This NAKED BEAUTY followed me home . . . I had to say yes

[Ken Phenix]

Several months ago, not thinking I'd be in the market so soon, I began test riding various bikes, such as the FJR1300, 1200 & 1250 Bandits, R1200GS, GTR1000 Concours, Versys, SV650, V-Strom, etc. mentally recording their respective handling characteristics until one bike which was waaay out of the budget, up and pegged my little fun meter. The 1050 Tiger has torque by the ton and totally nimble road manners. But it wasn't until I rode that first Honda 919 that this balance of power and handling had a snowball's chance of converging with my squeaky tight budget. That's it! I had to have a 919.

Enter SearchTempest.com whereby I started watching listings and subsequent sales of dozens of 919's nationwide. While waiting for the old Bandit to sell, I documented a number of these Nipponese Rockets going for half the price of a comparable Tiger. So armed to the teeth with said data, I waited patiently - then the moment I found the Bandit a home and went immediately into a full fanatic all fired rush. One bike sold before I could get there and I drove 170 miles w/trailer to pick up another only to find a disturbing noise in the motor. Next on the list:  I made contact with the seller and due to the distance involved engaged in some pre-haggling over the phone. I left the following Sunday morning 9/11 at 4am and made the almost 5 hour trek to northern Louisiana. We jump started the bike (battery dead from sitting) I did the test ride, made my decision and then said, "Ok, on the phone you said you wanted $XXXX and I said I wanted to pay $XXXX so why don't we meet in the middle?" He said,"I was hoping you'd say that." And we shook hands.

I've ridden her to work almost every day and squeezed in a 300 miler with a few friends last Sunday and I gotta say this bike is even more awesome (he means it's super nimble & insanely FAST) than I could have imagined.  

AAaand here she is!! ;-)





I was quite sure I didn't like the looks of the aftermarket exhaust BUT it sounds sooo sweet.  The oem dual pipes came with the deal so I put them back on first thing. The Two Brothers pipe is listed on ebay.  I also secured a used windshield on ebay.



Now to rig this baby for touring. Let the farkling begin!  

[Explorer]

That's a nice looking ride

[JNUNZMAN]

BEAUUUUUUUUTIFUL!!!!!! BEST OF LUCK!!! RIDE THE WHEELS OFF OF HER!

[Wockman]

I used to have a 2002 model. Very underrated, great bikes and can usually be had at a bargain. One magazine article I read called it "Reliable as an anvil" and it was.  Mine was flat black with dual Yoshimura slip-ons, but that red sure is pretty. 


When you are changing the oil, before you unscrew the oil filter put tin foil across the pipes, it will save you from a smokey mess. 

[Ack535]

Those are great bikes. Good luck with the new ride!

[phaze5]

very nice good luck

[sammyseaman]

Dats puuuurty. Loves me some nekkids  

[Castaway]

Nice find!  I like the Two Bros pipe.

[chilipeppernorm]

That's a very nice bike, good luck with her. There's so many directions you can take with add-on's and modifications, keep us posted with pictures as you make changes.

[tjhess74]

a friend of mine has one, and it is certainly a sweet ride!!!  very good choice!  i agree about the exhaust, something about the tb pipe didnt quite 'fit in' right.

my friend got some nelson rigg nylon luggage for a good deal and can really pack alot of stuff in the saddlebags, tailbag, and tank bag.  

i love that color too!  

[phoenix]

really nice. I prefer the look with the 2 brothers pipe, although I bet it was loud.
Congrats on the find.

[Justin]

Sweet ride   - should bring many miles and many smiles  

[Computer Guy]

That is one beautiful bike!  Enjoy it.

[Ken Phenix]

Thanks guys. I go from an ear to ear grin just looking at her in the garage to a deep uncontrollable belly laugh with a twist of the right grip. I'll be keeping the UPS driver busy a while too. The windshield came first. The original front tire is a bit scalloped and the rear has upright wear - new tires are here and await mounting. Original chain came with an o-ring hanging out - new chain coming.  Wider bars ordered. I'll be adding the hard bags and aux HID's from the bandit as well as the wiring for my electrics. Can't wait to get 'er road trip worthy.    

[MisterSmooth]

Wow!  That bike looks new.    How many miles?

[stew71]

 

[Ken Phenix]

Wow!  That bike looks new.    How many miles?

8k. The po didn't ride it much and he kept it in his back bedroom - until the new kid came.  

If you're patient and search the web, you can find a low mileage 06 or 07 for under $4,000. That's gotta be one of the best used bike values out there.  

