Copyright (c) umgweb.com 1998
I have to be honest, before we go any further, by stating that I am a great fan of the Honda CBR1000. I bought a nearly new one in late 1987, with just running in miles on the clock, having done about 80,000 miles in six years. In fact, it's the first bike I've kept for more than eighteen months.
Part of my dedication to the brute is that it's extraordinarily fast even by the standards of 90's bikes. I am not sure of the ultimate top speed, putting 150mph on the clock was quite enough to burn my brain. More importantly, it'll cruise at 125mph for hours on end as if it was its sole function in life. The excess in speed is not compromised by finicky slow speed work, the bike able to hum along at 35mph in top.
This is just as well, as the CBR has to serve as my sole means of transport all year round. It certainly feels heavy at sub 30mph speeds but over the first few months I adapted to this. The main restraint on fast town work is the width of the plastic bodywork, itself a function of its across the frame four cylinder engine. For town work I much prefer third gear to first or second, as the these gears highlight a surprising amount of driveline lash that was present when I bought the machine.
The gearbox is the worst bit of design in the bike. It was never what could be called smooth or precise, age doing nothing for its action. It has now degenerated to a level that an owner of an old CB125 could appreciate. As with most things in life, a bit of practice makes perfect. It took me about two months to adapt to the CBR's gearbox and I have managed to keep up with the ravages of time and high mileage. I miss a change, usually to second or third, about once a week. I once spun the engine to 12000 revs when finding a false neutral, to no ill effects.
The clutch is original but has become heavy and grabby. There's no discernible slip even when revved into the red in the lower gears, but the first engagement of a gear every day is accompanied by chronic drag. The clutch troubles have made finding neutral very difficult, which leads to the old Honda malaise at junctions when the bike creeps forwards in first gear with the clutch pulled in. Sometimes bad enough to stall the engine.
The DOHC unit has been generally reliable with the exception of another old Honda malady, the dreaded camchain and tensioner. It's nowhere near as bad as a CBX550 or CX500, the chain beginning to rattle slightly after about 25000 miles, which I take as a strong hint as replacement time. To ignore it would be a false economy, as a broken camchain could quite easily lead to a totalled top end. I've had three new camchains fitted at about a hundred notes a time.
There have been no on the road failures of the motor. The only time I was inconvenienced was when one spark plug went west. I feared something serious, the clock had 54000 miles on it and I was in the middle of the German countryside. The Honda was still quite rapid as a 750cc triple, but the way the fourth cylinder could cut in suddenly proved less than amusing.
The one downside of the full plastic enclosure is that changing a set of spark plugs takes hours. Not so long ago, anyone who designed a bike with such a feature would've been a laughing stock. Nowadays, spark plug technology is so advanced that you can usually get away with tens of thousands of miles. I was more relieved than annoyed that the solution was so simple.
Servicing was similarly tedious, but needed so infrequently that it could be forgiven such horrors. The plastic didn't even fit back on easily, quite effortless to break off the prongs (Superglue repairs them effectively). The valves settled down quite nicely, not needing attention for around 15000 miles. The carbs would last for 5000 miles before going off so far as to increase the vibes. This was the mileage at which I changed the oil filter, but being an old Jap bike hand I did the oil changes every 1000 miles. The rest was either electronic or automatic.
Basically, owning the CBR turned out to be relatively free of worry or trauma. It was, and still is, the kind of bike you could leap on to and do 5000 miles around the Continent without becoming a paranoid wreck. My previous mount, a CBX550, always had me on edge whenever I tried for large mileages, its mechanical problems always threatening to turn a tour into a disaster.
I've lost count of the number of times I've leapt on to the Honda, without even checking the oil level let alone changing it, and gone off on a whim to see some part of Europe I would not have otherwise dreamt of visiting. All it would take was a couple of paragraphs in one of the Sundays on some obscure city to make me blast off on a long weekend of speeding and self-indulgence. Not once, did the Honda fail to deliver the goods in a spectacular manner.
I usually went on these excursions on my own, but often joined up with some other rider en route. After a high speed race to introduce ourselves, we would swap tales. Our combined knowledge would often lead to a change in destination or a joining up of forces. On many occasions I ended up staying with complete strangers and being given an insider's guide to the town. All through a common interest in motorcycles.
