I bought Chloe for $1,200 with an astoundingly low 4,414 miles. I'm the third owner, and she is my first motorcycle!



I'm sure some people would flame me for buying a 600 as my first bike but I have about 2 months of riding experience under my belt on a friends Grom clone, I've taken the MSF course, and I'm confident in my self control and ability to respect the power.

As the story goes, Chloe was wrecked by the first owner in 1996, and then sat in a sad state in his garage for 20 years. Last year the second owner bought it for $200 with no plastics, and obviously in poor shape. He fixed it up and got it running, put new plastics on it, made a few mods, and then decided to sell it. I saw it on Craigslist, one thing led to another, and I found myself with a bike in my garage for the first time! Talk about a great feeling.

Here's a quick list of the mods she currently has:

• Aftermarket plastics (duh)
• Progrip tank pad
• D&D full exhaust
• Fox Racing Shox rear suspension
• Ohlins steering damper
• Smoked LED flushmount turn signals
• CBR Racing grips
• Bar end sliders
• Frame sliders
• Nissin front and rear brakes
• Braided steel brake lines
• VERY non-OEM rear tire size: 190/55ZR17. WTF??
• Custom made rear tire hugger due to the huge rear tire
• +4T rear sprocket and associated front sprocket and chain changes (allegedly)
• Re-jetted carbs (allegedly)

Overall I think (with my very limited experience with bikes) that she runs well. It's a bit of struggle to get her started when she's cold, but after warming up she settles down and idles fairly smoothly. I'm hoping that will be resolved with a very thorough cleaning of the carbs. The best part about the bike in my opinion is the absolutely incredible exhaust note from the D&D pipes and muffler, and this is coming from a guy that actually doesn't like the sound of most inline 4s! She has a really throaty and mean growl. I doubt I'll ever be able to capture any audio that does it justice.

Now for the not as good stuff:

• The OEM mirrors aren't in great shape. The right mirror is completely seized, and the left mirror is the exact opposite and flaps around.
• The gas tank has what I consider to be very minor corrosion, and there is a small collection of particles in the bottom of the fuel that's currently in the tank.
• The chain seems pretty filthy and it's slinging grease all over the underside of the rear seat. Maybe that's normal, but I'm going to clean it up all the same and relubricate.
• Seriously though, the rear tire is massive. The front and back look almost new so I'll wear them down first and then revert to an OEM 160. I'll probably have to ditch the custom tire hugger. I guess I'll see how it looks when I get to that point.
  
  
  
• I also think the fork seals need to be replaced as the right side has some buildup. Any opinions on this? Is this normal or do I indeed need a fork seal replaced?
  
  
  
• This isn't a bad thing per se, but I noticed today that the new white RPM overlay shows the redline as being about 1k-2k RPM shy of what the OEM tach shows. It's an older (albeit nearly indestructible) motor so I'm just going to roll with the lower redline and hopefully save some wear and tear.
  
  

All things considered, I couldn't be happier, and I'm completely in love with Chloe. Just don't tell my wife

 

Hi Rybo, don't worry, I won't flame you about your first bike. My first one was an older 1000F, not ideal, but suited me and my needs at the time.

The most critical thing is to ensure your brain is engaged, before twisting the throttle

The starting problems when cold could be a number of things, but cleaning the carbs and balancing them will be a good place to start.

That right hand fork looks nasty. At the very least, you need to clean it out completely, otherwise the crud will scratch the chrome and cause severe damage. After it's been cleaned, you can then asses if further action is needed, but clean it thoroughly before you ride it again.

Corrosion in the tank is not uncommon. On my 1000F, I fitted an in-line fuel filter, as an insurance. There is probably one fitted in the tank , but it may be knackered, so fit an in-line one, when you have the carbs off to clean them. Otherwise, you'll spend a lot of time cleaning the carbs, only to suck some of that crud into them and you'll be back to square one.

I feel your pain with the mirrors, mine move at higher speeds, so I have to adjust them on the move. There are plenty of after market ones available, so I'll probably replace mine over the winter.

Always a good idea to clean, adjust and lube the chain. At least the P/O kept it lubed.

In the mean time enjoy your love affair with Chloe, as long as you stay safe, I'm sure your wife wont mind

 

Thanks for the advice, Hawkwind! The other thing I forgot to mention is that the throttle didn't roll back to idle when I released it. I took it all apart this morning and saw some buildup of crap on the return throttle cable. It almost looks like someone tried to grease it or something. I sprayed it with some WD40 and cleaned it up with a toothbrush and it solved that problem. The problem came back once I put the bar end back on. The bar end was pushing on the grip too much, so I threw a washer on before the bar end and that solved it. Springs right back to idle like it should.

