IMHO if you're doing anything with the throttle it had better be a dual-cable system! I've played around with a few different throttle tubes in various sizes/ratios, but I don't think I'd like it all dumped out in 1/4-turn! Doesn't leave much left for MODULATION. I mean - we all realize that it doesn't make sense to crank up the action on your BRAKES, right? We call 'em "WOODEN" if the braking force just dumps on "STOMP" all at once. So wtf, why would you want that on your throttle? For anything other than dressing the bike up in DRAG? Never mind how the return spring's gonna affect things - heck if you're using this type of throttle around pedestrians and traffic, cliffs and walls etc. ... I mean, this is a no-brainer, ennit? Sheesh.
If you look at the Italian after-market throttles from DOMINO, they give you three different ratios with each kit, so you can swap 'em back and forth. What's nice about it, is you don't have to swap the whole tube out of the handlebar grip either, 'cause the "spool" or "cable ramp" pops on and off of the grip tube itself. Briliant system, though I'll never understand why you'd have to use a special housing for the thing....
If ya'll wanna see a really cool throttle for the Honda four-cylinders, check out the DOHC-4 "Sport-Kit" throttle, found on European-market CB900F2s and CB750F2s (DOHC) and certain CB1100Fs typically the Canadian and European versions with the Gold BOOMERANG Comstar rims. It's all pretty cool stuff. 2.50x18" & 3.00x18" Comstar rims, dual-296mm front brakes, factory rear-set pegs complete with shorter brake pedals and shifters with linkages, 1100cc engines with TWO over-head cams heh-heh, plus the factory race fairings with a really solid perimeter type bracket to hang it off of, parallel twin-rotor oil-pumps with a seperate oil-cooler loop complete with it's own pump stage, an Aluminum 6.9-gallon tank on the Homologated Endurance special, etc etc. But the really cool thing IMHO would have to be the Hirth-Spline adjustable clip-on bars with the master-cylinder with the tilted reservoir that sits level while the handlebar is tipped down in Clubman/Clip-on fashion, AND the tricked-out upward-forward tilted "Sport-Kit" throttle housing.
I've gathered a bunch of the better stuff for my DOHC-4 I'm just hoping to combine it with the better AESTHETICS from the earlier SOHC and earlier small-bore TWIN eras of Honda's inexorable development toward faster-than-light intergalactic personal transportation systems. It would be nice if they could keep that same aesthetic throughout the entire story - space-ships with candy paint and chrome trim, black vinyl seats with puffy raised sections between heat-stamp embossed fake stitch patterns.....
So toward that end, wire-spoke rims, a duck-tail seat, DIY seat-pan & side-covers, mix-&-match fenders from far & WIDE (to suit the wider Sport-Touring rubber) a fibreglass air-box, "Fork Ear" headlight brackets, rubber boots on the forks, as much polished Aluminum as one can stand, a "toaster-tank" effect on that Aluminum 6.9-gallon tank, etc etc.
And perhaps the icing on the cake? I'm trying to mod the SOHC type Aluminum switch-pots into the DOHC "Sport-Kit" standard. A couple of welded lumps on the top forward surface of the upper half of each clam-shell, drill 'em out for the correct cables from the CB900F2, and just polish the living heck out of the clam-shell switch-pot housings.
Got meseff some NOS switches, for the quality of plastics and innards. But I wanna keep the original paint on the NOS housings so I'm trying to dig up some crusty old ones to polish & repaint etc.
Whaddya think though? IMHO they'd be really good for ya'll SOHC-4 fans. If you take a look at the '82 AHM "CB750F" 1023cc AMA Superbike racer, Freddie Spencer & Mike Baldwin's bike, and squint at the right handlebar & perch etc - it's actually an early GL1000 master-cylinder but it's not even modified with the shorter reservoir from the later rear masters and European-market TUV-approved (Germany anyhow), CB350F, CB500K, CB750K front master-cylinders - just like the GL1000 front masters with the plastic reservoir etc only they're shorter etc. You'd think they could've used the other reservoirs or even the later era GL1000 masters with the reservoir canted forward a wee bit - I guess they might have needed the extra reserve fluid for something?