The one area where the CBR was at a loss as a serious tourer was its consumption of consumables. Tyres rarely lasted for more than 5000 miles a set, fuel hovered around the 35mpg mark (threatening to hit 30mpg under serious abuse) and the rear chain, if of a cheap variety, could be reduced to a pathetic rubber band in less than 4000 miles. High quality O-ring chains would last over 10,000 miles but I often couldn't afford that kind of monetary indulgence.
Overall, though, the lack of serious engine problems more than offset the high cost of running the beast. Surprisingly, the CBR is still on the original exhaust (if rusty), calipers (if renovated occasionally) and paint (if polished up once a month). Even most of the frame paint and engine alloy is still intact.
I will admit to sneaking in a few mods to the suspension. A back street mechanic, who's also a friend, rebuilt the rear shock with a stiffer spring and modified damper and also added HD springs to the front forks. When I first had the bike handling was more than acceptable, but by 26000 miles there was a lot of jumping about in corners. The mods tightened up the bike to a better than new standard. There have been no failures in the chassis bearings, which compared to some UMG accounts is very good going.
The Honda tracks well around smooth corners even at high speeds. Bumps will upset its poise when banked over, although straight line stability over rough going can be quite remarkable for such a hefty machine, the Honda sitting on the road as if on rails.
Wet weather riding can be a bit traumatic if too much power is let loose. A tall gear and very restrained right wrist are called for to avoid wild, lurid slides. Falling off under such circumstances could not be easier, but I have surprised myself by not dropping the Honda. A feat which further endears the bike to me. I was initially rather worried about the cost of replacing the plastic after a crash but now I've become almost blase.
Even with 80,000 miles done, none of the engine's performance appears to have dropped off and there is no smoke out of the exhaust. The starter has become very rattly but still turns the mill into life after a few seconds, although from cold it has always been very lean running, needing a good ten minutes to get up to the correct operating temperature. With the crude clutch it's dead easy to stall a motor first thing in the morning.
There are now more sophisticated bikes than my CBR1000, but they don't offer enough extra by way of performance (I have more than enough, anyway) or handling to entice me into parting with a large wedge. Even if the Honda's engine gives out soon, which it shows no sign of doing, I can still pick up a newish motor for a lot less than I'd have to pay for a newer motorcycle of similar or better performance.
Al Grange
At one point in the evolution of the motorcycle it was thought a good idea to build massive final drive chains. Rather than last a long time, the sheer inertia of their mass caused them to go into a self-destruct routine. History will, I suspect, consign the latest round of enormous litre retros to the same graveyard.
Suzuki, Kawasaki and lastly Honda have all missed the point in the design of their largest capacity retros. Whilst they all have chassis that seventies superbikes can only envy, they carry the same massive weight penalty that burdened nasty devices like Z900s and CB750s, the CB1000 coming in at 520lbs dry, more like 560lbs with a full complement of oil, fuel and water.
Such apparent insanity is all the more galling from Honda, as all they had to do was dump the plastic on the CBR900, add some proper handlebars and detune the motor modestly, preferably by slinging on a single carb rather than playing around with the cams as per the CB. The absence of plastic would have brought the price down from £7100 to somewhere near the £6400 mark of the CB1000 (and the mass to under 400lbs dry!).
All that said, Honda’s engineers have done a reasonable job of keeping the overweight mammoth in check, resorting to the ploy of using a double cradle tubular trellis that would not have looked out of place on the original CB750. They have at least, after decades of learning the art of frame design, come up with geometry that uses the mass to give the CB1000 a well planted feel on the road that makes the Zephyr 1100 feel a bit twitchy by comparison.
It isn't the kind of device that can be slung from bend to bend with gay abandon, nor does it give much measure of forgiveness for those so beguiled by its straight line stability that they enter corners 20 to 30mph faster than mere physics allow. As the CB hides its mass quite well, sitting atop a speeding projectile which suddenly wants to take a wide line through a narrow bend tended to blow my mind and flutter my heart. Those who still have some hair left after the ravages of being forced to wear a crash helmet will soon resemble a cancer victim in the final throes of chromotherapy if they persist in making full use of the Honda's 100 odd horses.
