9 January 2025
 
Day 1: Brisbane to Grafton
 

Link to outbound map
 
I can't remember exactly what time it was that I pulled into Grafton. Sometime in the late afternoon. I recall being annoyed by my wet weather onesie again failing to be properly waterproof. I also recall calculating what time I was likely to get to Ebor, always assuming there would be somewhere to stay; and quickly deciding rest would be better than risking encounters with kangaroos.
 
I know it's early in proceedings, but I can't help a quick digression about the bloody onesie. I bought it in Tamworth on a morning after my two-piece wet weather gear had been shredded when I came off the bike. There's more on that in the discussion on day 2. Back to the onesie. You'd think it would be great: a single garment, lots of flouro bits to make you visible in less than perfect conditions, and less gaps and joins and cracks for water to seep in.
 
But it isn't. It's a bastard of a thing. It's hard to get on over boots and jacket. It's equally annoying to take it off. If you aren't careful with the seal over the zipper that runs from neck to the upper left leg water will seep through and collect somewhere until it overflows into your crotch, always at a moment when you could well do without such a distraction. It's often pretty hot where I ride and leaving a waterproof on when the rain's gone and the sun comes out results in being quietly baked. If you undo the zip at the neck — even just a tiny bit — to let some air in, it's like throwing out a parachute.
 
In summary, and being fair to it, even though it keeps the water out well in the unlikely event that I get the zip cover right, I hate it.
 

Ready to set out
 
I was on my way to meet AussieFlyer for yet another crack at a multi-day ride on some of the more appealing roads in his neck of the woods. A couple of other attempts at this venture have not worked out — the last one because his rear shocker popped a seal. This time he assured me the bike was in tip-top shape.
 
Even though I'd got away earlier that I'd hoped, it had taken me longer than I'd wanted to get to Grafton. Mostly because I'd stopped to sit out a shower of rain at Tamrookum. The rain caught up with me again later and I was still in wets when I got to Grafton. I found a motel — noting that the prices had risen sharply since I was last there — checked in remotely, spread my gear all over the room to dry and went in search of dinner.
 
I had a reasonable meal at the Fitzroy Bar and Grill in the Grafton Hotel.
 

That black area to the left is where I was heading
 

I stopped here to put on The Onesie
 
10 January 2025
 
Day 2: Grafton to Mudgee
 

Link to outbound map
 
If the forecast were to be believed, there was rain ahead. Showers may or may not happen and where and when would be determined in the moment. So, with uncharacteristic optimism, I set off into the morning without putting on the onesie.
 
I started with a ride over the relatively new Grafton Bridge. It augmented a wonderful old iron bridge over which cars passed on the top level and trains on the lower level. It had a slight bend in it and there is machinery allowing it to open. heaen knows when it was last opened. You can see the top level in this photo.
 

 
The other side of the bridge leads quickly to the start of a favourite ride: the Grafton to Armidale Road. The first bit is a good, quick ride from Grafton to Coutts Crossing and thence to Nymboida where the bridge is being repaired.
 

 
The road veers to the right immediately after this bridge and from there on it's a gentle climb twisting through attractive Australian bush and some farmland. A good deal of it was badly burned in fires in late 2019 / early 2020 and is now happily regrowing. An old wooden bridge damaged in the same fires has been replaced. There are photos of the aftermath of the fire in this post. A reasonable surface — excellent in parts — combined with not a lot of traffic mean ample opportunity to practice going up and down hills, changing gears and turning corners of varying degrees of sharpness. The most demanding bit of the road comes to an end shortly after Tyringham. At about the point, drops of rain appeared on my visor and I stopped at the Hernani Public School. It was holiday time so I was spared the indignity of being laughed at by children as I struggled with the dreaded onesie.
 
For some reason, lanyard cam disappeared into my top box at about this point in the day and didn't come out again.
 
I stopped in Uralla for coffee. Off came the onesie. After that I rode along the New England Highway to Tamworth which was busily preparing for Australia's major country and western music festival. I skirted around it, stupidly, blindly following the GPS which took me on a route which involved Burgmanns Lane and dirt. I wasn't too concerned about it as I knew roughly where I was, where I was going and that it would therefore not be for long. However, there was a floodway as the road crossed Goonoo Goonoo Creek and it was covered by a shallow flow of water. Slowing down I rode through it only to feel the back wheel slide under me as I reached the other side. Happily the new Angel GT rear tyre I'd fitted a couple of days before leaving seized hold of the dry concrete and all was well.
 
At this point a word on Goonoo Goonoo. Aside from it being a creek, it's also a suburb of Tamworth. What I find curious about it is that it's pronounced "Gunny Gunoo" not Goo-noo Goo-noo.
 
Shortly after this, Burgmanns Lane crossed the New England Highway and I stopped again to peel off a layer or two.
 
Altogether cooler, I set off to stare down a demon.
 
