(01-29-2018, 03:15 PM)VLJ_imp Wrote:

(01-29-2018, 03:08 PM)PowerDubs_imp Wrote:

(01-29-2018, 02:58 PM)VLJ_imp Wrote: Guth, do you think the obvious change in the engine note—not the exhaust volume, but the additional crunchy texture so easily heard in the comparison videos, and felt throughout the bike—can be explained solely by a shorter inlet tract and a smaller exhaust system?

That doesn't sound very plausible to me.

It doesn’t seem plausible that changes to the only 2 places the engine emits noise could change said noise?





Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

It doesn’t seem plausible that changes to the only 2 places the engine emits noise could change said noise?
No, it doesn't seem plausible that those two changes would create the different type of vibration felt throughout the bike, as well as the noticeably more arrhythmic texture of the sound.

The difference is similar to but nowhere near as pronounced as the difference one hears and feels when switching from an old R1 to a crossplane R1. Shorter inlets and slightly smaller OEM exhaust pipes can't explain such a noticeable change to the basic feel of the bike, never mind the different tone.

(01-29-2018, 04:26 PM)VLJ_imp Wrote: If it turns out that the reports were wrong, and the only changes made to the '17 were in fact the shorter inlet tracts and exhaust system, and those two small changes somehow made my bike feel and sound that much different from Eric's '14, well, who cares how Honda did it, right? All that matters is that they did it, and one blip of my throttle was all it took for me to realize that the '17 not only sounded but also felt very different from the '14, and quite a bit cooler.

As for the possibility of erroneous info popping up in various reviews, sure, it's entirely possible, but the reviewer in the link I provided who stated that the '17's combustion chamber and fins were altered to help Honda meet the new Euro 4 requirements was mighty specific with those particular bits of reportage. Either someone at Honda fed him that info or he made it up out of thin air, and the latter seems wildly unlikely.

(01-30-2018, 01:52 AM)VLJ_imp Wrote: PowerDubs, you seem to be intentionally skipping over the key parts of what I'm telling you. I'm not just talking about the different sound of the '17. I'm talking about the different type of motor vibration felt throughout the entire bike. Rather than the usual silky smooth, high-frequency sensation we all know and love from Honda I-4s, the '17 has an arrhythmic, one-beat-at-a-time pulsing effect, similar to a V4. It's not just about what you hear, it's about what you feel in the seat, between your knees, in your feet, and in the bars.

The motor has an entirely different texture. Again, it's not as pronounced as the difference between an old R1 and a crossplane R1, but it's a similar type of difference. As alprider just confirmed—not that I require such confirmation, since I felt it myself, switching from Eric's bike to mine—the '17 motor doesn't feel anything like the '14.

Also, no, that link I provided isn't just a rehash of info from many years ago. When the CB was first introduced, Euro 4 emissions regulations didn't exist. He specifically mentioned that the CB's combustion chambers and fins had to be altered by Honda for the 2017 model in order to be Euro 4-compliant. That sentence could not have been written in 2013.

(01-30-2018, 04:00 AM)Guth_imp Wrote: For the most part, I think that the guy who wrote the review you read acted a bit irresponsibly. Perhaps he was misinformed by the information presented to him or he simply misunderstood some of the information that was fed to him.

But I don't discredit the impact an exhaust system change can have. When I swapped out my stock exhaust can for the Staintune unit, the bike felt like it had changed in a very notable way. At one point, I went to the trouble to change back to the OEM can for comparison. Trying to be brutally honest with myself, I realized that Staintune did make a difference but perhaps not quite as notable as I had imagined. (I kept the stock exhaust on for a while, not just for a day.) When I swapped back to the Staintune, none of that mattered, the huge smile was instantly back on my face. From a mental standpoint (and therefore even physically to some degree I suppose) the bike was just so much more "satisfying". That was, and still is, good enough for me. Enough so to justify the money I spent on the Staintune. I never bought it for the performance gains anyway. The tone of the exhaust note was my main concern. I don't tend to accelerate nearly as fast as the bike is capable of as I love to hear the exhaust note growl while growing in pitch over time.

Nothing that I've mentioned here is meant to discredit the possibility of a difference in feel between Eric's bike and your bike. There are likely some differences in the vibrations produced even from one CB1100 to the next from same model year. It's not like these things are stamped out of a single piece of metal. But I'm also guessing that any differences you feel can't help but be magnified to some degree by the fact that you've been wanting one of these bikes for a long time and your sense of everything about the bike is heightened by the experience of finally owning one of your own. Few things of mechanical nature incite as much passion as motorcycles and taking ownership of a new motorcycle in particular has got to be near the top of that specific chart. At least it should be if a person finds the right bike. Others who focus on nothing other than spec sheets might find the notion of "designing a bike that expresses desires and emotions" to be pure marketing fluff, but I really don't think that's the case with folks that are truly attracted to the CB1100.

(01-30-2018, 04:10 AM)VLJ_imp Wrote: Guth, I get that, and I definitely do have the excitement you describe, but the different feel of the motor in my bike compared to Eric's is not a placebo effect. It's obvious. One zips, the other growls. Talking the feel here, not the sound. It's the difference between running a comb vs a brush across your palm.