The engine is basically similar to the CBR1000, a watercooled, DOHC, 16 valve four, which is reliable enough up to 25-30,000 miles when it's not unknown for the camchain to need replacing. The CB1000 is slightly detuned in the search for easy torque, something it manages to the extent that the mere five gears are quite sufficient. Indeed, dumping a gear has made the gearbox smoother and more precise than on the CBR1000. Admittedly, the only CBR's I'd ridden had more than 25000 miles on the clock whilst the CB1000 had a mere 5800 miles by the time I returned it to its proud owner.
First gear was the usual ultra low affair, designed not so much as an aid to riding in heavy traffic (I much preferred second) but as a means of posting impressive acceleration times in the magazines and propping up sagging egos by aiding wild wheelies. The CB wasn't the kind of bike that went vertical every time the throttle was touched, but would wheelie if sufficient abuse of the throttle and clutch were combined. The degeneration in stability when mono-wheeling was always of a order that frightened the shit out of me. Wheelies on public roads are so out of order that they should be avoided even if you're willing to replace the wrecked transmission every 5 to 10,000 miles.
Roll-ons in fifth were blistering between 60 and 100mph and more than adequate 25mph either side of that band. It was possible to trickle down to 25mph in top but opening up the throttle with anything other than the sensitivity of a safe-cracker caused the transmission to shudder until 40mph was on the clock.
Top speed was impossible to achieve, I couldn't hold on to the bars above 135mph, when there was undoubtedly more to come and the chassis wasn't showing any signs of letting loose, despite the force of the wind trying to spit me off the back of the bike. Sustainable cruising was a mere 80 to 85mph, which turned out to be the only speed at which appreciable vibes got through to the bars, despite the presence of the usual counterbalancers. The mirrors became fuzzy enough to have the cops rubbing their hands with glee and myself throwing the Honda in front of a Merc, which appeared from nowhere but had a driver awake enough to use his brakes. Thanks, mate!
The Honda had its full complement of disc brakes, which anyone with their full ration of grey cells will find more than adequate, safe to use in the wet and, even, not showing any signs of seizing up despite the usual excess of salted roads. Grabbing the front brake in desperate survival mode whilst trying to lose some speed in corners would throw the CB around rather a lot, but it's a lot more fun than working out with a Bullworker.
Of the suspension, the twin rear shocks were more likely to play up than the hefty front forks, although they were both good enough to keep the Honda in line for 99% of the time. A few more thousand miles will probably show up the shocks as being in urgent need of replacement, but the frame was strong enough to damp out rather than amplify any of their indiscretions. Even hitting a loose bit of wood at 75mph didn't have much of an adverse effect on the chassis, the sudden handlebar lurch disappearing before I had time to panic or drop a load.
Less impressive was a fuel consumption that varied between the awful (25mpg) and the merely tolerable (45mpg). It wasn't that easy to average 40mpg, needing the kind of restraint on the throttle that made the CB1000's performance similar to a mere 400 twin. With nearly five gallons capacity, the huge fuel tank at least gives a range of 150 to 200 miles. Moderate touring speeds are sustainable for 250 to 350 miles in a day before the seat turns hard or muscle cramp sets in.
The easy going nature of the motor means that after that kind of mileage the engine can be stuck in top, rolled along with the minimum of effort on the throttle, whilst watercooling and moderate tune combine to make the bike one big pussycat in town. These are useful features for the long distance rider who wants to arrive with some energy left for late night excesses.
One 600 mile ride in a day almost converted me to the CB1000 ethos. It had been fast A-roads most of the way, using the bike hard in top gear between 65 and 120mph for most of the time. I amused myself by trying to ride without resorting to the discs, using engine braking and my knowledge of the roads to set the Honda up for the corners. The excess of acceleration even saved my kneecap on one occasion when I'd nearly collided with an oncoming auto when overtaking a long line of cars that had some OAP frightened out of his wits as he trundled along in an Escort at 35mph. Can't think what he must've thought of the rapidly disappearing bulk of the CB as I cut him up at about 125mph. What spoilt the whole trip was falling over in a heap as the CB1000 tipped over on its stand. Naturally, in front of about half a dozen cronies.
