CB1100 First Impressions

[jamestkirk_imp]

I'm probably one of the more conservative riders on the board. For the most part my bike lives in the 45-60 mph zone, and a lot of that, even at 45 mph, is in 6 th gear (between 2500 and 3500 rpms). My normal shift point is around 3000-3200 rpms, and my bike has never been over 5000 rpms, and never anywhere near redline to "blow the crud out". (What a hokey wives tale) but there is no problem running this engine to redline, either occasionally, or all the time for that matter. Engines are designed to run within a certain range and the range on this bike is from 2500-8000 rpms. It's ok to run this bike in any gear between those rpms (although it is electronically rpm limited in certain gears meaning you will not be able to run it at 8000 rpms in certain gears) but other than that, it will not harm this motor to run it anywhere between those rpms and it's not " better" for it to run it at any given rpm than another rpm in that range, and the only "crud" you are going to blow out of a modern engine is the crud in your head.

This bike is designed to run on 87 octane and up to 10% ethanol, and running that will not harm your motor unless the bike sits for extended periods of time without some gas stabilizer in it. Running a higher octane is useless, and a waste of money, but will not harm the motor. Running pure gas will not harm your motor either. These bikes will run 100,000 miles whether you run 10% ethanol or pure gas, whether you run 87 octane or 93 octane.

This is not just my opinion, it's all right there in the manual Honda gives you for the treatment and care of your motorcycle.

Modern materials, EFI systems, 02 sensors, ECUs etc are all engineered to keep this motor running basically no matter how you treat it, but applying 1970s automotive wives tales, and back yard garage procedures to 2015 engines is a waste of time. Times have changed, and so has engineering, and materials, and what your uncle or the local hot rod enthusiast, thought he knew in 1970, just no longer applies to modern motors or motorcycles. Engineers have learned a lot in the last 50 years, and what they have learned has been passed onto and into your CB1100.

Coming up on 20,000 miles no issues.

he he he, point taken, wasn't me who said it...

EFI systems, 02 sensors and ECUs. woo hoo! now i've really stepped into the 21st century!

now it's time to see how different riding techniques effect mileage. think i'll fiddle with that mpg doohickey and read up on some threads...

-Kirk Out

[Pterodactyl_imp]

I'm probably one of the more conservative riders on the board. For the most part my bike lives in the 45-60 mph zone, and a lot of that, even at 45 mph, is in 6 th gear (between 2500 and 3500 rpms). My normal shift point is around 3000-3200 rpms, and my bike has never been over 5000 rpms, and never anywhere near redline to "blow the crud out". (What a hokey wives tale) but there is no problem running this engine to redline, either occasionally, or all the time for that matter. Engines are designed to run within a certain range and the range on this bike is from 2500-8000 rpms. It's ok to run this bike in any gear between those rpms (although it is electronically rpm limited in certain gears meaning you will not be able to run it at 8000 rpms in certain gears) but other than that, it will not harm this motor to run it anywhere between those rpms and it's not " better" for it to run it at any given rpm than another rpm in that range, and the only "crud" you are going to blow out of a modern engine is the crud in your head.

This bike is designed to run on 87 octane and up to 10% ethanol, and running that will not harm your motor unless the bike sits for extended periods of time without some gas stabilizer in it. Running a higher octane is useless, and a waste of money, but will not harm the motor. Running pure gas will not harm your motor either. These bikes will run 100,000 miles whether you run 10% ethanol or pure gas, whether you run 87 octane or 93 octane.

This is not just my opinion, it's all right there in the manual Honda gives you for the treatment and care of your motorcycle.

Modern materials, EFI systems, 02 sensors, ECUs etc are all engineered to keep this motor running basically no matter how you treat it, but applying 1970s automotive wives tales, and back yard garage procedures to 2015 engines is a waste of time. Times have changed, and so has engineering, and materials, and what your uncle or the local hot rod enthusiast, thought he knew in 1970, just no longer applies to modern motors or motorcycles. Engineers have learned a lot in the last 50 years, and what they have learned has been passed onto and into your CB1100.

