Very bad weather here today in french Alps, my CB will stay in the garage. Quite the opposite of previous week-end, where we had nice temperature and sunny blue sky.
So today I take some time to post a few of the photos of last sunday ride...

Two pictures taken at Parmenie viewpoint - 15 mn walk from the road end. A nice sight over mountains surrounding Grenoble.
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c04f5779ce3]
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c04b657d3ca]

Passing near by Saint-Geoirs airport, we noticed a plane flying very low atop the small road we were on. Ok, we were in the axis of the landing track...
We took a small trail and arrived very near by the track. Some "spotters" were there with cameras: it seems this day, landing and take-off were rather frequent, I think skiing holidays bring more planes than usual.
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c051a64d9d3]
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c052c783cfa]
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c052ec06481]

These big machines are impressive, I took a few shots also, despite usually I prefer other subjects for my pictures...
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c051f34791c]
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c05215b34a6]
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c052338c89e]
[url=https://media.joomeo.com/56c0513ea6854]

Jean-Pierre

This is the CB I'd like to see Honda build in 2017...

https://youtu.be/GMWurGORq_8

Click on the link for my video on an economical, functional and good looking bar end mirror install for the cb1100...

http://youtu.be/2geAjL1zTiQ

It was a good day to go to the bike show with the temps in the teens.
[url=http://s435.photobucket.com/user/MMSTORE1948/media/DSC01354.jpg.html]
There tons of wild custom bikes, but this one was a little more less
radical.
[url=http://s435.photobucket.com/user/MMSTORE1948/media/DSC01374.jpg.html]
This is the new 2017 SV650, they haven't released the price or can the dealers order it. I thought it was great. Had a first gen. and of all
the 100 bikes I have had it always left me with a big smile.
[url=http://s435.photobucket.com/user/MMSTORE1948/media/DSC01361.jpg.html]
Have a friend who really likes the 690 Duke so had to give it a try.
[url=http://s435.photobucket.com/user/MMSTORE1948/media/DSC01356.jpg.html]
VJMC had a nice display also the brit bike crowd .
[url=http://s435.photobucket.com/user/MMSTORE1948/media/DSC01392.jpg.html]
Of course there were the odd displays and venders. There was even a
barber !?
We did have a good time ,even bought a pair of gloves. Seemed so strange since I vended at this show for 10 years.
Had to stop at Giordano's for lunch ( Great food) before we left.
Wish we had one in Madison.

2 pictures in my garage waiting the Sun shine

Honda only lists the Grom as a 2014/2015 model on its website -- it doesn't appear to be available as a 2016 model. I thought the bike was a sale success.

Black CB1100 passed the tour bus I was on going down Lombard St in San Francisco at 6:30 pm tonight. Anybody here?

Regarding Jim Alfaro and 7th Gear Designs - http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=7951 The mystery is solved, but what a mess. So here is the story of what is going on.

I have never met Jim personally. I contacted him after extensive exhaustive effort that many have mentioned they were not willing to do. Jim rarely (now make that never) answers phone calls or email. Rightly so, because he is a farce impersonating a manufacturer. I know manufacturing (my business) and Jim is no manufacturer. He apparently subs all of his work out. This would not even be so bad except he represents himself as the actual manufacturer.

In one of his few emails I received, he said there was a problem with the "blanks" (material) and that was causing a delay. That led me to check into PBI sprockets that provides blank sprockets (http://shop.pbisprockets.com/product.sc?...goryId=56) figuring he gets the xx tooth sprocket blanks from them then drills the mounting holes, but after talking to them, he never purchased from them. So maybe he is not lying - NOT! Their blanks are aluminum not steel anyway.

I was deciding if I should add this item to my company (start manufacturing sprockets) for the benefit of me and the forum and ....
I was at the point of turning this over to the police, when today to my sheer surprise, a box arrived from Azusa Engineering (http://www.azusaeng.com/) with 2 sprockets inside - no paperwork. A 19T & a 37T with 7GD lasered on the side. However, I was supposed to receive a 19T & a 35T from Jim. HMMM, another mess up to deal with.

