Interesting reading

[drodg33]

Great read. I will have to do more than scan it this evening.

[Cras_imp]

This is awesome thanks!

[The Spaceman_imp]

Sometime back there was a video of a Honda engineer riding the CB1100. His scripted comments very much went along with this article. Haven't been able to locate it in the past 6 mos. or so. Mahaps some computer literate person could locate it? Really enjoyable reading, many thanks.

I posted a link to that video back when the bike first came out, but since then it appears Honda has pulled it. I've searched for it several times to no avail.

As you say, most of what they discussed in the video is covered in this article and another one much like it, but what's missing is the very interesting conversation between the Honda test rider and the lead engineer. That's where they got into how they wanted riding the CB to "feel like taking a walk in the park." The big focus being smooth, controllable power, vs. power for power's sake. The dyno graphs show they succeeded.

"The materials we arrived at with the right heat- and friction-resistance characteristics are the finest materials used in any production bike. "

I'm sold. I'm going to buy one of these suckers!

[tomas_imp]

Great article Insolentsquid, very informative. Never realized how much effort
and time goes into producing a new model.

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Good read. I've bookmarked it for another, more detailed look. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers

[Short Timer_imp]

Always thought this bike was something special from the first day I saw it. Now I can better appreciate just how special. Thanks for that post!

I do have one complaint, though. The target market was 40 to 50's in age?!

WTF do they think us 60's guys are doing - pushing up daisies?

And 40-something's? Phooey. What do those kids know anyway?

[Randy B]

Well...I now how to get knocked off and crash....

[The Spaceman_imp]

I read the website and was filled with guilt and shame. After hundreds, if not thousands of man-hours of meticulous tuning by Honda's engineers to get the engine to run just so at each and every rev range, I went and yanked off the equally meticulously tuned exhaust system and replaced it with what amounts to a modern version of the old Cherry Bomb glass-pack. Sounds great, but somehow I don't think it's going to give the same results as the OEM can.

So I did the only thing I could do: I went out and put the OEM pipe back on. Took it for a couple of rides last night and this morning, and I have to say; I have a new appreciation for what they're talking about on the website. It is stunningly smooth at all times. It doesn't wind out the revs with the OEM can as quick as it does with the 2Bros, but it's close. I guess you could get it to surge etc. if you ran the bike at 1500 rpm in 3rd gear, but short of that it's an incredibly smooth FI system.

I have to wonder if anyone could still support the old "They come from the factory too lean to meet EPA requirements" crap after reading about the exhaustive (pun intended) work they did to tune the engine at every rev range? I think anybody saying that is just mouthing off what they've read somewhere else. Obviously meeting the EPA law is necessary, but does that justify, let alone require, jacking around with the FI maps on a stock CB? IMO, unless you've made extensive changes to the intake or exhaust systems it's a waste of money. In fact, even when I dramatically reduced the backpressure with the 2Bros exhaust the bike still ran quite well. That's definitely not been the case with any other bike I've similarly modified. If you didn't put in a PC or re-jet, a "free-flow" exhaust meant crappy performance at anything but WOT.

[Henrik_imp]

Great reading. Thank you!

I remember the first time I tried the CB1100 I was blown away by how well balanced everything was. I made the comment to a friend that it was simply the best balanced bike I had ever ridden. I can fully appreciate now everything said in this article now, and better understand to what lengths they went to bring out that feeling.

[gossman_imp]

Seems that everyone wants to change pipes, gear ratios, and add power commanders to get worse mileage, less efficiency, and more noise all for a minimal bump in HP. These motorcycles were designed for a certain purpose, if you want a big sportbike, then get the CBR1000. When I had my metric cruiser, it seems everyone was debadging, pulling baffles or exchanging the OEM pipes for V&A then screwing around with a PC so that they could sound like a Harley. They aren't, and the engine life expectancy was reduced. Buy the bike you want or get an old carb bike and build it up. If you want taller gears and less vibration (vibration on a motorcycle, how odd?) sell your '13 and get a '14. I researched both and decided on the '13 as long as I could find an ABS model. I drive the speed limit and that is 65mph in these parts.