One of whom later amused us by almost looping the loop after dropping the clutch with about 9000 revs up. The Honda eventually came down to earth with a crash that bounced its forks on the stops and the rider was led away dazed, muttering something about thinking he had broken his ribs. A few beers eventually revived him without having to resort to the charms of the NHS.
Pushing the brute more than a few millimetres was another way to bring home the idea that it was nearer 600 than 500lbs in weight. On a couple of occasions I'd blithely nosed the CB into a parking space only to find it impossible to reverse out without summoning the aid of particularly fit looking pedestrians. It wasn't the kind of machine that could be ridden into the hallway with impunity.
It says a lot for the way that motorcycle design had advanced that Honda can get away with launching such a fundamentally flawed bike, that still manages to safely deliver an excess of kicks on the road. Retro freaks will probably give it a miss, as the watercooling lacks street cred in this category. Power maniacs looking for something brutally massive with sensible bars will do much better dumping the plastic on a GSXR1100. As a tourer any number of small, sensible fours will do just as well as the big Honda. The GSX1100G is much cheaper and the 1100 Zephyr looks snappier. As a muscle bike for posing in town the Honda might turn a few heads but in the UK market, at least, there's no excuse for not spending the same kind of dosh on a Triumph Trident 900. You can be patriotic and have even more fun at the same time!
Dick Lewis
To me, there's nothing quite like a meaty big four. The bigger the better. Power, excess and glory. When Honda took their CBR1000 motor and installed it in retro clothes I wanted one as soon as I saw it. At the time I couldn't afford it but a couple of years worth of abuse and few youths who could afford the insurance, meant that prices had become reasonable and I could just about afford one of the early ones. Insurance's ridiculous and spare parts extortionate, but that's true for any recent big four.
I'd had it for a week when I fell off. It wasn't my fault at all. I'd leapt on board, given her my normal dose of throttle, done a 100 yards when the whole back end collapsed. A really weird feel as the guard bounced on the tyre and the bike wobbled off the road into a caravan. I went flying through the air, landing on an empty pram that rolled off down the road with me upon it until my mass caused the axles to buckle and the wheels to fall off. I was finally deposited into a prickly rose bed. I doubt if John Cleese could've bettered the fall from grace.
Some urchin had removed the shocks' upper bolts so that they just flew back under acceleration. The tyre smashing into the plastic had ruined the guard and tail section. The CB smashing into the caravan had cracked the front wheel and ruined the side of the vehicle. The rose bush had lacerated my legs and my expensive helmet had cracked like an egg-shell when I whacked a bolder in the garden.
The owner of the latter also owned the caravan and the pram, was totally outraged at the way I'd ruined her day and nagged away whilst I cried over the spilt Honda. With its eighteen inch wheels there was no easy option of using a replacement from a more common bike and I didn't fancy trusting my life to a repaired wheel. The solution turned up after two weeks of worrying, some guy converting his bike to fatter 17 inch wheels had a good front wheel for sale, probably the only one in the country. I'd repaired the shattered plastic and fitted new bolts with Araldite to the shocks.
No sooner was the bike back on the road, and I was enjoying the fierce acceleration plus the sheer art of controlling 550lbs of heavy metal, than I came back to find that the petrol tank cap was broken by some vandal. I was just going to hit the starter when I thought maybe someone had put something in the tank. I peered in, sniffed and swore. I don't know if it was tampered with or not but I had no choice but to drain the tank and fill with fresh fuel. The Honda was too heavy to heave up the steps into the safety of the house.
The CB develops a 100 horses at a mere 8500 revs which gives an idea of how much power there is even at low revs. I christened the bike Grunter because of the way the non-standard four into one exhaust, er, grunted on take-offs. As a point and squirt device there was nothing that could match the big Honda. I was even able to give some big Ducati owners some lessons in reality, at least until I had to swing through the bends.
Don't get me wrong, it wasn't a total pig and was way ahead of some seventies wreck. However, the mix of a hundred horses with 550lbs was an impossible one to tame completely even when the suspension at both ends was good and the steering geometry gave the brute a very secure feel.
