CB riders review of other bikes

[PaulBWatertownCT_imp]

Well, after making an a not so glorious review of my experience owning a ‘13 CB1100, one of the forum members suggested I share some thoughts on other bikes I have or have had.

Obviously our choices in bikes change as we age, what was great in my youth may not be my choice today. So now in my fifties, maybe it’s best to stick to the past twenty years of bikes. I’ll mention that I buy two kinds of bikes, for solo riding and for two up riding. I also prefer quiet bikes, if I’m going fast I don’t need any added attention and I don’t want to tread on anyone else’s peaceful day.

Current bikes:
06 Honda ST1300 - Competent and comfortable sport tourer. Wife loves this bike. Owned one year.

01 Aprilia SL1000 Falco - Great sport bike with factory soft bags. Comfortable riding position for all day/days. Great motor. Does everything well. Owned 5 years.

94 Honda CB1000 - Great all around standard. Changed to 17” CBR rear wheel. Owned 2 years.

91 Honda CBR600F2 - Classic sport bike, which is really a sport standard in today’s world. Owned 6 years.

91 Honda NSR250SP - The holy grail of solo riding. Indescribably awesome. Owned 7 years.

89 Honda Hawk GT 650 - Upgraded suspension. Small standard bike with frame from Honda first generation NSR. The best bang for the buck in my garage. Owned 13 years.

89 Honda CB400F / CB-1 - Small standard. Had my fun, posting for sale in spring. Owned 5 years.

Projects:
91 Suzuki GSXR1100 - just brought back to 100% stock. Ready to register or sell, not sure which is the smarter choice.

76 Harley Sportster - gifted by father in law. Future resto-mod project.

Previous bikes, in no specific order:
13 Honda CB1100 - owned 1 year. Beautiful looking modern classic. I didn’t like anything about it other than it’s looks.

03 Aprilia Futura RST 1000 - owned 16 years. Favorite all time motorcycle. Reliable, comfortable, fast, great handling, awesome brakes, factory hard bags, solo or two up riding. Sold to find something better, still haven’t.

99 Cagiva Gran Canyon 900 - adventure style street bike, Ducati 900 motor with fuel injection. Really liked this bike for around town, but uncomfortable for long rides. A little taller than ideal. Owned three years.

93 Yamaha GTS1000 - great sport touring bike. Fuel injection, hard bags, comfortable, bad parking lot manners, cool front suspension. Bought this and the Aprilia Futura at the same time. Excellent bike but the Futura was better in every way. Owned two years.

08 Ducati Monster 1000 S2R - I wanted to love this bike but I really didn’t like anything about it. Purchased brand new and sold within a year.

99 Honda CBR1100XX - black, beautiful, and boring. The front suspension was harsh. Wasn’t great at anything. First experience with linked braking. Owned two years. Traded for left over 97 TL1000s.

97 Suzuki TL1000S - dark green with Targa matching lower fairing. Beautiful, bold, powerful, exciting, perfect sport standard bike,. Comfortable on 1200 mile ride to Nova Scotia. Sold because it made me drive too fast and front wheel was always airborne. Owned 5 years.

96 Harley Dyna Glide Convertible. Black, beautiful to look at, horrible in every other way. Tried sundowner seat. I wanted to love this bike but wife and I equally hated riding it. Sold after one season.

01 Harley Road King. Pearl white, beautiful to look at. Plain and boring in every way. Would cause terrible hip pain after two hours, only bike to ever experience this on. Sold after one season and trip to Florida.

95? Yamaha VMax. Bought new. Liked nothing about this bike. Was like riding a cow. Handled poorly. Sold after one season.

76 BMW R75/6. Took on trade for my DR350s dual sport. Fun bike, handled very good for a 40 year old bike. Felt surprisingly light. Inadequate front brake (1st year for discs). Sold after one season.

79 Honda CX500B Standard. Great all around bike, one of my favorites. Needed better front brake. Owned three years.

89 Honda NX650. Original adventure bike attempt. Nothing exciting or worth mentioning. This is the kind of bike every new street rider should get. Similar to KLR650, just older and clunkier. Owned two years.

89 Honda NX250. Mini adventure bike. Too fragile for off road and not enough power for on road. Owned one season.

84 Honda Nighhawk 650. Excellent bike. Did everything well. Great fit and finish. I’d buy another if in great original condition. Owned two seasons.

Bikes from my teens and early twenties:
85 GPz550
86 GPz900 Ninja
86 GSXR750
86 GSXR1100
89 Ninja 1000
Maybe a few others which I’ve missed or forgotten about.

I hopes this puts my CB1100 review in perspective, although maybe my disappointment caused that review to be a little too harsh.

[GoldOxide_imp]

* 03 Aprilia Futura RST 1000: Interesting to know. Aprilia has very good fit and finish.

* 95? Yamaha VMax: Good to know. lol - "cow".

* 84 Honda Nighhawk 650: Totally agree. One of the best bikes I've owned. Sold too early.

[tommymck_imp]

Dang, cool collection! Though most of us happen to have a thing for the CB1100, stick around... We may not be cool enough for the cool kids table (except maybe Mr. P...), but we ain't so bad.

