Cylinder Plating?

[calamarichris_imp]

No sighs, dude. In all likelihood, the CB11 is built to last. And I'm not asserting that it isn't, just that Honda is no longer the paragon of longevity that it once was IMO.
It may simply be a matter of Honda very correctly reading the market: scant few sport bikes will ever see more than 50,000 miles, so it's foolish to build them to last to 100K. And there's every likelihood that they are only doing that with their sportbikes, and not with the retro/cruisers like the CB.

I guess we'll find out at some point. And I might have learned more by then.

And that is why we embark on life. And on motorcycling.
As disgusted as I am by Honda's VTR1000F Superhawk, it will always hold a special place in my heart. I learned more from that POS than I've learned from any other motorcycle. Even my first bike, a little Harley 883 Sportster, (which went 20,000 miles farther than my first Honda without wearing out.)
(Though I learned even more from my college girlfriend Janet, seen here aboard that 1940's-era-Soviet-tractor-technology bike

Honda has made some "blunders" with oiling with its' engines over the years. The original V4's, V45 and V65 needed extra external oil lines to keep the cams happy. You guys may know of more examples. So I would not discount that they make design errors from time to time and simply cheapen the product.

All the examples you are citing though are 30 years old V4s.

BTW Here's my 85 V 65 Sabre

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Honda_Sabre-1.jpg.html]


Honda tested the sohc motors and the gold wing motors for hundreds of thousands of miles with no problems I am aware of. One story related by a couple journalists stated they test rode prototype 750s from some part of California to another (hundreds of miles) under the express conditions that they were not allowed to drop them below redline. Then both bikes were torn down and were perfect inside.

All the examples you are citing though are 30 years old V4s.

BTW Here's my 85 V 65 Sabre

[url=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/theferret111/media/Honda_Sabre-1.jpg.html]
Honda tested the sohc motors and the gold wing motors for hundreds of thousands of miles with no problems I am aware of. One story related by a couple journalists stated they test rode prototype 750s from some part of California to another (hundreds of miles) under the express conditions that they were not allowed to drop them below redline. Then both bikes were torn down and were perfect inside.
Fascinating. Any links or text?
It's not just Honda resorting to such cheap marketing chicanery, it all of the manufacturers. About the same time they were learning how to make a motor last forever, they were also learning that it was foolish to do so; that marketing (and unsubstantiated anecdotal myth) was more important than engineering.
All of us Japbike consumers (and approximately all of the Harley riders) expect our motors to last "at least 100K", but none of us ride 'em that much. Why would any company squander the money & effort on the designs & materials when it's never asked to go that kind of distance? Sounds like a quick way to go broke.