Today was the hardest time I've had getting it started so far. I really hope that it's just the carbs and not something worse. I'm kinda bummed that I was lied to by the seller when I asked if it ever had problems starting and he said "never." Once I did get it going, she ran pretty rough for five minutes and then settled down like before. As it's warming up it has a really distinct sound to it. Definitely not a misfire, but something weird that I can't explain. Is it possible that you could hear an out of sync carb through the exhaust note? If it was, wouldn't I hear it even after it warmed up? It's been several years since I've worked on carbed motor and I've forgotten a lot. My father would be very disappointed. I also adjusted the idle to be a bit higher (~1.75k to 2k) to hopefully help it get started a bit easier next time. Once I get her running better I'll dial it back down to a more reasonable idle.

After letting it warm up for 10 minutes while I sat on her and ate a sandwich (I work close enough to home that I can go home for lunch breaks) I decided to really let her scream. I noted that if I REALLY quickly got on the throttle, it bogged down a bit before recovering. The gas smell was pretty strong so I think it may be dumping too much gas if I get on it quick. If I roll on smooth and steady she does exactly what I tell her too. I slowly incremented with each rev, i.e. I revved to 4k, let off, 5k, let off, 6k, etc. I did that all the way up to revving to the limiter for a brief second. My coworker who was with me said that above about 8-10k there was black smoke blowing out which supports my theory that it's running rich. Maybe my choke isn't working right or at all? Will definitely investigate further and I would appreciate any input anyone can give.

After that I took her for a VERY quick spin in front of the house to practice clutch control and quickly getting in the friction zone. I did 10 or so u-turns back and forth and then pulled her into the garage. It's just so incredibly surreal that after over a year of researching, planning, and saving, that I own a bike. What a marvelous thing we all share.

 

I love your enthusiasm Rybo

It does sound like the carbs need looking at. If they're out of balance, the engine is fighting against itself. When you give them a clean, you'll get a better idea about the choke as well.

Sounds like your sorting things out OK, need any help, give us a shout, there's lots of experience on here.

 

Looks like you have an F3 to me. Floating front rotors, the fork slider protectors, & speedo/tach. Show pic of engine, cam chain tensioner is different from F2 to F3. But then you have F2 upper fairing. Any how, nice bike, I like. I am always confused when I see F2 or F3 with racing stuff such as Fox shock, steering damper, and heavy duty engine covers but then have stock footpeg brackets instead of the aftermarket rearsets that would be higher up and further back. I have dragged my aftermarket rearsets more than once, I could only imagine how much the stock ones would drag while tracking.

 

Also, look at the rear wheel, it says the size. F2 is 4.5 inches wide, F3 is 5.0. Someone might have done the 900 5.5 inch conversion, which then should be a 180 tire. F2 and F3 should the the 160. Stock sprockets are 15 tooth front & 43 tooth rear.

 

I'm almost 100% sure it's an F2, I did a VIN verification through my insurance and it showed 1994 CBR600F2. It was wrecked before though and I've read that at least some F3 parts work on the F2 so maybe that's what it is?

I posted the rear tire size in the OP. It's a 190/55R17...Ridiculously oversized. The front and rear are both practically brand new Michelin Pilot Powers. They're both still covered in vent spews. I guess when this tire wears down I'll either have to stick with the 190, or find an OEM F2 wheel to put a 160 on and convert it back to stock.

I was told that the speedo/tach are aftermarket from eBay...some company called Street Racer Parts.

 

Out of curiosity, what's the point of putting such a large rear tire on anyway?

 

Look at the wheel, not the tire, to see if you still have the 4.5 (f2) or 5.0 (f3) rear wheel. Some misinformed people put those huge tires on those small wheels, thinking they are making their bike better, which they're not. Now if the wheel is the proper size for example the 5.5 inch wide 900 wheel, the proper tire would be the 180. As long as its the proper tire for the wheel its good. A performance upgrade.......maybe. More rubber on the road is better, but you also add weight with the big tire. And if you put the big tire on the skinny wheel you're not really getting all that rubber on the ground because the skinny wheel squeezes it and makes it skinnier than it suppose to be and changes the profile. So with all that being said, if you actually have the 900 wheel (5.5" wide) it should be the 180 tire. If you have the F2 (4.5") or F3 (5.0") it should be 160.

 

I took a look at the wheel and total width was about 5.5". I cleaned up the rim a bit and noticed a Honda OEM stamp that said 54R. A quick bit of online research suggests that's the 5.0" F3 wheel, so I'm guessing the measure of how wide the rim is isn't the true total width.

Regardless, at least now I know that I have an F3 rear wheel. Is there anything unsafe about riding with the 190 or will it just wear faster/differently? Keep in mind I'm a relatively new rider and I certainly won't be hitting the twisties anytime in the near future. My riding right now consists of nothing more than about 20mph on the street in front of the house.