Yes and No. Once the 600RR hit the scene, the F4i became the "touring" bike. Prior, you're right that it was Honda's 600 Race Rep



Duhamel on the F4i (And look at that dork on the RC51!)

When it went Banana Seat, it went comfier and softer.

 

is it true that they detuned the 03-06 F4i's to allow for more of a performance gap with the RR?

 

I'm not sure if they "detuned" the F4i's engine, but I do know they made it substantially more comfortable to differentiate between it and the 600RR. That's the reason they went back to the banana seat. No other bike has done that, that I can think of. Jap, euro, etc.

"Gotta sell them 600rr's, right?"

 

Totally OT but I keep reading the headline "Fiat at the track"

 

So I finally started to drag knee at the track and I think there are two things that needed to change in order for this to happen.

First off, I'm only 5'6" with a 30" inseam. I've been going to the same track for 2 years and was not able to drag knee until recently. My conclusion is that the stock pegs are too low for my dimensions and I was finding myself hanging off too much in order to try to get this to happen with the stock pegs. I switched to Woodcraft rearsets and immediately noticed that my knee sticks out significantly more when getting body into a cornering position. The other thing with the stock rear sets is since they are not fixed and spring backwards if the peg feeler touches down. This totally upsets the stability of the bike since the majority of my weight in on that inside peg; not good.

Second, it helps to open your legs as much as possible. The first time out at the track with my new rear sets, I was still dragging toe on my boot. Next lap I started opening my legs up more (my instructor had pointed this out last track day) and that's when I started getting my knee down.

Hope this helps.

 

good to hear you got it down! I was finally able to get mine down at a track this past august. Found that my lean angle was there but body position wouldnt allow it. Ended up moving back in the seat about 1 1/2" then boom, both knees down the very next session. what really helped was watching my instructor, that was a little taller than me (im 6'4"), drag his knee with a very low lean angle.

 

Damn! I forgot all about this thread!

I ended up removing my "feelers" for my track day this year and got my left knee down. I ended up scraping the exhaust on the right side. Still haven't invested in a set of rear sets as I don't think I'll ever be able to afford track days as a regular hobby. It's fun to go out once a year with my buddies and mess around though and wear the sides of my tires down.

I have to mention the Pirelli Angel ST has lasted an incredibly long time on the front. It has out lasted three rear tires, 20,000kms and (2) 8 hour track days of being balled up. It hasn't scalloped but it is getting down to the wear bars on the centre and sides.