ANYWAY yeah, Baldwin's bike (always refered to as Spencer's ride but Spencer went over to GP pretty early in the season then Baldwin picked up the ball and ran the rest of the way with it) was interesting 'cause it's got an aftermarket style push-pull dual-cable throttle with the cables pointed forward, but he's still using the down-ward pointed type throttle cables with the bent chrome tubes running off the housing - it's cool because the lower cable's on one side of the brake lever and the upper cable's on the other side. Really tight & close to the bars. IMHO this would be an even better set-up than the OEM "Sport-Kit" design. In fact I think I'm gonna try it out. Though I'll probably have to shorten the cables anyhow.
ALL of this stuff about messing with the throttle somehow bothers me a lot more than say, messing with the brakes. I guess that's 'cause there's a front brake AND a back-up in the rear.
Years ago, I tuned my little C70 Passport on a rainy morning on the way to work. Let out the air-mixture screw enough to let it idle faster so it didn't bog down in the damp foggy air. Well, that faster idle worked in concert with the semi-automatic centrifugal clutch, AND with the rear tire sitting on a wet strip of fresh paint as I was trying to edge up to a red light, such that the back wheel suddenly began to SPIN when it wasn't supposed to, faster and faster and faster, and there's no clutch lever to kill the thing with and I had to hold the right bar tight to keep that front brake clamped down, meanwhile my right foot was slipping on that wet paint and trying not to fall over on my side - Suddenly the bike wheelied up when it caught some grip and it jumped out from under me and bounced around on that rear tire like a bouncing bunny as I stood there holding it by both of it's hands and "DANCED" with it. Meanwhile commuters with umbrellas were walking across the sidewalk just a few feet in front of me. A bunch of 'em seemed to think I'd done it on purpose ha-ha. I wound up having to 'dance' it down a side-street before I could put it down in a big enough empty spot, and finally let go of the handlebar and throttle. It doesn't even make sense that holding the throttle would make a difference, as the bike tipping upwards would UN-WIND the throttle tube, when you wrap your head around it. I think it might have been the carb tipping and dumping gas out of the float-bowl straight down the inlet, 'cause the carb on the C70 is pointed forward and the manifold curves backward down to the head. At least, that's the only way I can figure it. Then again, by the same token it might have been a weakened old return spring which allowed the butterfly to be sucked wide open by the engine's intake vacuum....
Well whatever - it taught me the value of a push-pull dual-cable throttle alright. Along with the kill-switch.
Actually, the kill-switch was something I'd always wanted on my bikes straight from the get-got. When I was just turned 16 and bought a '70 SL100 which came with a '69 CB100 for "spares", the resulting CB100 special that I built, with both rear rims and tires laced to completely different hubs etc, was vastly complicated by having to re-wire the whole loom just to include the SL switch-pot with the KILL-SWITCH on it. But to me it was very important. Especially with the key switch down at the left side in front of the head etc.
Another feature of the SOHC which I'm trying to incorporate into my DOHC-4 985 "CB900K0 Bol Bomber", ('82 CB900F Bol D'Or based homage to the '65 CB450K0 Black Bomber) is that SWITCH location, and the horn for that matter. With the oil-cooler bumped up into the Duck 900SS "Bevel-Bubble" half-fairing, with a "letter-box" style air inlet and Endurance-style dual-headlight etc, the old oil-cooler location will make for a good spot for a Sand-Cast style horn re-location. Though that kinda gets in the way of my big ideas about copying the steering damper mount from that '82 Baldwin/Spencer bike.....
Meanwhile the frame itself gets in the way of relocating the key switch to the SOHC location, 'cause there's a heavily braced corner up there. If anything, you'd think you'd have to drill through that braced section in order to pop the ignition housing through it. But I'm gonna play around with some old '70s-era switch hanger brackets and see whether any of 'em will fit. The early 750 version want to clamp around a thinner diameter of frame tube, but the CB100 and CB125 type of stuff can mount with a couple of screws so maybe there's a better chance they'll fit?
-Sigh.
