As a kid I remember seeing these extremely tall Italian enduro bikes around called SWM. I liked them at the time, but the company then went broke like so many other small manufacturers.

SWM is back, helped by some Chinese financing, and I think they come out with some really retro bikes:

Silver Vase (Scrambler)


Gran Turismo (I really like this one!)


Gran Milano

On our recent trip down the coast, I happened to look down at my handlebars while underway and noticed that they and the rest of the front end assembly were ever so slightly aiming to the right (maybe 2 degrees tops, but noticeable) even as I was moving in a perfectly straight line. I continued to check on every straightaway, and it definitely was out of alignment. Having recently had new tires put on, I had a look at the rear axle adjusters at the next stop to see if they were not adjusted equally on each side. Sure enough, if the indicator notches are anything to go by, it looked to me like the left (port) side of the rear axle was just ever so slightly forward of the right (starboard) side. Doing the geometry in my head, I imagined that having the rear wheel out of adjustment to the right would force the handlebars to settle at a similar angle to keep going in a straight line, resulting in the bike crabbing or yawing down the road ever so slightly.
Am I on the right track here? It seems a simple matter to loosen the rear axle, re-adjust to true, and snug it back down, and if I get it right the yaw should disappear, yes? Is there anything else I should be thinking of? I'll have a look at the chain and sprockets while I'm at it, hopefully no damage has been done...
Thanks as always for your kind guidance! - K

It has now been exactly 1 month since one of our members has posted or signed in.
Should we assume the worst? One of his last posts did state that he had just done his own brake job on one of his bikes...or, maybe he just went on a very long vacation without internet access.

He was known for ruffling a few feathers in "some" of his posts.
Perhaps he left in a huff after a difference of opinion. However, when this happens you usually still sign in occasionally to see the responses to your latest post(s). Could he now be signing in under a new pseudonym?

Which member is this?
For those who haven't the foggiest, I've been waiting to use this Seinfeld reference for a long time...

The first part of his forum name sounds like one of Jerry's initial guesses at a woman's name that rhymes with "a female body part"

Hopefully this is not too insensitive if something serious actually did happen to him. Perhaps he'll eventually respond and advise that the rumours of his demise were greatly exaggerated!

For those new to the forum, every year some of the male members of the family and the occassional invited guest, go on what we call the Men's Fall Trip. We have gone to the U.P. of Michigan, Central Kentucky, West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, done the Rattlesnake out of Little Switzerland, N.C., the Skyline Drive, the BRP, the Dragon, Cherahola Skyway etc. Regular forum members have read the seat time reports for the last couple of years.

We live in Ohio, and always go far away on our trips and this year we decided to see what Ohio, our home state, had to offer. It turns out Ohio offers a lot. Some of the best riding, that I have done anywhere in the country (if you like curvy country roads).

We have come to prefer to do what Road Runner Magazine likes to call Cloverleaf Tours. Pick a centralized spot to run loops out of and use a single motel as a base. This allows you to leave all your luggage in your room and you only have to unpack and repack once instead of every day. This year we chose the Farifield Inn by Marriot in Marietta, Ohio.

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Mens%20Fall%20Trip%202016/DSCF4472_zpstqbqfwmw.jpg.html]

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Mens%20Fall%20Trip%202016/DSCF4471_zpscqyka1d4.jpg.html]


Marietta is a cool little town that borders West Virginia that has plenty of diverse places to eat when you are done riding. It also has two motorcycle shops that between them carry all 4 Japanese motorcycle brands if you would need emergency parts or service, and we also saw enough Harleys running around that there must be an HD dealer somewhere (there always is) and there is a BMW dealer within 50 miles I think, near Athens, Ohio.

Here is our little assembled group for this year's trip which include my brother Randy, my son Brian, my nephew Roger that flew in from Nevada for the trip and my son's father in law Jimmy and myself. My buddy Jnor was supposed to make the trip but a family emergency popped up and he had to cancel at the last minute. We would be riding (2) Honda ST 1300's, a 2016 Triumph Bonneville T120, a 2016 Yamaha FJ-09. My nephew that flew in was supposed to borrow his brothers 2015 SV 650 Suzuki, but at the last minute that collapsed so I lent him my 2014 CB 1100 DLX for the trip. If Jnor had made it we would also have has a 2016 Versys 650. Quite the variety of bikes. V4's, inline triple, inline 4, and a parallel twin. during the trip we would swap to experience the different bikes.

