CBR 600F Sport / FS / F4i

[Dan]

Specifications:

Engine and transmission
Displacement:599.00 ccm (36.55 cubic inches)
Engine type:In-line four
Stroke:4
Power:106.00 HP (79.6 kW)) @ 12500 RPM
Torque:65.00 Nm (6.6 kgf-m or 47.9 ft.lbs) @ 10500 RPM
Bore x stroke:67.0 x 42.5 mm (2.6 x 1.7 inches)
Fuel system:Injection
Valves per cylinder:4
Starter:Electric
Cooling system:Liquid
Gearbox:6-speed
Transmission type final drive:Chain

Physical measurements
Dry weight:169.0 kg (372.6 pounds)
Seat height:810 mm (31.9 inches)
Wheelbase:1,390 mm (54.7 inches)

Chassis and dimensions
Front suspension travel:120 mm (4.7 inches)
Rear suspension travel:120 mm (4.7 inches)
Front tyre dimensions:120/70-ZR17
Rear tyre dimensions:180/55-ZR17
Front brakes: Dual disc
Front brakes diameter:296 mm (11.7 inches)
Rear brakes:Single disc
Rear brakes diameter:220 mm (8.7 inches)Speed and acceleration
Top speed:250.0 km/h (155.3 mph)
Power/weight ratio:0.6450 HP/kgOther specifications
Fuel capacity:18.00 litres (4.76 gallons)

My pride and joy CBR 600F Sport

After a good run of 125 2 stroke fun and a few years with my trusted VFR NC30, I saw and fell in love with a nice shiny Honda CBR 600F Sport in Hyside Motorcycles.



It was a 2004 plate, so must have been a late registration and think it was an FS1.

Fantastic bike for all round fun, be it on the road or the track. A lot of them seem to be coming out of the woodwork recently as if you look hard enough, you can pick up a low mileage minter for around 3000 - Bargain! You also will not find any negative review or write up.

Quite similar in looks to todays version, the CBR 600RR, the F-Sport was designed to run alongside the popular CBR 600F as a more sporty/track alternative.

The bike was completely standard other than a double bubble screen, and I didnt have long to get to know it as just under a year later I decided to buy a house and it had to be sold to go towards the deposit.... BOOHOO! I was gutted and without a bike for the next 2 years.

Then came the time to buy another bike. Looked around, RR's, GSXR's, Ninjas... no, it had to be the sport again - so I bought another one!



This one is also an FS1, but on a 2002 plate this time. Pretty standard, only mods seem to be the R&G shrooms and the Akrapovic slip-on can which I just had to have off the guy as it sounded sweet. Knew it would have probably lost a bit of power since having it fitted... but it does sound well!

Since buying it at the beginning of the year, I have made myself learn more about bikes as this time I wanted to try and do as much as possible myself.

Bits done:
Oil change (several)
Brake fluid change (several)
Replaced stock air filter with a K&N
Fitted a PC USBIII with a generic Akra/K&N map
- has now been dyno'd and had a custom map done
Fitted a dark DB screen
Fitted EBC brake pads to the front
Replaced the standard brake lines with HEL braided ones
Change the gearing (-1 on the front and +1 on the rear)
Make a cut-down light wiring loom for the tilt sensor for use with the track fairing

Bits to do:
Get a second undertray and tail to modify so I dont ruin the standard one

I don't have any other bike to compare this to in terms of it's ability on the track, but I can say that its bloody excellent. The Michelin Pilot Power (2CT) tyres I have on there are so sticky and it just loves corners. It's really easy to move round the bike and just when you think the last session you had was the most fun ever, the next session always tops it again. Due to this and the fact i've been well and truly eaten up by the track day bug, I decided to get some fiberglass track fairing just in case I end up having a spill. Secondhand fairing for the F-Sport does come up occasionally on ebay, but most of it is either the wrong colour for me or all scuffed up so I dont fancy doing in my plastics.

Race Products (www.raceproducts.co.uk) were recommended to me by a few people, so I purchased a main (FR12) and seat (SE12) fairing kit from them. Due to a group purchase I got a bit of dolla off the RRP, but typically it will cost around £300 for both units.

It took about a week to turn up and when it did, I set about getting it fitted. My first problem was the seat unit - the standard FS undertray and numberplate rear fender are one complete bit of plastic and the rear fender itself stops the RP seat unit from fitting (it was discussed here: http://www.essexbikers.co.uk/forum/s...ad.php?t=12138). Two options to get around this, either cut the underside of the seat fairing to make it fit:



or, look out for a second standard undertray just to use on the track and lop the numberplate tail off.

