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Might as well document all that is/has been going on with my RR, never know, might of some use one day......
Anyway...start from the beginning
I bought the bike in Feb '09
1000 mile round trip in the whitest winter we'd seen in ages
Got it home, and checked out just what I'd bought
So....as I bought it the bike had the following
Leo Vince Ti SBK can, 15/42 sprockets, PCIII c/w custom map, R&G shark fin, Goodridge braided front lines, Acumen gear indicator, Metzler wets on wheels. Also had a mint road fairing, 2 sets of track fairing, and various odds and sods.
Done a trackday and all was well apart from the shitty rearsets that came on it
The bearings were really poor, notchy and nearly siezing. These were swapped out for a set of GB Moto rearsets that came as part of the spares package
Done another trackday and found these feel sooo much better with their smooth bearings
Found the rest of the bike was without fault, and it performed really well. More importantly, I really gelled with it and didnt fancy swapping bikes again, so just done a few bits to improve and maintain it.
Started with the easiest of jobs and swapped over the standard fuel filler cap to a nice keyless Valtermoto one.
I managed to get hold of a Brembo 19x20 mastercylinder for a good price, also got an HRC quick action throttle whilst I was at it.
Then onto the switchgear, seeing as I was putting on a quick action throttle, I needed to junk the standard kill switch/starter as it also houses the standard throttle. I had got an NC30 switch, so set about putting it on. Of course the plugs were completely different, but a quick going over soon revealed which wire was what. Connected it to the bike and it worked just as it should, job’s a good’un, until….
Seeing as the old throttle tube was off I thought I’d offer up the new HRC throttle housing and tube just to see how it all fits up, did the same with the new Brembo too and then discovered that there isn’t going to be enough room on the right clip-on for everything, fortunately there’s nothing on the left switch that gets used anymore, so that came off too solving one problem but creating another. The clutch switch is part of left switchgear loom, and although I thought about not running a clutch switch, I decided that I didn’t want to be without it. The good news was that the NC30 kill switch also includes the connections for the brake lever switch, these were the same type as the clutch switch so simply popped on, then the wires were split from the kill switch and starter ones and re routed to the necessary plug. Everything plugged in and everything works.
Whilst all that was going on, I also stripped down, cleaned and rebuilt the calipers
Then I got on and sorted the right handlebar controls properly, getting the right position of the Brembo and the HRC quick action throttle
I also had to make a bracket up for the Brembo reservoir, as the old master cylinder had it built in
Fitting the Q/A throttle also meant drilling a hole in the clip on as there is a retaining lug that locates there so that the whole unit cannot spin round the bar. Getting both throttle cables onto the new throttle tube was a bit of a workup, but now its done there is a noticeable improvement in the ease to get full throttle, and its nice tight and snappy
Got hold of some decent brake pads for not to much cash, so they went in
and it was then all finished off with a pair of Renthal medium grips
Another 2 trackdays were done, and I can confim that the brakes, once hot are fantastic.
The next 'upgrade' was to change the standard clutch lever for a DHB folding one the came up in a sale
At the start of this year, the tyres had finally had enough, so they got changed to a pair of Racetec race scrubs, and while the wheels were off, I put some white rim tape on just to break up the black between the tyres and the rims
Also changed the sprockets, from 15t to 14t on the front and from 42t to 44t on the rear
And that is how the bike has been pretty much all year, managed to get another 4 trackdays on it. It did lunch it's battery (think the cold over the previous winter really killed it) and it also threw up a FI fault halfway through a trackday, but that turned out to be a o2 sensor, so I just bought some o2 eliminators, plugged them in, cleared the fault code, and jobs a gooden.
As this year has gone on, I have been getting quicker and quicker. This means that I'm now pushing the bike harder than previously, and as a result the 'aging' suspension is feeling slightly tired and is definately an area that will be needing work
Just recently I have been amassing parts to really update my bike, this is the story of RR v2.0
This is what started me off, I was only casually looking for upgrades, but found this lurking on ebay
That is a WP 4618 with optional remote preload adjuster, 3 springs of different weights and had been recently serviced. A quick googling reveals that this model was very popular with the supersport racers around the globe. I somehow managed to be the only bidder for it on the bay of e and won it for an opening bid of £220.
Bouyed on by my bargain purchase, I decided that the front end should be paid attention too.
Soon after I got the bike I did have an idea to fit the entire front end from a later model which would give me USD forks and radial brakes, but didnt really feel the need to do it at the time....
This option sprung to mind again, but simply changing the forks wouldn't really get me anything better than what I had, and the cost to get the forks/yokes etc and then to get some uprated cartridges etc would be immense and well beyond what I would feel comfortable spending. With that in mind, the idea was again dropped and I started doing research on how best to upgrade the forks I already had.