Coming up on 20,000 miles no issues.

And checking your signature leads me to the conclusion that you are a firm believer in that .

Cheers

[Cormanus]

I'm probably one of the more conservative riders on the board. For the most part my bike lives in the 45-60 mph zone, and a lot of that, even at 45 mph, is in 6 th gear (between 2500 and 3500 rpms). My normal shift point is around 3000-3200 rpms, and my bike has never been over 5000 rpms, and never anywhere near redline to "blow the crud out". (What a hokey wives tale) but there is no problem running this engine to redline, either occasionally, or all the time for that matter. Engines are designed to run within a certain range and the range on this bike is from 2500-8000 rpms. It's ok to run this bike in any gear between those rpms (although it is electronically rpm limited in certain gears meaning you will not be able to run it at 8000 rpms in certain gears) but other than that, it will not harm this motor to run it anywhere between those rpms and it's not " better" for it to run it at any given rpm than another rpm in that range, and the only "crud" you are going to blow out of a modern engine is the crud in your head.

This bike is designed to run on 87 octane and up to 10% ethanol, and running that will not harm your motor unless the bike sits for extended periods of time without some gas stabilizer in it. Running a higher octane is useless, and a waste of money, but will not harm the motor. Running pure gas will not harm your motor either. These bikes will run 100,000 miles whether you run 10% ethanol or pure gas, whether you run 87 octane or 93 octane.

This is not just my opinion, it's all right there in the manual Honda gives you for the treatment and care of your motorcycle.

Modern materials, EFI systems, 02 sensors, ECUs etc are all engineered to keep this motor running basically no matter how you treat it, but applying 1970s automotive wives tales, and back yard garage procedures to 2015 engines is a waste of time. Times have changed, and so has engineering, and materials, and what your uncle or the local hot rod enthusiast, thought he knew in 1970, just no longer applies to modern motors or motorcycles. Engineers have learned a lot in the last 50 years, and what they have learned has been passed onto and into your CB1100.

Coming up on 20,000 miles no issues.

This reminds me of another thread in which an esteemed Forum member cast a lure onto the forum waters ...

[jamestkirk_imp]

OK, a couple tanks of fuel and a few hundred miles later.

Tank 1. Whilst keeping the RPM's below 4000, shifting often and keeping the bike in high gears- 46.8mpg.

I didn't like that routine.

Tank 2. Freeriding! Shifting when I wanted to, overall higher RPM range and a few jaunts into the 100mph zone- 41.8mpg.

With tank 2, I kept the odometer readout on total mileage. I didn't want to see the mpg estimate until the tank was finished. Funny it ended up at exactly 5mpg less. Unintentional. I'm a big boy, weighing in at 215 without gear.

Oh, and BTW, thanks guys for the nice idea about the license plate bracket...!

[LongRanger_imp]

If your bike was a girl, I'd say "nice a$$!"

[rotor]

Let me preface this with the fact that I've yet to own any Honda CB that wasn't built in the 70's. I've had some dirt bikes that are from the 21st century but the street bikes have all been old school. Time for a change of pace.

And WHAT A PACE THIS BIKE SETS!!


Oh.My.God!

I'm going to get into big trouble! Big big trouble, with the LAW!

Lighter, more maneuverable and faster. Much Much Faster. The first mod I did was to transplant the radar detector from the 750. It's saved my hiney so many times I can't keep track. I'm really happy with it's sensitivity and ruggedness.http://www.adaptivtechnologies.com/gear/...r-detector


My first bummer: CATALYTIC CONVERTERS! What the heck ever! On a motorcycle? The problem is, is that I'm a pilot and I have free access to minor amounts of 100LL aviation fuel...


This stuff has been the nectar of the gods for all of the motorcycles I have ridden. It's the cleanest, highest octane(100) fuel I have ever used. And did I mention, free?

Now what am I going to do! I know that leaded fuel wreaks havoc with catalytic converters. But, 'LL' means low lead. Much lower than standard leaded fuels.

Are there other systems on this new-fangled CB that will be adversely affected by the 100LL?

