I have a 2000 CBR600 F4 and recently purchased it with about 7k miles on it. She runs great but there are a few thing I am doing maintenance wise to get it running up to spec since I know it had sat for a bit.

One of the things I want to do is drain/flush the coolant which I have done on cars and is very straightforward. What I am struggling with, before diving into this, is how to access the darn radiator cap. I have both the service manual and Haynes manual and am confused how to remove the air duct. One tells me to remove the upper panel next tot he fuel tank and then just remove the duct the other manual tells me to remove the entire instrument panel first. Wut? That seems really excessive.

Any advice/tips on getting that air duct out to service the radiator/coolant?

 

Yeah, you will need to remove the front fairing to get the air duct completely off. As you can see by this picture, there is a large upper chamber on the duct that keeps it from being able to come out with the upper fairing on.



You might be able to pull the duct from the airbox and have enough wiggle room to remove the cap. But really, taking the front fairing off isn't that difficult, and will make the whole job a lot easier.

 

This is really helpful thanks! Fairings/panels are part of having a sportsbike so I don't mind the extra few minutes of tear down.

It looks like the instrument panel is still present so firing it up and bleeding it after refill should still be fine. It's really just the plastic that comes off?

 

Exactly, all you unplug are some air hoses and connections to the headlight and turn signals.