honda 919

[WoIf]

Originally Posted by Jewiss

Beautiful! Congrats! Great video too.
How do you like the trail-attack tires?
I just installed the sport-attacks on mine (free from a friend) but I may want something a little more touring oriented.
I'll see how they do in about a month or so.

Thanks! I love them but I haven't seen as much off road as I thought I would. I have put 4500 miles on them and they're at 50-60% tread left. They are great in the corner even with all the added weight. The road attacks may be my next buy.

[XR4EVER]

Sweet!! I just found this thread. Here are a few pics of mine and my wife's '04 919s. Love these bikes! We made a 5000 mile trip down around the Grand Canyon in '05 and a trip to Banff, Canada in '06. Then we had kids.

[XR4EVER]

Does anyone here have a knocking sound from around 2000-6000rpm under light acceleration? It seems to go away under hard throttle. Mine is worse than my wife's, but it is definitely there in both of them. Mine has had it since new. Just curious what it is. It hasn't gotten worse in the total 12,000 miles.

[PAULIBIKER]

Originally Posted by XR4EVER

Does anyone here have a knocking sound from around 2000-6000rpm under light acceleration? It seems to go away under hard throttle. Mine is worse than my wife's, but it is definitely there in both of them. Mine has had it since new. Just curious what it is. It hasn't gotten worse in the total 12,000 miles.

Some have it and some don't.

My 06 that was ran hard during break-in didn't have it. My 07 was broke in "by the book" and had it at times.

Personally, I think it is piston slap since mine did it worst when cold. Nothing to worry about, there's a thread over on Wristtwisters.com about it.

Do you notice it all the time or just when the engine is not up to temp?

[XR4EVER]

Originally Posted by PAULIBIKER

Do you notice it all the time or just when the engine is not up to temp?

It is there all the time, but definitely notice it more when cold. I figured if it was gonna get worse, it would have done it by now or let loose. Thanks for the response.

[Jnich77]

CBR 900 rear wheel and CBR F3 front wheel:










ADVMonster model 30 LED's

[Scrivens]

Picked up a red 05 in mint condition with 9000km on the clock a couple of days back. I've had my eye on the 919 - Hornet here - for a few years as they tend to sell for way less than what they should.

I've been riding a long while, have owned about 60 bikes and have pretty clear ideas on what makes a good one, and the Hornet ticks the boxes. About 18 months ago I bought a Bandit 1250S, put 16,000km on it in the 6 months or so I kept it and hated just about every minute of it. The engine was lovely, but it was incredibly uncomfortable, useless for pillions, had a dreadful rear shock, was too porky, handling was heavy, the brakes were marginal and it ate front tyres. The screen on the S wind-blasted your head off at highway speeds and the throttle used to slowly creep back, requiring constant attention to keep it on a set rev mark on a long cruise. I spent a lot of money on it tweaking things to fix the shortfalls then just gave up and sold it.

The Hornet is everything the Bandit should have been - light - fuelled up it actually weighs the same as my Kawasaki W800, the motor is torquey, it holds revs, handling is light, suspension is fine for my weight, it fits me like a glove and my regular pillion likes it. It also goes well up in the rev range in the lower gears in the twisty bits. I've put around 1000km on it the last 4 days and even caning it has given good fuel mileage.

I've bought the Hepco & Becker racks as I have a full set of H&B luggage for my other bikes. In the next week or so I'll wire in an Eastern Beaver fuse box, Oxford grips, add the H&B racks and a twin set of LED spotlights. I've got a good Givi "naked" touring screen for the winter, so the Hornet will be my new highway bike. Handles gravel roads nicely too. No pics as yet, but will add some when I can dig out the camera.

[watrboy]

Originally Posted by Scrivens

Picked up a red 05 in mint condition with 9000km on the clock a couple of days back. I've had my eye on the 919 - Hornet here - for a few years as they tend to sell for way less than what they should.