After looking at the 37T, I realized a 35T is impossible. It will never fit/attach. The outside of the 5 attachment holes are within LESS than a SINGLE mm (see pic at end) of the center hub hole for the wheel shaft! So for him to have originally promised that the 35T will be possible to install/manufacture proves he doesn't even qualify as a viable "designer". He already "made" (make that sold) a 37T for Peking Duck and should have known especially when I asked the question.

So, this afternoon, I followed up with a call to Azusa Engineering and got "the Rest of the Story". I had originally in fact contacted them (along with a half dozen others) before I contacted 7GD. I spoke to their manufacturing supervisor that said the son (of the father and son team {owners}) was wanting to make steel sprockets, but the dad did not want to. After a few months of that, I came across Peking Duck's post and started a conversation with Jim. That story is above and .....one of the most UNPROFESSIONAl pieces of _____ I have had to deal with in decades.

As a manufacturer and my discussion with Azusa Engineering, I'll explain what happened - The machines that do this work require many hours to set up, required dedicated operation to the same material - aluminum,, steel, ... extensive time to change and clean out after a new different production material is to be used.

Well, Azusa Engineering, like my company uses aluminum for many reasons, and it will be months before a breakdown will be initiated and a swap over will occur for the few steel runs needed. So because 7GD does not manufacture the item, he had to keep coming up with new (one after the other) LIES to explain why the product has not shipped. When he ran out of lies, he just avoided answering the phone or email. One time his better half answered the phone on a Saturday by mistake while they were on vacation in Texas. All he had to do is tell the truth and I would have been patient, but NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

As part of my business, I am able to process/coat these items professionally. I am going to coat the 19T front with Bright Nickel and the 37T rear with Yellow Zinc. One bad item is that the $100 of Honda OEM parts I purchased for the 35T won't be needed for it to be installed/work. The good news is that I will not need to break the chain and use the parts to shorten it - initially, unless I think it should be.

Another item of good note, because I am not going to break the chain initially, I am going to do the R&R install myself because I won't need the special tools required for a chain mod. Bolt & unbolt.

I'll post before & after pics, but I did not want to delay getting this info out so that ALL may avoid a future disaster with 7GD. Should any 13CBs desire this steel vs aluminum sprocket mod, I will probably arrange future production runs - TBA.

To the hills
The critical bit of Cormanus sojourn in the Solomon Islands—the bit that financed it—fell a long way short of expectations. With an enormous disappointment and heartache, my wife and I made the decision that I should abandon the work and we should retreat. This is probably not the place for outpourings of affection, but the decision was very generous on her part as she was doing good works and having a wonderful time.

So it came to pass that in early February I found myself back in Brisbane, Australia, reunited with my CB1100, my son and his partner, my step-daughter and her partner and their daughter. The forgoing list is not in order of importance. Really. It’s not.

I arrived homeless and alone. We had decided to rent out our house as we were planning to be away a couple of years and there were still tenants in it. My wife fled to the other side of the planet two days after I returned to the Solomons after Christmas leaving me to pack all her things to bring them back to Australia. A fitting punishment, I suppose. ‘Travelling light, mate?’ one of my countrymen wearing shorts and thongs and carrying nothing but a passport asked me in the Honiara airport as he eyed off the trolley bearing suitcases, computer bags and heaven knows what else.

Luckily, my son and his partner were kind enough to give me a bed for a few days until I was able to move into a house we are looking after for a bit.

I took the owners of the house to the airport and moved my stuff. I needed some proper tea—stuff with leaves that you have to brew in a pot not those tedious little bags made of powder from the floor sweepings in the tea factory—but all the while I was thinking about all the poor mugs in the northern hemisphere stuck in snow and sleet and cold and misery. What little thing could I do; what modest sacrifice could I make to try to brighten their dismal winter lives?

Pulling on my heavy Kevlar jeans and boots and a mesh jacket, I climbed onto the CB and set off across Brisbane to buy some tea. I was pleased about how well I remembered circuitous back roads. I found tea (although not quite what I wanted) at the Indooroopilly Shopping Centre. That fact is completely irrelevant. I just thought those of you who find some Australian place names curious, would like ‘Indooroopilly’.



