Legendary Bike, but not the Rider.

Yes, the oil used was the rumour, that stopped a lot of GTX being sold. I vaguely remember there was more to it, the fix, in the end, was the stepped big-end they changed to.
 
Rode one of those (half fairing) CB1100Rs owned by a mate of mine in the early Eighties. Only had a short run and memory is a bit hazy but it felt pretty quick but wasn't able to really wring it's neck and had plenty left. Interestingly we had swapped bikes and I was riding a Suzuki 1000G. My mate was surprised at how quick that bike built speed and wasn't left trailing too far like he expected. It also ran out of puff a fair bit earlier than the Honda.
The Honda was well put together and seemed a fair bit up the rung from its immediate predecessors. Certainly seemed a world away from the 900 Bol D'Or it morphed from.
(A couple years later bought the Lav and all thoughts of the bland UJM's were forgotten.................. :D)
 
I recall that when I started racing in 1983 CBR1100Rs were still leading the charge in some big capacity  proddy races in the UK. A guy called Roy Anderson was definitely the guy to beat at Mallory.
By that time the Jota had been superseded by the RGS as the large capacity Laverda to race in production classes, and Kevin Hughes was more than able to mix it with the Jap competition.
 
Tippie said:
?  They weren't remotely interested in the success of the ?81 Jota raced by TTM in Brisbane which was very close to the Honda dealer CB1100R bikes it was up against in production class, with Pete White, a C grader, aboard it. When I worked for the new importers Eurotred for a bit, they laughed at me when I told them a Jota was competitive with the Honda. Australia needed a Slater?s.
Click to expand...
ay Lee, after reading your comment I browsed some scanned photos of Pete White's racing for TTM and this was included.
SurfersParadise1980-02.JPG

written on the back is;
Surfers Paradise 1980
Dave Robbins, Owen Hughes, Peter Byers
81 CB1100R, 80 Jota, 80 900 Bol d'Or

I recall, back in the early 80's, watching Pete White power sliding the TTM Jota out of The Karrassel at Lakeside ahead of the factory Honda CB1100R. Soon after I got a '79 Jota from TTM  :D
 
Great photo Mark. Pete really connected with the Jota and was considerably quicker than Owen, he was very relaxed on it. Owen reckoned it wasn't competitive and was at Ted to cheat it, but all it got was the quicker throttle twistgrip. Jeff French, Byers and Robbins were the lads back then. Good times.
Is that photo from Surfers?
 
Yep, Surfers Paradise, another good Australian race track that has been torn up and now history.
Loved to watch the Swann Series at Surfers when a couple of the GP500 racers would head down under after the European season finished.
 
Me and a mate went up the year Gardeneer was riding his 4 cylinders 2 stroke GP bike and was heading to take out the massive bonus if anyone could win all 3 rounds. We had been to see this wonder combination at fuck me I have gone blank, Sydney track also gone to a housing estate, Gardener had won the Meolbane and Sydney round so we headed north to watch him take it all. But there was a problem, nobody told Mall Cambell who was riding the 3 cylinder Honda GP bike. My main memory was both the racing and the temperature was off the chart hot.
 
Probably Oran Park Vince. the Swann was indeed a ripper of a series.
Surfers was a great track, a good mix of corner types. Anyone could practice there every week day from 5 to 7 for a few bucks. I was out there practicing among TZ Yams, street bikes with all their lights not even taped up, formula Holden Geminis and open wheeler race cars on the track together, bloody unreal. Light aircraft would blast off down the runway and nearly blow the bikes off the track. I tried out a street 1100 Katana there, what a pig of a thing it felt like. My first ever race was there in formula European during Speed Week, came in second in 750 class on the same SF2 I race now.
 
Andy J said:
I recall that when I started racing in 1983 CBR1100Rs were still leading the charge in some big capacity  proddy races in the UK. A guy called Roy Anderson was definitely the guy to beat at Mallory.
By that time the Jota had been superseded by the RGS as the large capacity Laverda to race in production classes, and Kevin Hughes was more than able to mix it with the Jap competition.
Click to expand...
Got that wrong, surprising how time fades the memory. It was Keith Sanderson not Roy Anderson. I will test my memory again, as I have vague recollection of Phil Read Jnr also racing a 1100 at Mallory around that time.
Whatever, I certainly was in a few 1300cc four stroke races at Mallory on my 500 Lav up against more than one CB1100R. I didn?t beat them, but in every race I was first 500 home. :)
 
What a fantastic view of race pace. Despite the grainy footage you still get a good impression of what proddy racing was like on those heavy beasts ... although it seems Neill was riding a superbike for the Arai?
 
There is footage of Denis big crash up there, loved to watch the racing but it was NOT the track to crash at. They even back then they needed to many Armco and concrete walls to stop you going off a cliff in a crash.
 
The front fork sliders and wheel complete apparently fell off the front end when he was wheelying up the mountain after the star-finish straight. Bolts broke or came undone. Nasty accident.

There have been some bad stacks there. Skyline looks really scary to me!
 
Talk about going off a cliff, on TV it tends to look tame. It's as far from tame as any track in the world. Its also bloody narrow, how the Supercars do it 2 and 3 wide is beyond me. My first Easter there was 1977 and we never missed any till the end. It was so much fun, and nothing else came close EVER.
 
I assume that the footage of Dennis on the CB1100R was taken during practice. Video cameras of that era were not so small. Didn't seem to slow him down much though.

bazzee
 
About the only thing about a Breganzie has going for them is that they're FAST!

Other-wards there rather a pig to handle.

Basically all you want in a balanced Cafe Ride ;o)
 
Fantastic article,  can always find fault but a really nice constructive comparison,
Would agree that getting off of one and onto the other is a sensory shock whichever way you do it.
The Honda is so easy and so confidence inspiring it is a real puppy to ride, (not boring but very easy)  the Laverda is a little intimidating, a bit like stroking someone else's Rottweiler with your face too close,  you know it should be ok but .......
I wish I had never sold my CBR and want another one now.

Thanks for posting it!

Jules
 
Laverda SF said:
About the only thing about a Breganzie has going for them is that they're FAST!

Other-wards there rather a pig to handle.

Basically all you want in a balanced Cafe Ride ;o)
Click to expand...

Oops, time to rewrite the bible, seems Judas returned too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top