01-30-2018, 04:00 AM
For the most part, I think that the guy who wrote the review you read acted a bit irresponsibly. Perhaps he was misinformed by the information presented to him or he simply misunderstood some of the information that was fed to him.
But I don't discredit the impact an exhaust system change can have. When I swapped out my stock exhaust can for the Staintune unit, the bike felt like it had changed in a very notable way. At one point, I went to the trouble to change back to the OEM can for comparison. Trying to be brutally honest with myself, I realized that Staintune did make a difference but perhaps not quite as notable as I had imagined. (I kept the stock exhaust on for a while, not just for a day.) When I swapped back to the Staintune, none of that mattered, the huge smile was instantly back on my face. From a mental standpoint (and therefore even physically to some degree I suppose) the bike was just so much more "satisfying". That was, and still is, good enough for me. Enough so to justify the money I spent on the Staintune. I never bought it for the performance gains anyway. The tone of the exhaust note was my main concern. I don't tend to accelerate nearly as fast as the bike is capable of as I love to hear the exhaust note growl while growing in pitch over time.
Nothing that I've mentioned here is meant to discredit the possibility of a difference in feel between Eric's bike and your bike. There are likely some differences in the vibrations produced even from one CB1100 to the next from same model year. It's not like these things are stamped out of a single piece of metal. But I'm also guessing that any differences you feel can't help but be magnified to some degree by the fact that you've been wanting one of these bikes for a long time and your sense of everything about the bike is heightened by the experience of finally owning one of your own. Few things of mechanical nature incite as much passion as motorcycles and taking ownership of a new motorcycle in particular has got to be near the top of that specific chart. At least it should be if a person finds the right bike. Others who focus on nothing other than spec sheets might find the notion of "designing a bike that expresses desires and emotions" to be pure marketing fluff, but I really don't think that's the case with folks that are truly attracted to the CB1100.
But I don't discredit the impact an exhaust system change can have. When I swapped out my stock exhaust can for the Staintune unit, the bike felt like it had changed in a very notable way. At one point, I went to the trouble to change back to the OEM can for comparison. Trying to be brutally honest with myself, I realized that Staintune did make a difference but perhaps not quite as notable as I had imagined. (I kept the stock exhaust on for a while, not just for a day.) When I swapped back to the Staintune, none of that mattered, the huge smile was instantly back on my face. From a mental standpoint (and therefore even physically to some degree I suppose) the bike was just so much more "satisfying". That was, and still is, good enough for me. Enough so to justify the money I spent on the Staintune. I never bought it for the performance gains anyway. The tone of the exhaust note was my main concern. I don't tend to accelerate nearly as fast as the bike is capable of as I love to hear the exhaust note growl while growing in pitch over time.
Nothing that I've mentioned here is meant to discredit the possibility of a difference in feel between Eric's bike and your bike. There are likely some differences in the vibrations produced even from one CB1100 to the next from same model year. It's not like these things are stamped out of a single piece of metal. But I'm also guessing that any differences you feel can't help but be magnified to some degree by the fact that you've been wanting one of these bikes for a long time and your sense of everything about the bike is heightened by the experience of finally owning one of your own. Few things of mechanical nature incite as much passion as motorcycles and taking ownership of a new motorcycle in particular has got to be near the top of that specific chart. At least it should be if a person finds the right bike. Others who focus on nothing other than spec sheets might find the notion of "designing a bike that expresses desires and emotions" to be pure marketing fluff, but I really don't think that's the case with folks that are truly attracted to the CB1100.