Today brought beautiful weather and clean roads up the nearest canyon so I had to take a ride on my, less than 1 week old, CB1100.

I had to report how surprised I was/am at the nimble, lithe handling of the little red CB.
The road I was on is rather tight with lots of sharp turns but aside from one corner they are just short of switchbacks.
It opens up in a few spots enough to get some speed just to slow you back down into the tight twisties again.
I just watched a Japanese Gymkhana video so that was playing out in my head as I dipped hard into each corner and twisted the right grip to fire out of the exits.
I managed to completely erase any sign of a chicken strip on the new tires.

I didn't realize how much fun I was having and just how good the bike felt until I exited the canyon and slowed down - once I relaxed I just kept repeating "WOW" inside my helmet.

The bike is light, quick, fun, and surprisingly nimble with excellent feel under hard cornering (not track speed but street speed)

I'm very impressed and very happy with my new bike. It's so much better than I thought It would be.
What a kick.

This afternoon I was all dressed to take my CB1100 for another ride and when I tried to push the bike out of the garage I noticed a flat rear tire!I must have picked up a nail on my last ride a few days ago and I only have 347 miles on it.I can repair it myself as I always carry a mushroom style Stop and Go repair kit on my rides but feel safer with anew tire.This might be a change to get a better tire although the BS seems to work ok.I have Avon rears on my other bikes,Road Rider on my CBX,s and Cobra on my CB1000,s.I have not looked yet for a replacement,probably not too many choices and I might have to go up slightly in width to find a good or better tire.Has any one looked for a different tire yet?

if someone has access to a shop manual could you please post a list of torque specs.

Thanks!

Yea, its a Suzuki, but this is one beautiful custom build.
http://www.bikeexif.com/suzuki-st400-tempter#more-15575

My inseam is about 30 and I can flat foot the ground easily with or without my boots.
The other day I noticed that whenever I hop on my CB11, I am right on the front end of the seat and maybe even slightly on the tank. Riding like this, my back is straight up and I have a pretty good bend in my arms.

Well I decided to try sitting a little farther back so I am right on top of where "I should be" on the seat and now I am leaning slightly forward and my arms are straighter but they still have that bend to be relaxed. This little change however has made riding the bike more fun for me.

My reach felt awkward at first, but my riding position is still comfortable and now I am able to push the handlebars forward more instead of forward and downward whenever I am counter steering through a turn. It is almost effortless to make the bike do what I want it to do, I feel more... "one with the bike"

With my old riding position, I've tried pushing the handlebars forward only without pushing down on them, but I'd still find my butt getting kicked by some sharp turns.

Anyway, just wanted to share this (mainly with the other short peoples) so others who just hopped on the bike and took off on it like I did, could read this and give a little thought about their riding position on the CB11 and compare it to how they were on other bikes.

Here are 3 pics from a ride today west of Ft. Fun. ODO @ 189 miles. Gonna order Ohlins today...

I still have my graphic heavy full face helmet from Ninja days...but it seems like with this CB1100 it would be more natural to wear an open face helmet with glasses or possibly a shield...what are others doing?
I was thinking something like this from Shoei.

[url=http://www.shoei-helmets.com/Helmet.aspx?RJ-PlatinumR&h=11&t=1]http://www.shoei-helmets.com/Helmet.aspx...R&h=11&t=1

Hi all - just a couple of comments on break in. I thought the manual was a little light on how to go about the break in period, so I talked with the service manager at the shop I work at. He suggested that I vary the RPMs and not hold the same RPM for an extended period of time.

With that knowledge I have ridden my bike 100 + miles and put gas in this AM. My mileage was only about 38 MPG, but I know on my first ride (s) i focused on moving the RPM's across the range. Maybe I was a little higher in to the revs than I thought, but....

Anyway, still love the bike and hopping to get some miles on it this weekend. Rained for 5 straight days here, which is unusual, so seeing the sun today is a great thing.

I will try and get a photo up soon. Mark

This is the official Honda promotional video that got me hooked on the CB1100. It's called "A Day of Freedom" and is the best motorcycling advertising piece I have ever seen:

http://www.honda.co.jp/CB1100/pv/

Enjoy!

(Everything about it is note-perfect, including the tinking engine at the very end!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/22495373@N0...otostream/

It's exciting to see some performance oriented builds coming out of Japan. I love bikes like the Ducati Sportclassic, so I'm very interested in making the CB11 a classy, quick(er) bike... I hope some of the japanese tuners start bringing more to the US.

Deft