I was replacing my battery in me 2013 and was connecting the positive leads to the battery when I received a puff of smoke in the space above the battery. Scared the crap out of me not knowing what I did wrong. I looked and could not find any obvious damage and everything is working on the bike. Do not want to ride to avoid any possible further damage to the wiring. Any suggestions on what to do?

Hi,

a Dealer in Jacksonville has received several new, 2014 CB1100's. They are for sale at US$5,980 . I have been an admiring lurker for a while, but I find this tempting. Is that a decent deal for a new non-ABS model ? Evidently he has 8 of them because they all have different stock numbers.

It always makes me smile with satisfaction when I hit the starter button on the CB after it has sat idle for nearly six months, and the engine roars to life almost before the first rev is completed.
I had that satisfaction yesterday when I rolled it out into the sun for the first time this year.
The miserable spring weather had finally broken and it was time to get rolling.
I did a couple of cosmetic mods over the winter which I'll show when I can get a decent picture.
Looking forward to miles of smiles again

I am looking for feedback on a SMALL bag to hold odds and ends like a handlebar or a fork bag. This would be for occasional use.

I've been considering a leg bag, I might go that route but I would rather have it strapped to the bike and not my leg.

I saw this bag which is a bit too big and a mess but I was thinking that spot might work if the bag was small enough to have my leg bumping it all that time. Obviously that side cover would need to have a rest in the garage to make it work.

Also considering a small roll bag to strap on the seat.

I have a tank bag for my RT but I need to keep tank clean on the CB.

Thanks for whatever advise you might have.

HW

My wife is visiting my son for Mom's Day at Oregon St. Univ. so it was time to take the CB1100 out for its first extended ride. Just finished the 600 mile oil change last night, but I thought I'd do today's run before checking the chain tension and lubing it...supposed to rain again tomorrow.

Portland always has a 5 de mayo celebration--fun with my wife, but not so much alone...besides the Columbia Gorge is nicer than the crowds of Portland. Got away by noon and headed east on 84 towards Bridge of the Gods, crossed into Washington and headed east on 14 to Stevenson, WA. Stopped for lunch and met an eldery gent named Brad who was having the same idea, only he started early morning and was just finishing up his ride on his Honda NT700v. Pretty bike. He admired the CB1100, seemed to know the basics about it. We ate lunch together and swapped bicycle and motorcycle ride stories before heading our own ways...

Right after lunch, from the north side of the Columbia


Spring wildflowers are doing their thing


Fisherman cleaning his boat


Paddle boat!


I love riding through the tunels on hiway 14...there's about 5 or 6 of them within a couple miles of each other


Mt Hood. Ski season ended this weekend at Timberline where I like to go. I made it up there 4 times this year. It's nice from down below as well...


Love the beauty!






The Gorge starts drying out heading east of the Mt. Hood area (Hood River and The Dalles on the Oregon side). Rocky...less forest...

W/R: The seating on a bone stock XR1200 is pretty neutral. I'm 6 foot exactly and find the stock seat comfortable. Longest day ride I've done is 260 miles. Additional seating options are available but somewhat limited. Corbin makes a seat pad replacement and one or two manufacturers do as well. The seat itself is kind of like a café seat meaning you really can't move back to stretch your legs out. Again, I seem to fit just right at 6 foot and don't find that an issue. All 3 of my bikes have café seats and I'm happy with that. I do have the tendency to slide forward just a little (since the seat surface is somewhat slick) on occasions when braking hard.

Bottom line: Seating position is a lot like the CB except you feel like you're sitting a little lower (more like IN) the XR.

Here's the stock seating arrangement on my XR.



Another owner I converse with likens the XR riding position to riding a big, old school enduro/dirt bike.

XR's are relatively rare. The feet forward crowd never warmed up to them and as a result they went by the way after only 2-3 years on the market. I've put 10K miles on mine since last year and really like it. Not the fastest or the lightest bike around but a unique style and riding experience with lots of low end grunt.

I'm eventually looking to put a belly pan on it like the one in the pic below.



Side note: I know of one person that was recently looking at an 2009 XR with approx. 12 K miles (I think) in orange for $5200.

