Everything designed by the hand of man has its advantages and disadvantages. As PeeWee Herman says, "Everyone I know in life has a big but(t)...":
~Harleys sound great and you never have to adjust the valves, BUT they're slow, inefficient, and the rear cylinder does not get as much cooling air as the front. (That, and you have to ride everywhere with a serious scowl of determination on your face, as if you are on your way to commit your third-strike felony.)
~Crotch-rockets are light & fast, but the cylinders are bored into the top half of the crankcase (disposabike) and being stuck behind an RV on a twisty road sucks even worse when you're on one of them.
~Vertical Twins (one piston goes up while the other goes down) can rev higher and are generally more efficient overall, but they get lumpy and weak at low rpm.
~Parallel twins (both pistons rise & fall together) are terrific at lower rpm and have a sweet, balanced sound, but they create a pressure maelstrom in the crankcase which inhibits higher rpm power.

So what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of the CB11's engine? Not interested in the smile-on-your-face while riding on a sunny day advantages. Every design has its disadvantages, what are the CB11's?
Heavy weight?
Plastic bits?
Throttle governor?
Less cooling air for #2 & 3 cylinders? (Are they jetted identically with #1 & 4, or richer/cooler?)

Thought I'd give a little back. Pics below

Safety and style don't usually go together. I greatly prefer not being dead or injured but on the same hand I feel good when I look good. I think a lot of times safety takes a second place to style to get us to feel how we want to feel when we're doing something like riding a motorcycle.

I've come across that a fair bit in my research, so I thought I would show the two don't have to be exclusive.

My helmet is a white Shoei Qwest. Not the most stylish in the world, but it fits well and got a 5 star rating from SHARP (meaning in an accident the helmet keeps brain injuries down as much as possible by not transferring the energy to your head. I'll take two broken arms over a head injury any day)

Why white? It's not my favorite helmet color, but in my opinion it stands out the most. I watched hundreds of bikers go through when Strugis was going on (have to travel through here if you're coming from the west), and white stood out the most. Hi-viz also did. Silver was the worst ironically. The bright white contrasts against surroundings very well and you can't help but look to see what the white dot is as it's unnatural to see. It contrasts against every background, yet silver some how blended in to the point it looked like they didn't have a head when in motion. Thus white. (though I will argue a white bike blends into the pavement, a white helmet is above the line of sight where you would have pavement contrasting against it)

I also think people tend to pause for a second thinking you're a cop with a white helmet. So they've seen you and slowed down just from that thought, even if for just a split second.

But just a white helmet isn't good enough in my opinion. It needed to be reflective.

Why reflective? Because you are seen a lot, lot more.

Though not all reflective tape is created equal, here is a good chart showing the difference:


Farther away you are seen, the more time they are aware of you and can stop.

And it's not just type but color as well. Nothing beats white. Black is pretty much useless. Even red reflects about half as much as white at the most.



What I used is called Reflexite V98. It's the most retro-reflective tape I've been able to find at candela per square meter is 750. To put that into context the red V92 is 75, one tenth as reflective, the black is one twenty-fifth as reflective.

It cuts very well like a soft vinyl and can be taken off and moved easily. The V92 tends to stay stuck once it touches and is more brittle. The V98 works extremely well for the compound curves of a helmet.

You can buy it here: http://www.colebrothers.com/
or http://www.identi-tape.com/

A couple important notes to anyone thinking of doing this: First off the Qwest helmet is a FIBERGLASS one, there is some debate about putting stickers on a polycarbonate shell as it is possible that the adhesive in the sticker/tape can over time weaken the polycarbonate and compromise the safety of it. Research it out, and see what you think of it. It's sort of one of those unanswered debates. Also, don't cover up the DOT on the back, if a cop goes to inspect it they want to see it, so you'd have to remove the tape there. Also concave areas are harder to get the tape to hold, you'll need to cut it with this in mind so it has relief.


Onto my helmet:
Not much natural light in these first three. The one on the left is without a flash the one on the right is with a flash.






What it reflects is very very bright. Brighter than the source if you're up close to it. It's retro-reflective meaning it shines light back to the source not all around like chrome. This means it's like having a head light on your head that shines exactly back to the face of other drivers coming towards you. It is BRIGHT. Bright enough it hurts to look at up close like looking at the sun.

However being a compound curve it makes a unique effect, a sort of ghosting of light if you will.

This is with the light source not being directly from my view, but having the sun shine on it in such a way it catches the edges.

This is straight day light, notice there isn't any reflective shine going on


Same exact light but with the sun more behind me, maybe 6" from where the last picture was taken. It is as bright as the sun, the camera doesn't capture it as it just overloads the sensor.


