I haven't been here for a bit, so I wanted to let y'all know what went down. Here's some background:

https://cbrforum.com/forum/cbr-600f2...-my-f2-126386/
https://cbrforum.com/forum/f2-tech-9...m-help-130342/

I got my old F2 going, and it kept going until the ghetto starter fix i did gave up. I figure slamming the case against the ground misaligned the idler gear and the bike finally didn't start by the button. I parked it and rode my girls bike. At the same time work went from being a pleasant 8mi bicycle commute to a 20 mi highway commute, and work hours went up by at least 50% (don't work as a process engineer in silicon valley if you can avoid it, the salary isn't worth working like a dog). I didn't have time to do anything with my F2 and just was saving and paying off student debt and crash related costs.

Last week, I finally had the cash to get a new bike, and I was talking about this with a fast 20 year older than me friend who mention he was selling his 06' GSXR-1K. I've seen him pull away me riding a BP wheelie and make the turn off it on this ride so I bought it sight unseen. 6500mi, Ohlins rear (cant remmeber the model) valved front shocks, new lines set up for dot 5 fluid, 160RWHP dyno tuned, upgraded slipper clutch, ASV levers, full carbon can aftermarket pipes bla bla bla. All I care about is that the crappy low end fueling from the factory on EFI bikes is gone and the suspension and brakes are ****. Also, that it's been well cared for and is in great shape and complete. What a difference it makes! It's like riding on a magic carpet it's so plush (and it's got 1.0kg/mm spring up front and 10.8 kg/mm in the back, right what I had in wheel rate on the F2 within 3%, not soft!). It's nice for all my nuisances with a bike to be minor, and not to have to think about buying parts other than tires, chains and gasoline. I'll bring up some pics when I get a chance and let y'all know what it's really got if anybody cares when the PO gives me the upgrade list, but it's sick. Way easier to ride than a hopped up track stiff F2 I tell you what!

I'm still gonna get the old F2 back to good shape and sell it cheap to a friend of mine who loves it nearly as much as I do. I figure I need to get it up to the place where someone else can learn to love sportbikes on it.

 

I have a spare starter

 

Jank, I've got 2 good starters, but the castings on the case that hold down the axle that locates the starter idler gear are shot and the gear there is rubbing the flywheel. I could design and machine a fix (hooray Mech. E/ Materials Science & Engineering double major & the ability to machine) but I work 60-90 hrs a week, and I'd need to cut back to 45-60 for me to attempt it.

Here are some pics.


That's the PO. He's crazy fast and the king of the BP wheelie here in Oakland, but he's getting on in years and has broken his back in the last 10. He no longer has fun swinging on a damned near 200hp torture rack, that's why he gave me a deal on the thing.



He now embarrasses young guns on superbikes on that BMW F800 in the background here. That bike is pretty much the only adventure bike on the market today. The others (GS1200, VStrom, Multistrada, KTM Adventurer 990) are sweet bikes but too damned heavy to be dirt capable.



And here's a stupid juvenile thing I did when my boss pressured me into riding to work on a day I took off to do nothing and made me lane-split 30 miles on 80/880 to Hayward on a new bike. He wanted me to come before getting proof of insurance! ****. That.

So anyways, it's a sweet whip and I hope I can be as smooth as the bike is going over choppy East Bay mountain roads!

 

hahaha nice man!!!!!! I wanna live in cali! It looks so nice!!!! well i do also have a spare lower case.

But man, i just wanna ride cali weather it looks sooo nice!

 

The weather's less nice than you'd think. It's too chilly for tires to do their magic on the good roads here so your tire choices can't come from magazines or the track. The roads you wanna ride are suicidal here. There are ex formula pacific champs, AMA midpackers, AFM ringers and general fast suicidal and GOOD 23 year old in 30K in debt to buy the liter bike and the 30K of gear and tires you need to hang with the guys who got factory support. You try to get a tow before being ready and your tow will suck you off a shear cliff. A sportbike isn't for the faint of heart here.

I already high-sided on the goddamed piece of **** GSXR. The suspension was set up terribly, with a steering damper to cover up improperly installed head bearing and a bike that felt like it was set up to wheelie only. I went over to Catalyst and they found the thing was getting damned near 40mm of race sag and close to 6mm of stiction. ****ing USD forks are garbage for a streetbike, the seal design is incapable of being as durable as conventional and either the seals will drag like a flat tire or have half year service intervals.

Sorry to rant, but I legitimately street race becasue I cannot afford the track, and have seen too many people carted off a track day in a stretcher for me to beleive the track is safe outside of a group of very skilled riders you know the style of and can count on to at least be within 20% of the pace at any part of the track. This is true of a vanishingly small fraction of superbike owners, and very few of them exclusively ride the track. You cant have the passion you need to be that quick (and I know I am not as good as I am) I think you're in danger and are putting your track-mates in danger. And that's why I miss my honda, it's limits were slighly above the combo of tires and street grip, but it has a still light amount of inertia in the crank to be flickable, and can be brought to under 400lbs at a profit. You cannot say that about any aluminum framed bike with ram air. I always want to have one in my garage because no one will build a bike with this philosophy again and sell it by the thousand.

 

Haha, just got another CBR. Picked up a brand new CBR250RA, the ABS one. It's sweet! Super easy choice at $120/mo for 36 mo. It'll pay itself off in gas alone! Not if I keep buying stuff for it though... Just bought a Penske 8983 shock, Sato rear sets, race tech gold valves, springs for the front, FMF full system + bazazz ECU. It's already a ridiculously fast street-bike, and will be truly amazing street bike as well as a perfect commuter when all these parts come in. With all the work, it should be about 365lbs wet making nearly 25 RWHP out of that single. Perfect in my book, and all for under 8K total. You can't approach that lightness with a sport bike for that amount. This will hopefully be my last new bike for a while.

I got the thing from Scott Dunlavey (pictured) who raced the XR600/650Rs in baja for years before starting up a Honda/Yamaha dealership in Berkeley CA. Cool dude, and he gave me the hook up on it. How could I say no at 2% interest?