(02-19-2018, 04:11 PM)VLJ_imp Wrote: "Dude should keep the Hawk GT and ditch the wife." - My buddy at work, after hearing your story

(02-19-2018, 07:56 AM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: How's about that?

(02-19-2018, 04:40 PM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: I hope I'm not the first to tell you, VLJ, but your buddy is an insensitive git.

(02-18-2018, 02:28 AM)pdedse_imp Wrote: That Hawk looks like a beauty pageant winner with her silver sash draped around her neck, falling to waist...which, btw, what is that? Is is structural or cosmetic? Aluminum? Not familiar with the bike, but pleasing to the eye.

(02-19-2018, 04:45 PM)Guth_imp Wrote:

(02-19-2018, 04:11 PM)VLJ_imp Wrote: "Dude should keep the Hawk GT and ditch the wife." - My buddy at work, after hearing your story

Guys like your buddy at work always get a laugh out of me — I get the joke. There are groups of people that I'm likely to take advice from and groups of people that I'm not so likely to take advice from. Then there are guys like your buddy who from a very young age I simply learned to watch rather than to listen to anything that they actually had to say. Poor cuss. (And yeah, I did indeed just go ahead and edit my own words before clicking the Post Reply button, lol).

It's not just the bikes, see [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=12178&pid=196791#pid196791]my response in different thread elsewhere on the forum.

(02-19-2018, 03:21 PM)Guth_imp Wrote: Guys, my little "tribute" to my Hawk GT was only intended to serve as a measure of just how fond I am of my CB1100. I'm going to sell one of my motorcycles, and I'll admit to going back and forth between the Hawk and the CB a few times in my thoughts. From a purely nostalgic point of view I can't imagine selling my Hawk to be honest. But while I get great satisfaction from all of my Honda products, when all is said and done I'll find it easiest to say goodbye to the Hawk. This was my point all along, as long-winded as it may have been.

In other words, I understand what cookiemech is saying, but for whatever reason I had to go all Ulvetanna in my responses, lol.

(02-15-2018, 07:59 PM)cookiemech_imp Wrote: Yeah, you guys all know how great the CB1100 is, but I only knew how nice it looks, until yesterday.

Weather was damp and warm, but at least not raining (much), so I took the EX out for about 80 miles or so. Oh, my! I have at least 400K miles of street riding experience, but none whatever on an inline four. It's so silky smooth and pleasant . . . effortless. I have two Harleys with the new Milwaukee Eight motor; you would generally view these as "torque" engines (and they are worlds above the earlier Twin Cam engines in terms of rideability). But the CB1100 is just plain silly in the way it pulls hard from low rpms. When I read through the owner's manual (and I had plenty of time to do that, with snow and ice around here), it indicated that you "should" upshift to sixth gear at 37 mph. No way. No how.

But you can! That bike doesn't really care what gear it's in. It just sounds a bit different. I ran it down a divided four-lane road at 55 to 70 mph and it was like a car with an automatic transmission. Rode it on busted two-lane roads and it was competent and easy. Did I say easy? Easy. Great clutch, great brakes, beautiful throttle transitions. Need to keep my feet up on the pegs, because I dragged my boots a couple of times (and I'm not "that kind" of rider . . . )

Thinking about the sorts of bikes I have, my old BMWs (and I have the most experience with BMWs) seem like no-nonsense machines. If a dirty job (like riding to work in all sorts of shaky weather) needs to be done, there is no substitute. Point to point, gotta be there, it's a BMW, hands down. Do the maintenance, never cut corners, and I'm pretty sure these bikes cannot be worn out. I trust my BMWs.

The Harleys are just pure comfort and pleasure. They're awfully expensive and heavy, but they are the only machines on which I can ride all day and not have physical discomfort from the bike (just fatigue). I don't especially like the stereotypes associated with Harleys, but I've gotten over caring who rides what. Modern Harleys are well-built and in stock form pretty refined.

The CB1100 is just a sweetheart. It's sitting in my garage saying "Oh, you don't want to take the Accord (though there isn't currently one here)? Take me! I'm just as nice!" I have some experience with Honda automobiles (my wife has a 2015 Fit and had an Accord years ago) and it really is the same sort of feeling of seamless perfection. Even though the CB1100 has a manual transmission, it snicks through the gears without a missed shift or any drama whatever.

If you can't tell, I like it! It's a cheerful machine.