08-22-2024, 01:01 AM
Well, I've pretty much finished all my checks, adjustments, cleaning and prep for the upcoming rally, and so with an extra 10 minutes on my hands, I decided to pull the air cleaner, inspect, and blow out any dust, as I couldn't remember the last time I did it. With trusty shop manual in front of me, and a Phillips screwdriver in hand, I set out on a very simple maintenance task.
45 minutes later, I had exhausted my vocabulary of curse words and elevated my blood pressure to historic highs.
So, as one engineer speaking to those engineers at Honda, I wanted to offer some feedback and observations:
1) Brilliant choice of fastening screws to hold the air cleaner cover in place! I never would have thought to use black screws in a confined space that's completely surrounded by black plastic parts, black wiring, black frame tubes, etc and which is nearly impossible to shine a light into. Even with the manual, the task of locating black screws in that area becomes sort of a "treasure hunt", significantly extending those precious moments that we all love working on our CBs. Imagine if they had used silver screws, why locating and unscrewing them would have taken only seconds -- we could have had a world-wide rash of CB air cleaner thefts (like the catalytic converter thefts) perpetrated by roving gangs of air cleaner thieves! Imagine what that would do to our insurance rates.
2) Wire harness design is quite possibly a world record in efficient use of wire lengths and routing plans. Why, there's not even a 1/2 inch of extra wire used here. Sure, moving it out of the way in order to locate and extract the screws is a little more difficult, but hey, who doesn't enjoy a puzzle when working on something, and...just imagine the weight savings by not lengthening those wire runs. I'll bet that gives me an extra 2 or 3 mph at top end!
3) Finally, I really enjoyed learning by trial and error that one can re-install the air cleaner, thinking it's properly seated, only to find it isn't, and that the cover won't re-seat against it's mating surface. Sure, a cautionary note in the manual would help, but...no one wants to keep reading and reading and reading -- we'd rather explore and find things out on our own!
So, I now have a dust-free air cleaner and I have the peace of mind (not to mention the bragging rights) to say that "I did this on my own!"
I'll now be updating my personal maintenance schedule to put this item on my "Once every million miles" list and not before!
45 minutes later, I had exhausted my vocabulary of curse words and elevated my blood pressure to historic highs.
So, as one engineer speaking to those engineers at Honda, I wanted to offer some feedback and observations:
1) Brilliant choice of fastening screws to hold the air cleaner cover in place! I never would have thought to use black screws in a confined space that's completely surrounded by black plastic parts, black wiring, black frame tubes, etc and which is nearly impossible to shine a light into. Even with the manual, the task of locating black screws in that area becomes sort of a "treasure hunt", significantly extending those precious moments that we all love working on our CBs. Imagine if they had used silver screws, why locating and unscrewing them would have taken only seconds -- we could have had a world-wide rash of CB air cleaner thefts (like the catalytic converter thefts) perpetrated by roving gangs of air cleaner thieves! Imagine what that would do to our insurance rates.
2) Wire harness design is quite possibly a world record in efficient use of wire lengths and routing plans. Why, there's not even a 1/2 inch of extra wire used here. Sure, moving it out of the way in order to locate and extract the screws is a little more difficult, but hey, who doesn't enjoy a puzzle when working on something, and...just imagine the weight savings by not lengthening those wire runs. I'll bet that gives me an extra 2 or 3 mph at top end!
3) Finally, I really enjoyed learning by trial and error that one can re-install the air cleaner, thinking it's properly seated, only to find it isn't, and that the cover won't re-seat against it's mating surface. Sure, a cautionary note in the manual would help, but...no one wants to keep reading and reading and reading -- we'd rather explore and find things out on our own!
So, I now have a dust-free air cleaner and I have the peace of mind (not to mention the bragging rights) to say that "I did this on my own!"
I'll now be updating my personal maintenance schedule to put this item on my "Once every million miles" list and not before!
