The Ferret asked me to explain how I marked a route I'd ridden on Google Maps and then made it available to this forum. (See http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread....pid21083).

I was going to post the details of how to do it but including lots of screen shots has meant that I can't upload enough attachments to make it coherent.

However, if you're interested, you can find the document here, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qdFc...k_ASsu2y0/

If someone can help me post it on this forum complete with all its pictures, I'll be only too happy to do it.

EVERYONE on a mc forum likes to see pictures. I love pics especially of places I have not been to yet. Unfortunately most riders seldom seem to carry or use their cameras. Today it is really easy to carry and use your camera due to the excellent small lightweight point and shoot digitals on the market for under $75. They produce good quality pics and have plenty of manageable image capacity due to SD card storage. I don't go anywhere without mine, and haven't for many years. Like my helmet, gloves, jacket and boots, it is just a part of my riding attire whether I am going for an afternoon ride locally or on an extended trip like out west or to Europe.

The camera I have been using for the last 6 or 7 years is a small Fuji Finepix point and shoot which takes 8.2 megapixel pictures. I know the higher the megapixel the better the quality. That's as much as I know about megapixles lol. I wear this camera on a lanyard around my neck on the outside of my jacket where I can easily reach it. It is excellent for taking not only still pictures but 'on the fly' pictures as well. I simply hold the camera in my left hand, turn it on with my "up yours" finger and press the shutter with my index finger, Then turn it off again with my "up yours" finger, then let it drop on it's lanyard against my stomach.

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/camera001_zps9cafb10b.jpg.html]

on off and shutter on top

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/camera004_zps17400333.jpg.html]

editing features are on the back of the camera. The screen lets you preview the shot or see if you captured what you wanted

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/camera003_zpsdc68fe81.jpg.html]

On a 1 week motorcycle vacation I will generally take over 500 photos, over 1000 on a 2 week trip. I bring home the memories. I take pics of bikes, people, scenery, food, hotels where I've stayed almost anything, and because my camera is always hanging in front of me it takes no extra time and I don't have to stop to take a pic unless I want to.

all of the pictures I am about to post were taken "on the fly" on various motorcycle rides

Climate
[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/134_zpse8296686.jpg.html]

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0310.jpg.html]

Self Portrait

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/fzandme_zpse6e62726.jpg.html]

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0062-1_zps1554c0e8.jpg.html]
Artsy

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Shadow_zps6a17d688.jpg.html]

Scenery
[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCN0730.jpg.html]

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCN0278.jpg.html]

Action

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/15080120.jpg.html]

Reminder of Special trips

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/2010_08020225.jpg.html]

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF2119.jpg.html]
People you have ridden with

my wife

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0025-3.jpg.html]

my brother

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0012-6.jpg.html]

My son and his Father in law

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0464.jpg.html]

My son and his wife (she bought him this Ducati monster as a wedding present

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF0044.jpg.html]

my buddy Jim

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/297_zpsf2b6bc24.jpg.html]
As I look at each picture it brings back a memory of a ride someplace .. locally, the next state, a destination ride, or a ride of a lifetime. I can't imagine not having these photos to look back at.

My advise....carry your camera...and use it!

Searching online i could only find part numbers. Does anyone have the specs for the cams?

A gentle warning: anyone reading this is a guinea pig. I’m writing it to see whether I can make a tale of an ordinary morning’s ride remotely interesting. If you don’t feel like being experimented on, read no further.

Secondly, I’m one of the few Australians registered with this forum. We abandoned imperial/US measurements of distance, volume, temperature etc in the 70s I won’t be converting kms to miles. I’m too lazy.

I’m lucky enough to live in a little hinterland town called Pomona. It’s in Queensland, Australia, about 140 kms from Brisbane, the capital city. It’s about 30 kms from some of the best ocean beaches in Australia and enjoys a beautiful sub-tropical climate. Importantly for present purposes, just to the west of Noosa—the nearest beach—there’s a range of hills which provide fun roads for motorbikes. Further west are other mountain ranges and the beautiful Mary Valley which offer good, but reasonably quiet roads for bikes.

