Keep the F2... get at least a good 10,000kms under your *** before you blow a wad on a newer bike. Not only will you probably drop your bike as a newbie (and the F2 is cheaper to fix) but you will appreciate/respect the new bike that much more because you will have gained riding skill on the F2.

 

just my opinion, but if you are so new, my advice would be to fix it up a little, but dont go to a huge expense, use this as an opportunity to learn how to do stuff yourself, like painting fairings, and generally tidying it up. you might gt right into it and do some custom stuff if you are that way inclined!! but take the opportunity o learn!, and after you have put effort into it, you will become attached and appreciate the bike more, they are a great little bike, but in my experience, the grass is ALWAYS greener, you will always want something else, a little newer, nicer, faster, sexier, whatever, regardless of what you have at the time! bike envy never goes away.
Learn what you can, fix her up a bit, and when you are a little more experienced, and ready to move up to something else, you may well even make a reasonable profit on sale if you have done a nice job.
By the sounds of it, the things you would need to do to tidy it up are relatively inexpensive if you take your time and be creative and do it yourself instead of paying tradesman wages!

 

Anyone here change their own tires? I've seen it done but I don't know if i can do it. I could do it on a bicycle, but never on cars or motorcycles. From what I've seen...its the same logic. Should I go try it out? I asked Honda near me and they told me that it will cost me $85 if I bring the bike to them and have them change the tires, after purchasing dunlop qualifiers for $360 for the front and back. Does that sound reasonable? Or should I get pirelli's and do it myself? I use to use pirellis on my Nissan Z, so I like their quality.

 

The hardest part of changing a tire is not scuffing up or chipping all the paint off your rims. My rims were already in not so pretty shape, so I didn't mind learning on mine. It gets easier with time but I suggest learning on an unpainted rim at least, or a rim you don't care about chipping.

It is worth it though. I change and balance my own tires and save a ton of money.

There are certain things to do to help you change a tire, don't just do it without reading up on it first. Sport tires are very stiff and hard to get off and if you go about it the wrong way, you could bend your rim. If you can't find anything on google on how to change tires then ask here before you try it.

 

I would ditch the fairing, sell what you take off and buy a decent headlight setup with the money. The fairing and square headlight on these bikes really dates them, but they look like a fairly modern naked bike without the fairing. Heck, Honda still uses the f3 motor in the naked 599.

If that isn't your taste, the newer F3 tails are pretty much a direct fit, I think you'll need the seat too. They can do a lot for the looks of the bike.

 

Dissevered...thanks. I checked out some videos from Youtube about changing a motorcycle tire. It looks like I'm capable of doing it. I went to a few places today to find Dunlop Qualifiers....still the cheapest is $350 for the tires and $65 for mounting. I also checked out the Power Pilots, but they were about $100 more than the Qualifiers. I think they are cheaper online if I buy them myself.

The rim on my bike is black, but I'm going to buy those thin plastic inserts for the wheel and use motorcycle tire irons. I'll never know unless I try!

Sideways...thanks for the input. Yeah, I've decided to keep the bike. I just picked up a new turn signal relay today and the bike's electrical is working beautifully! Now it's just the matter of changing the tires to pass inspections. I'm also going to keep the fairings. Even though they look the way they do, I'll just figure a way to keep it looking unified.

Bentley made a good point, the riding season is pretty much over for me since I'm a teacher (school in the U.S. is just around the corner) so i'll make the best of it now and get as many miles as I can on the bike to learn it and gain some confidence in exploring farther than just my suburban town.

Tigertim is also correct. By the time comes, there will be a 2010 or a 2011 CBR out there that probably looks better than the 600's out now. I hope they come out with a yellow/black version that looks like the LE version of the R6 in the future.

 

Keep the F2. I bought my '94 for $300 about 4 months ago in pretty bad shape. It didn't run and was missing parts. After investing about $500 and 100 hours of my time, I have a pretty respectable bike.

With a little work you can turn this:

Into this: