Hello o/

This is my first post so hello all. Little bit about my situation:
I'm 26 from the UK, Manchester.
I passed my Full Motorcycle Licence in July 2023, never ridden a bike before this so still a rookie and new to the riding world.
I purchased a gorgeous CBR600F4i in August 2023 with 29K miles, she runs brilliantly with FSH. I love it! Fun to ride, not too crazy in the lower revs which gives me room to develop my skills while being able to pick up the pace in the higher revs as I improve.

I would like to take my bike to the track this year and enter a novice group to help further develop my skills and I feel it would be in my best interest to purchase a steering stabiliser & some crash protectors.
Could anyone share with me what you have purchased for your F4i and what you recommend to look at?
Last one: When I first got my F4i the suspension was very hard, using the booklet & some online videos I've been able to soften it up and it definitely is nicer to ride and responds to my inputs better. Does anyone have a dedicated guide or a recommended expert in the North West area which can help me dial it in properly for my weight?
Open to any tips or tricks to riding in general and/or for the F4i
Have a pic of me and my new bike, would love to see yours!


Thanks,
Hector

 

Hi Hector, welcome to the forum. Great bike you have there, we are of course a little biased!

Dave Moss videos for suspension set up and depending upon where you are planning on having your tracks days there may well be people there that will help you. There is a place in Preston, I have not used them that provides a ride in service:
https://twsuspensiontech.co.uk/setups/

As far as crash protection goes in order to get crash bungs to fit directly to the frame the fairings have to be drilled.
Some say they are good in a slide but other say they can sometime stick and cause the bike to cart-wheel. You can get some that fit to the engine brace and come out of the side vents, but I'm not sure how much benefit they would be.
I have some fitted mainly to protect the fairings from the inevitable maneuvering slip at 0 mph.

I would recommend getting a set of race fairings and take the OEM ones off, they are very hard to replace and very very expensive if you wreck them

Good luck and take it easy.
Cheers
Allan

 

Hi @Al1040 (Allan), thanks for the welcome and help!

Yeah a brilliant bike! Looking forward to this summer to start using a bit more of the tachometer!
I'll have a look at them Dave Moss videos, thank you very much. I also looked at the link you provided, will definitely look at taking it to these guys. For £50, sounds like a great deal.

Didn't think that could be a danger with the crash bungs but I can see how it can be. Might invest in some that go on the engine brace just for the inevitable 2-10mph drop when doing a U-Turn one day lol.
Your idea about purchasing some aftermarket fairings might me a great idea to explore, I love the colour/graphics of the bike currently and will be extremely upset if I were to ruin them.

Thank you very much, ride safe and hope you have a great 2024 riding season
Hector

 

I've had privilege of having Dave Moss tune suspension on my CBR600RR. What you will find is that as you improve, your higher speeds will tax suspension more and use up more of its travel. Use zip-ties on fork-blades to measure suspension-travel. Then adjust so suspension moves entire stroke over largest bump you'll hit.



Racetech GVE - gold-valve emulators for forks which will give you adjustable rebound and compression damping. Also adjustable rear-shock from other bikes like GSXR-600 or R6 are inexpensive and easy upgrades. This will let you fully dial-in bike.

No steering damper needed really, it's only needed when your front-end gets light and you land with it ****-eyed, such as getting air over T1 at Laguna Seca @ 135mph. I've only had 1 incident in 10-yrs of racing my RR where steering-damper was needed (45-50 days @ track/year). And that was unfortunate event where Power Commander died and killed engine while I was mid-air @135mph. Steering damper hinders your maneuverability at low-speeds, such as parking-lot exercises which you should be doing lots (U-turns in single-lane, figure-8, boxes, etc.)

I put Optimal Fairings fibreglass race-fairings on my bike to preserve factory plastics for sale later. It's lighter and stronger than OEM ABS. Can survive multiple crashes and slides whereas OEM won't survive 1st crash without being destroyed. Also repairable using standard auto-body procedures (bondo, fibreglass, paint).

I used regular slider pucks. Definitely helped on low-speed crashes to preserve bodywork. The high-speed flipping thing is really unsubstantiated, I've seen bikes flip with and without sliders. Dynamics of high-speed crash varies greatly and depends upon whether it's low-side or high-side or just rider jumping off.