Time for an update. I actually repaired/modified the CBF - with the help of a neighboury friend* of course. This actually happened a few months ago.
So, what did we do? I purchased a GPS system for riding around without getting lost, and we installed it in time for my short weekend holiday in Zeeland back in may. It's a Garmin z?mo 390 LM and so far I'm happy with it. The "choose curvy roads" feature is a bit wonky, though. These are the parts:
The thing came with a looooong cable, and the cable has a little box worked into it which holds a fuse or something. It seemed logical to us the get electricity somewhere near the battery and position that box under the seat. Great plan - it just required to put the cable from the handlebar to there underneath the tank. We had to take that off, at least a little.
The fuse box now sits right about there.
Next problem: Where exactly get the power? We needed to branch off somewhere that's under power as long as the ignition is on (
Z?ndungsplus), but didn't have a wiring diagram or something of the bike. Eventually, we settled for the wires leading to the plate illumination. These are located under the right rear panel, so we had to take that off as well (no pictures, sadly).
Aa my bike was built by some lovely people from Italy, of course there had to be a hiccup in the wiring: The red wire is actually ground, the black one is plus. We joked about that before we installed the wire branching, so we were at least not surprised that we needed two attempts to get it working.
Anyway, after confirming the GPS system gets it's power as intended iff the ignition is on , we put the bike back together. End result:
Next up, the bike was due to T?V in May too. From an unfortunate incident two years ago, both my brake levers were bent and I didn't want to go to T?V inspection that way (probably a little too paranoid). Replacing the front brake lever was easy and cheap enough (replacement part: ca. ?25 on Amazon).
But the rear brake pedal is another story. There are no third-party parts available and Honda charges over ?80 for an OEM one (see also
this post and following). And after the local Honda dealership actually managed to get me a wrong one, my friend who installed the GPS came to the rescue. He has access to a workshop at the department for mechanical engineering at university and used the equipment to bent the old pedal back into shape. Before/after pictures:
Much better again. And the bike passed T?V without even a hint of a fault and is good to go until May 2017.
Next "project": Finding a good place for FinalGear vinyls, after cleaning the bike first. It's rather dusty after the ride to ringmeet.
Bonus picture: One day, it was raining when I rode the bike, so upon returning, I had the opportunity to document the shunting path into my garage.
The foam plastic thing leaning on the left foot peg is protection in case I come too close with my car, which should be prevented anyway by the piece of wood bolted to the ground to mark how far the right front wheel can go.
* friend who just happens to live across the street