I noticed in a different thread that one of our Aussie friends recently
bought gas for $1.58 per liter. That's almost $6.00 per gallon. Here in
N. Georgia I just paid $2.85 per gallon for premium. What do you pay for gas and where did you buy it? Just curious...

I realize a number of you (along with myself) have been receiving SQL error messages when accessing the forum. From what I can tell, this has been caused by increased demand on the site. Much of this activity comes from "web bots" and I've tweaked a few things to try and prevent this from happening.

If anyone is still experiencing these problems, please go ahead and post up your experience here (or PM me if you prefer) so that I'll know. I'm hoping to put an end to such issues as soon as possible.

I read somewhere (I think on this forum) that the CB1100 does the 1/4 mile in 11.79 and 0-60 in 3.3 seconds. I only took it for a test ride, but really didn't think it had that much power... A V rod Muscle (which is listed at 11.73 1/4 mi) IMO is much faster, with pretty much the same listed time.

I understand that the CB isn't a sport bike... But are those times accurate?

To celebrate our Nations Independence I will be taking off in a few minutes for a bit of a ride. Will post a pic or two when I get back. For others who might be riding today, please be safe. Lots of people will be traveling today and I assume much alcohol will be consumed making those drivers a little more dangerous.

Happy 4 th people. (tea for me)

Hi Guys,

Turning my CB11 to Cafe Phase I

With the days being short this time of year in Gippsland the time to get a ride in is a bit harder to come bye, so when I finished work at 1pm of Friday I headed home on the bike did a rapid change into some bike riding gear.

I had an arrangement with two work colleagues to have a steak sandwich for lunch once that obligation was satisfied I headed down the Princess Highway at 10 past 2. At 3pm I rendezvoused with my brother on his Guzzi at Traralgon South for a ride through the winding hill roads to Balook at the Tarra - Bulga National Park on the Grand Ridge Road. Just enough time for a cuppa at a Cafe bit of a chat and then a ride down the hill past Callignee this area was devastated by wildfire a few years ago that killed many people in Victoria some of you might remember the photo of the fireman giving a Koala Bear a drink from a water bottle. With the setting sun it was time to head home a refill of the tank 10l @ $1.58 l and then the run home arriving at 6:20pm as i rode up the driveway well and truly looking forward to the wood fire and some warmth 186 km and home in time for dinner. Happy wife, happy life and a good ride as well.

Sorry no photos

Regards

I thought I'd post this separate from the upcoming post on my weeklong Colorado trip (still processing pics for that one), to avoid clutter.

On day 3 of my trip I'd packed up my camp near Silverton, CO and headed north to have breakfast in the picturesque mountain town of Ouray. This stretch of US 550 is called the million dollar highway and much of it is carved right out of the rocky mountainside.

It was a beautiful Wednesday morning and I was thinking how great it was to be riding this road with almost none of the usual weekend traffic. Halfway to my destination, I stopped for a photo op at Red Mountain Pass. This is the last photo of my pristine undamaged bike.



About 15 min. later I was rounding a sharp curve about a mile from Ouray when it happened. Just as I was exiting the curve at about 25 mph, I caught a flash of brown out of the corner of my left eye. I was a bit confused because there had been nothing but a guard rail and a steep cliff in that direction. Before I could really process this info, I was face to face with Bambi, who had made an impressive leap into the left side of my windshield. The impact knocked the handlebar full lock to the left and down we went.

In this pic the impact point was about where you see the shadow of the trees on the road. Since the right side of the road is mostly a rocky cliff, the deer was headed for those trees for cover.



I had maybe 1/2 second of braking before the impact and estimate I was only going 15-20 mph when Bambi hit me. The windshield shattered and the bike went down (with me still on the seat) and slid about 15 ft. before coming to a stop in the middle of the lane.

One weird thing was that when the bike stopped sliding, the engine was revving high. There was nothing touching the throttle and I was stumped at what would cause that? Maybe some quirk of the FI system? Anyway, I quickly slapped the kill switch and all was quiet.

A couple of guys in a Jeep coming in the opposite direction stopped and helped me lift up the bike and get it to the side of the road. As we moved it, the trees began to rustle and Bambi popped out to have a look. She had a gash on her right hindquarter and was limping a bit, but it didn't look like anything was broken and she hobbled off towards the forest. She'd probably live if she could heal up before any predators found her.

I was very surprised at the relatively light amount of damage to both myself and the bike. I wasn't wearing any protective gear, other than my helmet (which didn't even get scratched). The only noticeable damage on me was a 1/4" scratch on my pinkie and one of my favorite airplane t-shirts had evidently received some road rash.



The bike came to rest sitting on the left crash bar and handlebar. Major props to the designers of the OVER Racing crash bars I got from Samurider. With the bike on its left side, nothing to the rear of the crash bar received a scratch. The peg, shifter and even the rear turn signal were completely untouched. The crash bar was bent a bit toward the engine case, but didn't touch it.

Here's a rundown of the carnage. The NC Plexistar was, of course, a total write off.



Probably the most expensive damage was to the gauge package. Everything still works and I was able to duct tape all the cracks and holes to keep water out (looks really sharp!). The headlight trim ring also got rashed. The clutch lever end (no RLET) was scraped up, but the lever remained intact.



The mirror got a good scraping, but didn't break and was still usable.



Lastly, the fabulous OVER engine guard did what it was supposed to do. Although there were several mm scraped off the stainless tube, it protected the rest of the bike admirably. Best farkle money I ever spent.



Overall, I'd say both the bike and I were quite lucky to survive this encounter with so little damage. After calming down a bit and readjusting my gear, I was back on the road in about 20 min.

Total damage to the bike was the windshield, headlight ring, mirror, gauge plastic and left crash bar. What really hurt was that this was the first time I've put a scratch on a motorcycle in 27 years of almost daily riding. It was a nice streak while it lasted

I continued on with the rest of my 7 day trip without a windshield and an embarrassing amount of duct tape holding the gauge plastic together. I really missed that windshield. The bugs were thick and a few days later I got caught in a hail storm and had nothing to hide behind. Later that day, a bee flew up my sleeve and stung me on the upper arm.

I'm still working on the pics and maps for the rest of the trip and will post it soon.

I have been perusing the boards and love all the bikes, particularly the bikes with the blacked out look. I own (but still haven't picked up, long story!) a 2013 red std and will start modifications soon. One of the changes I'd like to make is to change out the silver forks for black ones. Has anyone else considered such a change? Is swapping forks a big job? I've worked on plenty of cars but haven't ever taken a motorcycle apart. The last thing I want to do is screw up a new bike!

Not long ago I was talking with my son about how healthy I was back in my early teen years. This was largely due to the fact that I spent so much time on bmx bikes that I could have been surgically attached and probably wouldn't have noticed. Well, not long after that conversation a bicycle came up for sale on craigslist that caught my eye. I'm still not exactly sure what came over me, but I am now the owner of single speed cruiser bike. It's basically an over-sized bmx bike.

I suppose the thought (if you can call it that) behind this was that riding around on a single speed bike would supply some much needed exercise. Thus far all it's managed to do is haul me to the pub on dart night, lol. The thing is, my neighborhood has a few hills that are really draining on this bike — it iis serving as a harsh reminder of just how out of shape I really am.

Segue to the motorcycling related content...

This got me to thinking about the time the clutch cable broke on my Hawk one day on my way to work. I was only a mile from home and did not want to leave the bike, so I decided to push it back home (over these same hills that I've been struggling with on the bicycle). I remember thinking at the time that I wasn't that far away, how tough could it be? I was exhausted by the time I got home and drenched with sweat. My hawk weighs just a bit over 400 pounds and I'm glad that it did not weigh even a pound more. I couldn't imagine having to push my CB1100 over this same stretch of terrain and certainly not something like a GoldWing or other big touring bike. I'm hoping that I don't have to encounter such an experience again any time soon (or ever for that matter). The bicycle thing is demeaning enough.

So, any of you guys end up being forced to push a bike for any distance?

Well, I've had custody of '14 DLX#95 for 13 months now and just turned over 13k miles yesterday. To say that riding it gives me much satisfaction is an understatement. Interestingly, my 4 wheeled ride, a '15 Mazda 6 has just turned 14k in the same time frame and I enjoy it almost as much