I'm having a hard time not using that stuff in a bike. I'm still on my first tank of gas. It's 2/3rds unleaded, 1/3 100LL. And the bike rockets down the road...

So, I'm reaching out to you guys for opinions about mixing 100LL with unleaded fuel.

-Kirk Out

I consider the "global warming" to be the scam of the millenium. But lead is poison, I have grandkids, and I would not emit any of that stuff out of my tailpipe. Ever.

[Ulvetanna_imp]

Let me preface this with the fact that I've yet to own any Honda CB that wasn't built in the 70's. I've had some dirt bikes that are from the 21st century but the street bikes have all been old school. Time for a change of pace.

And WHAT A PACE THIS BIKE SETS!!


Oh.My.God!

I'm going to get into big trouble! Big big trouble, with the LAW!

Lighter, more maneuverable and faster. Much Much Faster. The first mod I did was to transplant the radar detector from the 750. It's saved my hiney so many times I can't keep track. I'm really happy with it's sensitivity and ruggedness.http://www.adaptivtechnologies.com/gear/...r-detector


My first bummer: CATALYTIC CONVERTERS! What the heck ever! On a motorcycle? The problem is, is that I'm a pilot and I have free access to minor amounts of 100LL aviation fuel...


This stuff has been the nectar of the gods for all of the motorcycles I have ridden. It's the cleanest, highest octane(100) fuel I have ever used. And did I mention, free?

Now what am I going to do! I know that leaded fuel wreaks havoc with catalytic converters. But, 'LL' means low lead. Much lower than standard leaded fuels.

Are there other systems on this new-fangled CB that will be adversely affected by the 100LL?

I'm having a hard time not using that stuff in a bike. I'm still on my first tank of gas. It's 2/3rds unleaded, 1/3 100LL. And the bike rockets down the road...

So, I'm reaching out to you guys for opinions about mixing 100LL with unleaded fuel.

-Kirk Out

I consider the "global warming" to be the scam of the millenium. But lead is poison, I have grandkids, and I would not emit any of that stuff out of my tailpipe. Ever.

I consider the "global warming" to be the scam of the millenium. But lead is poison, I have grandkids, and I would not emit any of that stuff out of my tailpipe. Ever. Yep, that stuff is bad news. Don't need it.

[NightRider_imp]

No ethanol gas. I have three gas stations in my rural county with non-ethanol regular gas. It is more expensive but I burn little with my CB, not enough to matter. I use it because I am paranoid about rusting out my tank having an old XZ550 Yamaha rebuild project that came with a rusted tank. It was useless and I ended up buying a very rare new unused tank from Germany, Europe ended up with a lot of unused tanks and body parts when Yamaha decided in 1982 to change the looks of their existing unsold bikes with new tanks and side covers and fenders. Apparently there were a lot of those sitting around.

I still use fuel stabilizer over the winter but only burn ethanol gas when I'm out somewhere and running low on gas. I'm probably just over worried about it.

[SUPERCRUZ_imp]

Congrats on the new bike. As others have pointed out, modern EFI and ECU tuning does not react like the older carb bikes of the 60s and 70s. I highly recommend you not put the AVGAS in your new bike without other tuning modifications done to the ECU first. The current ECU is designed to operate within certain program parameters. It will make slight adjustments to timing and A/F but you throw in something radical like 100+ octane AVGAS with lead which burns slower than 87 or 89 unleaded and you are headed for heartache. Even with low lead levels, any lead present will foul the O2 and likely ruin the cat in short order. I personally run 91 unleaded in my bike and put in a very small amount of Star Tron gas enzyme treatment per instructions at every fill up. This stuff counters the negative effects of ethanol added to modern fuel as well and keeps the gas fresh for longer periods of time. I am also running a Power Commander V with slip on muffler for better performance and fuel mapping. Enjoy the bike and ride safe.

[kmoney_imp]

I wouldn't run LL Avgas either. IIRC, and as some of our pilot friends on here can confirm though, Avgas does t use the same octane scale as pump gas, so 100+ isn't actually that high on the regular RON scale.