Since the demise of the ST, been looking for a new 2 up sport tourer. There are only 2 that qualify IMO. The BMW R1200RT and the Yamaha FJR 1300. My local dealer that I've bought a bunch of bikes from Beechmont Yamaha is a Yammie dealer so this was a no brainer for me.

TA DA! 2018 Yamaha FJR 1300



Grandkids # 3 & 4 (of 5) helped me pick it up lol



I took the long way home which included riding "the Loop" (all new bikes that come to my house ride "the Loop" first day)



A lot different than the ST. Kinda like a big full dressed liquid cooled shaft drive CB1100 lol. 25 horses more and 80 pounds less than the ST. A bit taller, but I had the seat cut down on the ST and will have the same guy do this one. Need to get a trunk but waffling on brand and size. Any suggestions?

I've always said my favorite motor is the liter + inline 4. This bike should be riight up my ally.

Saw this today and thought it might be useful to a few CB owners someday.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_f...0113959879

Pamela has been unhappy with the stock seat on her CB, especially compared to the V-strom seat which she found quite comfortable. We drove to Jacksonville last week and dropped off the old seat at Sargent http://www.sargentcycle.com/ for some much needed mods and here's the result, much better support and looks fabulous.

Hi

Is anyone producing CB1100 shirts please preferably in the UK?

Help an old decrepit fart please. does anyone know a u k supplier of lower footpeg brackets please? Thanks, by the way the cb1100 is a great bike:

Ok, unicorns must exist because I just found one.

My primary riding helmet (KBC FFR) is 15 years old now and I have been looking for a replacement since last year, my search is over

Like many forum members I prefer modular helmets and although I am very much an ATGATT guy (and have been since a teenager) I wear them purely for the comfort factor. I don't have to prove how tough I am by wearing a pudding bowl helmet in a hail storm but when it is nice out I like an open face helmet. The problem of course arises on long trips where conditions change repeatedly and my KBC just isn't comfortable over 80kph with the chin guard up.

Enter the LS2 Valiant (in Lumen livery):
https://www.revzilla.com/motorcycle/ls2-...men-helmet

This thing is awesome, the chin guard flips all the way to the rear in essence making this a 3/4 helmet. I've had it about a week now and I like it more each time I wear it. It's final test was in the rain yesterday, it passed with flying colours as I experienced no fogging whatsoever - a problem I always have.

The optical clarity of the clear shield is far better than my previous helmets ditto for the drop down sun shield, actuated by a switch on the left side.

The liner is very comfortable and the check pads give a snug, secure feeling. The button to actuate the flip guard is easily manipulated with gloves on and moves freely through its entire range. It doesn't have d-rings for fastening but a quick release buckle that is easy to use.

For all its features I don't find it to be overly heavy but in all honesty I haven't really compared it weight wise to my KBC yet. I got the "Lumen" colour because I thought it was reflective at night, turns out it's not but is largely irrelevant as I rarely ride at night. It does look good though.

The only two flaws I can see so far are:

- the little tab to open the visor is top center (forehead) which seems an odd location to me, I've always had it bottom left (cheek area). Maybe this is normal now?

- if you have a somewhat round/plump face I suspect it would be too tight with the chin guard closed, it's very snug. Perhaps they sell different cheek pads.

Oh, as an added bonus the helmet is safety rated in both the open and closed position. My KBC and many other modulars I looked at didn't have a safety rating on the chin guard.

I give it

Ran across this on Facebook and thought I'd share it.

Page to send away for the [url=https://visitwv.com/trip-tools/motorcycle/]color brochure.

[url=https://visitwv.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/VSWV_MotorcycleBrochure_2018_digital.pdf]Download .pdf file

Sorry- had to disconnect the battery!







Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As a few of you here are aware, I finally have my '17 EX back, and everything is now working correctly. No more brake squeals, floppy taillight housing, or backed-up vent hoses. Zero issues.

A few of you are also aware that today I was able to take her on her first trip over the Sierras, into Nevada, and up to Lake Tahoe. In taking this ride, I've now completed all the types of rides I'm ever likely to do on this bike, with the lone exception being a Death Valley run. I've never been to Death Valley, car or motorcycle, and I definitely need to scratch that one off my list.

