Retro inline four from days of yore! But is it a snore?
Bertie Simmonds falls head over heels for Honda’s CB1100RS, but asks why it sounds more like Steps than Steppenwolf.
Ifell in love as soon as I laid eyes on her and that’s how it should be. Some sectors of the motorcycle market see you comparing specification sheets, searching for that extra horsepower here or that extra adjustment on the suspension there before you make your decision. Or perhaps it simply comes down to price: we can all be charmed by ‘cheap’, after all. But in this market – the retro/modern classic – we are ruled by the old heartstrings and mine have been given one helluva mighty tug. The Honda CB1100RS is my sort of bike: big, almost brash looking and certainly imposing. The changes over the base model CB1100EX are plain to see: Showa front forks and ‘piggy-back’ rear shocks, smaller cast ally wheels (not spoked) with a wider rear hoop grasped by a sturdier aluminium swingarm, racier handlebars and a muted black finish to the engine. Other changes harder to spot include shorter wheelbase (by five mm), less weight (by three kilos) and sportier steering geometry. Not having ridden the base-model EX, this ride is purely in isolation and I’m loving it. Throw a leg over that wide, spacious seat and you’ll curse yourself for wearing tight jeans (I did, in a falsetto voice) nestle down into that padding (the seat’s, not mine) then thumb the starter. Familiarise yourself with the controls (the horn and the indicators are reversed on the CB), snick lightly into first and ease out that hydraulic clutch. From the off, the CB seems to fuel a little fluffily, but it soon smooths out as you get some heat into the air-cooled engine. At speed and in the bends the CB1100RS is a real hoot. Suspension wise both the front and the rear do very well indeed over the pockmarked roads that litter my local county. Fiddlers and fettlers may well bemoan the lack of anything other than pre-load adjustment at both ends, but for me the suspension was well-balanced. It worked in concert with those radial Tokicos too: they look fearsome but offer plenty of feel and don’t aggravate the saucy Showa forks unduly. It’s when you want to get a wiggle on that the two real issues with the CB come to the surface. Firstly, it’s power and gearing. Now, 25 years ago we were getting 100bhp from our Honda ‘retro’ in the guise of the CB1000 ‘Big One’. Today we’re getting a
shade over 88bhp. That’s the difference between a Cbr1000f-derived liquid-cooled motor and a ‘proper’ air (and oil) cooled motor that has to squeeze itself around the latest Euro 4 emission regs. The fact that Honda has made this motor at all is a triumph, but to make it legit it can’t be in a high state of tune. Secondly it’s gearing. The six-speed gearbox is light and precise but – to make the most of the available torque and power – you really have to work the gearbox and ‘top’ can sometimes feel more than a tad redundant. Thirdly (okay, so it’s three things) the more you work that motor the more you realise you want to hear it really sing. I want a soundtrack for this ride. Look at the bike: it should be Steppenwolf but instead it’s more like Steps… So, if the looks promise hard-edged rock, the exhausts provide saccharin-laden, lightweight pop. It’s a shame as – despite Honda giving the CB1100 cam-timing that should give more character – I didn’t really notice it and would want more from something that looks this good. Manufacturers of period-looking four-into-two exhaust systems please take note! I’m not going to let that lack of noise spoil the excellent ride today. I’m on a head-turner that looks the business. The paint is deep and delicious, the big round chrome mirrors work and apart from beeping the horn when I should be hitting the indicators, all is well with the world. Jumping off the CB to take pictures, a few other purely personal niggles annoy. I prefer bigger, bolder indicators rather than teeny-tiny LED ones, likewise an old-school headlamp rather than an LED one. If Honda can make an air-cooled motor perform in the 21st century I’m sure someone can (re)invent a powerful ‘old-school’ light bulb… Oh and some of the chrome-look parts (the rear light especially) could look better on a bike this pricey. In conclusion I’m going to use those words ‘canvas’ and ‘blank’ again here. A mate of mine bought an original CB1100EX and has made a tasty café racer and – from this RS model – you only have to add a set of rorty pipes, fiddle with the gearing and bung on a fly-screen and you’d have the perfect, classic-looking hooning tool. I really liked the bike that much… However, it does cost £11,139 and there’s the thing: there are bikes out there which – perhaps – offer more for less, or even more for not much more: if you get my drift. I’m thinking about the BMW boxer R ninets and perhaps the Triumph Thruxton R. But then, if you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Honda man and you recall wistfully the introduction of the original CB750 or later family members from the 1970s on, you won’t want a parallel twin with funky forks or even a boxer twin with a barking exhaust note – the CB1100 range will float your bowls even if it comes with all mod-cons such as fuel injection and the like. It does offer a faithful inline-four experience even if – in RS guise – I (personally) would like more clout and a better soundtrack for more than 11 grand… But, you pays yer money and you make your choice so if you love the looks of the RS, head to your local Honda dealer and haggle so you can get a set of aftermarket pipes and free the character of this formidable four that is truly struggling to get out.