Quite a lot of muscle was needed to heave-ho through the bends when these Ducati things would just growl away - I much preferred the four's gravelly wail to the deeper vee twin note. A lot of care on the throttle was needed when exiting bends, going mad would either squirm the back tyre off the road or lift the front wheel off the ground, when the bars did a most startling jig in my hands. Backing off the throttle calmed the beast at the core of the machine if not my heart rate. Given a little care and attention, a dedication to the selected line, then the Honda could be hustled much more easily than its size and mass would suggest.
That's fine as far as it goes but on one occasion I was riding down some favourite roads when we went through a patch of gravel. The front wheel slid away and I tired to fight back with pressure on the bars but got nowhere. Off the road went we, great sparks where the exhaust ground away; there's so much mass that when the bike loses it all it takes faster reactions and bigger muscles than what I could muster. I was wearing full leathers that time so survived the gravel rash. The Honda was quite tough, surviving with just some scratches on the exhaust, engine case and bent bars. Call it added street credibility.
The CB had already done about 23000 miles in the hands of a couple of juvenile delinquents, there was a slight rattle from the top end that developed into a rat-tat-tat after a few thousand miles. An unfortunate trait that was inherited from the CBR1000. The camchain tensioner's automatic but can stick or seize. A bit of disassembly and application of WD40 helped for a couple of weeks until the camchain was beginning to sound like a chainsaw. Ah well, it was down to the local dealer for a new camchain and tensioner. He reckoned some of the sixteen valves were leaking and I might need a rebore. I got out of there before he suggested a full engine rebuild.
Still, they did a good job on the camchain and the bike was running better than ever. Fuel was heavy at 35mpg but with nearly five gallons in the massive tank range was acceptable, about equal to the comfort of the seat - mind you, I'd hardened up after suffering too many old hacks with the stuffing knocked out of their saddles.
Despite the lack of a fairing I found I could hurtle along at 90 to 100mph without too much arm or neck strain because I was used to speed on naked bikes and the Honda had a riding position that allowed me to lean into the self produced gale. Stability was fine even on some quite neglected road surfaces. A tremor of secondary vibration above the ton in fifth gear (the gearbox was better than I'd expect, very slick) dissuaded me from too many top speed runs but I've seen 145mph on the clock, a speed at which the bike felt like it was about to let loose in a big way.
That may've been the tyres, Pirelli Dragon GT radials, which gave a most reassuring grip in the wet but felt a bit lost at extreme speeds or angles of lean - the 18 inch wheels limited tyre choice. At £185 a pair the Pirelli's were not exactly the bargain of the century, especially as they went off after about 4500 miles when there was still some tread left. Pushing them to 5000 miles turned the Honda's chassis really nasty with the kind of feel you'd expect on a Puch Maxi or similar piece of excrement. The first time it happened I thought the chassis bearings had gone, was relieved to find it was just the rubber (or relieved of lots of money, anyway....).
One advantage of the twin shocks was the lack of linkages to wear out. For some reason, despite riding through snow and salted roads, none of the calipers showed any signs of seizing and the pads never wore out. If the bike'd been a little lighter stoppies would've been a daily occurrence; instead the brakes had that happy combination of feel and power that made them safe even in the foulness of a British winter.
The bike's looks caused a great variety of reactions, from people who were desperate to buy one to some little wretch who kept letting down my tyres. The first time it happened I'd assumed it was a puncture, took the back wheel out and got the local tyre dealer to take a look. Talk about feeling like a plonker. If I ever catch who's pissing around with the Honda I'll tear him limb from limb.
For obscure reasons the CB1000 never gained much of a following, the Kawasaki 1100 Zephyr having more credibility in the retro stakes due to its air-cooled engine and more immediate looks, the appearance of the CB growing on you over time. All that means that there are some bargain CB1000N's in the £3000 to £4000 price range, which even after paying for a new camchain is good value in my book. If I didn't have one already I'd buy one tomorrow.
Jamie Driscoll
May '94, my heart firmly set on a Kawasaki ZX10. Certainly nothing less than 1000cc as I had fond memories of a hulking Z1100. 80 to 90mph in comfort was demanded. After two or three bum numbing trips down to the West Country, the Kawasaki 650 Tengai had to go. Despite the fact that it was magnificent around town - tall, intimidating, frugal (five gallon tank at 60mpg equals 300 plus mile range), easy to clean and fun, especially watching her indoors trying it for size. If only we could afford to run both. Dream on.