There are some great rides from Brisbane to the Mary Valley, but they are for another day.

Finally, under the heading of background, these are not serious mountains by European or US standards, but they are enough to provide excellent entertainment for old blokes on motorcycles.

Yesterday (Tuesday) was sunny and warm and I was feeling virtuous because I’d cleaned some rust spots off the outside of the chain, tightened it and taken the HISS tank sticker off without detriment to the beautiful black paint. I thought I deserved a ride. For some reason I thought it was Wednesday, so I set out for the Bellbird Creek Café, a biker-friendly place about 50 kms from home. It’s a popular destination for Brisbane based riders on their weekend day tours. The fact that I thought it was Wednesday was important because the café isn’t open on Tuesdays.

Here’s a link to a map showing the route I took: [url=https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201247423130042081552.0004ed368eab9447b5a0a&msa=0&hl=en-GB.]https://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=201...&hl=en-GB.

Bellbird Creek Café is marked slightly to the south east. I hope the marker contains a link to its web site.

The route took me over the Bruce Highway—the main highway up the east coast of Australia, at this point undeveloped by European and probably US standards. Immediately on the other side is a pretty road climbing quickly up final few metres to the Black Mountain ridge which has enough twists and turns to make it fun on the bike. If you weren’t concentrating on the road, you’d have a good views to the coast and the Pacific Ocean to the left and the Mary Valley to the right. I was going to take photos, honest I was, but I was having too much fun.

Quite quickly, you turn off and head briefly into the valley before climbing again onto an adjacent ridge which carries you inland. It too is an excellent road for the CB1100; there’s a good surface, lots of corners of varying degrees of difficulty; and not much traffic. It’s a rural setting, so there’s bush (what we call forest down here), grazing land and occasional houses. Coming down off the ridge you are quickly on the Eumundi-Kennilworth Road which is good and fast and there’s not much traffic so the CB1100 can stretch its metaphorical legs.

Just before I reached Kennilworth it dawned on me that it was, in fact Tuesday. Why do we have these realisations? I hadn’t been thinking about what day it was; it just hit me that there wasn’t going to be coffee, or indeed anything, at Bellbird Creek.

On the up side, it solved a dilemma: how was I going to get home reasonably quickly without retracing my steps. The obvious answer involved a treat so I turned left onto the Obi Obi Road.

It’s a beauty. It races across a plain through farmland with enough turns to make it interesting and even require a very occasional gear change, although the CB1100 has so much torque it often is more for effect than need. Whatever, you can maintain the speed limit easily. At the end of the plain, though, the road reaches a steep climb up to the town of Mapleton on the ridge of the Blackall Range. It’s a beauty: twisty and safer for being one way for the best bits. I was behind a car but was saved from this by roadworks which meant traffic had to stop. When it started I jumped the queue and the CB1100 and I had the twisty bits all to ourselves with no pressure.

If you were a tourist, you’d stop at the top and walk into the falls. A couple of bikes were parked at the start of the walk. I kept going to Mapleton where I had the coffee I’d promised myself.

I did take a photo of the CB1100 at rest in Mapleton. (clicking on it enlarges it I think)



If one heads south from Mapleton, there’s a lovely ride along the ridge with great views to the sea and Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. It’s got some good corners and there is a couple of places where the road dips and then climbs again sharply. I was once hurtling along there when a car in front of me ran over a snake and threw it into the air. Luckily it missed me.

I was heading north, so I headed down toward the coast. There are two fantastic twisty bits on the way down this hill. I haven’t yet ridden up it on the CB1100, but going down is pretty damned good. It brings you out in the large town of Nambour where you get to make some route choices. Because it was getting warm (35°C, 92°F) I decided on pace and took to the Bruce Highway for a fast trip home.