I've been riding a long while, have owned about 60 bikes and have pretty clear ideas on what makes a good one, and the Hornet ticks the boxes. About 18 months ago I bought a Bandit 1250S, put 16,000km on it in the 6 months or so I kept it and hated just about every minute of it. The engine was lovely, but it was incredibly uncomfortable, useless for pillions, had a dreadful rear shock, was too porky, handling was heavy, the brakes were marginal and it ate front tyres. The screen on the S wind-blasted your head off at highway speeds and the throttle used to slowly creep back, requiring constant attention to keep it on a set rev mark on a long cruise. I spent a lot of money on it tweaking things to fix the shortfalls then just gave up and sold it.

The Hornet is everything the Bandit should have been - light - fuelled up it actually weighs the same as my Kawasaki W800, the motor is torquey, it holds revs, handling is light, suspension is fine for my weight, it fits me like a glove and my regular pillion likes it. It also goes well up in the rev range in the lower gears in the twisty bits. I've put around 1000km on it the last 4 days and even caning it has given good fuel mileage.

I've bought the Hepco & Becker racks as I have a full set of H&B luggage for my other bikes. In the next week or so I'll wire in an Eastern Beaver fuse box, Oxford grips, add the H&B racks and a twin set of LED spotlights. I've got a good Givi "naked" touring screen for the winter, so the Hornet will be my new highway bike. Handles gravel roads nicely too. No pics as yet, but will add some when I can dig out the camera.

I had the same experience, the Bandit was scary compared to the 919. The head shake on the Bandit taught you to maintain a good grip. My 919 gave a real confidence at speed and allowed a lot more comfortable cruise.

My mistake was selling both at the same time for a more comfortable ride for my wife. She never held up her end of that bargain.

I am looking for another good example of a 919 to have around. Glad you found one.

[Scrivens]

Originally Posted by watrboy

I had the same experience, the Bandit was scary compared to the 919. The head shake on the Bandit taught you to maintain a good grip.

I saw your earlier comment on the 1200 being roomier - I found the 1200 to be a lot more comfortable than the 1250S which was very cramped for me - 5'10", 33" inseam and lightweight. I never had any head shake problems with the 1250S and putting Pilot Road 3s on it made the handling a lot sharper and they lasted well, but it was still a dog of a bike all said. Quite unlike the 1200, which was a beauty. If they'd simply dropped the 1250 engine into the 1200 rolling chassis unchanged it would have been a great bike. One thing I did like about the 1250 was the absolute silence of the exhaust and engine on the highway; like my old Beemers. Exhaust drone gets old very quickly on long days at speed.

I've got buzzy bars as well around the 4000rpm range, but compared to most of the bikes I've owned the vibes aren't bad and if I didn't suffer the aftereffects of 40-odd years of vibration in my hands it wouldn't even rate. Unfortunately you can't mod the bar mounts with rubber spacers like you can on some others, but it's easy enough to keep it outside the vibration band. One thing that is lovely is the induction/exhaust roar when caning it. It growls just like an early K series CB750 with the baffles out of the 4 into 4 pipes.

[watrboy]

Originally Posted by Scrivens

I found the 1200 to be a lot more comfortable than the 1250S which was very cramped for me - 5'10", 33" inseam and lightweight. I never had any head shake problems with the 1250S and putting Pilot Road 3s on it made the handling a lot sharper and they lasted well, but it was still a dog of a bike all said. Quite unlike the 1200, which was a beauty. One thing I did like about the 1250 was the absolute silence of the exhaust and engine on the highway; like my old Beemers. Exhaust drone gets old very quickly on long days at speed.

I find a stock exhaust is good for me. I did feel the overall build quality of the Suzuki was just not up to the expectations I had from running Honda's. I almost bought a 650 Strom over the NC700X. It just had so many little misfits. The Strom is still a great bike and my old Bandit was better than nothing.

Just a soft spot for the 919 and Honda in general.

[Cortez]

These B1250 vs 919 comments are interesting.. as I've read on a few other
forums (maybe 3 or 4 times when the subject came up) that people usually
consider the B1250 to be a more comfortable ride.

I love the looks of both (I'd get the naked bandit), but I can sell my scoot,
buy a clean 919 and still have money left, and I can not do that with a
newer B1250.

I'd rather own a Honda then a Suzuki too.