Staying near Donnington one week, we were awoken early in the morning by two fly encrusted Ducati 888's, setting off car alarms left, right and centre, over from Belgium for the World Superbike. I think hundreds of bikes roared past that morning. The other guests were somewhat less enthusiastic, heads were hurting. We watched all the bikes pouring out at the end of the day, too, and the ZX10 and GPZ1000RX's were noticeably outnumbered by a bike which was new to me - the CBR1000.
As a long term prospect it had to be a bike which was both durable and plentiful - after a quick flick through the UMG and grabbing MCN early, it was off to junction 20 of the M1 the same day to view what was described as a better than showroom, mint, original, fsh, low (8000) mileage, F reg CBR. I told myself not to buy the first one I saw. Right!
The garage doors were reverently opened and a blindingly red and white vision revealed, exactly as described...notes rapidly changed hands. We collected it three days later, sort of on the way to Mildenhall air show (which is ground shakingly superb), my wife and I on her GPZ500 - a harrowing trip! First impressions were of huge mass and grunt. Crisp, seamless, ballistic throttle response. Being vertically challenged (5'8') the best moment was being able to reach the ground with both heels. Very useful with a full load (the next model's an inch taller).
Good stability at all speeds and a low centre of gravity made the bike feel small once under way. For a 1000cc watercooled, DOHC four encased in a great swathe of plastic, that weighs close to 600lbs when fully fuelled up, that's a pretty amazing feat of detailed design work over the sheer outrageous reality of a 130hp projectile. Quite clever, these Japs!
So what's this complete garbage about them being 'too ponderous for UK back roads?' My very existence feels threatened. Well... suppose I'd have to agree, s'pose. But...pump the front forks up 6psi and wind up the rear suspension and it doesn't ground out too often - I can live with it.
And the camchain tensioner needed replacing sooner rather than later (around £150). Do you suppose the same absolute cretin has been Honda's camchain engineer for the last fifteen years, or so - it would explain a lot! Otherwise, it's all I ever wanted from a motorcycle. Right rippin' brilliant - 160mph plus for £3000, because its value is depressed compared to VFR's and CBR600's - blooming great.
It's commuted every day and has been up the west coast of Scotland and around northern France without a hint of trouble. The easy, smooth power delivery allowed me to concentrate on the road ahead rather than the bike, making it easier to slip through traffic than might be suggested by its bulk and mass.
The front tyre lasted 8000 miles, the rear 10,000 - which was a relief. Michelins are fine. Okay, I didn't ride in race replica mode all the time, a bit of smoothness on the controls can do wonders for consumable longevity; the excess of torque allowing a minimum of gearchanges and thus the smoothest delivery of power to the fat rear rubber.
Pillions loved the ample seat, generous legroom and silky ride. Their mass has little effect on the performance or handling, the CBR a very serious long distance tourer, ideally suited to German autobahns and the like, not so out of it that when hitting town after a long day in the saddle it's still quite easy to hustle around.
Givi's Wingrack and luggage fitted on a treat and have proved both rugged and versatile. Built in luggage would've been even better but at this kind of price that was expecting too much.
A motorcycle like the CBR's the ideal way to go touring - fast, immune to traffic jams and still part of the environment, rather than remote as in a cage. Scotland's fantastic - awesome scenery and stunning roads. Just go. The only limitation I found was when turning off the main road for a B & B, the path rapidly turned into a deeply rutted shingle track, too steep to cop out and try to turn around. Wrestling over 600lbs of bike and kit down the next quarter of mile of track was a knee knackering nightmare. Eventually I came to rest against the farmhouse wall, all sweat and wobble, jelly legged.
'Sorry, my dear, we're full right up,' said the lady of the house. I say lady, she obviously tossed kabers and skinned sassenachs before breakfast. Probably just as well because she had to help me haul the bike around ready for the ascent. All rather embarrassing. Come back Tengai, all is forgiven. My wife had very sensibly aborted the descent after about 100 yards and was marooned for ages before I could help her do a 33 point turn to escape (GPZ 500's have the crappiest side-stands ever fitted in the history of the known universe). We badly needed a pub - never far away in Scotland!
