hello there ,i've just joined the forum after recently buying a 1990 600 in benetton colours,its in reasonable condition for its age and im looing for some advice and info as i dont know much about the cbrs ,i previously would not have considered a cbr but so far i'm pleasantly surprised although i've only spent a couple of hrs in the saddle so far,it only cost £400 and was too good an opportunity to pass up

 

I've got the same bike, great machines mine has almost 60k miles on it and it runs like a champ. I love it. Is there anything in particular you were looking for as far as advice goes?

 

Welcome. Why would anyone not buy a CBR? My dad rides a 2000 Valkyrie, and he takes my 600 out for 'test rides' every time we do work to it. Its a bike you can't not love.
Oh, and...

 

i'm looking for advice on what faults to look out for ,tyre pressures,best make of tyre,anything that will give me a better understanding of the bike in general,thanks in advance......pics to follow when i have some

 

If the bike has been sitting for a while, its best just to get new tyres. Even if they have lots of tread left, they develop dry rot, which shows up as cracks on the sidewall. There is a stickied thread on here that talks about different tires and sizes people use. Seems the Pirelli Sport Demons are a popular tire for these.

A couple of other 'issues' with these early models is the cam chain tensioner wears out very quickly. This usually presents itself as a rattle at lower rpms which may go away at higher rpms. You can either replace it with another oem one (which will just go bad down the road) or a manual CCT. Again, there is a sticky on the CCT's, but a popular one is the APE manual chain tensioner. It is very easy to install and because of its simple design, it will last the life of the bike.

Other thing is 2nd gear tends to be a weak point in these transmissions. People have reported having it miss gears or jump out when trying to go from 1st to 2nd. There are shift kits which help prevent the damage from occuring, but once the damage is done (if you bike already jumps), its too late. Gotta split the case to fix it.

Other than that, these are pretty much bulletproof machines. Enjoy!

 

thanks for that mate,the tyres will need replacing soon and i read somewhere about the cam chain tensioner,as long as the stickies are informative i'll get the spanners out even though my mechanical ability is limited

 

Shift kit is probably a good idea.. in fact I would recommend it to anyone that owns one of these bikes. When I bought mine it was already starting to miss second on hard shifts. After installing the kit it has never missed a gear again.

Other than the two things already mentioned there aren't many other common problems I can think of with these bikes aside from normal wear and tear stuff from a 20+ year old machine.

If you can still get your hands on some Avon AV45/AV46 radials I would highly recommend them, but they were discontinued awhile ago so not sure on availability anymore.

 

looks like a shift kit will be my first addition then,are they easy to fit?