I opted for cutting the seat fairing and ended up cutting it back far enough to also keep the brake light - a few people have told me thats silly and I suppose it is really, but I like the fact that if i'm on a track I dont know and want to brake early, the rider behind me knows that... so for now, thats the way it's going to stay.

This was taken during the professional cutting process, aided by Tim (FingerZ!) pictured below:



Now the seat unit was fitted, I could not see how I actually sit on it. The fairing did not sit flush on the frame, it was a few inches higher so I thought i'd either have to make something to take the weight underneath or cut out the top and try to fit my OEM seat. After a quick call to Race Products, it turns out that two ribs should have been rivetted to the underside - they sit on the frame and you then just lob some seat foam on top... and voila. As this caused me a bit of grief, they made me up a second seat unit free of charge with the ribs on and sent it out to me. This has worked out quite well, as I now have one that can take my standard seat if I want (and can be with/without my brake light) and the other i'll use when I manage to find a OEM undertray that I can lop the numberplate tail off on ebay.

Forgot to add as well, the holes for the long bolts you would normally use to hold a seat net /bungee on the pillion seat with did not line up on my RP seat unit. I left them out, its more than stable without them.

So, next was to fit the front fairing which replaces the light unit etc. and also the enclosed belly pan. It was a tight fit, but all the holes line up other than the very bottom rear two either side (the left one being near the sidestand). My R&G crash shrooms even fitted with the spacers after making the holes in the fairing a bit bigger.

The final thing to do was to sort out the tilt sensor. When you remove the standard front fairing with the light unit attached, you have to disconnect one block connector - part of which is for the tilt sensor which cuts the engine in the event of the bike going on its side. When that is disconnected, it fails safe i.e. the bike wont start so once you remove the light unit where this is bolted on to the bike will be dead. Now there are two options here:

1) Either bypass the sensor by securely bridging the red and green wires on the block connector still attached to the bike
2) Buy a front light wiring loom and strip everything out other than the wires for the tilt sensor. Then remove the sensor from the light unit, mount it somewhere (the right way up lol) and connect it to the block connector.

I went for the first option as I didnt have much time, just by using a small piece of wire and some solder to make little spade connectors - you dont want the wire coming loose when going mach 3 round the bombhole! Long term, i'm doing the second option. I found a lighting loom on ebay for very little moolah.

I started her up to make sure the tilt sensor had been bypassed ok and noticed that the belly pan was getting bloody hot where the exhaust was sitting so close. There must have only been a centimeter gap between the downpipes and the bottom of the belly pan. Went on a mission round B&Q and Halfords trying to find some heat reflective tape or some sort of thick foil that I could stick inside the belly pan but couldnt find a thing. After some reassuing words from our very own Doodlebug and MickTLS, I decided to just leave it and prey it would be ok - and it was just fine. I just made sure it didnt sit there idling for a long time. Since then i've actually purchased some sticky backed heat reflective foil which comes in squares about 15cm/sq from a seller on ebay. 2 of those did the trick nicely and should stop the paint getting too hot once its sprayed.

That's it. Was a bit nervous for the first session of using it, but no rattling, no smoking and nothing fell off. Here's what it looked like that day when we were loading it into a Luton we borrowed to go to Snetterton (which went no faster than 50mph most of the way i might add... that was one SLOW journey!):






So, next job is to spray it up. Going to keep it red and black and will keep my eye out for a spare tank to use, but i'm hoping to do something Virgin Mobile livery styleee Will see how that turns out!


UPDATE 19th August, 2008
I've had a Power Commander USBIII for a while now and managed to get a standard map from the Power Commander website for the F-Sport with an Akrapovic slip-on can and a standard or K&N air filter (I have the latter). Last Friday I finally got round to taking the bike down to Paul Watson at Dyno Speed Developments (http://www.dynospeed.co.uk) to get a custom map set up.

Annoyingly I forgot to ask Paul to zero the Power Commander just to see what it was putting out without it, but with the generic map it showed 98.61bhp/41.17ft-lbs torque on the dyno. It was runnnig quite lean low down which you can see from the wobbly graph below which aparantly is normal for a standard setup, and causes the snatcheyness. But after a couple of hours of tinkering away, he got a nice smooth line and an increase to 102.21bhp/44.92ft-lbs torque. You can see the before and after graph HERE.

Not that I have anyone to compare Dynospeed to, but I highly recommend them for price and service - I did quite a bit of phoning around and the £150 inc VAT that he charges was cheaper than quite a few. It was also great to be able to stick around and watch him at work, especially the last run he did where he caned my bike up to 170mph lol The speedo must be quite inaccurate up high, as im sure my bike doesnt go that fast!

