My first reaction to the new CB1100

[ride4now_imp]

Great idea... I started hearing back in 2011 that one of the Japanese mfg's was 'thinking' of bringing a new version of their UJM from the 70's to market, but had no idea who it might be. I knew about the Kawasaki ws650 but since it was not an inline 4, I never had any interest in it. I always wished I had owned a CB750 or Z1900 back in the day. Then late in 2012 I read somewhere that Honda was going to do it... bring an air cooled 4 to market.

In January 2013, online, I saw this shot of the bike for the first time and felt like a kid all over again



Then in late Jan or early Feb (I think...) Cycle World published a short road test on the bike...I probably still have that issue somewhere... keeping it by my bedside and reading it over and over again every night.

Then in March I made my annual trip to Daytona's bike week believing that Honda would have a bike at the show and that I'd be able to ride one. I remembered riding the KLR at Daytona a few years before and bought one shortly thereafter... plus you can ride any one of Harley's models and just about any Victory, Suzuki, or Yamaha and a few others. Honda had the bike... but was not doing demo rides in 2013. Damn...

Here's a few shots from the Honda tent at Daytona Bike week, 2013, the first time I saw the bike in person:






Then I found this forum in May... started asking questions about what the bike was like, how it compared to the original 750's back in the day... then road out to a dealer in town to see if they had one yet. They didn't... had sold it, but could get another one 'next week'. I said... are you dealing or is it sticker? They said... we want to sell bikes and gave me a good price. I came back the next weekend, it was waiting for me with .1 miles on it. I fired it up, put 3 test miles on it, went back and bought it.

So this year, I did it again, but just a bit faster. After seeing Ferret trade his in (I was going to wait again), I called my dealer and said... will you deal on the 14 Deluxe and order me one? He said, we want to sell bikes. So they gave me a good net between my 13 and the new one and wrote it up. I gave them a deposit... and here we go again.



And I'm riding my 13 to Daytona next weekend... maybe they'll be doing demo rides this year, but if not, I'll certainly come back with plenty of pictures.

I can't wait. I'm like a kid again... I just hope they don't do something really cool next year!






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