Honda CB-1 Blog and Info

Hi all, its been a while.
Last saturday I replaced a fork seal. It was the one of the right fork (the side of the brake disc). It was leaking oil for a month and the problem was especially that it was leaking a bit onto the front brake! This was resulting in less breaking power. The other fork leg however was fine and I think the other one was leaking because of little ‘dots’ on fork tube. These dots are where there is no chrome any more and this can damage the seal when the seal slides over such a dot.

So I ordered a new set of seals which were only 10 euro.

Fork seals

I also replaced the oil which was 9 euro:

Fork oil

Although the manual says you need 510cc per fork, you can do with a little less. This site mentions that you need an air gap of 14 cm (no spring, leg fully compressed and measured from the top edge).
I’ve been riding with this amount for a while and it rides good. When you use this air gap, you have enough oil when you buy 1L.

With the workshop manual this was an easy job. It took me two hours to do for one leg but that was because of some wiring of the digital speedometer had to be removed an fitted.

There are three tips I would like you to give:
1. You can remove the old seal with an screwdriver or (the method I use) slam the old one out by decompressing the fork with force (be sure to remove the screw on the bottom of the fork). The disadvantage of the latter is that you will need to refit one sliding bush. Save the old seal for the third tip!
2. When fitting the new seal onto the fork, be careful. The top of the fork can damage the new seal because it is sharp. Do a little plastic (sandwich) bag over the top with some oil. Although it is funny, a condom is perfect for this job.
3. Carefully fit the new seal into its position into the outer tube. You can use the old seal for this! Fit the old seal onto the new seal and carefully tick (with a smal hammer and screwdriver) the old seal. This applies force on the new seal and will not damage it!

Good luck and if you have questions don’t hesitate to contact me!

After about 20.000 km the old chain was becomming a big problem. There was a big ‘kink’ in the chain, two shakkles were not movable any more resulting in the chain slamming onto something which makes a bad noise. The cause of this could be bad maintenance but I can’t tell you for sure. However, the chain has been replaced and the bike rides smooth again! Without weird noises. My old chain was an X-ring chain which provides a better seal than an O-ring, but is a little bit more expansive. As I don’t know how long this bike will last and how long I’ll keep it (saving for a BMW ) I decided to buy an O-ring chain which was about 15 euro cheaper. The set cost me 100 euro and was fitted within two hours when having some tools. A set consists of a chain, a front sprocket and a rear sprocket.

Some details about the set:

Front sprocket : 15 teeth
Rear sprocket : 41 teeth
Chain : 525, 104 shakkles

Source: RedfoX Site

It’s still winter. For some bikers this is the ideal moment to do some bike maintenance. I also have to do this. Unfortunately, this year it’s valve checking time I’m not looking forward to this because it is quite a job to get it right. However I’ve done this two years ago so that should save me sometime. Although I think I’ll be busy most of the day. A brief overview of how to check valve clearance:

First you need to get access to the valves. Remove or move the radiator (see manual). Remove valve cover.

Now you have access. Check timings and record them.

Remove cams and note the size of the shims.

Calculate new shim size.

Place shims.

Place cams (and check!)

Close everything.

These are the roughly the steps. A fellow Dutch CB-1 biker has put a complete manual for this online. Although it is Dutch, the pictures are very clear and maybe you could use it. Click here for the site.

Last month I installed grip heaters on my CB-1. Yeah you can call me a BMW wannabe but I have to tell you: it’s very relaxed. Currently it’s quite cold in Holland and so I leave them on maximum heat. They heat up after three minutes or so. I used the Saito ones:

It’s recommended that you use a relais when connecting these in order that you don’t forget to turn them off and drain the battery! You can also connect them to your ignition switch or headlights. But these sources (wires) usually do not offer enough power. I recommend connecting them to the battery using a relais:

For European people: these items can be ordered at: www.louis.de

My CB-1 hasn’t been standing still. Last year I bought a Dunlop K505 tire. It was okay for the summer but it missed that bit of extra grip that the Pirelli Sport Demons (what’s in the name) offered. When it got cold in november and december, I sometimes lost grip when accelating out of a sharp corder. Resulting in a powerslide. Cool if you can control it but I can’t (yet). I figured out that the Dunlop tire is of much harder rubber than the Pirelli tire. Even though the Dunlop was still within it’s wearing limits, I decided to switch back to the Pirelli Sport Demon. This tire will definitely have less milage but it offers a good compromise. The most stickiest tires around are the Bridgestone BT090. The offer maximum grip but they have very low milage (5000km) where the Pirelli offer 12000km.

It’s been a while since I posted here. It’s been a busy couple of months for both my study and my social life. But now I have some time to give you some updates.

I’ve just posted some files. The workshop, owners and common service manual are now under the section files. They can be very useful.

In the sections links I have posted all the links I had in my browser bookmarks about the CB-1. There is a lot of information in there which I will try to summarize on this site.

Dear visitors,

Today the site has seen the daylight. In the comming months I will fill this site with all the information I have on the motorcycle Honda CB-1.

After riding this bike for about two years, I’ve gather quite a lot of information and findings on this bike that I think are useful to share.

Please be patient as I am also a student in the final year of his study. However, as it is fun of making this site I’ll keep you updated on the achievements!

Regards,

Cosmas