Not much going on yesterday and the weather was projected to be stellar in the region...mid 70's and partly cloudy. Decided to hop on the CB1100 and run out to Wendover Nevada and check put the new super liquor store I've been hearing about that was recently built there. Also, since I was already out there I thought I'd head a little further west and take the scenic and remote backway around the west side of the lake heading northeast and eventually hit Snowville and then turn back south and towards home,

Map outlines the route...about 370 miles clockwise around the lake.


I put the aluminum trunk box on the rear rack in case I needed the space, zipped up the chaps and armored jacket and headed south towards Salt Lake at 08:15. Made good time and stopped at Salt Air (a concert venue on the shore of the Great Salt Lake that's been rebuilt a few times due to floods and fires).

Salt Aire. You can see the lake in the background.


From that same spot looking south at the Kennecott Copper mine 1,215 foot smoke stack

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennecott_...lter_Stack



Heading west on I-80 I was the closest to the lake I was going to get today. The lake has been down significantly over the past few years. In wetter years all the land in the foreground would be underwater.



Additional info on the lake

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Salt_Lake

Some miles west of Toole Utah on Highway 80. Dugway was the military site where the US Army destroyed it's chemical weapons inventory. This valley was chosen due to its geological stability, remoteness, and low moisture cycles.



Looking south into the valley



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dugway_Proving_Ground

Gotta love the American West when you see signs like this



At approx. 91 miles into the ride there's an exit to the north side of the road to another military area. Driving down that road heading north for 1.5 miles gives you the view in the pic below. Noteworthy for the fact that during WW2 there was a German POW camp about 15 miles north and 3 miles west in the picture. The spot were it was located is called German Valley. No escapes were ever recorded. Several of the POWs passed away in captivity and they're buried in Salt Lake City. Every year there's a small remembrance ceremony for them hosted by German military personnel assigned to the air base in the local area. X on the route map marks the spot where I took this picture.



Further west there's a rest area on a knoll that looks down towards the Salt Flats and Wendover, Nevada. I imagine when V-Max and Hayabusa riders dream, this stretch of road is what its about.



The Bonneville Salt Flats just outside of Wendover. I was going to ride out 100 yards and park the bike for a picture but decided I didn't want to deal with the salt. This is from the highway parking area. Interesting factoid about those mountains in the background. I was atving them and we stopped to explore one of the hard rock mines there and went into one at a gradual decent for about 100 yards and found a dead deer right at the end of the shaft. Very strange . Deer could have just walked back out.



I dabble somewhat in whiskey, having been to about 45 distilleries in Scotland and a few in the USA. Jefferson's Ocean is a small batch bourbon whiskey that's barreled and then moved to ships were it goes through all the worlds oceans for X amount of time. Instead of being classified by age the bottles denote what voyage the whiskey was on. They had two voyages in stock. 11 and 13. Not being superstitious I opted for the #11.



While in Wendover I refueled the CB on the center stand because there was the possibility I would have to go 150 miles without any gas station and my bike gets at BEST 50 mpg even when I throttle back. I reset the odo and coasted out to I-80 West without stopping at Wendover Airfield (which is tied to the atomic bombs used in WW2)

See more here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wendover_Air_Force_Base

Afternoon to you all, has any one here today ever installed the factory heated grips on a 2014. The instructions in step 18 have you pull hoses and relays and trays out of the way so you can get a wrench on the throttle cable as shown in the diagram for that step, mine isn't any place close to what they are showing with both the adjuster nut and the lock nut being bottomed out on bracket. Any idea why they have you do that and then put it all back together? If I make a major adjustment like that wont I need to go back in at the end and readjust it back to where it is now? (Providing of course its properly adjusted now).

looking to buy Goldwing, have limited space in garage any one know how wide and long a 2015 Goldwing is? want to put it up against wall and park car in front of it... I have seen these dolly's you put bike on that you can move bike. PARK-IN-MOVE dollies.... thanks glen

Crutchlow has the pole for tomorrow's race with Dani 2nd and Zarco 3rd. Factory Yamahas are well back. Should be a good one.
http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/moto...-at-jerez/