superbrace installed...

[Red Mist_imp]

Kanji is just Chinese. I happen to know a translator. If you can do a screenshot I'll get it translated for ya.

-Red (Breck is napping now)

I just did about 40 miles with the SB installed. It definitely puts more rigidity in the fork, but I'm not sure that its a "good rigid.". It actually feels a bit harsh.

On the VStrom with its long, spindlly forks, the SB was transformative. I'm not so sure yet if its a benefit to the CB.

It sure looks cool though...

You are spot-on about that. With the SV, it's apparently mandatory, but on the CB1100, not so much. The CB's got BIG fork tubes and beefy triples. I'd never consider a fork brace for the CB1100 on the face of it, with that front end, for regular street riding.

However it may be that if one is riding the thing hard, and also modifies the suspension, the fork brace may work in conjunction with that to firm up the handling and make the bike more precise and less of a rocking horse in the faster sweepers.

My personal speed limit on the road (with the exception of the occasional quick twist on the freeway) is about 65 mph, and I certainly don't like the CB1100 in fast sweepers, meaning 60+ mph. I like the CB pretty well as it is although -- and I realize this might sound vain but it's perfectly true -- the CB is very, very easy to touch down after hopping off a real high-performance motorcycle. It happens "by accident", I just roll her into a turn and "scrape/whoops, I'm not on a superbike, what was I thinking..."

What I'm saying is the CB is pretty plush overall and it's best suited for light sport riding at sub-60 mph speeds and moderate lean angles. Stiffening the fork, as Spaceman indicated, is going to make things more rigid overall.

The fork is designed to absorb bumps by compressing when the bike is vertical, and by "flexing" when the bike is leaned significantly. The rider's input has a lot to do with how the bike is going to respond under these circumstances and as the CB is really a very low-tech bike with respect to chassis and suspension, it responds well to "body steering".

If you do the fork brace, best to consider being careful about setting up the front suspension, and to replace the oingo-boingo shocks with something better, because the stiffer front end will send that energy into the chassis. It doesn't just disappear, there's nowhere else for it to go.

-Red
(Breck is eating 3 dozen eggs and six T-Bone steaks and washing it down with about a gallon of coffee, and Cap'n Kidd is chomping a few buckets of oats and a couple bales of alfalfa).

"but there's definitely a perceived improvement"

isn't that psychosomatic?

No, that would be an "imagined" improvement, or considering it's "Spaceman", perhaps an "hallucinated" improvement!

Pyscho: mind
Soma: body
Spirit: somewhere in between