Ok, summer can end now, thank you. We are getting our late-summer heat spike, and are bumping into to triple-digits. I'm running some fans in the shop at work, and have been keeping my garage projects at home to late night, but I think my brain juice has evaporated. Something ain't right.

I've always preached to not let distractions interrupt a rider's sequence of getting on or off of a bike. This can lead to forgetting to put the side stand down, leaving the key in the ignition, etc.

This morning, I trudged down to the garage, loaded my top box for the day, grabbed my gloves, zipped up the jacket, turned on the GoPro and the Brake light on the helmet, put in the earplugs, and donned my helmet liner.

Wait, where's that old sprinkler head from Mom's yard? I need to take it today so I can find a matching one at the hardware store.

Got on the bike, backed out of the garage, and started to pull around the front of the house. Mrs. G was out front watering her plants. I waved to her, and she gestured a definite WTF back at me.

I stopped and shrugged. What did I do now? She poked at her head with her finger. I poked at my head and didn't hit a helmet. Oops.

Somewhere between the helmet liner and Where's Mom's Sprinkler, I forgot the helmet part. Ugh.

So I contacted Honda Dealers UK to get a replacement key

Their response

Blank Key £86.46

Key Cutting £15

Key Coding £48

Total £149.46

So I bought 2 genuine Honda key blanks from Japan (35121-MGP-D01)

£45 for two blanks postage and VAT to UK was £24.00

Had local locksmith cut them (he did 2 for £20)

Bought a HISS programming cable from ebay (you can make it yourself but the parts were about the same price as ready made lead) £19.99

Total cost £109

!0 minutes to recode and there you have two new original Honda keys for £40 less than 1 new key from dealer :-)

Off to France for 7 days at the end of September with partner on pillion, so I emailed Givi to find out what racks and cases I need to go with the V47 or V56 top box i already have, as likely that will soon get filled up :-).

They responded with "Unfortunately we do not make any products to fit the CB1100" !

Has anyone fitted any Givi hard case panniers? If so what model and what mounting plate did you use?

Are there any alternatives that might be worth considering?

CB1100 is a 2017 with twin exhaust as per image below

To everyone riding today, please ride safely and remember lots of out of towners traveling today might not be familiar with where they are

Retiring my Empty Sea CB1100 Shoei.

Only graphic on my new Arai is a small U.S. flag which I will wear proudly on our tour of Scotland in a couple of weeks.

Plus it’s sparkly!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Last night, after making a bit of a presentation to Mrs. G of the bicycle I finished restoring for her (as mentioned in the "other bikes" thread), we went for a ride around the neighborhood, then headed in to make dinner.

As we were slicing and dicing stuff for tacos, she said "You know, I think I'm ready."
"Ready for what?"
"The bike is a nice birthday present, but there's the other present you said was always available."

She has always had a sort of, maybe, someday, who knows, that looks fun attitude about riding motorcycles. I've always offered to get her a basic riding course whenever she though she was ready. But, it has always been me who's offered. She's always said "yeah, maybe", but life has always been in the way... taking care of her folks, dealing with challenging work changes, etc.

This is the first time she's come to me with the idea of learning to ride. My Mom's doing well, her work has stabilized and she's happy, and we've got a garage full of motorcycles. She says she's ready.

Let's see where the journey takes us.

Price, size, availability - don't care

I would like to hear some comments about these two different tires.
Handling in wet and dry, longivity, etc...
Prefferd from members who had both sets on their CBs or other bikes
Which one would you choose and why?
Presently have GTs, never had T32s

I am going to be an optimist and believe I will be able to ride this fall and winter, regardless of my problems with my vision. So, I am finally putting new tires on my EX. I remember reading several threads about increasing the tire size, but my memory failed me. I went ahead and ordered std size, front and rear, new radial-ply tubes and rim flaps for both tires. I hope I did not buy a 'bad' tires without the Forum's advice, but I bought Bridgestone's BT54 tires all around. The std size has served me well, even though I do like the look of a larger tire, the bike has never seemed to need them. Hopefully I did okay. I am glad to be back! Thanks, George, for the trick to get the Forum looking like it used to!

Hello! I'm coming from the V4musclebike forum. I'm a young midwestern guy who restored my first bike (84' VF700 Magna - 10k miles) and now have gotten so addicted to motorcycles I want to get another one. I love the vintage bike look, if I could I'd buy a CBX and be happy to maintain and ride it, but that is not realistic.

So was gonna buy an old CB750 and run that, but my friends want to do cross country trips and so do I. I would really like something new and reliable. Some internet searches later I found the sexiest modern bike (CB1100 ) so here are my questions.

1. Life expectancy/maintanence required? Coming from an old bike, I don't want to pick up a CB1100 with 20k miles to find out the PO didn't do valve checks etc. What is the service intervals on these bikes? Are there service manuals available? I wrench on my own bikes.

2. Does anybody currently know a way to reprogram the ECU? Browsing this site I've seen Dave Guhl was the guy but he doesn't do this anymore. I want to do the basic upgrades to this bike being open exhaust, velocity stacks, changeup sprocket size and remove that speed limiter. As well as smoothing out the timing etc for best performance. I know this isn't a superbike and won't be, just like having all the power I can... reasonably. Any advice on this would be much appreciated!

3. Is the 2014 version with the 6 speed that much better than the 2013? I've read there were some upgrades for the 2014 but how much better is it than the 2013?
Most of what I can find available around me is a 2013 or '14.

Thanks for reading, looking forward to buying this bike this winter and ready for another fun season of riding!

I understand the CB1100’s were governed at 116mph. I intend to bring mine on the track- is there any way for this governor to be removed or bypassed?