[samael_6978]

She's beautiful. I used to have 03 in flat grey (smoke). I put over 30k before I sold it  

[motormike]

That looks like a nice bike and would make a great second bike or around-town bike.

[ST-DocLizard1]

US "9er" people hang out here:http://wristtwisters.com/

Welcome aboard,


Doc

[Rincewind]

Beautiful bike.  IMHO it is one of the best (if not the best) of the recent Japanese open-class standards.  Smooth, powerful, and refined.  

Just get rid of that windscreen.  

[sammyseaman]

That looks like a nice bike and would make a great second bike or around-town bike.

 

[motormike]

 

Relax.  My reasoning for saying that was based on my riding preferences because it's a naked.  Sure, you could drive it whereever, SPORT-Tour, Sport-TOUR or whatever.  But since it's a naked, you would probably have more windage.

That's all.

[Ken Phenix]

That looks like a nice bike and would make a great second bike or around-town bike.

Beautiful bike.  IMHO it is one of the best (if not the best) of the recent Japanese open-class standards.  Smooth, powerful, and refined.  

 Exactly! So why not take her touring? It seems the 919 has one of the best power to weight ratios on the market, especially in the under $4,000 bracket. Heck, I'm old enough to remember when all bikes were naked.

Just get rid of that windscreen.  

Nope, and if I do it will be to add a bigger one.   I really plan to take this baby long distance touring - with more comfortable bars, hand guards, auxillary HID's, hard luggage and maybe even some suspension mods. Anything goes, right?

People told me I was nuts for touring on a 600 Bandit. Well I'm nuts alright but that wee Bandit carried me through 12 states - 90k in 6 years and never missed a beat.  

[Meemuh]

 

[sammyseaman]

People told me I was nuts for touring on a 600 Bandit. Well I'm nuts alright but that wee Bandit carried me through 12 states - 90k in 6 years and never missed a beat.  

People that told you that are nuts.

[2DFlyer]

Very nice   Remember when 750cc was the big touring platform?  All you needed was to get and stay comfortable and haul the stuff.

[chimera]

Nice ride.  Curious what bars you are putting on

[Ken Phenix]

Nice ride.  Curious what bars you are putting on

Sorry, I have been remiss posting my progress. Work gets in the way.  I put on some Tusk Raptor bars, raised the suspension 38mm and a few other mods. I'll post pics when I get to a computer. There's a thread on wristtwisters titled the 919 Transalp Project and pics at kphenix.smugmug.com. I'm really pleased with the mods so far.

[Ken Phenix]

Yeah work on the bike has been slow but at least I've been able to enjoy my commutes and a few day rides. I am affectionately calling my transformation of this standard muscle bike into an adventure touring machine The 919 Transalp Project as inspired my test tide of a 1050 Tiger. I'm not much for naming bikes but I'm being pressed to come up with one. So after perusing the urban dictionary I'm thing about calling her "The Tigress."



More mods to come, crash bars, adventure luggage, etc. Stay tuned.  

[Yokel]

Sweet rig!

I LOVED my 599... unfortunately, I got too fat for it.

Always wanted to ride a 919, but you guys that own them would generally start to twitch if I hinted at it.  Awesome platform!

[heinzrx]

Another vote for the 919. These things are a blast!

I had to have green...

[Ken Phenix]

Yeah I would have gotten a green one if there had been one close enough. It's gotta be easier for the cagers to spot than the concrete gray ones.   I must say the candy apple has really grown on me.

The other day I noticed a man eyeballing "The Tigress" while parked in front of our bakery. He appeared to be kicking himself.    I stepped outside and greeted him. He said he just sold his beloved 919 to buy a dual-sport.

[Ken Phenix]

Here's an update. I've been stealing garage time here and there when I can.

I got rid of the #2 pine puck. I modified a sidestand from an unidentified donor. Heat (acetylene) is a wonderful thing.



I drilled holes in the back of the stand and in a washer to accommodate the Bike's rotary safety switch.

 

And lastly, I welded tabs to the stand and cut a piece of aluminum in an oval to make a permanent puck.



I adjusted the bar position hoping to avoid shelling out for custom cables (I still might have to) and added the Moose Racing hand guards. The mods required for the hand guards made it easy to mount my heated gear controllers.

[Ken Phenix]

I got the chance to throw the switch on the old stick welder - and that's usually a sign of a pretty good day. The plan is to adapt my old homemade Seahorse case rig to the 919.
I got off to a pretty good start.




