Hey guys... as many of you know I've been trying to sell my CBR1000F for a while now. I've had no takers even after advertising for a very reasonable rideaway price so I'm thinking of keeping her and modifying her into a period race bike.

Does anyone have any information on parts or modifications used for racing one of these? Basically I'm looking to drop a lot of weight from it and go minimal, really harness the potential of the brilliant engine these things have.

I would like to keep it at least borderline road-legal, so basic headlight/stoplight/indicators will be incorporated into the overall design - even if they're only single-point mounted for removal once at a racetrack.

Cheers - boingk

 

Sorry, bit off topic, but this has reminded of a funny story.

A mate of mine Ed is right into his mountain bike stuff. He was in the local bike shop looking at all this flash componentry to try and shave a few grams weight so he could "go faster".

Ed "So do you think that sprocket set in alloy would help shave a bit of weight off?"

Bike mechanic "Well, to be fair, it would probably make more difference if you lost 10 kg yourself"

Ed "I'm paying you to be a bike mechanic, not a feckin lifestyle coach"

 

These bikes do well losing weight by reducing silencer sizes, removing the exhaust shrouds, that kind of thing. Unfortunately the bikes are heavy, no matter what - it's built into the frame etc - good solid engineering to last a lifetime. We have a member "Dad" who races his 1990 model quite a bit, and he'd be able to give you some tips on what to do - I know he took the shrouds off, not because of weight but because the bike will corner lower without them - I've scratched mine in corners and wouldn't really want to go any lower, but each to his own....
I've heard that you can have the cams reground, but don't have any specs I'm afraid.

 

I cringe when I think about a beautiful vintage Hurricane getting butchered up. But that's just me. Have you tried advertising it on craigslist or ebay?

 

Don't think that's all bad necessarily, the classic bike racing (CBR?) scene is pretty big here in NZ.

I love seeing (and hearing) bikes from the 70's, 80's & 90's out there and mixing it up (especially street circuits).

It gives a lot of guys a very low level entry cost to some bloody exciting racing.

And let's be honest; would you rather see it turned into a streetfighter?

No, I didn't think so.

 

As kiwi TK implied the quickest and easiest way to weight loss is probably liposuction

The standard twin pipe system weighs a ton, so a single side set-up with a race can will save some weight, after that the weight is pretty much built-in unless you want to start chopping the frame about

You could hot wire it so you don't have the weight of the key, rear foot pegs and mirrors could go, after that you'll have to start drilling holes :

 

As Colin Chapman once famously said "It's all about adding lightness".

Interesting though; just been doing a Google search on CBR1000 race bikes and all I keep coming up with is Blades.

Maybe no-one has ever been silly enough to attempt this before?

I would have thought that they would have made an excellent weapon for some of that 24 hour endurance racing that the Europeans seem particularly keen on?