Soon to be owner....

[ABullock91]

I'm going saturday to meet with a guy to have a better look at what I believe is a '91 CB-1. If I remember correctly it's got about 27k on the clock, but it's only 700 bucks, and it's running. This will be my second road bike, although the first one I'll actually get to start/ride/do much besides get angry at (I have a 72 Yamaha CS5E in my garage). I'll post pics of the CB-1 as soon as I can.

Any tips?
And what performance mods, are they terribly hard to find, or can I get a few relatively easy?

Thanks alot!

[mrbones]

Welcome to the site. Progressive fork springs in the front are a good idea. You can also retrofit a CB900RR shock in the rear for adjustability. Braided front brake line is also a good performance upgrade. Typical repair to these bikes is the regulator going bad and it will cook the battery. You can get a new redesigned unit from Honda. Fuel pumps tend to go too after 17 years, too. That's all I can think of right now. Can someone else chime in?

[dummyracer36]

well, sticking with purely bolt-on mods. i like the WP shock out back, RaceTech springs and gold valve emulators. adjustable preload fork caps. EBC full floating rotor and HH sintered pads, braided brake line. Nissin remote reservoir master cylinder. Braking still makes a lighter rear rotor. lighter aluminum sprocket...... this list seems to on and on, depending how much you want to spend and what exactly you consider "bolt-on" lol all these items are specifically for the CB-1

[ABullock91]

Got the bike today for 500, took her home and rode around a little bit. I love the sound, and I've left about 4 voicemails of me revving her up to about 13.

But, for the last few times I've shut her off, I've had to jumpstart the battery with my mower.
I'm hoping it's just the battery, I dropped it off at advanced auto to be charged overnight, so we'll see in the morning.

I guess the guy cut the turn signals off for some reason, anyone know where to find some OEM? or should i just use whatever I find?
I emailed Corbin about a seat, I'm not really expecting anything, but maybe if enough us placed an order together they could make something happen?

[dummyracer36]

honda still has the turn signals on the shelves here in the US. email me if ya want some ordered. but they are expensive (like all OEM Honda parts) expect $38-45 each

[rixcafe]

I have a complete set of front signals I've just removed from my bike including stems, bracket and all hardware in excellent conditin for $50.

Rick

[ABullock91]

I ordered a gel-cell to replace the bad one, but took the bad one home anyways to see if I could atleast get a little charge going through it.

How do I put my kickstand down without having the bike shut off on me?

What octane level do you guys use in your bike?

What does everyone think about Scorpion helmets? I'm looking at 700

[ptlcb1]

Welcome ABullock91,
     Congrats on owning a CB-1.  You either have an '89 or a '90.  These were the only 2 yrs they were sold here in the States.  The '89 has grey stickers on the tank and the '90 has red stickers on the tank.  I could be wrong but if you have the bike in gear and try to put the kickstand down, it will shut off on you.  Or if you put the bike in gear and have the kickstand still down, it will shut off.  Its a safety thang.  Take it out of gear, then put the kickstand down. 

When I did street ride, I always put premium, 93-94 octane, in the tank.

In terms of helmets, its what ever fits you the best.  Not all helmets fit the same.  The better the helmet, the more it will cost.  Buy the best that you can afford, afterall, it is your head...

[dummyracer36]

lol ptlcb1 .... you know as well as i do that that safety feature can be bypassed..... not that i'd recommend it for a street bike thou lol

as far as scorpion helmets.... i have never carried them in shop so i know nothing about them really.

[ABullock91]

I figured out the kickstand issue, I dunno why I didn't think of that to begin with.

Thanks, I figured it'd need premium, but I just wanted to make sure.

Anyone know how hard it is to replace the lights in the tach and spedo?

And I was wrong, she's an 89, and ridiculously fun.

[clarkdw]

Bulbs in the gauges are not a big deal. Just separate the case from the gauges and they pop in. no need to pull the cases right off, just slide the wires down a bit to get a little slack. If you need some specific instructions on disassembling then I can scan in the page from the manual. Let me know if you need it.

Manual says 87 octane minimum. I checked it on the dyno and it makes more power on 87 than on 94. Probably with a few minor mods to timing and mixture that would be different but on a stock engine I would stick with 87. We found the same thing on the small Honda engines on my sons race Kart. With those you had to mod the combustion chamber to get more power on premium. The chambers are designed to work with fuel of a specific burn speed and characteristic.

[ABullock91]

Glad to hear it shouldn't be too hard to change the bulbs.
And cheaper fuel is always good.

Does anyone know where to get a replacement cowl? Can I get a Honda car dealership to order parts for the bike?
I was wondering about an HID headlight, although I don't think I've ever seen one that big.

[REgina CB-1]

i've been doing some research on h.i.ds too. I'll be doing the conversion over the winter. Let me know if you have any specific questions you can't figure out.

The CB-1 takes an H-4 halogen bulb stock. You would just need a h-4 xenon bulb setup (bulb, ballast, relay). The size of the Headlight assembly doesn't matter. The light will be brighter but not neccessarily better since the reflector is designed for halogen and the beam pattern may not be suitable for xenon. I'm doing it but I've also done a dual headlight conversion so my beam pattern situation is a little different.

[ABullock91]

I think the one I'm looking just replaces everything? Or does the CB1 have sealed headlamps?

http://www.jwspeaker.com/catalog/forward_lighting/model_8100.htm

[Drewski]

I think the one I'm looking just replaces everything? Or does the CB1 have sealed headlamps?

http://www.jwspeaker.com/catalog/forward_lighting/model_8100.htm

They're not sealed units but there's not a lot of spare space inside the standard bowl. You might have a problem fitting the new unit inside. Time to get the measuring stick out me thinks