What a tough way to spend an hour and a half on a Tuesday morning: fun roads on the CB1100, a cup of coffee; and home for lunch.

It’s a hard life.

OK, color to you guys!

Is it right that the CB1100 only comes in that lovely red in the US? How do you figure that? For the 2 years or so in it was on sale in Australia it was sold in red, black, blue and white.

I rather wanted a red one, but I was buying second hand and had to settle for black. I would have settled just as quickly for white or blue just to get my hands on one.

Did some highway riding on Sat. with the temperature around 50 deg.
F. After about an hour at highway speed the cold was soaking through. The CB1100 was wearing its summer shield, an NC Deflector DX and I wasn't wearing any special cold weather gear.

I'd already mounted the Plexi 3 on the CB750, as I usually do each winter. I started wondering if that might work for the CB1100 as well. My main concern was that National Cycle does not list the Plexi 3 in their fitment guide for the CB1100, although they do list the Plexistar 2 which is virtually the same shield without the lowers. My guess was that the lowers might not fit behind those big turn signals.

Last night I had some free time, so I pulled the Plexi 3 off the CB750 and tried it out on the CB11. Initially, it was a pretty tight fit behind the turn signals, as expected. I also had to relocate the handlebar mounts to a lower position because the clutch master cylinder was getting in the way of the arm that extends back from the shield.

In the end I did get it to fit, but it was a really tight squeeze. I can see why NC doesn't recommend it. I'll test ride it for a few weeks to see if it works out. I wouldn't be opposed to using a Plexi 2 on the bike, but I really like the lowers that keep my knees warm in the winter.

A lot of people have issues putting their bike on the center stand. This video describes the process as easy as any. Once you have the technique you can put almost all of them up on the centerstand easily

[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=lDNqCMNau9A&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DlDNqCMNau9A]http://youtube.com/watch?v=lDNqCMNau9A&d...DNqCMNau9A
Her's another..basically the same, but as this vid demonstrates, once both feet of the stand are down, the bike will virtually sit there against you knee without being held up at all. When it will do that, it is ready to be put on the centerstand

[url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=H3m8AAzaAsA&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DH3m8AAzaAsA]http://youtube.com/watch?v=H3m8AAzaAsA&d...3m8AAzaAsA

Does anyone happen have a bike stripped down for winter work? I ride mine everyday so I'll have to wait till January when the wife and son are back in Japan on vacation to rip my air box and plenum out of the way again.

I'm looking for the measurements of the throttle body flanges, inner diameter of the throttle bodies, and the raised ring that runs around the flange.

If someone has the set of velocity stacks from samurider not installed yet the inner and outer diameter of the tips of those would help too
[url=http://img856.imageshack.us/i/go01.jpg/]

Looking for insight on the aluminum clear coated parts on the new CB. As to durability, remembering how corrosion would penetrate under the clear coat in the 1970's bikes, even when well maintained. Are there any improvements in the clear coat or in waxes and sealants anyone is aware of ? Will this be as big a problem as in the past ?

Well, it's time for my 8,000 mile service. I am definitely following the factory service schedule, so it's time get all up in my valve train.

So, how to get the job done?

I don't really like the idea of taking a chance that I'll get a service tech who cares about my bike as much as I do. There's no shortage of service dept horror stories.

But otoh I've never checked/adjusted valves on an inline 4 bike, or, for that matter, a bucket and shim arrangement. (My '83 650 Nighthawk had hydraulic valve adjustment and shaft drive - just change the oil and ride!)

Has anyone done the valve inspection themselves? How hard is it? If a valve needs adjustment, how hard is that?

Also, if anyone knows a Honda tech in the SF Bay Area that is meticulous and honest, please, hook a brotha up. (I really liked my purchase experience at Hollister Honda, but I don't know how their service dept. is).

Thanks!

Edit: This is pretty close to mike deligatta's thread, so let's disregard mine and focus on his. http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=1725