France's fantastic. Well, not the north - staggeringly expensive. Fast empty roads, mostly hideously straight except for the really minor back roads which were often badly surfaced or covered in mud, straw and shit. Great fun with 600lbs of CBR waiting for a chance to let loose. Generally well sign-posted except for the actual road number, meant plenty of muscle building as I perfected the art of U-turning the CBR.
The beaches at Le Touquet, Quend and Fort Mahon were glorious with plenty of campsites. Park the bike right besides miles of clean, deep, golden sand. I particularly enjoyed the bird watching, the common greater red breast French wobbler being a particular favourite.
All this travelling did take its toll on the bike. New steering head bearings (about £150 fitted). The white belly pan and wheels were a total pain to clean. Silly. The bike's also too quiet, a bit of a wolf - well, German Sheppard - in sheep's clothing. Partly down to the exhaust still being in perfect nick. At high speeds there was an intrusive vibration that numbed my extremities, although on first acquaintance it seemed really smooth. Chain snatch could be a pain in town until I developed a light touch on the controls, and kept the chain in correct tension.
The engine coughed and spluttered on damp frosty morning, cured by the occasional tipple of Silkolene's Pro Boost. The battery often needed topping up. The gearbox always thunks into first but after 18000 miles it's still improving (slowly) - the more precise you are the better it is.
The bike eats miles effortlessly. Stunning build quality and curious attention to detail - take the fairing off and it's absolutely stuffed full of intriguing bits and pieces. Virtually no rust yet - the plastic seems to protect the bike as well as it does the rider, and it's holding its value well. The fairing works! I've only ever had to resort to my old heavyweight gloves and overtrousers a couple of times. 80mph at 5000rpm with another 5500 to go, 6th gear overtaking is astounding; 4th is dislocating.
The new chain didn't need adjusting for 2000 miles (the original lasted almost 16000 miles and the sprockets are fine). It averages around 40mpg on holidays. Honda suggest an oil change every 8000 miles - bollocks! It's treated to new semi-synthetic every 2500 to 3000 miles. These engines are rumoured to go over 100,000 miles. Easy!
I've lowered it to the ground once - don't we all love disc locks! And damaged a wall when I lost it trying to get it on to a wet centrestand. The wife's GPZ500 has done everything the CBR's done at a fraction of the cost. Huh? But that's not the point, is it?
H.Redhill
Madness is something that you grow out of unless you keep a well stocked array of drugs and, of course, an insanely fast motorcycle. This cocktail of stimulants my answer to the depreciations of the ageing process. It was a lot less trouble that trying to keep up with some sixteen year old nubile, anyway! The bike in question was (initially) a low miler Honda CBR1000 that some sensible and mature type had been talked into buying on the understanding that he was getting a sane long distance tourer. Immaculate was a reasonable description, a bloody brilliant bargain a more accurate one - half the new price for a two year old that had merely been run in properly, ready for my ever eager right wrist.
It's a big old thing, any way you want to look at it, with bulbous plastic and a riding position that left me so widely splayed out that it was just as well I had no gay inclinations - otherwise I would've been distracted by a raging hard-on. I have no doubt that any babes who think they can handle the brute will end up all turned on, not least because the watercooled four cylinder motor always gave out a slight tingling sensation.
Initial impressions of the motive power weren't all that brilliant. It seemed quietly sensible with plenty of forward motion but far from eyeball popping acceleration. Then at five grand I had a hint of things to come, a hard surge in third gear. By the time 6000 revs were up I was beginning to sport a wide grin, which distorted into a grimace as the rev counter suddenly raced for the red zone. Hmmm! That's more like it. I clicked up to fourth only to find a false neutral. The motor gave off a weird wail until the electronic ignition cut off the spark, though there was enough momentum left in the engine to throw it deep into the red.
By the time I fought the gearbox into fourth the revs were down to five grand; the sheer quality of the engine shining threw as the escapade had resulted in no apparent damage. Honda's gearboxes are notoriously fickle in quality; some passable, almost good, others like something out of the sixties. Mine was only really bad on the third to fourth change, something I'd missed on the test ride - it would sometimes go for days without throwing itself into the dreaded false neutral. The actual gear lever felt a touch notchy, the clutch a bit on the abrupt side but nothing a well trained hand couldn't overcome. The only thing that really helped was doing oil changes at 500 mile intervals; nonsensical on a modern bike but pretty much what you'd expect with the engine and gearbox sharing the same oil in the usual primitive and retrogressive Japanese fashion.