This obviously, takes time, so while that was going on, I was keeping a very close eye on ebay and various bike forums looking for nic-naks that might take my fancy.
One thing on the bike I've never really been happy with is the swingarm
So, off it came, with the idea to get it powdercoated and to replace the bearings.
Seeing as the rear of the engine was exposed, I gave the whole area a light going over with a wire brush in a bid to get it a bit cleaner. It didn't make too much difference to the engine, but the linkage came up a treat
Then came along bargain #2....a genuine, brand new, still boxed swingarm complete with brand new bearings fitted for £80 delivered !! (list price £1300) I just had to have it.
Before fitting the new shock, I contacted a suspension genius I know in Oz called Zenodamper (CBR600RR’s are a speciality of his, look him up at http://www.zenodamper.com.au/) to get some good base settings. Even when the guy is the other side of the world, he still took the time to give me the relevant starting points. With them all dialed in, I fitted the shock in.
I then removed the shock.....
Fitted the hugger, and refitted the shock
From here, it was a case of one thing leads to another. With a shiny shock sitting in a shiny new swingarm, I couldn't just chuck my tatty looking rear wheel back in, so, along with the front wheel, they were both resprayed.
A couple of years ago, when I bought the bike, it came with a load of spares....well it turns out that there was a pair of brand new later model discs (identical to the earlier ones, but gold centres, not black), so they were fitted. I also fitted some rim tape (an indication of the new colour scheme that will be appearing in the near future) and got my latest scrubs put on too.
A good look at the bearings (one of the things on my list of things that I actually wanted to change) found that all the wheels have good bearings, but not the sprocket carrier. A call to Honda reveals that there are two bearings and they are nearly £20 each, so back onto ebay and a complete carrier from an 08 model with minimal milage was brought for a much more wallet friendly £8...complete with a 40 tooth sprocket. It has the added bonus of looking a darn site better than the old scabby one it replaces, especially when I chucked on a new Renthal 42 tooth sprocket.
Whilst digging out the new discs from the shed, I also found these
Thought it would be rude not to use them, so they got stuck on.
At this time, I was still in search of something for the forks. Research found that off the shelf parts were limited to springs and new oil. There was always the option of a revalve etc, but I wasn't really sure.
Before refitting the front sprocket, that was given the wire brush treatment too. A new 15 tooth Renthal also joins the spares box, but I'm starting off with 14 (2 down) and 42 (standard rear). Another bargain turned up in the shape of a brand new boxed AFAM 41 tooth sprocket for £1. So the lot gives me 14/15 front and 40/41/42/44 rear, so I think I'm sorted for gearing.
More searching in the shed found me a brand new DID gold chain, so with the help of my mate Dave and his new chain tool, that was fitted along with some new chain adjuster bolts and circlips (well, I couldn't use old bolts in the new swingarm could I)
Then, from out of the blue, I spot something on a forum that I just had to have...thought that it would finish the bike off a treat........
They are a pair of 05-06 forks with Maxton GP25 cartridges and compression adjusters fitted. The innards apparently came from Christian Elkin's 06 BSB supersport bike. They also came with the later lower yoke, stem, bearings and older top yoke that had been machined out to fit.....in other words, ready to bolt on. There was also the extra adjustment/service kit with it too (£50 from Maxton) along with service history from Maxton.
With post haste I set about swapping them over
This was pretty straight forward and didn't take all that long (even with my relaxed working ethics)
The guy I bought them from was not too far from my build/weight, so he gave me some settings that he had been using. Combined with Zeno's settings for the rear, it shouldn't be too much of a guessing game getting it just right.
I had to source the parts which didn't come with the forks, and again ebay came to help getting a mudguard, calipers and caliper mounting bolts. Standard handle bars proved to be rather ellusive, so a pair of Renthal clip ons were gotten from IntoBikes (purveyor of the finest bike related goods visit their shop here … http://www.intobikes.co.uk/)
The calipers were a bit mucky, but were stripped completely and rebuilt
They cleaned up just fine, although the writing on the front looks grubby, and as a little bonus they came with EBC HH sintered pads in, so that saves me having to fork out more money for consumables.
The bars were fitted, and that meant that I could put back all the hand controls, and finally get the brakes sorted out. Fortunately the braided hoses fitted to the new calipers, so it was simply a case of putting new fluid in a bleeding from a completely dry state. Less than 30 mins and they were all done
The kill switch was swapped over with a duplicate I bought when I originally changed to the NC30 switch, the replacement is much cleaner and befitting of the bike.
The clocks went back on and the cable routing was sorted, reconnected the battery and it fired straight up, a quick spin in the cul-de-sac threw up no problems
So there we go....