Maybe this fall.

Anyway, the point being that with today's 500-mile Sierras ride now in the books, I think I have a pretty solid handle on this bike as a whole.

Likes...

Appearance: Well, duh. That's a given. She's a CB1100.

Suspension: I can't believe that I'm placing the suspension at the top of my 'likes' list, but there it is. As I was riding today, I reminded myself that I'm on a retro bike, and I tried to imagine how this same ride would feel on a vintage CB. "The suspension sure wouldn't work like this," is the first thing that crossed my mind, followed by, "The XSR's suspension doesn't work like this, either."

The suspension on this EX is truly remarkable. It's plush without being soggy/sloppy/wallowy/floaty, and composed without being harsh. For this type of bike, it has Goldilocks suspension.

Brakes: Even with the stock rubber lines, the brakes are just stupidly excellent. That's the second item I figure this '17 EX has in spades over any vintage CB.

Throttle response: Bar none, the best I've ever experienced on any bike. No need for qualifiers. It's simply the best.

Drivetrain: Ditto. Zero drivelash. A perfectly smooth, seamless pick-up off the throttle, at any opening. Remarkably, it's the same with the brakes. Getting on and off the throttle and brakes results in absolutely no pitching, bucking, lurching, snapping, hesitation, or anything else. It's just a monorail of seamless locomotion.

Sound: She's mostly quiet, which I prefer, but when she does make sounds, they're really good sounds. High quality. Characterful. Authoritative. Expensive-sounding.

Mirrors: Coming off of a slew of bikes with crappy mirrors, the mirrors on this CB are so good, I take an almost deviant degree of pleasure in checking out those crystal-clear rearview images, at any speed or RPM. Perhaps the mirrors on my ST1100 and ST1300 were equally excellent, but it's been so long since I owned those bikes that I can't really say. I assume they were just like these, only lower, below the elbows. Whatever. These mirrors are sooooo satisfying.

Transmission: It has a transmission? I suppose it does. It must have one, right? I can't tell. The next time I have to think about the transmission on this bike will be the first time.

Fuel mileage: 58.3 mpg on the one tank I bothered to measure today, which covered the run from Gardnerville, in Nevada, to Downieville, on Hwy 49 in California, about forty-five minutes east of Grass Valley. Meaning, up and over the Sierra Nevadas, and a lot of it was fairly aggressive. More and more, I keep getting these freakishly high fuel-mileage results. Outstanding!

Switchgear: Yes, whenever I hop onto the Honda after spending time on the Yamaha I tend to hit the horn instead of the turnsignal. I do this maybe once or twice before getting the hang of it. Regardless, the switchgear on this bike is so rock-solid, I won't fault Honda for the location of the horn switch.

Headlight: LEDs? Big fan. I'm sold. I actually look forward to night rides now.

Ground clearance: Considering everything I read and saw regarding the CB's relatively limited ground clearance, I've been pleasantly shocked to discover that those people don't know how to ride, or their roads are all extremely off-camber, or mine are extremely awesomely cambered, or I totally suck and just never knew it. Whatever the reason, ground clearance has never been a problem with this bike.

Steering: See 'Throttle response' and 'Drivetrain.' This bike's steering is nearly telepathic, dead neutral, and as solid and consistent as all get-out. In combination with the perfect throttle response and lack of drivelash, or any other form of chassis-upset, the liquid ball-bearings steering is the final touch in forming the easiest to ride literbike ever created.

Dislikes...

Handling: Notice that I mentioned the steering, and suspension, and lack of drivelash, but I never referred to any of it as "handling." I'll go ahead and make that subtle distinction. The bike does turn exceedingly well, and the chassis soaks up bumps like a champ even while returning a plush, stable ride, but, well, come on, physics are still physics. She dances well...for her size.

Yep, it has to be said. She does very well, all things considered, but one real rip from Downieville to Nevada City on the XSR will quickly put paid to any romantic notions that the big CB is in that same league, in terms of overall handling.