Days later, I worked on the side case install. I'm trying desperately to make this rig job of a rig job not look like a rig job. The only place to hang a bracket on the 919 is the muffler mounts inside the tail plastic. Here's what I came up with.


This made replacing the tail section a little tricky.


I needed to make new rear top case supports but found myself short on material. What to do? Oh, this'll  work.  


Perfect.

[hovmaven]

 

[Justin]

Nice work  

That luggage rack looks like it is stronger than the bike!  

[squeezer]

 

I second that. Nice bit of work.  


But, um, where are the STN stickers?    

[Cablebandit]

Very ingenious.  I love to see people actually making things to solve a problem.

[ConPilot1]

I second that. Nice bit of work.  


But, um, where are the STN stickers?    

Impressive. Nice job man. Great home fabbing.  
She looks like an extremely versatile machine and probably a shitload of fun.
I saw one of those 919's at a local stealer used, and I really liked the looks of the bike. Looks like a nice tight, compact package for a naked,
and I'm sure that 919 Honda mill is a blast.

[Ken Phenix]

I second that. Nice bit of work.  


But, um, where are the STN stickers?    

  FIXED - stickers ordered.  

[Ken Phenix]

Progress is slow. Work gets in the way. At this rate some major mods I have planned will have to wait until after the big trip next month. But these protruding top case bracket bolt heads had to go - especially before I throw a dry bag across the pillion.


The only flat head cap screws I could find were barely long enough and didn't quite work. So here I go head long into the man cave short on time with limited tools. I ground about 1/4" off the spacers that go between the grab bar and the top case mounting bracket and then drilled into said bracket to countersink the bolt heads like so:


Now the new bolts will be long enough but the heads are still too big. Not for long . . . .



Voila! Close enough for rock 'n roll.


As always, I filed this rig job under "Desperation is the Mother of Invention."

[Yokel]

You make me almost want to ride down to see this in the flesh! Sweet!

Makes me kinda wish I'd kept my 599 and just modded it to work...  that bike was SO AGILE.

[Ken Phenix]

You make me almost want to ride down to see this in the flesh! Sweet!

Makes me kinda wish I'd kept my 599 and just modded it to work...  that bike was SO AGILE.

Thanks. SO AGILE IS SO RIGHT. I love this bike. I wish I had more time to finish the mods I have planned but work (and riding) gets in the way. Big trip planned next month so I'll probably take her as is. Stay tuned.  

[CBRXXBLACKBIRD]

Awesome read. I just picked up a 2004 in green. So far has been a really nice riding bike. I was really surprised by how much it really pulls when you twist the throttle.

[rgbeard]

When I started reading the thread I thought you'd have something you could also do a trackday with.

Congrats on a great under-valued bike.  I had a friend that owned one for a while.  Few know how great they really are.

[Ken Phenix]

UPDATE:

I put the Tigress through a bit of a road test - 4,000 miles worth. I started off with a BB1500 and touched 19 states in 13 days.



RIDE REPORT

I learned a few things. The bike's performance was absolutely flawless. The CB900F has a huge power band - plenty of grunt in any gear - more juice than I'll ever need. My minor suspension mods proved comfortable enough on long distance runs. The ergos need work: The bars need to go up another inch so I'll be ordering motionpro cables. The peg placement is a tad high on the 919 which wouldn't have been a problem if I'd had time to build the engine guards and added some highway pegs. My old knees were sufferin' the last few days on the road. The lack of the guards precluded much off road testing. I will say this smooth nimble tourer became a heavy beast in a hurry on fresh 1.5" limestone. Most importantly, I have some decision making to do regarding tires. The Dunlop D616 is a fantastic pavement tire - superb in the wet. However, I have already gone through 2 rears so the most I can expect is around 4500 miles. The front tire is pressure sensitive and @ 40psi can make the bike pretty twitchy and 80mph in the wind. Dropping it to 37psi made a huge improvement. Front tire tread is virtually unscathed @ 9k. The D616 will never inspire confidence, in me at least, off road. I'm not ready for the new fatboy TKC80 - especially @ $250 a copy. I don't expect to ever do more than 20% off road with this machine. I could throw in the towel and go back to the Storm St or Pilot Road and be happy. Or I can keep feeding this beast D616 rubber at least while looking for wheels suitable for a set of Anakee's, etc.  Conclusion: I will need 2 sets of tires and wheels.      



So it's a work in progress but she's an absolute blast to ride. Stay tuned.