The obligatory map. ([url=https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=z5L5SB6CRw2M.kMVOpfCpExAc&usp=sharing]Also here for those who like to play). The total trip was 126 kms.

I wound my way through the back streets of Brisbane until I got to Mt Coot-Tha (pronounced ‘cootha’) where I decided a lap around a very pretty loop would be agreeable. It was. Here’s a photo, although it looks pretty much like other roads I spent time on.



I’m not sure my experiment with the RLET angle devised by EmptySea is all that satisfactory

It’s a curious ride around this hill as every now and again a huge building and antenna appears in the bush. Mt Coot-Tha, the highest point immediately adjacent to Brisbane, is where the local free-to-air television stations’ studios and antennæ lurk.

Completing the loop, I turned off to head through the suburbs to the mountains north-west of the city. I was tailed for a while by a couple of bored police cops who thought it might be fun to make sure I stuck to the speed limit. I thought at first it was so they could admire the CB, but they never really got close enough.

I won’t bore you with yet another description of the Mt Nebo and Mt Glorious rides. I’ve reported on them before. Here’s some more photos.







To the left in this photo you can see a red eucalypt trunk. Some species turn this colour in the summer and I always find them glorious. There were plenty in evidence. I’ve no idea why, but Pterodactyl may well have an answer.

I stopped for a chicken schnitzel burger and coffee at the Mt Glorious Café, very motorcycle friendly and boasting a gleaming black Harley inside. I read about rides on the NSW/QLD border in an old copy of Australian Road Rider magazine while I digested. In company with Pterodactyl, I’ve ridden a good few of them.

I generally like to ride a circuit. The only options this day would either be too long and not sufficiently interesting to reward the effort or would involve too many urban roads. The truth was that the best riding was back the way I’d come. First, though, I had time to treat myself to a descent of the Northbrook Parkway—only so I could ride up it again. Like most hills, it’s much better going up; a great ascent through pretty bush and with some fabulous corners.



A post prandial experiment with the RLET angle. More practice I think






Is there something wrong with me? I always find these signs encouraging.



Photo opportunity at the White Cedar Park at the bottom of the hill




I had to ride back up the mountain into these clouds and I was worried that I might get a sprinkling. It’s all cloud by the way; there’s not an enormous peak lurking underneath it.

When I regained the mountain top I could easily have done the lazy thing and headed home. Altruistic to the last, I decided to descend another mountain road so I could try a little back road to the top I’d seen on other rides.







The name of the road and the encouraging sign will give you some idea of what I was about to let myself in for. I nearly abandoned it. Afte all, if I did, I’d get to ride back up the brilliant mountain road I’d just ridden down. But I like a challenge.






This photo is taken looking east-southeast towards the Pacific Ocean. The city of Brisbane actually lurks there somewhere (the CBD is behind the hill to the right), although you’d not realise it from the picture



The end of the Goat Track—mercifully it’s one way and not very long

I’m glad I rode the Goat Track. It’s aptly named. I’ve had more fun on dirt roads. There was a large centre-line of loose gravel which was not fun; some savage corrugations of the sort that give dentists the sort of dreams I can’t write about here; and some corners where the guide posts have been brilliantly placed to challenge the motorcyclist to retain a line keeping off the centre gravel patch (which has always been strategically widened) while at the same time not clipping the guide post with a knee or bar end. It was pretty though.

I rode home for a rest before heading out to the cinema for a complimentary screening of 45 Years. The review can be found in the Movie Reviews section of the forum.

May your winter pass quickly.

Did any of you know of the Beam adjustment screw?

Part 4 in the exploded view:

http://www.bike-parts-honda.com/pieces-h...S+ABS.html

picture of the screw
[url=https://picoolio.net/image/IdGY]

centered
[url=https://picoolio.net/image/IdGc]

aimed to the left
[url=https://picoolio.net/image/IdGa]

aimed to the right
[url=https://picoolio.net/image/IdGt]

So it allows a vertical adjustment rather than the known horizontal adjustment.


Edit: you can click on the pictures so they are much bigger