In 2020, riding home from Tasmania, on a wet day that was no fun for a rider but manna from heaven for the locals, I rounded a corner, met an ocean of black, slimy mud and fell off the bike. See here. When I was last vaguely in the area I wanted to revisit the spot, but the road that would most easily get me there was closed so I took another route altogether. This time there was no excuse and, although I approached the spot from the opposite direction, I proceeded around the corner with great care. No mud, the road was dry and I was soon past.
 
I don't remember that there was anything eventful on the rest of the day's ride. At the end of it, I found myself a room at the Federal Hotel. They didn't offer food and so I enjoyed a pleasant enough walk to The Oriental Hotel that did. I had an OK pizza, conferred with AussieFlyer about where we might meet the next day and went to sleep.
 
11 January 2025
 
Day 3: Mudgee to Boorowa
 

Link to outbound map
 
Is it funny or depressing how quickly one's memory fades; I'm not sure. Anyway, I remember it was cool enough to warrant layers and heavy gloves that it was cool as I set out for Boorowa where I was to meet AussieFlyer. I rode the Castlereagh Highway to Bathurst.
 

The cloud to the right looked ominous, but it turned out not to be a problem
 

Lake Windamere south of Mudgee
 
Lanyard cam is a wonderful thing, but it's not always easy to operate when wearing heavier gloves to keep out the cold. Here's an example of the sort of photo I can easily take when fumbling it into position.
 

 
At Blayney I stopped for petrol, coffee and a mediocre croissant. I then decided to trust the GPS and take a different route to the Wyangala Dam. Yet another dumb mistake as, having had to stop and don the onesie, for a brief but unfriendly shower, I ended up on yet another dirt road. Mercifully, it was not unreasonably long and quite soon I joined the Reg Hailstone Way for the final and best bit of it.
 

A glimpse of the blue sky that was to make it very hot indeed after the shower
 
By the time I arrived at Wyaralong, the sun was doing its thing and I was stinking hot inside my wets. So, feeling a little like a slow-change artist, I stopped and took them off.

 
Then it was on to Boorowa where I was due to meet AussieFlyer. There was no sign of him, so I stopped at the local bakery for coffee and a meat pie before deciding to ride on and meet him on the way. I made it to Jugiong where I refuelled and trundled back to the pub where he was enjoying a beer. Of course, it was purely selfish on my part to ride to meet him as I've always really enjoyed the road from Harden to Jugiong. It undulates gently, has fast, well-cambered corners and not a lot of traffic. It's a delight for a quick ride. I then got to ride it the other way and introduce it to AussieFlyer. We overnighted at the Boorowa Hotel, on old favourite on rides down south.

Noticed this plug was unplugged on my CB, with no apparent plug to plug into it.
Underneath the right side side cover. Any ideas what this is? If its the OBD plugin I feel like it should atleast be covered.

Any advice finding matching replacement tires in 2024 for the non-spoke version?

110/80-18
140/70-18

Besides availability, any experience? Kinda leery about Chinese tires.

Good afternoon, everyone. I hope this Sunday has been kind, pleasant, and beautiful for you. I remembered all of the Members of the Forum in my prayers today, even those among us which may not share my Faith. For those skeptics, think of it as a call to Karma that you, friends, family, and your motorcycle will have a great week.

I have been trying to get a better understanding of the impacts of motorcycle riding on hearing. Most of the men in my family end up completely deaf. Although some of that may be attributed to genetic code, the vast majority is attributed to bad behavior and poor choices for me and my forefathers. We are often boys grown old who like guns, race cars, rock concerts, motorcycles, and anything else which goes boom. At 61, I have managed to retain my hearing and hope to break the family trend.

My research yielded some surprising results and at least three pragmatic solutions I share in this thread. I welcome any other suggestions you may have to help reduce hearing loss or correct mistakes in my thread.

My surprise was to learn that wind noise is a far greater contributor to hearing loss for motorcyclists than engine or exhaust noise. That conclusion was reached by so many credible sources that I believe it can be considered a fact and not an opinion. Here is one of the 40 sources I reviewed. I will spare you the balance of the research!

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7561464/


A few passages I copied in my notes follows. They are so widely quoted I cannot with confident attribute them to the proper author but the National Institute of Deafness and Other Communication Disorders is mot likely:

• “When we are exposed to harmful noise—sounds that are too loud or loud sounds that last a long time—sensitive structures in our inner ear can be damaged, causing noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). These sensitive structures, called hair cells, are small sensory cells that convert sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the brain. Once damaged, our hair cells cannot grow back. In other words, if you overuse it, you lose it.”
• “The risk of hearing damage can be measured in two ways - how loud and how long. Just one loud BOOM above 120 dB can cause immediate harm to your ears, and continuous exposure to noise at 85 dB can be harmful over time.”
• “An increase of only a few decibels has a dramatic effect on the danger to hearing. Each increase of 3 Decibels (dB) represents a doubling of noise energy/sound pressure, and halves the safe exposure time you should listen for.”

So I went about the business of finding out just how loud my 2017 CB1100 EX is with stock exhaust in various riding scenarios. I wanted a baseline from which I could determine what wind noise contributes and how to best offset it.

