i'm pretty familiar with bikes... i wouldnt say im a great mechanic by any means, but i can usually find a cheap actual mechanic/shop to take it to if i cant fix it. my buddy nick just picked up a 97 f3 for more than it's worth. WHEN it ran, he said it felt awesome, but around 30-45 minutes the bike just shut down on a busy highway. the next day i got it to my house, found that the choke is extremely temperamental. for some reason, it has a hair tie scrunchie thing holding it in place, right around the middle. when you start it, you have to give it gas, about 1/3rd throttle, otherwise it wont usually start.
with just some carb cleaner, and cleaning in general, ive gotten the bike to run and idle a lot better than it was. for now i want to avoid any major surgery if it can be helped.
either tomorrow or sunday, i'm going to take it for a ride on some back roads around my house, to see if i can kill it with normal riding.
oh, also it has no plate. nick really should have brought me. jeez.
i'll probably have some questions for yall. the poor cbr looks like it had a pretty rough life. it may need a real carb clean, beyond carb cleaner spray, and i'm hoping to avoid that
here's the bike without the lower and rear fairings on. it has these ugly #bikelifehouston mailbox stickers in various places on the fairings and swingarm. ugly.


oh yeah, it has no slip on at all. just header and mid pipe, so if anyone has a spare they're looking to sell, my buddy needs one.

 

I took it out just now, after putting the body work back on, and was surprised with how nice of a ride this POS turned out to be with just a little work.
friend really needs to get a slip on and some mirrors, but aside from that, this bike is ready!

 

Glad you sorted it out, most of the issues with these bikes are simple issues.