So this thread is for my progress fixing up the 1999 CBR600F4 I brought home on 1/27/2014. 32,XXX miles on it. Clean title, runs, but needs a bit of work.

Pics as bought-




Bike also came with the fairing stay, stock gauge cluster, and a very good condition front upper fairing (minus a couple broken headlight tabs).

My goal is to make this primarily my track bike, but street-legal as well, and do it on the cheap. I'm thinking I will probably keep it streetfighter-ish, put a single round headlight on it, and some bar-end mirrors.

 

ideal starting point for a track bike, keep us updated with your progress

 

Yeah, ditch that Acerbis if you want to be able to see at night time... I'll be keeping an eye out for this project. Do us, fighter-ers, proud!

 

So I took it for a quick spin around the block this past weekend, and started digging into it a little. I know these model CBR's are infamous for needing cam chain tensioners replaced, and I'm pretty sure that's what the rattling noise coming from the right side of the engine is. Seems to run pretty good, probably needs a carb cleaning though, as it's hard to start.

The seller said that it felt like the rotors were starting to warp, and I confirmed that it does feel that way. I'll check the runout before I start shopping for new ones.

I pulled off the stupid purple headlight. Previous owner's electrical connections involved twisting the strands together and electrical taping them together. Oh, he wired up the left and right turn signals opposite. Disconnected and removed a broken gear indicator which was superglued to the upper triple tree. Probably lightened the bike by a half-roll of electrical tape amount.

Some paint bubbling under the gas cap, and some was flaking right at the top of the filler neck - makes me think the tank was repainted at some point.

At some point, one of the previous owners removed the undertail and put on some type of tail-tidy. The seat lock cylinder was also removed. Seat needed to be removed my unscrewing the undertail. Stock rear tail light harness had the brake light wires clipped, connected to nothing.. Brake light flasher module was installed under the seat, but only connected to the rear brake switch, so even if the wires weren't clipped, it wouldn't work on front brake application. I'll build a LED tail light for it with integrated signals, I've built a handful of custom brake light arrays.

Rear cowling appears to be from a 04-06 F4i, as it has holes for a grab bar, which was not on the US-model 99-00 F4's. Will probably scour ebay for a grab bar, as it's handy moving bike around in the garage. Also both tail light mounting tabs are broken.

Parts needed (as of now):
Cam Chain tensioner?
Right rearset
Chain/sprockets
Rear tire
Front rotors (possibly)
Round headlight
Bar-end mirrors
Rear grab bar
Frame sliders

 

Welcome to the forum! I love seeing what people do to get their bikes on the track! Good luck.

I have rotors if you want OEM.

 

Some updates here, not as many as I'd like due to other projects with higher priority.

Currently the rear end is hanging on ratchet straps from the ceiling in my garage. Ignore the giant mess in the rest of my garage. I Pulled the swingarm to have some tabs welded on for using a spool stand - the welder and a machinist at my work do fine work in exchange for 6 packs of beer. Cleaned 15 years worth of crud off the swingarm. In hindsight, I probably should've just used rivnuts, and then remove the spools before riding... or just traded my spool stand for a swingarm pad stand.

Picked up a Michelin Pilot Power takeoff with >90% tread left and had that mounted on the rear wheel, matches the front Pilot Power. The sprockets are in ok shape, the chain is pretty filthy with some rust, but I'm hoping a good soaking/scrubbing in kerosene will bring it back to life, as I don't want to drop the coin on new chain/sprockets now.

I bought some Woodcraft frame sliders - especially since I noticed that the engine mount bolts were missing anyways. One of my local riding buddies has a right side rearset for me, just need to find time to grab that from him.

 

Lookin good so far! You will love the woodcraft frame sliders, they actually do their job and the do it very well.

 

Ok, so first track days of this year are this weekend, Sat and Sun at NYST, kinda frantically trying to get this in riding condition.
Swingarm is back on, spools are installed.
New chain (RK 525 x-ring) and steel sprockets (OEM size) are installed.
New brake pads installed up front (EBC HH) and speed bleeders installed on front and rear calipers, fluid flushed.
Installed a set of ebay non-padded foot pegs.
Ebay'ed a 04-06 F4i grab handle, needed some filing of the tail plastic to fit. Pretty sure the tail fairing that's on the bike is a chinese knockoff - not even half of the holes are lining up.
Removed an old undertail fender eliminator that was hacked on and dangerous - ebay'ed a cheap stock undertail.
Ordered an APE manual cam chain tensioner, but when I started the bike up a few days ago, it wasn't rattling as much as I remembered, so I might hold off on installing that for now.
Ebay'ed a set of front rotors, since I'm still not sure if mine are warped. I bought a HF clamp-on dial indicator, and with cleaning out the disc bobbin things on the ones on the bike, I was able to get the runout within tolerance. Hopefully this set I bought are good just in case.
Today after work I plan to put a few laps on it around the block to see how its running, and find out if I need to replace the rotors and the CCT.
Also need to make a little bracket to mount the gauge cluster above the triple tree, but I've got an idea how I'm going to do that.

 

Swingarm installed, new chain and sprockets installed


Woodcraft sliders installed


New ebay non-rubber pegs installed


Front calipers cleaned, seals replaced


EBC HH pads installed in front, speedbleeders installed on F and R calipers


Triple tree drilled, two 3" standoffs screwed to it


1/8" aluminum plate shaped to fit back of gauge cluster screwed to standoffs


Gauge cluster installed to aluminum plate with high-strength velcro. Key still fits under ignition, easy enough to remove gauges to fiddle with front suspension


grab rail installed, cheap chinese fairings not even close to lining up. handle will get some paint or powder coat eventually.


At its first track day!

 

So, how was it on the track?