fish it out tomorrow after work.

Was anyone else's oil this thin?

I had been for a 60 mile blast so engine was piping hot.

I was thinking about the resale on say a one year old low mile Deluxe,do you think they will be about like the 13's or maybe a little bit stronger on the resale market

Has anyone seen or heard of Red Mist lately? He's been strangely silent.

I just love in the instructions where it says "remove o2 sensor" as if that's not basically impossible without the right specialty socket.

Anyways, I'll figure that out. For the stop bracket, the instructions say to put the 2 rubber grommets (I think that's what they are called) on there...are those stock rubber grommets because my yoshi didn't come with any.

I would like to change my exhaust from 4 into 1 to 4 into 2 like the 2014 Deluxe. Where can I purchase this exhaust?

I picked up my sons new red DLX #000095 Thursday night (too bad he couldn't get away) from Honda East in Maumee Oh. after a smooth flight aboard Allegiant from Sanford Fl. Spent the night there at the Hampton and headed south Friday at 7:30am. Had an awesome day on the road and pulled in to my friends Kimball and Donna's place in Knoxville about 5:30pm and 487 miles later. It wasn't long before Kimball had the oil and filter changed, set the sag and preloaded the front forks a little bit, dialing in 2 more full turns at the adjuster. Front feels much better, but will tell for sure as we head to Deal's Gap for breakfast. After that we'll be saying our goodbye's and I'll be heading home.
So, a little under 500 miles on her in one day. I have owned a lot of bikes in my 49 years of riding, from Cushman scooter, to a rotary valve Kawasaki 2 stroke single to an RD400, Kawi triple, a bunch of FZ1's, CBR's, GSXR'S, a sweet Moto Guzzi Jackal, even a beautiful MV Agusta.
The CB1100DLX is an amazing bike. As you all know, it gets looks and comments wherever you take it. But not only does it look exceptional, it runs that way too.
The first hundred miles I varied the speed, averaging probably about 65. Then it was 70, 75 and finally after 300 or so, settled in around 80. That put me a tad faster than traffic. I ran her up to 100 a few times. Rock solid, she runs smooth and strong. The riding position is excellent. I was surprised that wind buffeting wasn't bad, but best of all, that the seat was fine. I've read a couple comments about it not being any good, but I think somebody just needs to tone up some gluti-maximi muscles LOL.
The power is excellent and the handling and braking is first rate. I'll be heading back to central Florida via back roads through GA (mostly on old 441) for a late Sunday afternoon arrival. I'm sure my son is going to enjoy his new ride and I'm happy I was able to break it in for him and do a nice road trip at the same time. I'll let you all know how the rest of the trip goes!

I got an invitation to visit a farm about 300 kms north of my home. The prospect of riding up Australia's main north-south highway was unappealing but there were a couple of back roads I was interested in exploring, so I loaded up the CB with my kit for a couple of agricultural days and set off to Rosedale (303 kms one way, [url=https://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?msid=201247423130042081552.0004fcdf07608d3d9be6b&msa=0&ll=-26.206775,152.656488&spn=0.022024,0.042272]Map).

I hit the hideous National Highway for about 40 kms before turning east in Gympie along a road I've ridden some of once before which took me to Widgee, Woolooga and Biggenden. I hadn't been past Woolooga and looked forward to that. The road passed through bush and farmland. It was drying out fast, but is still attractive country for a ride.





There was also about 6 or 7 kms of gravel which mercifully was in good condition and easy to ride on.



I was warned:



and there were plenty of them in what we call the long paddock in Australia. I just went more slowly and enjoyed the beautiful country side.



After Biggenden, the road was excellent and I had a very fast trip through sugar cane country until I rejoined the national highway briefly at Booyar.



I then headed east towards the coast north of Bundaberg before turning north again to my destination near Rosedale.



I had a lovely morning on the farm and in the surrounding countryside before heading home after lunch. I left later than I wanted and decided to bore myself senseless on the main road. I've no pictures of it.

I do have one picture just before I rejoined it, taken as I left Bundaberg, home to Australia's favourite rum distillery and distillers by appointment to our own Pterodactyl. We shared a nip or to in the Boorowa pub on another ride. I'm told there's a good tour to be done, but I didn't have time this trip.



Got home a bit after nightfall so had a chance to enjoy the night time instrument panel again.