Here is my beautiful motorcycle idling outside, yesterday morning. There was no wind present. To ear only the motor and exhaust, I believe you can double click on the video and unmute the sound:



I used an application on my iPhone to measure the DB Readings while idling and for other scenarios:

Idling in Driveway (63 dBa)



Urban Driving (92 dBA)



Highway Driving (97 dBA Cruising / 127 dBA Passing and On Ramping)




Without question, I place my hearing at rick while riding my CB110. The response to offset the risk was far less clear. The experts believe that prolonged exposure over time to specific frequencies ultimately causes many motorcyclists to incur permanent hearing. My three responses follow:

Response 1: Install a fairing: Some fairings, but not all, can help redirect wind away from our head and ears. I installed a Road Comet 2 and found it to be very helpful with reducing fatigue and some wind noise.

http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=19304

Response 2: Wear a tight fitting helmet with good aerodynamics and wind noise-reduction capability. I wear a Shoeii GT-Air 2 helmet which has a good wind noise reduction rating (I have recently ordered the Shorii Gt-Air 3 which has even better noise suppression). The experts assert that if properly fitted it can reduce the noise which reaches my ears by 5-7 dBA.

https://www.motorcyclenews.com/bike-kit/...ii-review/

Response 3: Start wearing ear plugs while riding. Sadly, I have never, ever worn any ear plugs while riding a motorcycle. That addition is impactful, because they are the last line of defense between your ear drums and the droning sounds which threaten to deafen all of us. The options were plentiful, but I ultimately selected The Moto Pro Ear Plugs from Earpeace.

https://www.earpeace.com/products/moto-pro

The cost was $40 USD not including a carrying case and the nerdy cord I ordered to connect them so they could “hang” around my neck in those moment when I want to remove them but not return them to a case.

Among my many defects, I have freakishly small ear canals. The folks at Earpeace factored that into their design and provide ear tip options. I found the process of swapping out the ear tips and installing the connecting cord to be tedious. I had to use all of the curse words I know in English and French to complete both tasks, but I did succeed.

The Moto Pro Ear Plugs are comfortable, nearly undetectable when inserted, stay in place while wearing my helmet, and most importantly, reduce the wind noise by another 19 dBA. I could still hear my Apple Maps playing through the Sena Air 2 sound system installed in my helmet. More importantly to me, I could still hear the lovely exhaust note of the motorcycle, engine, and traffic noise too.

Audio through the Sena Air 2 was clear and easily understandable at idle or highway speed. I do not listen to music while riding, but I am certain it would also be great. Through some magic I do not completely understand, the Mot Pro Ear Plugs block the frequency associated with wind noise but allow everything else to pass through.

If you have managed to get to the end of this thread, I applaud your stamina and interest. I hope you found it useful and more importantly helpful to retaining your hearing. I hope someday to meet a member of the Forum in Northern California. It would be lovely if we did not end up screaming at one another at our first meeting.

Have a great week and be safe on your motorcycle. Picture follow. David

Hoping to get lucky and someone might be able to point me in the right direction. When I purchased my 2014 CB1100 last year the PO had hand warmers installed (They are awesome if you don't have them). Sadly after a week of driving the cap came off that had the hand warmer button on it while riding it. I just need to find the cap again, or an idea to make my own. It was just plastic tabs that held in the original and will do something better to make sure it doesn't fall off again. They still work currently so I don't need a new setup if I can avoid it. Thanks for reading!

Any recommendations for a chain riveting tool. As we are buying in a group, money not a problem. We just want the best quality tool.
Thanks nick.

This ad is from Canada and the seller is located in Alexandria, ON, very close to the states of NY, Vermont, NH and Maine.
I know some members were looking for a set of panniers... you might be interested.
Hardware included, not sure if this includes side racks, or if these types of side racks are still available from SW Motech?
Read the ad or contact the seller.

UPDATE from the seller:

Hi Peter, ‘side racks’ are part of the package, and specific to the model…CB1100. Very cleverly designed to be able to just snap them into place when you want to use the saddle bags, or, leave them in place as you wish. The system works very well, as is well made.
My brother lives in Massena NY so I can ship from there to US is someone is interested... Jim


I have nothing to do with the seller, good price in CAN$, IMHO

https://www.kijiji.ca/v-buy-sell-other/o...1710674207


SW Motech site;

https://sw-motech.com/en/products/luggage/side+carrier/

Has anyone looked at or even fitted any of the above dual camera dash cam set ups?

The Thinkware looks well made but lacks park mode?

The Innovv seems to function well but lacking in the build quality?

Any thoughts anyone?

Don’t really want stuff stuck over helmet etc thought something like this I can fit and forget?

Thanks

Looking for recomendations for saddle bags to throw on when needed?

I have full Hepco Becker Top Box and Pannier set but its ugly and only fit it when touring.

Looking for a nice saddlebag set more in keeping with style of bike that i can throw on when needed without 1/2 tonne of chrome steel work to be fitted

Good morning,

Dropped bike yesterday, need to replace clutch lever.

New one ordered

Is it simply a cases of remove holding bolt drop out old lever, replace with new and refit bolt?

Thanks