Hello all

This past Saturday I traded my Kawasaki 2018 Z900RS for a NEW 2017 Honda CB1100 EX. This was the Bike I wanted in 2018 and no dealers in the Chicagoland area would deal from MSRP. Needless to say, I was able to bring the price downa fair amount and received a decent value on my trade.

These bikes are pretty far apart in character and nature - but love them both. I will miss the "getaway" ability of the Z900 RS for sure - But wont miss the tall seat height and fuel delivery quirks (excessive engine breaking and snatchy throttle)

The CB is much more well behaved and will certainly not be teasing me to race off every stop (which is a good thing)

I really love the bike - but am thinking about buying another gas tank as I am not a big "red" guy. I was thinking black or dark grey metallic, maybe towards the end of the year. Anyone with any experience on swapping out tanks would be great to hear from or point to information I may need...

Thanks for your reading
Kurt

Thanks for your time

This is most definitely not for my bike, i find the CB1100 to be a perfect height. However, my wife has expressed interest in getting a CB of her own once she's ready to upgrade. The thing is, her feet literally swing free when she tries to sit on mine. she's 5'2". the initial conclusion is that the bike just isn't for her, but there's a lot of talk (positive and negative) about lowering bikes, and whether it's a good or a bad idea. after all i've read, i tend to think it's a seriously bad idea, but i could be convinced otherwise by anybody more knowledgeable than i.

The goal: if she's ever going to have a snowball's chance at riding a CB1100, the seat cannot be higher than 29" even. that'd have her up on her toes. The stock seat is 31.5", so that's a healthy 2.5" of lowering that needs to take place. sounds like an AWFUL lot.

What i understand to be the detriments of lowering: poor handling. poor ground clearance. poor suspension. all of these combined have the potential to completely ruin a bike.

What i expect will have to be done: The seat will have to be swapped out for one that's MUCH thinner. i think you could get at least 1" out of the seat, maybe more. next, the front and rear suspensions would have to be lowered about 1.5", maybe less if i can get more out of the seat. this means sliding up the forks ( i guess?) and replacing the rear shocks with shorter ones. finally, replacing the muffler with something more up-swung, and replacing the rearsets with something a little more high and tight so that the pegs dont sacrifice so much ground clearance.

so, give me all your expert opinions, is this even a good idea? If not, I want to be able to tell her in an informed way that it's never going to happen. conversely, if a CB1100 with a 29" seat height can be achieved without ruining the bike, I want to hear all about it. i'd love to be able to tell her she can do it.

OK, I've seen some internet pictures of guys with elaborate garage hangouts that include stuff like a full whiskey bar with draught beer, etc.

Here's my hangout area. BYOBI&C



Where do you hang out in your garage with other moto-heads?

I was re-organizing my tire repair kit and mini tool kit recently. I decided to take some photos of what's in them. It would be interesting to find out what others are carrying in their kits.

Here's everything as packed on the bike:


The tire repair kit has:[ul] [li]a mini bottle of Slime for slow leaks that can be found/plugged[/li] [li]a Dynaplug mini air compressor[/li] [li]CO2 cartridges in case compressor doesn't work[/li] [li]insulating sleeves for the CO2[/li] [li]a regulator for the CO2[/li] [li]a Stop & Go plug kit with special insertion tool (inside purple bag)[/li] [li]a box cutter for cutting off the outer end of the plug[/li] [li]a digital pressure gauge (I think I will add a mechanical pencil gauge)[/li] [li]a flashlight[/li] [li]cases
[/li][/ul]
Tire Repair Kit


The contents of the mini tool kit are pretty self-evident. Some interesting items are the composite-handle 1/4" ratchet wrench (very light weight), the the very basic stamped-steel ratchet for use with hex bits, the mini vise-grips, silicone rescue tape, electrical tape, double-sided Velcro tape, fuses, and a very thin flat blade screw driver...just because you never know when it might come in handy.

Mini Tool Kit

New vs. worn (4300 miles @ 39 psi).

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well yes.....
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and......
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and....
and....

Sometimes my local Yamaha shop asks me to test ride customer bikes to either diagnose or assure that repairs were done satisfactorily. The other day the owner asked if I would be able to stop up and ride a customers Yamaha 1300 something or other that the customer complained would stop running after an extended period of time.The mechanics felt they had it cured but weren't willing to go on an extended test ride or give it back to the customer without making sure it wouldn't quit. I said sure. I'm retired. Riding other peoples bikes is a fun gig.

So today I go up, and they roll this out.