[misterprofessionality]

The Cool kids don't care if they're cool

What Tommy said is true though, Most of long time CB1100 owners are rabid fans of the bike and this bike alone does "the thing" for them. That's why the sales numbers were what they were and why you get such polar opinions on the bike. I've ridden and even owned loads of bikes that are OBJECTIVELY better than my CB1100 and come away from all of them with no desire to trade my CB out. There's always another bike where i'm like "that might be better than the CB. It'll probably be so good i'll want to trade the CB." and then I go ride it and it's every bit as good as i thought it was but i'd still rather ride my CB. I can't explain it, really.

right now it's a Thruxton 1200 R. I have a sinking feeling that if i ever ride a thruxton 1200 R i will no longer be a CB owner, but i've thought that countless times. I thought it about the MT10. I thought it about the FTR1200. I thought it about the BMW R9t. I thought it about the Kawasaki Z900RS. thought it about the Bonneville t120. ALL off those bikes were great, to varying degrees, and all of them are objectively better than the CB1100 in its class but...they just didn't have all the elements I wanted. MT10 had no character. the FTR1200 was a dog down low, the BMW sounded like crap and was boring, the Z900 was a less interesting higher stress version of the CB, the Bonneville lacked poise, and on and on and on.

TLDR: the CB1100 is a deeply personal bike

[Cormanus]

That’s an interesting collection, Paul. Dust off a camera. At some point someone will ask for—no, probably demand—pictures.

[bioman_imp]

That is a great list!!

Interesting to see the Aprilia Futura mentioned as your all-time favorite. It was (and in a way still is) a bike I wanted to own one day. But I believe it is also a bike that (possibly next to the CB1100) evokes very polarising opinions. Some people think the Futura is (was) a POS, others compare it to the holy grail. The bike never sold well and is difficult to find nowadays.

And it is also interesting to be reminded again that despite (or because of?) all the modern electronical and mechanical improvements we find on our current motorcycles, modern bikes may be safer, but are certainly not more loved than 30 (or 40) years ago.

[the Ferret]

Nice list of bikes and very eclectic.

Here's my street list by brand (didn't list the dirt bikes..raced MX for 10 years and had a few mostly Yamaha's)

HARLEYS: 65 M50,59 XLCH, 49 56 & 57 Pans, 94 XLCH

HONDAS: 66 CB160, 67 CL77, 69 CB350, 73 CB350F, 67 CB450, 76 CB750, 85 VF1100S, 00 CB750, 06 ST1300, 13 CB1100, 14 CB1100 DLX, 14 NC 500X, 21 NC750X DCT

SUZUKI: 74 GT750, 81 GS850G, 83 GS1100E

KAWASAKI: 77 KZ1000

YAMAHA: 73 RD350, 73 TX650, 79 XS650, 81 XS650, 04 FZ1, 01 FZ1, 06 Majesty 400, 08 Majesty 400, 2018 FJR 1300

TRIUMPH 03 T100

BSA 69 750 Rocket 3

(I have also test ridden Moto Guzzi's, BMW's, KTMs, Indian's, Ducati's, Norton's, the original Triumph's, Cushman's, Piaggio's, Sears and a Zero electric)

I've owned singles, V Twins and P Twins, a triple , V4's and I'4's (and ridden 1-6's and opposed twins and 4's)
American, Japanese, and British
from 50cc to 1300cc
from 3.5HP to 145 hp
two strokes and 4 strokes
CVT autos, 3 speeds, 4 speeds, 5 speeds, 6 speeds, and a DCT.
no shift, hand shift, left foot shift and right foot shift
air cooled, and air/oil cooled, and liquid cooled
belt drive, chain drive and shaft drive

My favorite bikes from my list would be the liter class I-4's The KZ 1000, the Yamaha FZ-1s, the Yamaha FJR, the Suzuki GS 1100 (I would also sneak in the GS850G Suzuki), and the Honda CB 1100's, particularly the Deluxe.

[emptysea]

Great list... Makes me wish I started doing this thing a loonnnng time ago.

Here's mine:

2008 Schwinn Newport 150 - Chinese made. Dealer folded 3 months after purchase. Unreliable
2010 Honda SH150i - Made me want to become a motorcyclist. Nice scooter. Handled well. Wished I'd kept it
2010 Honda CBR250r - Next step after the scooter. My wife and I each had one. Smooth for a thumper. Handled great. Great gas mileage. We even went on a couple of overnight trips on them. May have kept them if we didn't both find bigger and more suitable bikes at the 2013 Bike Show. Still should have kept one of them. Ninja riders laughed at them, but they were really good motorcycles.

[LongRanger_imp]

Okay, I’ll pile on.

3 hp Briggs & Stratton mini bike (my forum pic)
‘73 Hodaka Super Rat

Honda:
‘70 Z50
‘70 CB750K0
‘78 CB750F
‘76 CB400F
‘04 CB50R
‘11 CBR250R
‘14 CB1100DLX

Kawasaki:
‘82 KZ440
‘91 ZG1000 Concours

Yamaha:
‘73 RD350
‘80 DT100

Suzuki:
‘99 SV650
‘00 SV650S

Ducati:
‘06 Monster 620

Moto Guzzi:
‘10 V7 Cafe Classic
‘11 V7 Classic

BMW:
‘97 R850R
‘01 R1100S
‘08 R1200RT
‘12 R1200R
‘15 R1200RT
‘19 C650GT
‘87 K75
‘91 K75
‘98 K1200RS
‘07 F800ST
‘07 F800ST
‘13 F800GT

All of these bikes were fabulous but my favorites were the K1200RS, CB1100, F800GT, V7 Classic, and my current R1200R and R1200RT.

[GoldOxide_imp]

Nice LR to see a Moto Guzzi (V7) made your favourites list.