I took my wife and boys to watch some flat track racing at the Costa Mesa Speedway last night. We had a blast. It was a beautiful night and a packed house. Being that it was Harley Davidson and Sidecar Night, the people watching was as interesting as the races! I'll let you interpret that however you'd like.

There were lots of families in attendance and before the start of the races, the little ones were allowed to sit or stand along the track wall as each of the racers were announced and walked past, giving high fives to each of the kids. Talk about a motley crew (the racers, not the kids). The youngest was 16. The oldest was 60. And there was everything in between. There was a grandmother of four who raced in the amateur division and came in third out of four racers in two heats. I'd love to hear the ribbing that fourth racer got from his friends after those losses.

The flat track bikes are impressive. A few times we ventured too close to the wall and had dirt flung onto us. My wife removed a decent sized dirt clod from my neck but I was more worried about my beer. I managed to keep the beer untainted and all was right in the world. We found some seats along the back straightaway and stuffed ourselves with pizza, pretzels, nachos, churros and beer. A night of indulgence for sure.

[url=http://s51.photobucket.com/user/jamesfontaine/media/256C7C9A-1D5C-472E-9771-4181935CD504.jpg.html]
The ape hanger division

[url=http://s51.photobucket.com/user/jamesfontaine/media/A70C22E0-B30D-4FBD-8B88-82E24ADB88B6.jpg.html]
More HDs tearing it up

[url=http://s51.photobucket.com/user/jamesfontaine/media/44A9C095-1544-4CD7-B8E6-254084FE5C9A.jpg.html]
This particular sidecar was dominating the track

And here are a couple short videos from the night:




The passenger of the no. 2 car is a paraplegic and was strapped down to the car. I thought I heard the announcer refer to the passengers as "slingers" but I've found that they're referred to in various ways. I prefer the term "Monkey." Seems fitting.




In this video, you can see a couple 1%ers walk past the bottom of the shot. There were a fair number of them present but everyone was mellow. No problems even though earlier in the evening I spotted what would normally be considered a rival 1%er walk by flying his colors. I think everyone was happy to just enjoy the night with some churros and beer.




Of course, being HD night, there had to be some hooliganism!

My family and I had a great time! Looking forward to more races in the future.

There was an [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=3156&highlight=poll]ABS: Good or Bad? poll back in June that I have been thinking about for awhile. Although the sample size was pretty small, the preference was clearly in favor of ABS. I hadn't realized how rare the ABS models were until yesterday when I looked at the owner registry compilation that Cormanus generously put together.

I have been riding regularly for about 4 years with about 50K miles on 2 Triumph Tigers and the CB1100. Since I had minimal prior road bike experience, I specifically chose bikes with ABS. I was very fortunate to get my discounted 2013 CB1100 ABS in May of 2015.

The generally older age demographic of CB1100 owners, the apparent preference for ABS, and my own prejudice towards ABS makes me wonder if Honda totally misjudged the market for the CB1100 in the US by limiting the availability of ABS models.

What do you think? Would the CB1100 have been more "successful" in the US if Honda had offered mostly ABS models? (assume the same lack of marketing)

Decided to change by fenders back to chrome. Still trying to decide which way I like it better, but I think the chrome definitely shows off the retro character of this bike?

[url=http://s1376.photobucket.com/user/ronsteinbruegge1/media/3202327A-16F6-49E7-A0D1-657D2E4DFF56_zpschedhzyz.jpg.html]

[url=http://s1376.photobucket.com/user/ronsteinbruegge1/media/FC9EAC89-1662-43C7-B109-3D19BC344761_zpsvo6wp0xf.jpg.html]

Hey guys, in Florida I live in a condo with no access to a private garage so I keep my CB at a local storage unit. Since I've kept the bike there, it's been plugged in and on a battery tender. I don't ride much in the summer...way too hot, but I do manage to get out at least once every month or so; more so the rest of the year. I just had to move to anther storage facility however this one doesn't have power so at present the bike is not plugged in. Does anyone ride their bike infrequently like me and not keep it on a tender? Have you had any issues? I keep my other two bikes at my home in Georgia and they're on a tender. But I do keep a car up there that is not on a tender and I've yet to have any issues. What do you think? Am I just waiting for trouble here with the CB?

Have you guys come across this before? This cover has turned a nice copper color. I haven't seen this condition on any other CB's. I'm guessing it's heat-related but the bike runs great. Bike has about 12k miles.

[url=http://s1285.photobucket.com/user/ericlevy/media/Mobile%20Uploads/197AEEC8-1256-405B-B31D-7F74E2F86847_zps34mw0lwf.jpg.html]

Hi all!

I have a question for the (used to be) Ducatistas on this board.

Is it bad to ride a ducati engine below 3000 for a prolonged time, so bad it can even damage the engine itself?

This post made me ask the questions:
http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread....9#pid15569

Unfortunatelly the member has not been active here for 2 years, so I can't ask him.

Main reason for asking is I'm quite interested into adding a Multistrada to my stable, one day, in the far future




It really seems to be a true All-in-one kind of motorcycle.
Relatively low weight, powerfull, handy riding modes, wind protection, good mileage, some cool electronic gadgets, etc.

But its expensive and...its Ducati, whenever I have a reflex about buying Italian , I always have the reflex to think twice
Fashion stuff, no problem cfr. riding gear.

In fact, on the Duc board I saw this problem thread on the latest 2015 Multi:
http://www.ducati.ms/forums/44-multistra...blems.html

Makes me wonder, are they still problematic, even after Audi took over? (not that a German owner guarantees reliability..)

I mean, we also have some issues on the CB1100 board, look at my idle issue, but in general the issues are small.
We do not have a dedicated "Problem" thread nor reasons to open one.
But that Multi thread from May 2015 has 103 pages about 1 specific model.

Despite all of that, the bike has a certain appeal to me.

In think in september the local Ducati dealer has free test riding days, so I think I'll hop on one than, but meanwhile I'd like to hear some opinions about Ducs, the New Multi and the way to threat a Duc engine from users here

Thx a lot!

[url=http://s122.photobucket.com/user/rfro1/media/CBX/d6e38bf7-9e07-46c6-9ff8-6bab5125a293_zpsfvdosib8.jpg.html]

Look what showed up at the shop I work at last Thursday. The guy who owns it offered it for sale for $8000. It is a survivor. It has 9500 original miles on it. It is a 1979.

It's embarassing to be so ignorant, but I don't have the extensive motorcycle history of most of you, so that's my excuse for having to ask.

What are the plastic cylinders incorporated into the end of the handlebars? Are these bar end weights, or protectors in case you drop the bike?

Have any other CBs come with these?

https://www.facebook.com/epicposts/video...862505701/

Spoiler Alert so Ulve doesnt get all excited about us spoiling the race for him

qualifying on 620 tomorrow morning at 8 AM- 10 AM

Race Sunday at 4:50 - 9:00 AM for Moto 2, Moto 3 and MotoGP

And the MotoGP will be replayed at 1:00 AM Monday
FP2 was led by Marquez followed by Ianonne, Lorenzo

Barbera, Rossi and Dovisioso