My worst nightmare lol. Buckhorn bars 4' wide, floor boards with heel toe shifter, life saving pipes with no baffles. Gads. Climbed on fired it up, had a hard time finding things such as neutral light, turn signal indicators, speedo, tach ..(they were all in a pod on top of the tank) but eventually found everything pertinent. The thing is stupid loud. I have the shop owners personal phone number in case I need to get trailered back to the shop, and I was aware there was that possibility. One of the perils of being a test rider. Then again I get a good discount on parts and service when I need them, and they always make room in the service schedule for me at my convenience. A worthwhile trade off IMO. Plus I do get to ride some interesting and cool bikes on occasion. Anyhow, I clunk it in gear, and take off. Handles ponderously thru the curvy road that leads down to the 4 lane. The heel toe shifter is difficult to use, and 20 minutes into the ride I pull over, remove my helmet, reach in my pocket and stuff my some gel ear plugs into my ears. They don't help much. I rode for a little over 2 hours, enough to burn through more than 1/2 a tank of gas and figured it wasn't going to quit. At partial throttle...say 1/8-1/4 throttle it sounded like it was missing on one of the cylinders, at 1/2 throttle and above it ran fine, back off the gas and you were greeted with loud backfiring and decel popping. I was told this is all normal. Who in their right mind would ride something like this?

Anyhow I drop it off give them my report, have a bottle of water, then climb on my CB for a ride on my own bike. Funny thing is, now it felt like there was something wrong with my CB. My hands seemed like they were too close together, as did my knees. And I was sitting so high lol. The whole bike seemed tiny. I texted the owner and told him after riding that behemoth for 2 hours riding my CB felt like I was riding a Grom.

I love my CB!

I’ve scoured the site for more information on handlebar swaps, and I’m a bit at an impasse in my decision. Most of the information is related to risers, not actually wider handlebars. I need wider than stock, I’m constantly putting my hands on the bar weights for more width. I love the positioning of tracker bars so that’s what I’m going with. The obvious issues are clutch and brake line, throttle cables.

I’m finding the exact dimensions of stock handlebars to peg down, best I can figure their 30 inches wide, 5.5 inch rise, and 7 inch pullback. Yes? I’m looking at 2 bars, one recommended by a Facebook CB1100 user, I’m unable to contact him for more clarity. The other I came along by chance and Really like.

http://power-barn.com/lsl-flat-track-bar-handlebars/

This one is the likely choice for minimal investment. It’s cheaper, and I think can be done without any changes (maybe only needing handlebar holders turned 180 degrees). 33 inch width, 4.5 rise, 7.4 pullback.

https://britishcustoms.com/collections/a...9162011744

This one I really want. Perfect width at 35 inches, 3.75 inch rise, 7 inch pull back. Double the price of the lsl, seriously doubting the ability to stretch the brake that far. The bar could be cut down, but if im not using the full length I might as well go with lsl.

Looking for thoughts, suggestions, things I might have missed.

As I understand, replacing the brake line requires replacing all lines, not just To the splitter. I see spiegler makes a brake line kit, and there are kits on webike, but I can’t tell if those are cut to exact dimensions as current brake lines or do they give more play? I’d prefer not to run two lines all the way down as well.

I haven’t seen much on throttle cables and how much play there is with rerouting. Anyone with experience on it?

https://imgur.com/gallery/rjnZWCy

Problem is in the title... a careless landscaper peeled it off my tank while working in my office parking lot today. This thing seems like a cell phone screen protector: once it's off, it's off for good. is it possible to re-adhere it? has anybody had experience with this? the original adhesive material is all full of grit and crap from falling butter-side-down on the ground.

Being a mechanical klutz, I send the bike to a mechanic for anything non trivial.

It's approaching 120,000 kms now and the valves have not been inspected for the past 30,000+ kms, the brake and clutch fluid need changing, my BT31s are at the end of their useful life (nearly 18,000 kms), and I need a new chain and sprockets after 43,000+ kms.

The bloke I've been going to has moved on to other things, so I found a local chap—which is good because I can walk home after dropping the bike—and left the bike with him late on Wednesday so they could do everything on Thursday.

About 3.00 pm on Thursday I got a telephone call from the workshop and, even while we exchanged pleasantries, I could tell the news was not going to be completely good. After a brief conversation and dispensation from my wife, I leapt (in my dreams) in the car and went around.

The "special bolt" (part #90037-422-003) and accompanying washer (part #90459-438-000) had worked their way loose from the end of the countershaft comp (part #23220-MGC-000) and vanished somewhere along the road. In so doing, they'd punched a hole in the Cover Assy., L. RR. Crankcase (part #11650-MAZ-010) and allowed the sprocket (part #23442-MS2-610) to slide in and out along the countershaft.

The top of one of the internal screws (part #90118-MR1-000) had been partly ground away by the chain and it looks from the photos below like the chain (which was to be replaced anyway) sustained some damage as well.

Here (courtesy of the mechanic who worked on the bike) are some pictures for your entertainment.
[url=https://postimg.cc/c6ZQyBpB]

[url=https://postimg.cc/rzJ58tcX]

[url=https://postimg.cc/Tp3ghYYy]