Help Needed
 

Hi there everyone.
My younger 17 year old brother just purchased a 99 F4i with 23k miles on it and I'm hoping to find help with some questions. He made a hastey decsion when purchasing this bike and I'm worried it may not be the safest to ride.

First off I should note that it is a salvage title (which was not disclosed to him) which first raised some alarm when he told me about it. My mechanical knowlege is minimal at best but I inspected the bike and the frame and welds look fine. When I rode it, the main thing that concerned me was when breaking using front break, the handlebars shake quite a bit. The previous owner installed a stearing stabalizer so I thought in might be the breaks/rotars. Any thoughts? The other thing that worries me is that the throttle sticks. Last but not least, when taking taking the bike above 8k rpm's I can hear a rattling in the engine area. I'm not sure if maybe it's just a loose bolt or if it's inside the engine but there is definately a rattling that's not there at lower rpm's. There isn't any significant vibration differance, just a rattling noise.

How many miles have you guys got out of your F4i? I just want to make sure it's safe for him to ride because he's 17 (and I know how I would have rode at that age) and it's his first bike.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!

The rattling it could be the CCT(cam chain tensioner) , I know a lot of people on here have had to replace it and it does exactly what you a describing, you won't hear it until you hit a certain rpm and then it will be a loud rattling. Use the search box and look up CCT.

23K miles is nothing for a F4i, there is people on this forum with over 100k on theirs, I think one guy is accually pushing 150k.

What you should do is make sure that he has good gear, helmet, gloves, jacket, pants, that way if he layed it down he would be better protected.

BTW they didn't make an F4i in 1999. You're looking for the f4 forums. see a little further down on the home page

listen, the BIG problem hear is that the throttle sticks. get that fixed first and then worry about everything else. that's dangerous.

Maybe the bearings in the head could get replaced. The throttle almost always sticks on a wrecked bike. I would make sure it is adjusted right at the carbs '99 is an F4. adjust the cables alittle either way and that should do it. Get an ape cam chain tensioner. That will take care of the rattle.

Make sure he has good gear! Gloves are $100 that is the cheapest thing you have to get. It is a lot of money but it is worth it.

Shaking in the front definitely sounds like it needs rotors. You can probably snag some pads and rotors on eBay pretty cheap.

Rattling sure sounds like the CCT. I've read that people tighten the stock one and put a longer bolt through the back to make sure it doesn't loosen, you can read more about this if you search the forum.

Take off the cable and lube it... The easies way to do this is hold it straight up and make a little funnel around one end with duct tape and spray lube in it and move the cable until the lube comes out the other end.

+1 on the gear. Make sure he's got plenty of it cause if he's 17 and this is his first bike he'll probably lay it down and you want him to be safe.

Todd: I don't mean to be a dick but there are no bearings in the head...

If like you say the throttle is sticking.... Check to make sure the hand grips arent to close and rubbing against the handle bars.... my f4i seemed to be sticking but it was just as simple as sliding the hand grip out a little bit.... as for the braking issue it could very well be a very worn out or warped brake disk.... or that the disk was warped and the previous owner changed the disk but not the pads and they need to be changed.... as for the rattling sound have your brother rev the bike..(after its warmed up obviously) and you can use a screw driver.... put your ear against the handle and the tip of the screw driver against the motor to try and pin point the rattling sound (louder it gets your getting closer to the right region) best of luck to ya

Yeah, the 99 f4i doesn't exist. :icon_wink: Did the PO tell him it was an f4i? The "i" means "injected," as in "fuel injected," which the 99 F4 is not.

Eh, that could be as simple as the bike had some expensive part break in a non frame-wrecking accident, so the insurance comapny totalled it.

Warped wheel, warped rotor(s), warped pads, bad calipers, bad master cylinder seal, bad fork seals. Take your pick there. The "what kind" and "when" of the shake is going to be your clue, there.

Hell, are you sure THAT'S in good condition?

Disassemble, clean, and re-lube the throttle handle, and make sure all your cables are run prperly. If it still sticks, pull the carbs and check out where it all hooks up underneath. Might as well dismantle and clean the carbs while you have them out.

The cam chain tensioners tend to wear out on those after about 25k. There's a lot of argument out there over whether it's even something you need to worry about, as people have lived with the noise for years and never had anything actually fail. Basically the tensioner looses. . .well, tension. . .and the cam chain starts smacking against the case. It could be something else, though. If it's the CCT, buy an APE.

Honda's are tanks, and every last speck of them is user-replacable (with the right tools and knowledge). Even rebuilding the engine is a "fun thing to do over the weekend." Treated well, you can get upwards of 50k out of one before you start looking at a major rework. It looks like yours was not treated well, however. . .


So what you're asking is: "Is it safe to give a teenage boy a bike with an accellerator that sticks open and crappy brakes, and can go from zero-to-lethal in just under two seconds?"

Do you really need the Internet to answer that?




All mechanical problems aside, and without getting into the age-old "Is this a good starter bike" argument, I would say he probably shouldn't have it. I don't know your brother, but I know me. I was a 17 year old boy once, and I know that the faster you go, the cooler you are, and it's that simple. I got my first bike (an F3) when I was 30, and it still scared the hell out of me how fast it can take off if you're not light on your fingers. And this is from a guy who has been *arrested on more than one occasion* for excessive speeding in his car.

If he's not taking it into traffic, and he's riding with experienced, responsible riders, then he might be OK. Traffic is a big problem. There's a TON of stuff that you just begin to subconciously compensate for after you have 5,10,15 years of driving a car under your belt. You know what I mean, the kneejerk reactions you just do without thinking to avoid a bad situation. You didn't hae that subconcious thing going when you first started driving (16, 17), so you were either CONSTANTLY conciously looking at every last little thing no the road, and driving 5 miles under the limit, scared to death, or you were (like me) figuring out how to make the tape deck louder and rear ending somebody once a month, and hopping the curb every time someone cut you off.

To use a motorcycle in traffic, you need a VERY GOOD subconcious coping mechanism, that I persoanlly don't think you have after just a year or two of driving a car, unless you drive that car 25k miles a year. On a bike, you can't freak out and slam on the brakes. You can't "spin the wheel" to get out of the way of something that pops up in front of you. Hell, even just dealing with the manual transmission can take up a good chunk of your thuoght process at first if you weren't sued to one already.

So, like i said, I don't know your brother, and he may be the most responsible, thoughtful kid on the planet, and a great candidate for a young rider. What I DO know is the CBRs are VERY powerful bikes. With the proper training and usage, they can be the most pleasurable, relaxing bikes out there. But, with even slight improper usage, they can turn into the stereotypical death machine that every mother on the planet fears their child ever getting on.

At an ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM, he should take the MSF course before he ever even sits on the thing. In IL, that's a requirement to get your license at 17, anyway. After that, a good 1000 miles of riding before traffic even begins to enter discussion.


Also, if neither of you are machanically inclined, and don't have access to someone who is and works for free, then you probably shouldn't own any bike in general. They're hobby vehicles. You have to do a lot of maintenence on them all the time, down to going through and tightening a crapload of screws and bolts every few thousand miles. Paying a service technician to maintain and repair every aspect of your bike will put you ni the poor house right quick.

Psh I live in illinois... here you cant even have a salvage bike liscenced....

At an ABSOLUTE BARE MINIMUM, he should take the MSF course before he ever even sits on the thing. In IL, that's a requirement to get your license at 17, anyway. After that, a good 1000 miles of riding before traffic even begins to enter discussion.

Yeah, IL HATES bikers. That's why they let us ride without helmets. They figure the problem will take care of itself.