It may take a village to raise a child, but if the past 18 months of scrounging for parts is any indication, it takes an entire planet to rebuild a 1982 Honda CB1100R.<\/p>\n
Now, I know what you\u2019re thinking. Christ, Dave, of course you\u2019re lost in a metaphorical wilderness \u2013 all my scouring of the globe was, of course, done on the internet \u2013 you can\u2019t even get the basics down pat: Honda didn\u2019t make a CB1100 in 1982. It was an \u201983 model.<\/p>\n
Well, actually, our Canadian CB1100Fs were the cast-offs Honda sent to our shores as a poor man\u2019s cousin to Europe\u2019s and Australia\u2019s all-conquering CB1100R. The first big-bore production racer from a Japanese manufacturer \u2013 what, you thought that was Suzuki\u2019s GSX-R750? \u2013 was the 1981 CB1100R, which so dominated production racing that in the hands of Joey Dunlop, Wayne Gardner and Rocket Ron Haslam, these bikes won literally every major race entered. They\u2019re rare (only 4,050 were made), expensive (even super-scruffy versions command at least 15 large) and the parts (which differ from the garden-variety CB Honda) are getting rarer than hen\u2019s teeth. Hell, even basic CB750s are getting difficult to service now that they\u2019re 40 years old.<\/p>\n
And that, my friends, is where the \u201cworld\u201d comes in.<\/p>\n
First, the easy part. Like all classic vehicles, spare parts tend to amass at one supplier eventually. So, while Bike Bandit in the U.S. is good for run-of-the-mill Honda stuff and David Silvers in the U.K. has a few basic \u201cR\u201d parts, the repository of record for ultra-rare CB1100R parts is Consolidated Motor Sales in the Netherlands. Oh, even they can\u2019t source the ultra-expensive Wombat alternator covers \u2013 narrower than most, for more ground clearance \u2013 but I did just order a full stator and rotor assembly, of which there apparently are four left in the whole wide world.<\/p>\n
And while I\u2019m in the midst of giving out \u201cAttaboys,\u201d a round of applause for the man who put it all together: Canada\u2019s own Darren Begg, whose dB Customs has become, in five years, one of the go-to Honda custom shops in the world.<\/p>\n
But conglomerates who store OEM parts and Fancy Dan engine builders who assemble OEM parts are not what I want to talk about here. Nope, the people I revere \u2013 the madmen who are really the heroes of any classic vehicle restoration are the obsessives who rebuild, remanufacture and even (in the case of my old Honda, especially) re-engineer parts that supposedly faultless manufacturers never got quite right.<\/p>\n
And while there has always been a grassroots business of improving old-timers \u2013 bearing upgrades for Triumph cranks, anyone? \u2013 methinks that the rise of CAD\/CAM machining and 3D printing has spawned a new surge in ingenuity.<\/p>\n
So, from the relatively small (a wider throat inlet screen for better oil flow, thanks to a machinist in Oregon named Cary) to some truly mad Dutchman who recast original rubber footrests for the, what, 50 CB1100R owners who have ridden enough to wear out their foot pegs, there really is someone out there solving virtually every problem a restorer could imagine.<\/p>\n
And the ingenuity is incredible. NOS pistons have long since disappeared, even from cmsnl.com\u2019s stock list, so everyone just uses 2-mil-over Wisecos. The problem is a starter system originally designed for a 750 is now trying to push 1,123 cc of high-compression Wisecos. Things \u2013 notably, the starter clutch \u2013 break. That is, until some astute DIYer noticed that an R6 clutch just might bolt on without too much fuss.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s hardly the half of it. Need new valves? Custom-built in England in sturdier-than-stock stainless steel, thank you very much. A programmable ignition system so those big-bump pistons don\u2019t ping? Well, there just so happens to be some unemployed computer geeks in the former Eastern Bloc who are avid motorcyclists. Hell, some guy in Japan is even remaking bodywork \u2026 in carbon fibre, no less.<\/p>\n
But the maddest of them all is a Kiwi racer named Brent Hyde. It seems that classic racing Down Under is big business. And if your 1980s CB doesn\u2019t have 220 or so rear-wheel horsepower \u2013 yes, almost as much as a World Superbike \u2013 you\u2019re not running at the front.<\/p>\n
That, as one may imagine, puts quite a strain on parts designed for the 100 or so ponies the original bikes might muster. That\u2019s why the Vance & Hines parts catalogue includes a completely re-engineered cam-chain guide\/tensioner system (a weakness of all \u201980s Hondas), a direct gear drive system (replacing the chain that used to connect crankshaft and gearbox) and, the pi\u00e8ce de la r\u00e9sistance, a remade cylinder head with a revised combustion chamber shape and re-machined inlet tracts. Yes, just so riders of these classics can go racing.<\/p>\n
Of course, what matters to me is all that re-engineering makes my R more reliable. Actually, it\u2019s probably overkill. But thanks to a \u201cvillage\u201d that now extends all the way to Auckland, my CB1100RC is running sweeter than it did when it came off the line 37 years ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It may take a village to raise a child, but if the past 18 months of scrounging for parts is any indication, it takes an entire planet to rebuild a 1982 Honda CB1100R. Now, I know what you\u2019re thinking. Christ, Dave, of course you\u2019re lost in a metaphorical wilderness \u2013 all my scouring of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":49613,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1872,1876],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n