Why the CB1100 will never be a big seller

[jerrycon_imp]

I'm with Guth. They didn't develop this jewel of a bike for overseas markets.

I wonder how many guys like me were sending emails to every small and big town chamber of commerce organization in Kumamoto Prefecture ([url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumamoto_Prefecture]熊本県). I begged them to let me have one. And finally they did. And I'm grateful.

I don't believe Honda had any aspirations of making money on the CB1100 overseas. They took care of the faithful, the aficionados, those of us--few in number--with an appreciation of the history going all the way back to Soichiro Honda ([url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soichiro_Honda]本田 宗一郎) fixing bicycles and dropping out of school.

Don't want to be a faithful caretaker of the exquisite machine designated as the CB1100? That's okay. Not all are worthy.

Disclaimer: I do not mean to imply that the CB1100 is without its imperfections. It has them like any other motorcycle. But if you're outside of Japan, then Honda did you a really big favor, and a bit of gratitude is called for.

If nothing else, like Capo has mentioned before, I would have liked to see Honda feature the CB1100 a bit more prominently in their showrooms. But then I remind myself that they initially developed the CB1100 for the Japanese market and had no intention of bringing the bike to North America back then. I've stated in the past that I've often felt like Honda was sort of throwing us a bone here in the States by finally bringing the bike over here. I'm guessing that our general reaction to the bike hasn't come as too much of a surprise to their corporate types.

Honda certainly has money to dump into some sort of real marketing effort for the CB1100 if that was what they wanted to do. Obviously that hasn't been part of their plan for the bike. Releasing a small number of these machines over here that were priced on the high side of what consumers could bear with little fanfare to speak of was what Honda decided to do. Surely they realized that such a plan wouldn't result in large sales figures for the CB1100. Despite my disappointment with Honda's choices when it comes to marketing the bike, if nothing else I remain grateful that they changed their mind about releasing it to the US market. I can still remember when it seemed like that was never going to happen.

For reference, Triumph sold a total of approximately 50,000 motorcycles worldwide in 2016. Honda sold something like 1.5 million. They spend over $200 million on car advertising in the US alone. They can do whatever they want. They would produce as many CB's as they possibly could sell.

Recall Ferrett's posting about Honda building precisely the bike they wanted to? I concur. And they advertise it precisely as much as they want to. I'm in that business and have worked with Honda on campaigns.

Regarding Nortoon's vivid comments about the ugliness of CB's, in that this is a tight forum, and 99 % of the members own 'ugly blacked out / twisted pipes' bikes, a little common courtesy might be a good idea.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Good point of reference. In that light, just imagine the impact it would have on Triumph Motorcycles Ltd if they were to never have sold the Bonneville here in the States. Such a decision would have had quite a notable effect on the company. On the other hand, if Honda had stuck with their original plan to not bring the CB1100 over here, the impact would be negligible in the overall scheme of things as far as Honda is concerned. With that in mind, one can understand why Triumph offers so much in the way of related accessories and lifestyle products (and perhaps why Honda doesn't).

[Rolls_imp]

And look, you *can* see the 4-1 from the other side!

[url=https://refract.smugmug.com/Motorcycles/CaliPhotography-MRLS/i-VgkfJ2r/A]

No hard feelings, Nortoon. Even though I was getting a little tired of the 4-1 bashing after the first few mentions, I actually really enjoy your posts.

[Cormanus]

Geez fellas! Give Nortoon a break, will ya? He's a right to his opinion. There are enough strong opinions bandied around here when it comes to other bikes of certain brand or appearance. Surely we can suck up a view about elements of the CB1100's appearance that don't accord with the default rapturous adulation?

Why, such forum luminaries as ride4now and the Ferret himself dashed out and rid themselves of the black engine and tangled pipes as soon as the DLX appeared. I recall the Ferret waxing lyrical about the beauty of the double-walled chromed headers and the symmetry of the 4 into 2 exhaust.

Some people loathe the new tank design on the 2017 EX; others think it's lovely. It's a matter of opinion. Opinions lead people to like different bikes. That's fine. How boring would it be if we all rode the same thing? What would those of you whose ambition is to own n+1 bikes do if n+1 = lots of the same?

Personally, Nortoon, I hope a CB1100 with double-walled chrome headers cascading into a 4 into 2 and a tank painted in a single glorious colour comes along soon so you can buy one.

Meanwhile, I'm going to continue to work on having the blackest CB1100 headers on the planet.

[curlyjoe]

I thought I read somewhere that Roos are strongly attracted to bikes with shiny symmetrical headers.

[Cormanus]

I thought I read somewhere that Roos are strongly attracted to bikes with shiny symmetrical headers.

May well have done, mate. My theory is the buggers are attracted to anything moving that might hurt them. Dumb as a bucket of hammers. On your reckoning, though, Ill be OK. That's fine with me.

[the Ferret]

I thought I read somewhere that Roos are strongly attracted to bikes with shiny symmetrical headers.

Looking at Cormanus's head pipes, I'll bet he's hoping that is indeed the case.

[Stichill]

All of the contrary opinions about header design are interesting to me, even though I can't stir up animosity toward either variant. I think the swoopy asymmetry of the 4:1 looks awesome, and I like that it leaves the chain clear for maintenance. I also like the elegant symmetry of the 4:2, and the cosmetic benefits of double-walled construction.

If anyone wants to clean their discolored pipes, I can recommend Autosol Bluing Remover.

Before:




After:






As far as the black vs. silver engine...I like contrast. As long as there is visual contrast between light and dark parts, it's going to look good. All light or all dark doesn't bring out the details IMO.

[the Ferret]

I could have lived with the 4 into 1 on my 13 with these 2 caveats. (1) the pipes were double walled and didn't heat discolor. No offense to those who don't mind the look, I have never cared for discolored pipes on my 60's Italian, Brit bikes or Harleys (it was a revelation when Honda came out with the double walled pipes that looked good all the time)and knowing my propensity to rarely wash my bikes, by now they would have looked atrocious, probably worse than Cormanus's. And (2) I could have lived with them had Honda not brought out the DLX, which had 28 other upgrades (IMO) beyond the chrome waterfall headers and symmetrical mufflers. Those were just icing on the cake.

I prefer a bit of contrast too I guess, and prefer some color to just all black (again not to offend those that do like the all black), but wouldn't mind a shiny black tank, side covers and headlight bucket with silver motor and wheels and some chrome like Django had. Other than that I like my red with red side covers and headlight bucket, and silver motor and wheels and chrome.

[Rolls_imp]

Cleaning of the 4-1 pipes is a pain. I'm ok with the light bronze tint, but they steadily progress past that to gray and that bugs me. Sometimes enough to polish them, most times not. I wonder if the double wall approach is more challenging with the twisted design and/or the twisted design gets tougher to pull off with the slightly thicker pipes. Might've just been cost prohibitive, or a trade off of durability vs. shininess. I'm really thinking about Chip Beck's Jet Hot solution. Don't spread it around, but if cost were no object, I'd probably be sporting a set of Wyvern four into fours. They're just the bees knees.

[Nortoon_imp]

Sorry Capo and others! It was not my intention to aggravate anyone. I guess I am just frustrated because I cannot buy the model of CB1100 that appeals to me.

My New Year's Resolution will be to just write right what I do like about the Deluxe and EX models, and not criticize others.