Hello everyone. Thought I'd stop here to say hey as a new CBR owner. I just made a trade last week for a '00 CBR600 F4, and so far I love the bike! It has ~15,250 miles on it and runs great. I can tell that it's been down hard before, and the guy I got it from replaced the fairings with some 'heavily-used' plain black. That's ok to me, though, since it got me out of a dirt bike I haven't ridden in a decade.

I've never been a street-bike person before, though I rode dirt bikes a ton when I was younger. This street bike thing is weird! Compared to riding a dirt bike, I mean. I'm planning to take a riding course/class; there's a program here called "Idaho STAR" which looks like a good one.

Anyway, hello everyone. I look forward to 'seeing' you around the forums!

 

Hi & welcome to CBRF!
THe F4 is a great bike,very easy to ride.
If you have any questions on your new bike visit the guys in the F4 forum,they can help you out.
Ride safe and enjoy the forum!

 

Welcome to the Forum. Yeah the "Idaho Star" as your state calls it is a good way to
go man. Some good gear for the street will help too.

Anyway enjoy the Forum , post up a pic of the bike if ya can.

 

Hello and Welcome to the CBRF!!! Please post up some pics, we like to Oh and Ah over other peoples CBR's. +1 on the riding course.

Gear up and Ride Safe...

 

Thanks for the welcome! The bike is pretty hideous, honestly, but mechanically it's sound. I am looking for street gear right now, actually. What I've been wearing to work and back this week is some old dirt bike armor and gear. It seems to work ok, but I really have no idea how it compares to street gear in terms of impact protection. So, I'm trying to go through the forum here to see what I can dig up. Thanks again for the welcome!

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome to the site, man!
Yeah, dirt riding is a good bit different than street. The bike parts are essentially the same, but that's about it. lol.

Have fun and ride safe!

 

Hey, I know you. Welcome to CBRF! Should start looking better with the parts I'm sending out to you on Monday. We'll get you back on the road here at CBRF. Need help, just ask, somebodys always got good info to help.

 

Yeah, thanks, OutlawF4! Those parts will help the bike a bunch!

 

I figure this is as good a place as any to babble a bit so here goes:

I got my street helmet today. I've been riding to work and back with an older dirt bike helmet I have. I'm glad to have a street helmet, though. Quieter, not windy (full-face helmet), built for the street, etc. It also fits my head much better, so I believe I won't get a headache from wearing it. It's one of the HJCs with the built-in sunshade thingy. Between that and the breathing shield, it kinda looks like a fighter pilot's helmet.

I ordered a jacket and riding gloves yesterday, and I expect that at least the jacket will be here by the end of the week. The brand is "Xelement," and it's the only brand I can easily find that claims to have armor that's CE-certified to the Level 3 standard (better impact absorption/protection than levels 1 or 2). It also generally matches the color scheme of the bike (yellow & black), and should make me more visible to others along with the white helmet. I'm not going to start pretending that I'm anything other than invisible when riding, though.

I'm also registered in the Idaho STAR class this weekend. It's the last one of the year, and it'll probably be March (maybe even April?) before they have any more in my area. For those not familiar, this is Idaho's MSF-type organization. I'm actually excited to take this class, because despite my years of dirt bike riding in my youth, street bikes are 'weird' and different, and I'd like some formal training and whatever tips I can pick up.

I'm also trying to home in on some front turn signals. I've found a bunch on *bay that have LEDs integrated into the mirrors, which I think might be wise on this particular bike at this particular time, so I'm now searching around the forums here to see whether there's a brand or vendor I should either avoid or choose. I think I need one of the replacement signal relays, too, on account of even now (with only rear signals on the bike) the blinkers flash so fast that the light bulbs only just barely start to glow before they cycle back off. Any hints/tips/suggestions for those? I've seen them from $10 to $80 on *bay so far. I'll keep looking through the forums here.

Happy riding, everyone!