“Katsumi” - a new project in the making

[Zee9_imp]

Hello everybody,

I’m new to the honda forum but not new to the world of motorcycles. I remember trying a honda cb350 four in india as a teenager with a 4-1 Kerker (I think) exhaust and always loved that look of a retro bike.

Here in America my first bike ended up being a mint condition 2000 Triumph Thunderbird Sport which was all stock but after a stupid spill due to a guy running a atop sign got me thinking of customizing the triump. I owned her (Emma) since 2014 and made quite a few changes to her. I’ll let the before and after pictures do the talking

This was Emma all stock the way I got her:




Emma when she got sold:









So why am I adding triumph pictures on a honda forum. Well I just brought home my new (to me) “Katsumi” (pictures below) who is a 2014 cb1100 and I was hoping to gain some guidance from the gentlefolk here for the few mods I have planned.





Planned ideas so far:

1. Tail light: will be changed to a black powder coated Lucas tail light to clean up the rear area but I want to keep the rear mudguard unlike the triumph.

2. I changed the stock headlight on the triumph (also a 7” headlight). I tried the motodemic but found it too modern looking and eventually settled on the truck light 7” complete enclosure as I love the beam pattern and retro look but it bothered me that it sticks almost 1/3” out of the headlight bezel so I’m open to ideas as I feel the oem headlight is not that great.

3. Handlebars: I’m a bit ocd so I ended up try 8/9 bars on my triumph and actually made an excel sheet pointing out the differences. Issue is that those were foe all fat bars that fit on the larger diameter Rizoma risers. With the Honda I was thinking ok keeping the mids as minimal as possible so as to keep that retro look the same. I still do have 7 handlebars in storage and a pair of Rizoma risers which may end up going on the honda but first is love to hear more ideas.

4. Mirrors: either bar end mirrors or the reverse Napoleon mirrors are planned. Much easier to decide than all the other planned mods.

5. Exhaust: I’m going to save this for last as the ideas I have sound really pricey and experimental ($$$$

6. Blinkers: I have a set of arc blinkers which are small led nullet shaped blinkere. Just need to figure out wiring and compatibility

***** Rear tyre - still need to decide on this but my Triumph Thunderbird Sport had the same size rear radial tyre as the stock cb1100 when I bought her but found the ride to be much much more fun with a 150/70/17 tyre on the twisty roads. I still need to cover more miles on the honda to decide if this is a requirement.

Hope to hear positive and constructive thoughts

Zee


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