https://youtu.be/5YMN5C1sGCo

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I live in the same area as ferret, and the weather here is miserably drizzly at the moment. And around here in the winter, we sometimes get clear, sunny days that are often cold and occasionally relatively warm...but the roads are still filthy with salt and sludge residue from recent snowy/icy weather. In summer, we get torrential rains and flash floods that wash all kinds of gravel, sand, mud, and fallen vegetation up onto the roadway. Even when the sun comes back out, the roads are a real mess.

In short, there are a lot of days that are otherwise ridable...if you don't mind your bike getting covered in salt and/or sloppy wet road dirt.

Now, I'm a guy who generally likes a clean bike. I'm not as meticulous as say, A-Man , but for reasons of self-esteem I don't like to ride around on a dirty bike. Too, I don't think it's especially good for the bike in terms of rust and corrosion, or scratching the paint due to a film of fine grit on it. Now, I realize that for some (ahem, ferret) a dirty bike is a sign of die-hard daily rider cred and I can't argue with that really.

Nevertheless, sometimes I would be inclined to ride but I don't want to deal with a dirty bike. Or, turn a lightly dirty bike into a complete mess. This brings me to the subject of this thread: the concept of a beater bike.

What's a "beater"? Up in the northern parts of the U.S. that see substantial snowfall and consequently live with slushy, salty roads much of the year, a lot of people have a "beater" car. It's a car that is essentially sacrificial from a cosmetic standpoint, but is otherwise roadworthy and reliable. Nobody washes a beater, and nobody cares whether or not their beater looks like crud. You just drive your beat-up beater and beat it to death.

So, brainstorming as a group, what would be some good candidates for a beater bike? We might think a little bit about the intended use: riding in inclement weather and under inhospitable road conditions of all descriptions. Therefore, I'm thinking ABS is a must (at least for me). Also preferable but not essential would be some type of low-maintenance final drive like belt or shaft. A chain would also be fine I suppose because you could just keep oiling it and not worry about cleaning the rear wheel.

There may be other riding conditions around the world where a beater bike would be handy: gravel roads, muddy roads, blistering sun that bakes plastics into dust, etc.

I think it goes without saying (but I'll say it) that a beater bike is by definition a used bike that is not costly and thus is considered more-or-less a consumable / disposable utility item. Not a problem if it has a dented tank or other road rash as long as it's safe and reliable to operate.

What do you think? What would be your ideal beater bike?

Thinking about changing my gearing a bit for my responsive and aggressive acceleration between 0 and 90 and from what I can gather a higher ratio is the way to go. Many threads on the forum suggest that changing the gearing by 2 teeth or so does not affect the speedo's accuracy. true or false?

second, some people report changing the front. some report changing the rear. some report changing both by half as much. What's the deal with that? what influences your decision to change one, the other, or both? is there some hidden advantage? It seems to me logically that paying for one sprocket instead of two to get the same result would be the best practice, but there's probably some reason why that isn't necessarily true.

Today the weather was horrible, rain, rain, & more rain.... but there appeared to be a hole between the waves of rain from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on radar. At 11:00 I got into my riding gear and together my wife and I walked out to the garage. I opened the garage door and my wife said "it's raining". I said "yep, but not bad". She said "ok, well, rubber down" and gave me a peck on the lips (she always wishes me rubber down before I take off for a ride), then she turned back toward the house and added "take the dirty one" . (She had just help me wash the FJR a couple of days ago).

I was on my way home from Burbank and was surprised to see a black cb1100 splitting lanes with me. Seeing one of us out in the wild was fun.


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Interesting video involving many different motorcycles and just the passion of riding.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4iGNXsqghs

I tried to search it but couldn't find anything, is there a list or thread of what parts are interchangeable between different year cb1100? I have a 2013 model but would like to swap some parts of possible. Thanks in advance!

One of the members here took a black 2014 standard and made it into a retro ‘80s-style bike. I cannot remember who that was. I think I remember that they might have had an accident with it but I’m fuzzy on details.

Anyway, I was thinking about what a cool build it is/was and would like to find some pictures and info about it.

While searching for information on Japanese Shinkansen trains (bullet trains), I found a YouTube series on all things Japanese called Japanology. I think you will find this video of the history of Japanese motorcycles quite interesting.

Begin [url=https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4QM2iY2aheo]Japanology - Motorcycles

Hey is that stainless or chromed?