Not a problem, though. Anyone with two brain cells to rub together would know going in that the math simply doesn't add up in the big Honda's favor, in terms of tack-sharp handling.

Seating position: It's taken me until tonight's ride home to figure out why I'm so much less comfortable on the Honda than on my bar-risers-equipped XSR, and, as it turns out, it has nothing to do with the bars, or even the seat. It's the relatively high location of the footpegs. For all you people who think the stock seat sucks, well, simply try this one test. The next time your rump is starting to get sore from riding the CB, simply remove your feet from the pegs and let them dangle down below the pegs, with the back of your calves resting against the front side of the footpegs. This is essentially the seating position I have with the XSR. Once I do this, I instantly notice that the Honda's bars are plenty high enough. The problem is the slouching position that the Honda places us in, and it's not the bars, nor is it the seat. It's those high, center-mounted footpegs. They force the hips to be rotated in such a way as to place undue weight and stress on your butt. As soon as you drop your feet in front of the pegs and let them dangle, you feel immediate relief. You can feel how great the seat really is, once it's allowed to do its job properly.

So, problem solved. Whenever I'm traveling in a straight line, I simply dangle my feet every so often, and the slouching (and accompanying sore backside) is immediately alleviated.

The thing is, Honda gave the bike a nice, low seat height, which is important when it comes time for us shorties to get our feet down, or during slow-turn maneuvers. In order to maintain sufficient cornering clearance, however, Honda had to give the bike fairly high pegs.

And that's where we are. Low seat height, high pegs, high bars: easy to handle, but not the most comfortable position, plus it forces us into an unusual slouching posture. Other bikes with similar or greater ground clearance have higher pegs, but much taller seat heights, too. See: my XSR, or the Z900RS.

Can't have everything, folks. If you want a low seat height and sufficient ground clearance, you have to pay the piper somehow, and payment comes in the form of those high pegs.

I'm pretty jazzed to have finally sorted this out for myself. Long trips will be a breeze now.

There is one other item, however...

Power: Yeah, yeah, the power is plenty sufficient for most anything within this bike's basic design parameters. She scoots along very nicely, most of the time. There's just one problem, though, which I finally unearthed during today's ride.

While our bike certainly has sufficient power, no one will ever argue that she has plenty of power to spare. Nope, she has just enough. That is, until you mix in 6-9,000' elevations, at which point she simply can't muscle her way up a long grade, particularly in sixth gear. Try as I might, sixth gear proved utterly useless as I tried to power my way up the hill during the long straight that leads into Markleeville, and this issue became even more glaring up on Monitor Pass. For the first time since I've owned her, I had to downshift just to accelerate.

Now, sure, those same hills and elevations sapped power from my XSR during an identical ride through Monitor Pass I took just a week ago, but the XSR could still pull those hills in sixth gear, no problem. The Honda simply wouldn't accelerate, or gain RPM at all, not unless I dropped down to lower gears.

Once I was back down into lower elevations, I ran the same test, and she pulled sixth gear no problem, right up to the cut-off point. She revved fairly quickly, too. At serious elevation, she became a liability. I can only imagine how bad it would have been if I'd had a passenger and luggage aboard. I had the same problem with my old air-cooled BMW R1100R and R1200R Roadsters, but not to the degree that I experienced today with my CB1100.

Yep, high up in the mountains, this bike seriously needs more steam. Today's ride brought me back to my longstanding wish for a CB with 70+ ft-lbs of torque and 110 rwhp.

Oh, well. So she has one major, uncorrectable flaw. At least it's a flaw that only shows itself under very rare, specific conditions. I guess I'll just have to drop down into fourth and accept that I can't go very fast when I'm crossing Tioga Pass, or wherever.

In the grand scheme of things, considering how ideal her power feels on so many other—and much more frequently traveled—roads, it's truly not a big deal.

Anyhow, speaking of Monitor Pass and whatsuch, here she is at the 8,314' summit...



...and at the crazy-epic vista towards the end, with the edge of California in sight, Nevada lurking on the other side of that mountain range...



Here's the same shot, only looking up the road rather than down...