The engine's power was such that it thrust the CBR forward at an incredible rate whichever of the six gears I employed. It powered through 100mph in a way that most machines manage to attain half that speed and showed no signs of slowing down until more than a ton-fifty was on the clock. The fairing was obviously designed by a diminutive Japanese fellow who bore a grudge against twenty stone, six feet two inch Westerners, such as myself. The howling gale at serious speed tried to flip my visor off my helmet and if I dared turn my head slightly to the side, let alone rearwards to compensate for the fuzzy mirrors, the force of the wind would try to tear my head off my neck. All this despite a painful racing crouch that sent spasms of pain along my spine.
The answer was simple enough - more speed! A strange calm enveloped the machine with 160mph on the speedo, even the tingling motor subsided, the muted howl of the four cylinder engine totally lost to the raging slipstream behind me (as evidenced by pillions I took for a joy ride going berserk with the sheer fear of being blown off the back). This was a reasonable motorway cruising speed, a feeling of being a master of the universe surging through my mind with the cars reversing backwards like something out of a particularly psychedelic video.
Pushing the Honda harder yet revealed a stone wall of aerodynamic resistance that not even the 130 horses of the magnificently equipped CBR could counter. That isn't to say that I didn't get more speed out of the old beast. But it needed a tail wind and downward stretch of tarmac; a long smooth ribbon of road that let the tacho flirt with the red in top gear. 177mph (on the clock, so it could be a lot less in real life) was my all time record. Not something to do every day, not least because some resonance in the transmission set up a fierce vibration in the chassis that seemed to indicate the hefty O-ring chain was about to snap, wrap itself around the engine sprocket, cause the bike to career off the road in a slew of shattering plastic, metal and bone. You get weird thoughts at such surreal speeds.
The handling was basically stable despite relatively soft suspension. It wavered rather than wallowed at high speeds but the squirmishness never developed into anything approaching a high speed wobble. With nigh on 600lbs of metal and plastic to cart through the bends, a sure and steady hand was needed on the bars. It was pretty easy to get the back end wagging its tail, merely a matter of whacking open the throttle. I could actually feel the Metz tyres distorting fiercely; the bike needed a very gentle hand on the throttle on wet roads as the sheer weight and power of the beast could overcome the traction, send the thing skipping down the road. However, I never had any serious accidents, being both a speed freak and total coward at the same time - if you see what I mean!
With about 30,000 miles on the clock, the suspension became very mushy, needing heavy-duty springs in the forks and a nice tight S & W shock (plus new linkage bearings) out back. This all made for a much tauter ride, though I did find it weaved quite mightily if I wanted to idle along at a moderate 135-140mph, but it was just a case of blasting through such speeds to avoid the weave. The combination of increased road shocks and an ill-suited riding position (at least for my height and weight) meant the old spine started screaming for relief within less than a 100 miles. Mildly annoying given that the bike turned in better than 40mpg despite such excess speeding.
Brakes were good when new but winter salt they didn't like at all. After three strip-downs they were ready for replacements from the breakers. Pad life was desultory, insult added by the way the discs went dangerously thin after 30,000 miles. Set up properly the brakes worked well in the dry and wet; once some wear ate into them they needed a tender hand and foot on the controls.
The engine needed a new camchain and tensioner at 45000 miles. Acceptable enough, except that the replacements lasted for barely half that distance. Carbs stayed in balance for around 5000 miles, the valves tended to close up after about twice that distance; everything a pain to work on due to the all-enclosing plastic. Other than the above, the motor has done 123,400 miles and still puts out the same exceptional power as when I bought it - I think it's designed to work best at high revs, absolutely thrives on maximum speed abuse; premature wear most likely caused by perverts who treat it as a sensible tourer. Oh, I did do regular oil and filter changes - absolutely essential even on modern Japanese engines.
The CBR1000F's laughed at by the glossies as being slow and ponderous, but for cheap speed it's a lovely bit of kit and I'm really pleased that I bought mine.
Josh Watson