VIBRATION - deciding too much; and living with it.

[the Ferret]

That is odd.

[Pterodactyl_imp]

Well we (me anyway) are all getting on a bit. Maybe he was on a different bike .

Cheers

[Riko_imp]

The vibration thingy...as the miles roll on, it seems to be getting worse.

Nope, not gonna sell. Nope, don't want this machine - which was built TO PERFECTION in Soichiro Honda's model plant - to be taken apart in search of mysterious malady, on the bench of a backwoods Montana shop.

But, as they say, decisions must be made. There's a fork in the road...take it.

First, how much is too much? This engine starts and purrs smoothly at about 1000rpm. It pulls strong out the gate, and between 2000-2500rpm is smooth as silk. In 1,2 and 3rd gear, that's fine for traffic.

From 2500 to 3000, things get a little buzzy. That's for fast acceleration in traffic in lower gears.

3000 to 4000 things get a bit out of hand. Mirrors are still fine but my left-hand, which seems more sensitive, starts getting the neuralgia tingles. This is the RPM band when accelerating to highway speed on our limited-access signaled arterials.

Above 4000...which I've run it up to to see what happens...or at highway speeds, which out here in the West is about 85...it gets ugly. Just under 5000rpm, the tank starts to buzz. A little higher and I feel it through the well-padded seat.

Is this normal, in others' experience? I know a four is gonna have some harmonic issues. I can live with it...there is so much else with this machine to love. But I don't want the engine tearing itself apart.

NOW. What is a good way to mitigate the buzz through the grips? I have the factory bars and weights. I read the other thread about someone who replaced or tried to replace Honda bars with aftermarket...how exquisitely-engineered were those weights.

Fair enough. Is there a better sort of grip? I wear off-road riding gloves; they help but they're not a full solution. The bars are fine for me. Keep the bars and weights and try heavily-padded grips? I have big hands; a larger circumference won't hurt me.

Thanks for the feedback.

didnt read this topics all 10 pages yet...so could be someone already posted this...

But I just read this interesting article of the whole development of the bike, for example about the engine and how they wanted to give it a vibration feel of a 2 cylinder at around 3000 rpm

At around 3,000 rpm, the four-cylinder engine vibrates strongly like a two-cylinder engine, and has a solid rev feel through the chain to the rear tire, giving a strong sense of traction, and finally a purposeful sound.
http://world.honda.com/CB1100/engineer-talk/episode2/

ps: I also came from a 650 Burgman

[Motogeezer1949_imp]

Try hypnosis. Much better chance of that working

[quietguy_imp]

"Sekiya:
On the hardware side, phased valve timing gives the engine its characteristic feel around the 3,000 rpm range. How did you create the engine's personality?

Minami:
Basically, straight-four engines run smooth as long as all four pistons move the same way. My initial thoughts were, to give the engine a deep rumble, we'd have to change the movement a bit.
We ended up shifting the valve timing of cylinders 1 and 2, compared to cylinders 3 and 4, and by continuing to change the gap, found the right combustion out-of-sync feel."

"Korogi:
At around 3,000 rpm, the four-cylinder engine vibrates strongly like a two-cylinder engine, and has a solid rev feel through the chain to the rear tire, giving a strong sense of traction, and finally a purposeful sound.
'Deep rumble' expresses the feel, through the five senses, of an air-cooled four-cylinder engine."

"Sugiura:
Of all the ideas we had for the engine's 'character,' we went ahead with phased valve timing. The engine is based on the CB1300 Super Four, and in the initial prototyping stages, we took its engine and simply modified it to be air-cooled. We had the prototype tested by a number of people, and the majority told us that it didn't feel like an air-cooled engine, that it felt the same as the 1300SF."

"Fukanaga:
I think the bike is as good as it is, because we had people in the factory see, ride, and understand the level of the engine's potential and 'feel' that we wanted.
Once the factory understood us, they started giving us ideas on how to improve the quality of the mass-produced model. This was what happened for the 2014 model."

Jeez there's some touchy people out there!

All he asked was "i wonder what the engine would be like if they hadn't designed some character into it" and all of a sudden he's being burned at the stake for blasphemy!

Let's face it, the bike is an oddball - instead of being designed to meet a demand in the market which would lead to a profitable line of sales, it seems to have been designed almost as an indulgence to one man's ideal of a superbike from his youth with the gnarly bits knocked off.

