Don't modify the way your bike performs until you have experience under your belt. That includes power and suspension mods (including clip on risers). An exhaust is fine, that won't really do much.

Really, though, there is no potential. Ride it, learn, become comfortable, then learn some more, and go from there. There's no idyllic gear or RPM or turning radius or anything when it comes to riding on the street. Just being safe more than anything.

I think you should get some experience and then ask some questions about some more specific aspects of your riding or techniques. That way they're less general, and you won't get a ton of random opinions. It's bad to get habits from the get-go, especially if they're the wrong advice.

And definitely make some friends with bikes, because they'll be able to help out a lot more since they can actually see what you're doing.

 

Basically slow down and smell the Honda Polish

 

I've played around with it and found that I can only do it smoothly under certain conditions. I can still get it to shift under just about any conditions, but it's not smooth, thus very hard on gears. Smooth shifts means gears are lined up and rotating at the same speed when they come in contact with each other which minimizes wear.

As others have said, though, get a feel for your bike and how it acts in general before working on the intricacies. You have more important things to pay attention to than a perfect shift as a beginner (like traffic, maybe? ). As you go along, the general skills will become second nature. Then you'll be able to pay enough attention to traffic while perfecting things like your shift.

Again, as others have said, just keep it slow enough that your comfortable. People make mistakes when they start to get nervous or overwhelmed.

By the way, you can clutchless shift in a car, too. I had a '94 Chevy S10 with the crappiest clutch on the planet. In city driving on a hot day, it didn't make shifting any easier, so I would just pull it out of gear, get the engine rpm where it needed to be, and finish the shift.

 

You can clutchless shift in nearly (if not) everything. Doesn't always mean you should.

Hehe, just keep practicing, have fun, and remember, it's more fun to enjoy the ride than risk getting hurt.

 

Well said, Sir. Though I disagree on suspension mods. Suspension can help the ride regarding safety. Get experienced help with tuning and don't fiddle with it.

 

Heck, my clutch less shifting is smoother then using the clutch sometimes.... I just slightly let off the throttle and then shift... Bad habit though as I used to do it on my f4 a lot and now it slips out of 2nd gear.

As for the risers, I always felt the f4/f4i clip on's were already too high to start, esp compared to the 600rr

 

Be smart. That's my advice. If it seems like a bad idea, it probably is.

But I agree with Aken, practice, and once you start to become more familiar, then ask more specific questions, because basics should come first, and there are endless opinions on those.