The true beauty of this motorcycle. (another LONG read)

[Guth_imp]

The thread on "how dealers lose the sale" located elsewhere on this forum has proven to be rather entertaining in my opinion. We've found ourselves going back and forth a bit about whether or not the "N" (for Neutral) lights up on the gear indicator display. Well guys, in my mind a gear indicator is just one more thing that isn't really needed and almost out of place on a retro motorcycle. Nice to have? You guys tell me — I've actually never had one*. I guess that I've never needed such a thing. How big of a deal could the "N" not lighting up like the rest of the numbers really be? That answer is pretty obvious, not a big deal at all. Honda only added this sort of thing later on to appease people who had grown accustomed to such conveniences on other bikes they've owned. Which led me back to thinking about the true beauty of the CB1100 and why I'm grateful to Honda for creating it.

I have to laugh just a bit at a gear indicator discussion. I know that no one really thinks that how the the "N" is displayed is a big deal. But let me be clear, I'm not laughing at the guys discussing such matters. I'm laughing more at the thought of how nice is it to own this motorcycle (or any vehicle for that matter) where we end up focusing on something like how neutral is indicated on our bikes with so little else to go on about. That might be true of many Hondas, or many modern motorcycles in general (I've heard many people hear say things to the effect that they just don't make a bad motorcycle any more). But when you stop to think about what kind of motorcycle the CB1100 is perhaps this thought is just a bit more significant. That's not meant to make light of some of the other problems that some people have actually experienced with this bike. Ironically, I alone have probably experienced a total of more problems/issues with my CB1100 than any other person on this forum (just read through the entirety of my [url=http://cb1100forum.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=11859]LONG post). And I know that we've already covered that it's nice to have little to complain about many times over in the past. But when I stop to think about just what kind of motorcycle the CB1100 really is I start to realize the true significance of such thoughts. This got me thinking about the true beauty of this motorcycle. Ponder this with me for a moment if you care to do so (heck I'm surprised that you've read this far, lol).

Honda created this machine as a homage to it's own motorcycling heritage in general and to their CB line of motorcycles in particular. They went to great lengths to deliver to us a modern motorcycle that replicates as many of the qualities of their CB series of motorcycles from the past as possible. But the resulting bike also had to pass muster with regards to the regulations placed upon the motorcycles of today. Just think about what a huge undertaking that was. Just as motorcycles themselves have evolved over the years, so too have the skills and knowledge of the people working within the motorcycle industry. It's not just the bikes themselves that have changed.

Engineers working on rame designs have grown more accustomed to making use of a number of that weren't part of the makeup of the CBs of the past. Things that are at the the modern engineers disposal like aluminum spar frames, steel trellis frames , monoshock configurations and more are now all at the disposal of today's engineers for creation of nice handling motorcycles. Engine designers have long made use of water cooling for a variety of reasons. In many cases today, what appears to be the fuel tank of a motorcycle is actually something else. Now I realize that a all of these things have been around for quite some time and are no longer considered modern innovations. But that's exactly my point. Honda actually made the effort and found the right team of people to assemble a bike that made as much use of old-school design (not styling — not the way it looks, but the way it functions ) as possible. Sure they blended it with a significant amount of modern engineering prowess and there is plenty of modern technology that exists on the CB1100. Honda's engineers still had to deliver a certain level of safety and performance and they still had to ensure that the bike could pass modern regulatory standards. But when I stop to actually think about the great lengths that they went to in order to make the CB1100 a retro machine it still kind of blows my mind. From the all-new air-cooled mill, to the double downtube steel frame with the twin shocks in the back. This was a big step backwards for them. I could almost be convinced that they would have made this bike carbureted if they could have gotten away with it and found a way to still pass modern emission standards. Aside from the advanced technology at their disposal in terms of computing power, etc., I'm guessing that more than a few engineers at Honda felt like they were in a bit of a time-warp when designing this bike. There were probably a number of engineers and the like who worked on the CB1100 project that wouldn't even have been familiar with the CBs of the 60's and 70's if they didn't work at Honda. I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who ponders these things. I know that Honda really wasn't concerned with marketing this bike, and I came to grips with that long ago. While I love the end result of all of their efforts: the CB1100 itself. The story that I wish Honda did a better job of telling is the story of the effort they went to to provide us with this bike.

