I definitely agree, that selling off the last NOS parts, then no longer making or carrying parts for old bikes they know are on the road, makes any of the big bike manufacturers a bunch of pricks. You know, I'm in the middle of this here wheel swap right now, and it's bringing a lot back to me, right up to the point where this prick neighbor who had kept asking if I would sell him my bike's engine for his kid's go-kart wouldn't answer his door for the final week before I moved, right after I had noticed the engine was stolen from my bike's frame while I was on a delivery run with a truck-load of my stuff. (Who the heck else even knew it was parked in my back yard, and who would steal and engine but not the whole bike? And that was a freshly re-built motor too, I could just spit. The people who have looked at a bike I'm working on and think it will never run again, never mind the fact that I rode a bike for six years after finding it buried up to the handlebars in mud in a junk-yard. Oh ye of little faith.... I think now that I'm not sixteen anymore, maybe I should track that guy down. But then, I oughtta track down my old boss from the hard landscaping job where I earned the money to buy that bike, who stiffed me on my last cheque when he found out I was moving. Or the neighbors on the other side of the house, who stole my ghetto-blaster while I was in the shower, the very same day I noticed the engine missing. Went to the pawn shop down the street, he pointed in the direction of the train bridge, where I saw them with the ghetto blaster, but a train came and blocked my way but sadly didn't knock them off into the river. Never mind that I'd picked a truck up off of the one guy's chest when his blocks sank into the mud, if he didn't have a neighbor who did fifteen hundred pushups when he rolled out of bed each morning, then he wouldn't have been able to help his brother steal my stereo.... Or I'd also have to go after the kid who stole my only wheels I had when I bought the bike, a skateboard I'd brought up from California that had my own original art-work on it, along with a box of my stuff containing family photographs, etc etc. Maybe it would be a good thing to track down that old CB100 engine, maybe it would be the start of something all consuming. What good would that little bike do me, if I wind up in prison over getting it back? It's hardly the ideal escape vehicle.) Ahem. It brings back a lot of crap from my first Honda build. Basically, a hybrid CB100K0 with SL100K1 parts, the front wheel being made up of the CB front hub and rear spokes and rim, the rear wheel made up of the CB rear hub and the SL rear rim, etc etc.... Anyway, yeah I am going to rather a bit of trouble to get some 110/80zr80 and 160/60zr18 rubber on my '82 CB750F, and it is bringing a lot back about my old bike build, from when I was sixteen. Anyway, the REAL screw over I was given back then, was when the local Honda dealership told me that I couldn't get a nut or a bolt for my bike, that they didn't have microfiche for it, and why don't I take a look at this new bike. Oh, yeah, I went back to that same dealership and saw the 'fiche some years later. They said it was on a counter-top rolodex for years and years. Of course, this bike I'm working on now, is a replacement for the one I took in to have checked out, and was told the crank was blown on it. I recieved it back with the whole top end in a pile of parts, the lower end out of the frame, and a bill for the labour. Well, imagine my surprise when I tear the engine down some ten years later and find a perfectly useful crank, and some parts from my cam chain tensioner down in the sump. Oh, did I mention that the mechanic's brother bought the rotor and stator off of that old bike? Yeah, well, at least the brother, once we met, searched through the grape-vine and found me a replacement bike, and helped me truck it home, in exchange for the stator. But then, really now that I know what the stator is worth, I think the right thing to do would have been to have just fixed the engine myself. Of course, once I knew somebody wanted a part off my bike, I wasn't gonna feel safe leaving it out in my back-yard again, so.... I dunno, I guess the question you've always got to ask is "What is this person's agenda?" when people are there to "help" you. The Honda dealerships are all there to make a buck, and they get saddled with stuff like handling warrantee work on vehicles you buy in the '-States and bring back to Canada to save a buck, one can only imagine what their "arrangement" is like with the manufacturers. I guy over on the CB1100F 'F-orum, hell you all probably know sonicrete as YOUR resident semi-troll too, ha ha. Gawd love 'im. Helpful guy. If what you're looking for are war stories about drag racing in the '80s.... Anyway, he speaks of being a Honda dealership mechanic in the '60s, and of how so many of the early production bikes came in, in no kind of condition for the road, basically cranks and bearings all mis-matched, cases haveing to me re-bored for allignment, etc. All a by-product of the rush to production. So yeah, I would say that in THIS day and age, not being at the very least able to send an e-mail to Honda corp. in Japan and saying "Yeah, I have a thirty-forty year old FLAGSHIP VEHICLE OF YOUR COMPANY'S, and I need blah blah blah...." and getting something like a gasket or a rocker or a damned front end if you need it to get their best advertizing they've got going, their old bikes still rolling down the road, rolling down the road? Is serious bull-shit. You know, when I DO have my ride out there, and people drop some kind of comment about an old Honda running because they're "bullet-proof", I'm gonna tell them, straight up. "Yeah, but no thanks to Honda...."
And hey, on the subject of re-building wheels, you should check out the 18" rear comstar that "Melchiro" built from a gold-wing rear hub and a CB900F rear rim, then had Kosman widen out to a big fat rim for a 160/60zr18 radial ... nice image that puts into your head about your own bike, hey ... for his CX650 with CB750F body-work track day bike, over on the CB1100F dot net ... Oh heck, don't bother to look it up yourselves. Just look at THIS: Nope, I guess not. I haven't posted enough stuff here yet to post links, I might have to bug you guys a lot more. Oh well, that's no pain in the neck. Ha ha. But yeah, "Swapping Hubs On Comstars" on the CB1100F dot net forum, that's a really really cool wheel. I'm sure that would mess with the lower end grunt and all, but hey the 'Wing has loads to spare, dunnit? I just think, if you really love your Commies, and you wanna mess with stuff like gearing and speeds and all, that extra inch of rim diameter could just be enough to go to the right type of radial you wanna use, without going to a 17"-er and not getting a narrow enough tire in the load rating range that you wanna have for these old bikes. I looked a the 150/70 stuff, didn't cut it. The 'F will have room a-plenty for a full spec crotch rocket tire, but that's just so 'F-ugly to me, personally. 160 is sort of ... in between. Both, in the time-line, and in the size range. It's more of a '90s tire size, beemers, etc. A good sport touring tire size. Anyway, too bad about the link. Next time. Maybe literally, 'cause I think I'm right on the cusp of the limit here....
And yeah, once again, "NO THANKS TO HONDA."
-Sigh.
<I sent him a PM that this language is inappropriate and gave him the choice to edit it or I can permanently delete it>
