Just rode my Sportster then Honda

[Cormanus]

I had a 250 Suzuki two-stroke once that spat a plug out of the head in the middle of the night in the middle of nowhere. It might have been a very long walk, but I was with some other blokes and we found a piece of rope, tied it to the back of a Honda 350 and towed it.

A bush mechanic fixed it the next day by wrapping some asbestos rope around the thread which held it in place until I got home and had a helicoil done.

[Andor_imp]

Hi,

I bought my CB1100 EX 2014 a month ago after having HD for like 7 years. Got used to it on my daily city routes. Today I rode my Sportster just to see the difference and then Honda. My God! what a huge difference. I thought something is wrong with HD. It doesn't turn nor brake. It shakes and makes a lot of noise. Now I'm sure I'll get rid of it.

Just sharing my experience since I'm just overwhelmed with CB. Love it.
What was your experince old vs new bike?

Voitus - Warsaw, Poland.

Hi Voitus ,Just yesterday I made a trip of 250 km with my sportster 1200 c 2003 version of the centenary, my wife and I went back very tired, maybe the warm weather, with little excursion shock, vibration, and wind in our faces, when we travel cb 1100 with the comfort is much better except for the wind, because we love our xl 1200 we will not sell it ever ..... I think that will set the spring and shock absorber will buy a nice windshield as I have done for the cb 1100 , because even as gasoline consumption not see any difference between both the bikes, with the sportster I-23 between i20 km per liter of petrol, with cb 1100 I can get up to 26 km a liter (with the one that costs the gasoline in Italy, consumption is very important), the sportster in fourteen years he never had any problems, I still have the original battery, only oil, candles engine, filters, tires, brake pads and see if gasoline ....... the honda with a lot of electronics if you behave well ......

[the Ferret]

14 years on the same battery? That has got to be some kind of record. Is the bike kick start?

[wayne van horn_imp]

I've never have got more then 3 years out of a battery, maybe it's the heat here in the desert?

[The Spaceman_imp]

I've never have got more then 3 years out of a battery, maybe it's the heat here in the desert?

Its uncommon but not unheard of. Andor didn't mention his mileage, but it wasn't unusual to have 10+ y/o bikes come in for trade at the dealer where I worked with only 2, 3, 4k miles. Some had just a few hundred miles. They still had original tires, batteries, even oil! If the battery sat on a smart charger with very little use it could last that long.

Not all bike owners are riders like us CB owners.

[lackskill_imp]

I always ask them if they got the Magnet option, when they ask what that is, I tell them to catch the parts that fall off.

My best friend's little brother literally had a heat shield fly off of his heritage nostalgia on the freeway last year. Cost him about $150 to replace it.

My best friend has an 01 sportster that he let me ride a few times before I bought my CB. I enjoyed it for what it was, but damn did it vibrate. Plus he lowered it, so anything bigger than an expansion joint made me feel like I needed a kidney belt.

I test rode several Harleys. I really wanted to like the fat bob, but there was just too much vibration. The night rod was a decent bike, but I'd like my wife to be able to be pillion once in a while. She wouldn't have put up with the v-rod envelope that they try to pass as a pillion. In the end, the CB was a good place for me to start getting back into riding, but with all the miles I do, I'll want something with a fairing sometime soon.

[cbdtran_imp]

hi - just make sure to post some pics of your beautiful Poland.

yes - the CB is a very nice bike, in summer time I use it more than my car.

[jmc1100_imp]

I have an 05 1200 roadster, minimal brakes and handling,push it at your own risk, but I still like it. Any serious riding is saved for the CB. All the Harleys I've owned, the Norton's, Triumphs, Ducatis The CB 1100 is King
The first CB I saw was in 1969 in Laguna Beach. That was it....

[Andor_imp]

Excuse me, my sportster has 33000 km, but also led other motorcycles, use a few simple charger money than those with low amperage 12volt -0.6 amps, but also on other bikes that the battery did not last long was only seven years old, the battery cb 1100 will undergo the same treatment and see .........

[davidsargee_imp]

I think that the reason for H-D's success starts with their "liberation" from AMF. When I first became interested in motorcycles in the early '70s, (like many on this forum), H-D was owned and manufactured by AMF. They were complete and total junk back then, not worth the trouble. To this day, I find myself associating Harleys with that image, even though I know they are totally different bikes now in terms of quality.

Harley's got better, obviously, after Willie G. and company regained control of and re-invented Harley Davidson as a company. Since then, H-D has done an absolutely brilliant job of marketing their product, probably as successful a turnaround as there has ever been in the business world. They re-invented their image in just about every way, and the image they have tried to instill in the public is that they are all about quality. As an example, H-D dealerships are now opulent palaces of "the American biker life-style", there used to be a dealer in Alexandria, LA, that was in an old frame building, out on a small country road, they could only fit about 3 bikes in the "showroom". This was common, but you don't see those places anymore.

All in all, some very smart people took over that company and turned it around, they improved the product, changed the image, and took over a large slice of the U.S. market. They recognized that H-D is a unique brand, and they have capitalized upon that, brilliantly. Detroit could probably learn something from this story, but probably won't.

I still won't buy one, but I will give credit where it is due.