Guth
Appreciative User
Many modern bikes, in a search for ever more marketable performance numbers, have seemed to be more and more MotoGP capable, and less and less street oriented.
This bike has always seemed to me to be one modern bike which is aimed at the actual everyday needs of normal people. A completely modern bike which just updates everything Honda got right about motorcycles decades ago. And it doesn’t look like an insect.
I find it to be a great motorcycle, but not one that appeals to very many Americans. Honda designed the CB1100 for the Japanese market with no intentions of distributing the motorcycle here in the States. With it's double cradle steel frame incorporating twin rear shocks rolling on 18" wheels, it was designed to provide a true retro riding experience. It does benefit from some truly awesome brakes and fuel injection as found in what was Honda's first all new air-cooled engine in more than twenty years. A mill that was tuned with an emphasis on linear power delivery with an incredibly wide, flat powerband. Despite the fact that it was not an inexpensive motorcycle, nor was it intended to be, it became the best-seller in it's class the first year it went on sale in Japan back in 2010.
After three years Honda finally ended up bringing the CB1100 to North America where reception of the motorcycle was best described as lukewarm. The price tag considered too high and the power output too low in the eyes of most. But for me it was exactly what I was looking for in a motorcycle. Despite it's displacement, it's actually a fairly compact motorcycle. I often think of it more as a 750 than an 1100. It's a quality machine that will last me till the end of my riding days.
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