I think I already know the answer but I guess what I'm looking for is some validation. I bought this thing off a dude who said "There must have been a mid year body change, because the F1 parts dont really fit...".

I kinda shrugged it off thinking whatever its 600 dollars. Ride it till the wheels fall off, right? So as I've progressed into making this thing a little more ride-able and learning to fix things I was looking at the rear suspension. My friend who test rode it said the rear suspension was gonna need replacing and that parts are hella cheap. Easy enough right? So pictured below is the part I bought from a reputable used moto parts dealer that a friend of mine goes to all the time. Also pictured is what I'm workin with. Now can someone who has more experience with 1990 CBR600F1's tell me am I or am I not crazy? Did I buy the wrong part? Did the previous owner jerry rig some F2 rear suspension? Halp! Please and thank you. I appreciate the braintrust of knowledge and experience on this forum.

 

Yak. That's truly botched up setup you have there. Looks freakingly dangerous.

Your assumptions are correct. Shock assy and linkage looks like they are swapped from F2. And the new shock you have got is a real F1 part.

I can't say anything about swingarm when looking at your pictures. Is it F1's or has it been swapped too?

 

Judging by the pictures of other F1's, it looks like it is a true F1 swingarm, I will post photos afterwork.

 

@Wesku79, your question has made me suspicious and I cant wait till after work. here is a picture of the swingarm. It looks the same as all the other F1's I've seen, but after having unveiled the issue with the rear suspension, I have my doubts. I also just purchased a new link arm because the sooner the better, right?



new link arm I purchased cause it was cheap AF and looked in great condition given its age

 

Nope, That is F2 swing arm. Behind the exhaust you can see a bracket with a long slot. There is no such thing on a F1.

You rear wheel is F2's too. F1 wheel has 3 spokes.

You are in a bit of trouble!

If that bike was mine I would keep the swing arm and wheel as they are now. Then I would get rid of those awful spacers on the bottom of the shock and modify shocks upper mount instead - like welding a new bracket on the bike's frame to fit a good shape F2 shock.

 

This is turning into quite the project...

 

Also thank you @Wesku79 for your help.

 

Last question...

If I replace the swingarm, will the F2 wheels still fit?

 

I don't know. But my quess is it doesn't. Wheel rim is ½ or 1 inch wider.

 

Wow! You have a mess there. F2 rear wheel won't fit an F1 swing arm. I'm not sure if the F1 link arm will work in the F2 swing arm either. My guess is not.

The critical question is what will these combinations do to the rake and trail? That can create real problems with handling if it's not right.

There probably are ways to get this to work properly, but it will take some engineering and fabrication. You'll want to do some measurements on an F1 to get the proper heights and angles. I could do that for you on one of my bikes but not until this weekend.