What matters in a motorcycle?

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Gentlemen,

We all have a different set of standards. Capability, beauty, function, type, reliability, nostalgia, comfort, etc. At last light yesterday I found myself up at Saguaro Lake about 40 minutes northeast of Scottsdale staring out over the water. It was the last day of Arizona Bike Week but few motorcycles were out on the road as it had rained hard most of the day. It let up at 4 o'clock and by 5:00 the roads were dry enough for me to venture out. The temperature was cool but not uncomfortable at my 75 mph pace up the Beeline Highway. My three-year-old CB11 hummed like a sewing machine until I opened it up to pass other vehicles when it growled like an angry cat through the Staintune exhaust.

Owning several different motorcycles and switching off between them never fails to impress upon me what a wonderful motorcycle CB11 is. Turning away from the lake to look at it I asked myself if I would've enjoyed this ride as much had I been on a Yamaha FZ-09 or a Triumph Speed Triple? The answer was no. The aesthetics would be all wrong as those bikes don't look right to my eye. Had I been on my Harley-Davidson Sportster 48 would I have enjoyed it as much? No again. The Sportster is every bit as beautiful and proper looking as the CB11 but it's an un-faired crude brute that's more tiring to ride. None of my other motorcycles put it all together while riding solo quite like the Honda CB1100. It handles great, it's comfortable, it's fast, it feels good, takes me back in time, and displays timeless beauty from any angle. My final thought before donning my helmet to ride back home was that my time here, in the grand scheme of things, is as brief as a light bulb flash. Of all the billions of years that have been and all the billions of years that will be in the future, my moment is right now and I'm really enjoying it. I'm thrilled to be alive and this is going to be a great ride home on a great motorcycle. The air had grown colder but even it's bite felt good. Yeah baby!

Chip

[url=http://s288.photobucket.com/user/chipbeck/media/CB11%20Lake.jpg.html]

You and I have exactly the same bike, and seem to have owned them from about the same time. And we feel very much alike about the CB1100; I've got some very nice late-model bikes in the garage but nothing puts it together like the CB1100. You can do just about anything on it, it runs beautifully, looks very good, and is a pretty simple package.

This is my go-to bike to unwind after a long day or whenever.