We saw, we test rode, we shared the indulgence.

I still smile when I imagine the conversation where the engine designers were told:
"Yes we KNOW that you can make this engine as smooth as a baby's bottom, but......."

You know, I have serious doubts about these "conversations" with the design team. It's straight out of Honda PR. I think the concept of the CB1100 was knocked out on a Friday evening after a few stress levelling bottles of Saki, translated to a drawing on the back of a paper napkin during a recovery session on Saturday morning and was in production on Monday. Tuesday #1 rolled off the production line and there was a vibration. "What to do, what to do?" "I've got it! Let's call it CHARACTER, The Boss will buy that". All fixed.


Cheers

(Sorry to repeat myself)

You've got my vote...

[the Ferret]

Anyone that complains about vibration on a CB 1100 has not ridden ANY British singles or twins from the 50's to late 70's or any Yamaha 650 twin from 69-83 or any Harley Davidson Sportster any year from 59 on.

[pekingduck]

Anyone that complains about vibration on a CB 1100 has not ridden ANY British singles or twins from the 50's to late 70's or any Yamaha 650 twin from 69-83 or any Harley Davidson Sportster any year from 59 on.

It's the type of vibration we're complaining of, the high frequency buzz. The Norton Commando I rode more than 30 years was as smooth as anything today. And late model rubber-mount Sportys too. My late model Bonnie and new V-Strom actually vibrate with more amplitude, but lower frequency, and I can ride all day without thinking about it. To me, the CB11 does not have a "sweet spot" above 3500rpm, where it feels relaxed but not out of the power band.
The only inline 4 I've ridden with no vibes was an '82 Suzuki GSX1100G. Heavy because it was rubber mounted and shaft driven, it was as smooth as a Gold Wing.

[the Ferret]

My late model Bonnie was smoother than my v4 Honda and the rubber mounted 1200 Sportster I rode on vacation 2 years ago tingled my hands to the point of itching. I did ride a 1995 Dyna Convertible that was rubber mounted and felt smooth.

I think these things just affect people differently. I mean how many people are saying their bikes are smooth as silk and how many are saying their bikes are buzzy? It's not like EVERYONE is saying their bikes are smooth and not EVERYONE saying their bikes are buzzy. i don't even feel the "character" that Honda supposedly built into the bike on purpose at 3000 rpms. Maybe I am just numb from so many years of riding.

In another thread I asked a member about his FZ07 a Yamaha parallel twin 700cc. iT was on my radar as one of my final bikes, so I went and test rode one and came back and wrote a report here about the excessive vibrations I felt. It vibrated all the time from idle on up to me particularly from 3500 rpms and up, and because it's only a 700cc twin you spend a lot of time over 3500 rpms. The member with the FZ07 said his was smooth and the vibes never bothered him at all, which really suprised me given the results of my test ride. I thought it shook like a dog after a bath. Who can explain these things?

[Guth_imp]

My late model Bonnie was smoother than my v4 Honda and the rubber mounted 1200 Sportster I rode on vacation 2 years ago tingled my hands to the point of itching. I did ride a 1995 Dyna Convertible that was rubber mounted and felt smooth.

I think these things just affect people differently. I mean how many people are saying their bikes are smooth as silk and how many are saying their bikes are buzzy? It's not like EVERYONE is saying their bikes are smooth and not EVERYONE saying their bikes are buzzy. i don't even feel the "character" that Honda supposedly built into the bike on purpose at 3000 rpms. Maybe I am just numb from so many years of riding.

In another thread I asked a member about his FZ07 a Yamaha parallel twin 700cc. iT was on my radar as one of my final bikes, so I went and test rode one and came back and wrote a report here about the excessive vibrations I felt. It vibrated all the time from idle on up to me particularly from 3500 rpms and up, and because it's only a 700cc twin you spend a lot of time over 3500 rpms. The member with the FZ07 said his was smooth and the vibes never bothered him at all, which really suprised me given the results of my test ride. I thought it shook like a dog after a bath. Who can explain these things?

That pretty much sums things up from my perspective.

[Jeffhark_imp]

I agree with a previous post until you take out a parrell twin like I had an xs650 and it was a ridgid frame that I built. But that thing vibrated like crazy then got a Vulcan 900 and now I have a wonderful cb1100 and don't think that it's too buzzy at all very smooth.