Hey all,
So yesterday I put a deposit down on a 1998 Honda CBR 900RR. It has 30,000 miles on it, but seems very well taken care of. The guy I am buying it from only rode it a few times and bought it how you see it .. he decided he wanted a cruiser so he bought a Honda Shadow and is selling the CBR.

As my title says, this is my first bike, and I have gotten some people taken aback by the fact I am buying a 900cc bike as my starter.

Basically, between the age of 6 - 11 .. I was my dads passenger on my dads Harley's and loved being on a bike. My mom never wanted me to ride, so now that I am 21 .. I have decided for myself that I want to ride. My friend bought a 1997 Suzuki GSXR 600 a couple weeks ago so I have taken it out for probably a total of ~3 hours. I felt I really got the hang of the bike pretty quickly, and owed a lot of it to the "Sport Riding Techniques" book that I bought which I seen someone recommend on these forums.

Being on a bike, as probably all of you know, gives a different perspective on life and feeling "free". While my original plan was to wait till next spring, after riding his bike, I knew I had to have one!

Here are some pictures I took of the bike when I put the deposit on it .. hopefully I'll have the bike maybe by this weekend, and registered mid-next week.













So, polished frame .. custom taillights .. cigarette lighter adapter .. single swingarm conversion .. led mirrors .. evo exhaust .. and to be quite honest, I am not sure what else. Anyone know anything about this exhaust?

-Kyle

 

Welcome to the forums Kyle!!


I will be absolutely honest and say I have misgivings on any new rider going for a big bike as a starter ... preferring to recommend a good 600 but that said it is an older and therefore slower bike compared with the more modern stuff .. I have ridden a late 90's Fireblade CBR900RR though and they are still indecently quick. You do sound sensible and have read sport bike techniques ... the throttle is in your hand so please take it very, very easy no matter how confident you feel.

She looks to be a beaut!!
Good luck with it!!


Jules

 

I agree ^^ welcome to the forums. That is a sweet looking bike.

 

Thanks Jules. I find myself to be a very smart rider .. cautious and try to know my limits, and never get passed my limits (or near them for that matter). I am buying a bike to cruise, and not necessarily use the power of the 900cc between my legs. I feel I got the "feel" for riding down pretty well. Just like when I learned manual on a car some 5 years ago, taking off on a bike is one thing I will definitely need to get used to. I will sometimes feather the gas too lightly and stall it, or give it too much gas (On my friends GSXR600). When I get my CBR .. which may be tomorrow or Saturday, I plan on taking an entire day just to do 'start-stop-start-stop' on my rode to get the feel for taking off on it and learning the clutch/throttle.

Looking forward to becoming a CBR owner! My other hobby is cars .. I currently have a 5.7L Pontiac GTO with quite some work/money into it, but I gotta say, nothing beats the joy of riding a bike!

-Kyle

 

I would say a 600 is more than enough for a new rider, let alone a 900. These blades might be over 10 years old now but they're still a serious motorcycle. If you stick with the 900, just take it very easy - they can get you in to trouble pretty quickly.

The exhaust looks like a high level Blue Flame to me, you also have a different tail unit by the look of it (or the plastics at least). And a lot of chrome.

 

Yeah, the tail end is completely customized. I am not sure what bike it was designed for, because the original plastics are much thicker/bulkier than the one currently on the bike. The owner before the current guy did all the work himself, including wiring up the custom LED tails. I am not sure what seat would fit on the back, because looking at it compared to the stock 98' 900RR seats .. it is a completely different design.

Thanks for letting me know "Blue Flame EVO". Now I just gotta find out more info on the full exhaust system.

 

My guess would be a GSXR sort It might be worth looking up some GSXR pics to see if you can see the same tail unit? The actual seat pad looks standard though, just re-covered in yellow.

 

Yeah .. the driver seat is the standard seat ... the rear seat though which is just the plastic cover is not a standard 900RR seat.. so, if I wanted a rear seat .. I don't know what fits.

I'll probably end up getting the phone number of the guy who did it, and ask.

 

Well, I picked the bike up today and rode it around for about an hour before it rained. Absolutely love it! While it is definitely harder to ride than my friends GSXR, and definitely sits higher .. I feel confident I will get the hang of it sooner rather than later.

Absolutely love riding!

 

Sorry to be raining on your parade, but ... way too much bike for a first time rider. No mitigating aspects, no justifications or excuses. It's just too much bike.

How you see yourself is entirely irrelevant. YOU don't have a basis for an opinion. When someone who has been riding sports bikes for 10+ years says that of you, it'll have some weight. This isn't a personal attack. it's just reality that you can't know what you don't yet know.

Go spend $500 on an older bike, at or under 700 ccs, and learn the skills. Then, when you've taken THAT bike as far as you can go (and gotten the inevitable lay-downs out of the way) you can start to learn to use and appreciate the CBR900.

Keep the rubber side down!

JT