Finally, here she is at the lookout point on Hwy 49, between Sierraville and Bassetts...



None other than King Kenny Roberts hisownbadself has described this stretch of Hwy 49 from Downieville to Sierraville as one of his favorite roads in the world. I used to ride this one a few times per month, but in recent years I've slacked off. Having now ridden it again twice in the past week, I don't know why I ever stopped. That road is nigh on perfection.

Okay, that's pretty much it. The 2017 CB1100 EX has about eight million killer qualities, and her only real negative is a relative lack of power, which only comes into play at exceedingly high elevations. The size/weight/handling thing? It is what it is. It's part and parcel of a truly authentic, real-steel retro.

Everything else about her is simply sublime.

So, here we are. She's taken all the tests I needed to give her, and passed all but one with flying colors. She's a keeper.

I doubt I'll have much else to report. I'm sure I'll keep reading, but I probably won't have anything more to post.

Be safe, and enjoy your ride.

The comparison doesn’t necessarily make any sense, but since I bought the Speedmaster as a compliment to the CB1100EX, I thought that it might be interesting to some folks….
I’ve had my ’17 CB1100EX for roughly 2 months and 900 miles. Longest trip was 2 hours, so not a ton of long term time in the saddle. Originally, I bought the CB as a compliment to my ’98 BMW R1200C. I’ve had that thing since new, and for better or worse, the BMW has defined what I want in a multi-purpose bike. Comfortable enough for multi-hour rides, big and stable enough for highway riding, nimble enough to be comfortable in tight spaces.

Being over 20 years old (the bike, not me), I was spending more time turning wrenches on the BMW than I was riding it. That’s what motivated me to get the CB1100EX. It just plain works whenever you start it and it's a joy to ride. My initial and continuing impression is that the CB is just fantastic around town and commuting. I did find that it lacked in comparison with the BMW on the highway though. I chalked it up to riding position.

In parallel, I had been coveting the looks and vibe of the ’18 Triumph Speedmaster. Gave it a couple of test rides, and my thinking was that it could be the replacement for the BMW for long term cruising needs and the CB would be the perfect around-town bike. After a few weeks, that concept has turned itself on its head.

First, I have no complaints whatsoever with the Triumph. Around town, with the riding position, it’s just fantastic. The low-end torque is astounding, and the sound of the thing is better than any bike I have ever touched. The bike carries its weight super low and it’s a dream at low speeds. It’s like riding around on an easy chair that looks and sounds super cool.
The CB kills it (in my opinion) on longer rides though. It’s more comfortable on longer rides and is more stable on the highway. Not sure why, but that’s the way I find it anyway. It’s also way more nimble.

So, against all pre-conceived notions, if it’s a local Sunday ride, or a quick trip to the corner store, the Triumph gets the nod. If it’s commuting to work, or an hour ride to meet up with friends, or a trip to explore parts unknown, the CB is the choice.

It’s not entirely accurate to say that the CB is “better” on the highway….but to me at least, it’s more comfortable than the Triumph for anything but short rides. And the handling of the CB just inspires confidence.

And the really interesting part to me is that I recently took the BMW for a 4-hour round trip spin to Western Maryland. I found myself immediately missing the CB1100. It just goes to show that there is more to a bike than initial impressions.

All in all, here is my general take on the three…..
1. CB is a better all-around bike as a one-size-fits all situation.
2. Low speed handling and overall ease of use on short jaunts goes to the Triumph.
3. The BMW sort of splits the difference, but it’s hard for it to really compete against the modern bikes.
4. Of the three, although I love the looks of each, the CB is the one I enjoy “just looking at” the most. It’s pretty close though. That doesn’t stop me from trying to optimize…. Looking forward to a care package from Samurider….

06/13/2018 15:21 Posting/Collection KAMATA TOKYO
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06/14/2018 02:14 Arrival at outward office of exchange TOKYO INT TOKYO
138-8799
06/14/2018 02:16 Held by export Customs TOKYO INT TOKYO
138-8799
06/15/2018 06:20 Dispatch from outward office of exchange TOKYO INT TOKYO
138-8799