That is how the bike stands right now....
Still to do though are...
Fit a new pair of Renthal grips that haven't arrived yet, and change the sump bolt (as the one on there is a bit mashed)
Seeing as the bike is basically complete, attention has turned to the bodywork....
Over the course of ownership, I have collected all the necessary original panels. These didn't really cost that much and should give a perfect fit and a good base for the new paint.
Most of the panels require work one way or another, but by far and away the biggest challenge for me is to fill the light holes on the nose cowl.
Having had experience (albeit 2nd hand from a project a few years back) of filling in a large area, I have decided not to use body filler as I've found it quite brittle once the fairing started flexing. In it's place I will be using fibreglass resin, which although sets quite hard, still retains a degree of flex and should prevent cracks appearing in the finished paint.
Fortunately I work for a firm that make their products from GRP so, from time to time, I can get some raw materials for gratis, it also has given me a fair understanding of the whole fibreglass laminating techniques and tips etc.
I decided that the best way to keep the shape was to make a cast of the nose with the lights fitted
Once the lights were fitted, everything was given a few coats of wax (helps release the fibreglass once set), then on went the mat and resin to make the cast.
Once it had hardened, it was removed, and the lights were removed from the cowl.
The cast was then put back on the nose cowl
I then laid up the inside
Then once that was set the cast was removed, leaving the light holes filled
I made a slight error and forgot to wax the cast properly, so when it was removed it was a bit 'grabby' hence the messy looking strands sticking out everywhere.
Upon inspection of the fully dried cowl, it was revealed that there was plenty of gaps around the lights, so these all needed filling and smoothing. *As I mentioned above I'm not using body filler (which would normally be used in this situation), so I had to use fibreglass resin, which is very runny and no good for building up and filling gaps. So I got creative with what I had around and simply mixed some resin with talcom powder to act as a bulking agent, took a bit of trial and error to get a good mix, but it turned out pretty well and easy to use. I did the first pass over, and gave it a sand
A quick blow over with some primer gave me an idea of the shape coming together, it also gave a good indication of the areas that needed more filling
Its just a case of repeating the above a few times, more filling, more sanding, more primer
Thats how it stands at the moment. I have also been doing a little patch work on the two side panels, but haven't taken any pics of them.
Had to put the plastics on hold while life got in the way, so it was back in the tracksuit...
I WILL get the plastics finished soon(ish) though
Got the first trackday this year out of the way last week, and I have to say that the bike has been transformed by the mods that I have done.
Whilst I was at the trackday there was a mobile dyno running, so I thought I'd chuck the bike on and see where it was power wise
Clicky for video
Turns out that my bike with it's standard engine, standard headers with twin cats still in place, only a Leo Vince can & PCIII c/w custom map makes 113.62 BHP
Parts aquired now include a full Arrow kit exhaust, a DNA air filter, one set of velocity stacks (still need another set) which will be modded to give me 4 short intakes, and a brand new set of race fairings.
Arrow system cleaned and fitted, but front half only, back half is still Leo Vince (which is awaiting new packing to quieten it down a bit). DNA airfilter is fitted along with the modded velocity stacks (four short stacks). Once exhaust has been repacked the bike will go on the dyno for a remap to accomodate the above.
I managed to get hold of the correct 05-06 top yoke to replace the modded 03-04 one that came with the newer forks. This has been fitted and the front ride height has been restored to standard (it was c.16mm through the yokes, now 8mm)
Fitting the Arrow meant that the standard expansion bottle (radiator overflow) has had to go, so thats been replaced with an HRC bottle and some nice silicone tubing, just waiting on some alu plate to make a bracket to hold the bottle behind the clocks.
Next step is to fit up the new bodywork, then get it painted
The bracket for the expansion bottle has been made, and the bottle fitted and plumbed in
The bodywork has been fitted, trimmed, sanded, adjusted, retrimmed, etc, etc and fits well. It's currently in the spray shop getting a race rep scheme put onto it.
A new screen has been ordered as I'm not keen on the huge endurance one I found in my shed
The exhaust packing has turned up, so that has to be done as well as an oil and filter change, then it's off to the tuners on Monday for a new custom map for the Power Commander.
Will hopefully have a completely built and setup bike on Tuesday or Wednesday ready to leave on Thursday for a trackday on Friday
2004 Honda CBR600RR-4
Standard engine internals
Arrow exhaust system c/w Leo Vince SBK Ti end can (repacked)
Velocity stacks (4x short)
DNA air filter
PCIII usb c/w custom map
O2 eliminators
HRC expansion bottle
DHB carbon engine covers
DID 525 gold chain
Renthal front sprockets (14,15)
Renthal rear sprockets (40,41,42,44)