I know that many of us poured over these types of thoughts when the CB1100 was first released. Things like how Honda even spec'ed out tires of a certain cross profile to match up perfectly with the 18" wheels for the overall type of experience that they wanted to provide the rider with. But I think a lot of people have lost sight of this sort of thing over time. Not people on this forum, but folks elsewhere in the motorcycling world. I feel that the guys who are wanting to compare the CB1100 directly with something like the Kawasaki Z900RS really don't understand the true beauty of the CB1100. Nor do they understand the intentions Honda had for this bike to begin with. It's a bit of a shame that so many people have lost sight of this story (of course many of them were probably never aware of this story to begin with). If someone realizes all of this and they just don't care, that's actually fine by me as that's a different matter. I'm not one of those guys however and every once in a while I'm happy to be reminded of what a beautiful and meaningful motorcycle the CB1100 truly is. All of which has nothing to do with the actual styling of the bike which I also happen to think is a thing of beauty as well. I still remain grateful that Honda went to the lengths that they did in order to provide us with a bit of their past wrapped up in a machine that is still available to many of us today.

Alright then, enough of my rambling. I'll now return you all to our regularly scheduled programming. And if you've read this far, I might just have to think about re-issuing the CB1100 Forum decoder rings once again (sorry popgun) as they might be needed just to help people navigate their way through my incredibly lengthy posts. I never start out with the intentions of carrying on for so long. I'm proud to own a motorcycle that still brings so many positive thought to mind for me.


*Now that I think about it, in all of the years since I've owned my license to ride/drive, the only illuminated gear indicator of any sort in/on any of my vehicles has been of the "PRNDL" variety that currently resides in my Tundra truck. Every other vehicle that I've ever owned has been a manual gearbox of some sort and none of them have had gear indicators of any sort. The lone exception was my old 1967 Camaro Convertible — it had an automatic transmission, but even it didn't have any sort of indicator on the instrument cluster. Man, the CB1100 is cool being retro and all, but I guess that I'm truly an antique.

...and the original motivation to design and build it.

Guth, everything else you wrote in that post is absolutely true. But, if I may, you glossed over the discrepancy between the inspiration and the effort that went into the CB1100 design and production and the almost total lack of any marketing effort for this particular motorcycle. To me, this remains a puzzle. Not that it bothers me personally - if anything, I find the exclusivity of riding and owning this motorcycle a small bonus.

The number of CB1100s is too small and geographically dispersed to organize an event that would justify the cost (given the obvious meager CB1100 marketing budget of someone from Honda to attend with a bit of model creation inside info presentation and Q&A. But in this day and age an on-line streamed event of that sort might be entirely practical, and this forum and your position as a dean of this fine group of motorists makes you a natural catalyst for making this happen.

I would be quite surprised if someone from Honda is not lurking from across the ocean. (Despite the limitations of CB1100 marketing budget

Yes, you're right — I did gloss over the inspiration. But to my credit I have discussed this somewhat extensively in the past. One of the reasons that I personally prefer the original CB1100 design to the later variations is that I think it does the best job of acknowledging the widest array of Honda CBs from the past while still being "it's own thing". That said, I think that Honda was wise to change things up over time to appeal to a wider range of folks. And while I prefer the original, I'm sure that I'd be happy owning any of them.

It's funny that you would mention the presentation of inside info and Q&A type interview. Just last week I was exchanging emails with Mr. T (of Samurider.com fame) informing him of an idea I've had for a while now. I would like to try to get in touch with Mitsuyoshi Kohama if possible (reaching someone within Honda PR that could relay messages would probably be my best hope at this). I'd like to let Mr. Kohama know how much this motorcycle is appreciated by so many of us and how this bike literally has been responsible for bringing people together from across the globe. In addition, I'd like to send along a few questions involving the CB1100, his role as the chief designer of the bike and any other information that he might care to share regarding the history of the design and development of this incredible machine. But the logistics are a bit daunting and finding any kind of contact info for Honda Japan (email being the favored method of communication) is like solving one of those "Where's Waldo" puzzles that my son had as a kid. But I guess you never know, I was hoping to put this together before April roles around (the 5th anniversary for the forum). By the way, I highly doubt that any one from Honda has browses this forum. Just think about how many motorcycle forums there are out there in total. We ride a Honda that is a drop in the bucket of Honda motorcycles and converse on a forum that is a drop in the bucket of Honda motorcycle forums. The odds are stacked pretty high against me, lol.