Lean and Mean

[dave]

Within the third thread I read here this morning, two different people referred to the CB's fueling as "lean". And one added "probably due to emissions regs."

Perhaps its a exception, but my CB has never had the slightest issue with fueling with the OEM setup. Its the smoothest running bike I've ever ridden, and I've ridden a LOT of bikes. Honda has published a great amount if detail on the effort they took to produce a linear power delivery for this bike.

Did/does your bike run poorly in the lower RPM range as delivered? Was it bad enough you felt modifying the FI system at your expense was necessary? Did you discuss the issue with your Honda service dept? If so, what did they say about it?

My bike ran poorly between 2k and 3k RPM from day one. I returned the bike to the dealer the very next Saturday after purchasing it. The service manager rode my bike and declared that it ran "normal". I returned my bike to the shop a total of four times. (The last 2 times was so that an official Honda Factory representative could ride my bike, and one time so that this representative could witness the diagnostic test being performed). Two separate diagnostic tests were performed, each with the same results - "Normal". I requested that Honda perform a vacuum test (I had an independent mechanic do a vacuum test and the results showed the throttle bodies were not synchronized) but they gave me multiple excuses from "We don't know where to measure the vacuum on this bike" to "The vacuum cannot be adjusted on this bike". I performed the simple fix to calibrate the TPS described in this forum, and my bike has never run better. BTY - I am very disappointed with the way I was treated by the "Official Honda Factory Representative". I asked that he contact me each time that he visited the dealership to look at my bike, and my request was ignored each time. I had several conversations over the phone with Honda Factory Representatives, but it was very clear that the two individuals I was speaking to were not very technically knowledgeable. I was finally promised that Honda would perform their own vacuum test on my bike just to verify if the results that I had obtained were accurate (I provided Honda a photograph of the electronic vacuum gauge reading hooked up to my bike), but Honda reneged on this promise. Honda actually suggested to me that my bike ran the way it did because of the emissions requirements, and that I may want to look into the after-market for a solution. I knew from the posts on this forum that my bike had a problem specific to it, and that what I was experiencing was not a common issue with all CB1100s. The bottom line: I was not going to purchase an after-market item (Power Commander) to "fix" a problem on my brand-new bike that should have been fixed properly under warranty. It's fixed now, and it runs the way it always should have, the same way almost every single visitor to this forum's bike runs.

This is the Motorcycle.com dyno chart from their '13 CB1100 review. The editor notes that it "looks like it was drawn by hand to produce the most linear power band we can remember seeing..." That's hard to reconcile with "lean fueling."

Here's the entire review:
http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/h...91637.html

My first ride on my new CB1100 and I was very disappointed for exactly the reason you stated above. Fortunately, as the miles increased the bike ran better and better (stronger). I have never had a bike change in performance as drastically as this one as the engine broke-in.