I'd rather have ABS then not, which makes it swing the other way again.

You people are NO HELP.

[watrboy]

Originally Posted by Cortez

These B1250 vs 919 comments are interesting.. as I've read on a few other
forums (maybe 3 or 4 times when the subject came up) that people usually
consider the B1250 to be a more comfortable ride.

I love the looks of both (I'd get the naked bandit), but I can sell my scoot,
buy a clean 919 and still have money left, and I can not do that with a
newer B1250.

I'd rather own a Honda then a Suzuki too.

I'd rather have ABS then not, which makes it swing the other way again.

You people are NO HELP.

+1 on the rather. Don't you have the NC in there somewhere?

[Jnich77]

Originally Posted by Scrivens

I've bought the Hepco & Becker racks as I have a full set of H&B luggage for my other bikes. In the next week or so I'll wire in an Eastern Beaver fuse box, Oxford grips, add the H&B racks and a twin set of LED spotlights. I've got a good Givi "naked" touring screen for the winter, so the Hornet will be my new highway bike. Handles gravel roads nicely too. No pics as yet, but will add some when I can dig out the camera.

Be careful with the racks, I have the Swmotech racks and had to brace them to keep them from wiggling when the bags are loaded down. the bike takes the additional weight ok though.

[Scrivens]

Originally Posted by Cortez

These B1250 vs 919 comments are interesting.. as I've read on a few other
forums (maybe 3 or 4 times when the subject came up) that people usually
consider the B1250 to be a more comfortable ride.

The only way you'll tell is to ride a Bandit for about 50 miles, suburbs and highway. I don't know if they sold the 1250S (half-fairing) or only the FA (full fairing) in the US, but try the naked as well.



The half fairing was worse than useless - the first time I rode it in the rain the water coming off the screen was like being hit with a firehose. I've owned or ridden all sorts of faired bikes over the years and I have never experienced anything like the standard screen on the Bandit. Even the Givi touring screen was bad; both had ferocious wind noise as the fairing is quite narrow. The seat is like a plank, the footrests are too high - though easily turned upside down to get another inch or so - and with the 270kg fuelled up rolling mass, as soon as the front brake is used all the weight goes straight onto your wrists. I put a lot of miles on mine in a relatively short time and I still rate it as one of the most uncomfortable bikes I've ever owned. The pic shows its final form - Givi screen, lowered pegs, Rox barbacks, wider touring bars - and it was still awful. And none of my pillions would get on it more than once; even my 5'3" daughter found it cramped. The 919 on the other hand is as close to perfect for riding position for me.

(Oh, and the lights on the Bandit were abysmal and needed the twin spots (on the radiator shroud) for safe night riding. I should add that it did handle bad gravel roads surprisingly well though.)

[Scrivens]

Originally Posted by Jnich77

Be careful with the racks, I have the Swmotech racks and had to brace them to keep them from wiggling when the bags are loaded down. the bike takes the additional weight ok though.

When I picked the bike up the previous owner had just put a brand new Ventura rack and bag on it. I took off the bag upright and left the rack part in place. The next day I took it out for a couple of hundred kilometres including about 10km of bumpy gravel roads. When I got home I found the mounts had sheared off on the left side and the jagged end had cut a nice hole in the plastic below the seat. If I'd had a loaded bag on it it would have torn the rack off completely. The little tubes on the mount (where the bolts fit to the frame) had a tiny smear of brazing on them, not even sweated into the joint, whereas the structure of the mount itself has a decent 1/4" well-filled braze. The brazing of the tubes onto the mount was so minute that it all came back to bare metal with a couple of passes of the file when I pulled them to bits (couple of whacks with a hammer on the unbroken side) and MIG welded them properly.

The H&B carriers have a couple of braces which go across the back of the bike and keep the two sides firmly together. I'm going to fabricate a supporting arm from the top H&B brace to the Ventura rack so that it isn't only supported by the two bolts on each side of the seat. I'll have a look at the way the H&B frames mount and it they look dubious then a bit of steel bar and the MIG will sort it. I have H&B frames on my other bikes and have never had a problem with them, and I do a lot of bad dirt road riding.