Anyway, the ride home left me with a big grin on my face... the power delivery is so much smoother, especially at lower revs - dead impressed. Can't wait for my next track day now to really test it out!

UPDATE 7th October, 2008

Went to Brands last Friday and the Power Commander has not really given much extra power, however the delivery over the entire rpm range that I use (0-13k ish) was so much smoother.
I hear all the time that the best mod you can do to the F-Sport is change the gearing to -1 on the front and +1 on the rear so might give that a go over the winter
It was the first time I used my new EBC pads properly as well and I have to say, im not too impressed. The OEM Honda ones (Nissin) were so much better. Going to see what they are like after the new hoses are on with some nice new fluid.

Also got the track fairing painted, just ready for the stickers now. Probably going to use Virgin Mobile ones as they suit the colours best.

UPDATE 17th March, 2009

I've fitted the HEL braided brake lines now and that coupled with some new brake fluid (and the new EBC pads mentioned above) has made such an improvement.












And with some decals...






UPDATE 19th November, 2009

Had the best track day i've ever done in August this year at Donnington Park (GP) - was fantastic! There are a couple of pics below.
Ahead of it, I changed the gearing (-1 tooth on the front and +1 on the rear) and it made such a difference. Accellaration was better and smoother, although it took me a while to get used to changing gears at different times to what I was used to.
Tim clocked his mileage with standard gearing and I was suprised how many extra miles were on my clock at the end of the day, can't remember how many it was now but it was enough for me to revert back to standard gearing for the Essex Air Ambulance motorcycle run Well worth doing and i'll probably do it again if I get time before the next track day... which wont be until 2010 now Damm the winter sucks... no track days, no motogp, no superbikes.....

I also fitted an excellent lap timer earlier on this year - an Alfano Fun. Generally lap timers are either a stop/start button on your handlebar or use an infrared beacon which you have to place somewhere around the track. This uses the magnetic strip found on pretty much all european tracks on the start/finish line so its really accurate.
Although they are widely used on bikes, they were originally made for go karts so it's not the sort of thing you can buy and fit without making some sort of bracket. I'll post some pics up when I get a chance to show how I did this because again, there is nothing around on the net anywhere to help you and although it's not really cheap it's a fantastic bit of kit to analyse your progress.

At the beginning of this year I finally got my knee down - what a feeling when you first do that! It's true what people say, once you have done it your knee goes down without even trying.. at Donnington I don't think there were any right handers where it didnt scrape along the track Fantastic - 2009, the year of the knee scrapage for Dan Now why doesnt my left knee ever go down?
Anyway the point to this story in relation to the CBR Sport is that if you are trying to get your knee down for the first time, you will most probably get the ball sticking out of the footpeg (cant remember what they call that) down first which is bloody scarey. I was warned but didn't really take it in how much it puts you off when you first feel/hear it whilst going round a bend - bearing in mind if you have not got your knee down but are trying to do so, you are more than likely feeling very unnatural leaning off the bike so much. If you are scaping that ball you are leaning the bike over plenty enough so you just need to work on your body position... but i'm no expert on that so i'm stopping there The CSS will help you, I did that as well this year and it's probably the most useful day i've ever had in my life in regards to riding a bike... plus its great fun, especially in that last session where you put all your new knowledge into effect!

Anyway my point is i'd leave the balls on the footpegs - I still have now, as its a great warning that the bike is lent over far enough and you probably need to sort your body position out if you are feeling like it needs to go over further. I might take them off one day... but for now i'll do everything I can to make sure my pride and joy doesnt low side

[NinjaMad]

awesome review mate and sexy pictures

[JB#52]

Nice write up Dan....

Are you fitting the lines & pads for tomorrow??? will make a hell of a difference if you do...

[Dal]

Quality write up there Dan.

I should do some on my old bikes, problem is I wouldn't know where to start

[Dan]

BUMP - post updated.

Stealth - not done the brake lines yet, will probably do them with the pads for the EAA run in September - can use that to bed them in

[JB#52]

Cool by the way when you paint it you will need the heat shield tape as the heat could fook the paint....

heres some...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ALUMINIUM-STIC...3286.m14.l1318

[Dan]

Nice one, that's exactly what I need - cheers fella!

Originally Posted by STEALTH52

Cool by the way when you paint it you will need the heat shield tape as the heat could fook the paint....

heres some...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ALUMINIUM-STIC...3286.m14.l1318

[JB#52]

No worries

[FingerZ!]

AHHHH!

That picture of me is soo embaressing!!!

good write up dood!

[Dan]

BUMP - post updated now the bike has been dyno'd