I am new to the board and am looking for a CBR600 f4 or F4i. I'm not new to riding though as I raced motocross for many years and logged several thousand miles on my old CBR600f.

My question:
I've test ridden two F4is and two f4s and it seems that in a certaint rpm range the F4 has more of a hit to it than the f4i. Maybe the f4i was a little more responsive down low, but as the rpms climbed the f4s seem to have a clearer spot were the powerband comes together and gives you a good tug. To the point were it actually lofted the wheel a couple of times in 1st. The F4i pulled evenly but never actually "hit", it just seemed to rev past the same spot with no defenition. I know in test reports honda clamed a 5% power increase from the f4 to the f4i. Where is that extra power or is that just marketing BS?

Or am I just crazy?

 

more than likely the F4i's power delivery is smoother throughout the entire power band and more power at lower rpms, so your not noticing a 'jerk' at a certain speed, your probably going just as fast or faster, but just smoother. plus its hard to say you there were any adjustments to either bikes that you did/didnt know about (sprockets etc)

 

All bikes were stock except one f4i had a micron slip-on. I will admit that I did not count the teeth on the sprockets, even though the owners siad they were all stock.

I think the RPM range was around 8k were the f4 would pull pretty hard. Like you said it may be that the f4 is delivering its power in one spot while the "i" was spreading the same power over a wider range.

But either way the F4 felt faster, even though it might actually be the same.

 

i dont forsee a F4 being faster than the F4i if they are both stock, otherwise why would honda spend all the money on R&D to make a slower bike?

im quite confident that its just smoother, and you dont notice the power kick as much.

 

http://www.mcnews.com.au/Testing/Hon...0F4i/Page1.htm

 

F4i's can loft the front wheel too... My stock did it in first at ~7k

 

Stock sprockets on an F4 are different to the stock sprockets on the F4i. The F4i's got 500 more rpm at the top so they made the gearing a little taller to take advantage of this.

That, plus the whole FI/Carb thing is probably what you're feeling.

 

^ thats exactly it. the f4s are carbureted and they tell to give off instantaneous power with a jerk like response. as where fuel injection is a bit more linear since all throttle pulls have been preprogrammed.

i remember that the 01 f4i has some problems with the pgmFI and the low clock speed on the processor caused the bike to have a slight hesitation when the throttle was pulled abruptly< I will vouch for this since I see it on my bike. however, they claimed that the fixed the that issue with the 02s and up. over all, you should see a quicker response from the throttle on a carbureted machine. since FI processes do take up time to respond according to what they where calibrated for.

 

I didn't like that little bit of hesistation my F4 had; the F4i's acceleration is definitely smoother.

On the other hand the F4 looked better. I'll never like the headlight's low-beam set-up with the F4i -- it's a stupid design that unfortunatley didn't end with the latest RR.

 

My cousin had an F4 and i have a F4I, When he rode my bike he said the same thing that his seemed to have more pull but also said that mine seemed faster in the top end than his did.

Yes the headlights suck on the F4I's I mean how many times do i have to explain to people that i don't have a burnt out headlight. Although i do like the look of the headlights better than any other, i just wish they would work like the R6s rather than one out when not useing the highbeams.