I've been doing my homework leading up to the upcoming bike swap I'll be doing with VLJ where he will finally get some seat time on a CB1100 and I will ride a bike that, until last night, I knew nothing about.
First impression...the XSR sounds like a great bike, but its "neo-retro" styling doesn't make it stand out from the crowd enough for me. I think the neo overwhelms the retro. And calling it a 900 is misleading considering it's only 847cc. Why isn't it the XSR850? Don't get me wrong, I'm looking forward to trying it out.
The XSR is 110 lbs lighter than the CB and despite 25% fewer cc's its HP and torque numbers are the same or higher than those of the CB. I have very little trouble throwing the CB around with my 200 lbs....the XSR has got to be a blast on twisty roads.
ABS and traction control? I have to drive my wife's car to get behind an ABS, and to me traction control is feathering the accelerator until the rear differential stops freaking out. I'm unsure how I feel about these features.
This is going to be fun.