And this is inside with indirect sunlight, it's much more faint and tends to "roll" as you move the helmet, only capturing it at certain times



So, even at day light it works very well, the sun sort of makes for a very bright sliver light at the top of your head in the day, and at night, works insanely well.

When I did this last fall I noticed a huge difference in how other drivers saw me. A LOT less amount of people cut me off, and they stayed A LOT farther back from me, even during the day. I think it tends to pause drivers to go, "what is that?" as it's bright and it's moving, not a constant like a head light.

Some states you need to have it on your helmet on the back and sides, so I thought I would give back a little and share my research and results. Who knows, it might save a life.

Ride safe, ride smart, but who says you can't look good doing so?

Cheers

I just saw something on Honda's website that I hadn't previously noticed (sorry if it's already been posted up here somewhere and I missed it). The 2014 Specifications (both [url=http://www.honda.com/newsandviews/article.aspx?id=7570-en]Standard and [url=http://www.honda.com/newsandviews/article.aspx?id=7574-en]Deluxe), it shows that front suspension travel has been reduced from 4.7 inches on the [url=http://www.honda.com/newsandviews/article.aspx?id=6975-en]2013 model to 4.2 inches on the 2014 models. In addition the rear wheel travel has been increased on the 2014 models by a full inch over the 2013 model: 4.5 inches as compared to 3.5 inches. As far as the geometry goes, the rake of the 2014 bikes remain the same as the 2013 model, while the trail decreases by 0.1 inch. I'm surprised that I hadn't read of this before now.

Twisted throttle has Coocases on sale. Looks like the 50 liter one will fit with minor effort. The adapter plate does not look like it will look out of place on the OEM Honda luggage rack. Possibly it will attach with 4 supplied screws and be removable in a few minutes.

I thought some of you may want to see some other bikes from the show. I forgot to use a flash on some, so sorry for the blurriness.

My wife on a CTX1300. She currently rides the CTX700. DeShawn is a great, hard working guy from Des Plaines Honda.



Here's me on a Ducati Hyperstrada...I would own this bike if I had the dough.


Although, the new Valkyrie is much cooler in person than in some of the photos I had seen before the show.


"Colonel, sir! I am here to report that Indians were spotted in the vacinity"



Love this bike


A terrible picture of the new CBR650. Cannot wait to see the reviews of this bike because it could be my son's new bike (aka MY second bike)

The new Kawaskis retain their trademark color scheme and build quality.

Sorry for the delay getting pictures up of my bike.

Also many thanks to all who I stole ideas from with pride to create my work in progress as my bike.[url=http://s30.photobucket.com/user/elipten/media/CB1100/CB1100rightsidesunglare2_zpsf0dfe9e9.jpg.html]

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My CB11 clicked over 9500 (glorious) miles during our recent epic 5 CB11 ride over San Jose's Mt. Hamilton. If you zoom in on any of the mountaintop photos, you'll notice my front tire (my bike was fitted with Bridgestones at the factory, not Dunlops) is showing signs of its mileage.

Here's one next to IndianRider's front tire for comparison:



Now, I'm as thrifty as the next guy, but I think its a foolish economy to try to wring every last mile out of a tire on a motorcycle, especially around here, where as Randy B rightly points out, you need go 75 mph to not get run over by rush hour commuters and if you want to be in the (arguably safer) HOV lane, you need to be rolling 85 or more.

So I took to the internet to research tires. I've read that the design team went to great lengths to select the tires for our bikes, and I've been happy with mine, so I was inclined to stick with the ones that brung me this far.

Careful scrutiny of my sidewalls identified my road-worn front Bridgestone as a Battlax BT-54 110/80R18M/C 58V, so I went a-googling for purchase options. As Flynrider noted, most of the first four pages of results are for UK or other overseas sellers. The lone exception I noticed was Chaparral Motorsports (Red Mist recently posted this, too). Price? $99 and $129 (F and R). I ordered them (a front and a back tire) Monday and they were on my doorstep on Wednesday.



If you zoom in, you can see the Bridgestone label even says CB11, so they should be about as close to exact replacements as I figure I'm gonna get.

Has anyone tried one of those universal chrome chain guards?

I converted from Hondas in my youth to Triumphs in my old age, but only because I prefer the old school appeal. I love the Triumphs, but Honda is in my DNA. Now that Honda has a throw back bike I can't wait to get my hands on one. I decided I better post up my Triumphs while I can... not sure how much longer they'll be around.

2006 Bonneville T100


2002 Thunderbird 900

Rainy day today but I took these pictures to show my 1979 CBX anyway.
Will post better pictures when the weather allows.

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