I figure I should introduce myself since I'll be using this forum quite a bit while rebuilding a bike I was given. A little bit of back story on why I was given a 1997 CBR 600 F3...

10 years ago, I met a guy who owned this bike at a car show back when I had my supercharged Taurus SHO. We ended up becoming good friends quickly, but sadly several months later, he had an accident on the bike that killed him. It's sort of an odd event, but a few of my buddies were riding one night and a car blasted past my buddy on his F3. Very shortly after, he went from the far right lane, past the center and into the left lane unexpectedly and put himself into a concrete planter. He later died at the hospital, however, their finding was that he had a heart attack which likely caused him to run across the lanes... He was only 26 years old. After his family came down, a friend of mine bought the bike off them and wanted to fix it back up. It still ran fine and my buddy rode it off an on up until about 2 or 3 years ago. He didn't fix it up and didn't really maintain it well, so he said the bike doesn't start. He also said he cleaned the carbs, but I'm still going to take it all apart.

Fast forward to today... My buddy who now owned the bike was in the middle of a move and said he needed to figure out something with the bike. I no longer live in Denver (where all this happened), but was in town for Reserve duty and had my truck. When he mentioned that to me, my joke was that I had my truck with me. He walked inside, had a couple words with his wife and said the bike is mine. To him, I am probably the only other one that understands the sentimental value to it. His conditions were that if I ever sold it, he would buy it for the money I had into it.

Anyway, all that said... I have the bike home and I've already started tinkering with it. After about a week of research while still in Denver and the bike in the back of my truck, I have decided that I will completely disassemble it and rebuild it into a Street Fighter. At this point, it would make it much easier and I like some of the F3 Street Fighters I've seen. When I have it apart, the frame will be removed of unnecessary brackets and such and powder coated. Prior to that, I will swap the tail for a newer bike.

Last night, I put some fuel into the tank (no rust, old fuel smells bad) and instantly started leaking all over the floor (expensive *** race fuel too, which is all I had aside from E85). After some digging, I found that it's the fuel pump and it is leaking from the crimp under the rubber. I also had to replace the clear line as it just broke when I started messing with it. Tonight, I am going to order a new fuel pump and then go pickup a battery and see what happens. I did change the oil and filter today since it was probably needed, as well as degreased much of the bike as it was also clearly needed.

Here are a few pictures:

Loaded up and ready to come home.


Starting to dig into it last night.


I don't have any pictures of the bike before the wreck, but this is me and the wife (g/f back then) almost 10 years ago giving her a ride.


I look forward to getting this bike back into good shape, although looking a bit different. I really want to keep the bike going and have been wanting to take this bike on for years. It won't be a fast project as I have a few other toys that I mess with frequently, to include a race/track car.

 

hello and welcome, quite a moving story, make sure you get over to the f3 and street fighter sections to say hello and pick some ones brain, keep a thread going in the fighter section to keep us updated

 

That is the plan! First order of business is to get it running again and then go from there. I look forward to the completed project and I love having something a little different by my own hands, even when it's something common... Like one of my cars that looks pretty much stock.

I am not sure how hard and fast I'll attack this yet, but I've been known to be pretty meticulous, so hopefully it turns out well.

 

Welcome to CBRF, Jason! That bike does have quite the story. I'm glad to see you're going to keep it going. I had an F3, and had a lot of fun on it. I'm a huge fan of fighters too, so I look forward to seeing this bike take shape.

 

Once I get it running, I plan to make a thread in the Streefighter section. My fuel pump should arrive tomorrow and I have a new battery charged and in. It cranks over just fine and it wants to start, but the fuel is plugged off currently to keep it from leaking and stinking up the garage, but I have high hopes. I got a nice afterfire out of it after a few cranks .

I did go ahead and buy a part to start the build... I bought an F4i gauge cluster on eBay. I got what I think was a good deal. It's a brand new one in the box, $200 shipped.

 

 

Thanks for the welcome. I've been spending a good amount of time researching items as I learn the bike, in order to catch up so that any questions I may have aren't basic.

Got the new fuel pump in yesterday, but nothing changed (cranks over fine, afterfired a couple times). I pulled the #4 plug and found that it wasn't torqued properly. It took nearly nothing to break it loose and the crush washer doesn't look crushed. The screw-in tip stayed in the plug boot and I can't get it out. I ordered new plugs and likely will place an order for new wires today. I was planning on doing that anyway during the build, so I supposed I should just spend the money now.