BMW rider thinking of returning to Honda

[JustPassinThru_imp]

Now, having hit 10k miles on the CB...I can comment on chain maintenance. As simple as a spray can of lube. Takes five minutes; the small can fits in a pouch on the outside of my travel grip.

I figure on replacing the chain every season or 10,000 miles. Cost, I'm told, will be about $100. Maybe twice that.

Compare that to the nightmare of having a final-drive failure on the road, and then weighing an expensive rebuild and repair versus the value of the machine.

No thanks...given the problems related to marginal engineering on BMW systems...I'll stick to the high-quality chain drive of this CB.

JPT.. Your chain should go 25,000 to 30,000 miles. Replacing one every 10k is a waste of money.

As far as final drives go.. If they are done right, they are gold.. Zero maintenance other than a few ounces of oil, clean, same efficiency 100% of the time. My shaft system on my ST has 62,000 trouble free miles on it. On a modern chain drive bike I would be on my third set of chain and sprockets. Close to $1000 worth of repairs if I did the labor myself, which is no fun.

Many on the ST board see 200-300 thousand miles on their final drives without repair, and who knows how many miles have been put on Goldwings without final drive failures. The problem isn't final drives, it's BMW's final drives.

I would have died and gone to heaven if the CB had had hydraulic valves ( like the Nighthawk) and shaft drive like the ST while retaining the CB's stunning looks.

Agreed on that. One thing that led me to BMWs years ago was the shaft-drive. Looks so sturdy, compared to the naked chain.

And it could be. And WAS, years ago, even on BMWs. Used to be, they were paragons of reliability and value.

Times change, sadly.

I ALSO once had a high-mileage Honda GL500...with the CX500 engine and driveline in it. That low-volume, short-lived machine had no support from Honda (I needed brake parts that were NOT to be found) but the engineering was above reproach. The theme was the same on that machine: Conservatively-engineered; understressed; bulletproof. Never TOUCHED the final drive housing.

But, given today's technologies, chain-drive is no longer something to aggressively avoid.