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Mens%20Fall%20Trip%202016/DSCF4459_zpsewbmxf74.jpg.html]

Day 1, our ride out to Marrietta was an easy one. East on St Rt 32 to St Rt 50 and then north on St Rt 7 along the Ohio River into Marietta, 203 miles in total. Even though 32 and 50 are both 4 lane divided highways, they go thru some rather remote and scenic parts of southern Ohio, the most mountainous part of the state although our mountains would barely be called hills in most places with real mountains.

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Mens%20Fall%20Trip%202016/DSCF4465_zpsumurgnhp.jpg.html]

From Cincinnati it takes about 3 1/2 hours without stops to get to Marietta. We left at noon on Sunday and rode for an hour and stopped at a McDonalds in Seaman, Ohio for some quick lunch. About an hour and a half after we got back on the road, it started to sprinkle and we pulled into a Marathon station west of Athens to put on rain gear.

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/DSCF4469_zpsdiuc9p9c.jpg.html]

Back on the road the rain lasted for maybe 20 minutes then quit. We still had to deal with wet roads for most of the rest of the trip so we left our rain gear on, but it was dry when we got to Marrietta at 4:30 PM and checked into the hotel. It was the only rain we'd see for the whole trip.

We would be sharing 3 rooms, but since Jnor cancelled I was left to room alone. The rooms were nice and clean. The hotel staff friendly and accomodating. There was a free continental breakfast every morning, and they had a pool and a jacuzzi to relax in after a days ride. Like I said plenty of restaurants in town made choosing evening meals simple. We have a system in that each rider gets to pick the dinner spot one night. Makes things simple. No discussion about "where do you want to eat tonight?" "I don't know?""I don't care" "well, somebody pick a place". Nope, it's easy, and you get a great variety by letting each person have a choice. But, tonight we just walk across the parking lot to the adjacent Wings place and eat.

203 miles today.

more to come ... we are just getting started.

What is the consensus as to what year and model the CB1100 looks like the most? I think Honda tried to capture the essence of several CB years in one.

I was out riding this morning and a guy I was talking to said he cleans his chain every 300 miles! This seems excessive to me. How frequently do you guys clean your chain? And when you do, what is your method? Thanks in advance for your council.

Variations of BMW's RnineT...yes

yes

interesting

possibly

nice try

could work

oh pulllllease no


I would like to test ride one.

Wow what a race ... First lap or two was crazy

Interesting experience and a bit of a case of don't meet your heroes. It is an awesome bike, and the Showa big piston and Ohlins rear suspension is on another planet from the CB and is amazingly composed in the city and when pushed hard.

That said, everything else, wasn't really what I hoped for. The Brembo cast monoblock brakes don't really have an amazing bite or power that I thought they would; and I honestly prefer the feel of the relatively lower spec components on my C-ABS CB. I think would change a lot if you put a higher spec master on the bike though, as I've ridden lots of bikes with the same rotor and caliper setup and an RCS master, and they are indeed amazing.

The engine wasn't as hairy as hoped it would be -- it's got great torque and spins up incredibly fast, but it's almost like riding a well-tuned Harley in that it runs out of breath so fast (6500rpm redline) and you're kind of left sitting there thinking 'hmmm, okay, I gotta shift again already...' You also don't have the same connected feeling where you can really change your line and lean angle just by minute throttle inputs when riding spiritedly like you can on the CB. This is even with TC turned off. You end up looking at the tach a lot since you cant really feel what the engine is doing. Could it be good with mods? I don't know. It would be interesting to drag race the two bikes, as my butt dyno doesn't really feel like this thing is massively faster.

Was seriously considering buying one of these, but I think that with some Ohlins Piggybacks, a cartridge conversion, and fork brace I would way rather keep my CB. Just some meaningless ramblings -- had a fair amount of mental energy tied up in thinking about the two bikes and wanted to get it out...

Motogp qualifying lineup for tomorrow's race.

http://www.roadracingworld.com/news/marc...-in-spain/