1998 CBR900RR Fireblade

[ShadowFocus603]

Thanks for the advice derwood. I will definitely keep it in mind. By the by, my parts fairy just stopped by.

Will hopefully get these and the new tire installed tonight. I have the sprocket cover and temp sensor en route as well. Progress is happening just not as much as I'd like lol.

[TxGSrider]

I swapped the GS1150 front forks along with the 16" rim that they used, and honestly I don't think it made it noticeably less stable than the big wheel that came on my gs1100e... but the old biked have allot of rake and tend to be pretty stable. I also don't ride over 90mph where it might make a difference.

[ShadowFocus603]

Alright new tire is on. I went to town on it with the spoons in the driveway. Thankfully it went pretty smooth. Initial test ride looks promising. The front end is nowhere near as vague as it was. I can finally start leaning in without the constant fear of low-siding the bike. Played with suspension settings a bit tonight. Previous owner had them all out of whack. Using a close setup to the one suggested on sportrider.com. Just a bit softer as our roads around here are garbage.

[Jedz123]

Amazing what new tires do! Yeah I vote 90's sport bike ride NE GSR style. Ha!...
Jedz needs to stop going on GSR with a buzz.

Did you get hit with that rain Shadow? I got stuck in hail on the Gixxer... Oops

[ShadowFocus603]

I barely got the CBR home from a test and tune ride for the suspension when all hell broke loose. Can't believe how much rain we got so fast.

[hillsy]

It was quite a common mod back in the day to run a CBR600 / VFR750 front wheel on the Blade to get the 17" front rim. I think it was more about having a bigger choice with tyres than making the bike handle better (Honda was probably one of the only manufacturers to get the 16" front end "right" with the Blade).

Of course they eventually switched to a 17" front end in 2000 with the 929 version, so they eventually gave in to normality.

[ShadowFocus603]

Spent some time in the garage tonight. Got the new throttle cables installed. Also cleaned the carbs since they were off and took stock of the jets that were installed. Adjusted the mixtures to 2.5 turns out. Slow jet is a 40 which is perfect for my setup. Mains are 115/118 so those will be swapped to 120's. Went ahead and threw it back together and took it for a test ride. I found that the intake boots weren't properly seated so doing that as well as cleaning and tweaking the carbs has completely changed the demeanor of the bike. Gone is the stuttery choppy beast I have been dealing with. Didn't have a chance to ride it much (started drinking so that's out) but it felt good.

[ShadowFocus603]

So small progress today but still progress nonetheless.

I can't tell you how happy I am to see that temp gauge working now. Put the '96 temp sensor in it and ran it a while long enough to let the fans kick on (which in and of itself is another small victory, considering the PO had them straight to ground for always on) and that's where the gauge sat.

Got the sprocket cover in earlier this week and finally got around to getting it installed. Grabbed some M6x30mm black oxide hex heads for a nice finished look. Changed the profile on the SpeedoHealer and ran the speed sensor in the cover to verify operation. It all works perfectly. Not a bad deal for $20 shipped for cover w/ sensor. I'm slowly but surely chipping away at my to do list on this bike. Next on the list is to replace the rearsets. I am planning to get these:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/222125084401

After reading, I know there will be a little bit of modding necessary to mount the rear master cylinder. I have no issue with that.I have a horn here that I need to make a mounting tab for (yet another thing missing when I got the bike) and I need to get the front fender sorted.

[Killer Canary]

That critter will bring the front up easily.
Be ready!

[ShadowFocus603]

So a pair of SS front brake lines are on order. Had a scary moment today coming home from work when I lost all pressure in front brakes. Limped the rest of the way home and checked it out. Ruptured the rubber line going to the right caliper. I'm telling you that like to as scared the sh!t out of me. Will have to go out in a bit and scrub the tire to get rid of the brake fluid that got on it as it was spraying everywhere (yet another scare). The brakes were the next thing on the list anyways so this only forces the issue a little bit.

[Road_Clam]

Attempting to restore a sportbike gets VERY expensive real quick. I learned this oem restoring a 1990 ZX10. I even got oem parts at dealer cost and i ended up spending $3k on a $2k value bike. If you oem restore do it for personal passion not from an investment perspective.

[ShadowFocus603]

This isn't being restored at all. I am modding for the sole purpose of riding the wheels off of it and hooning about. I'll still end up putting too much money in to it but hey that's life with motorcycles right? Lol.

[Killer Canary]

Attempting to restore a sportbike gets VERY expensive real quick. I learned this oem restoring a 1990 ZX10. I even got oem parts at dealer cost and i ended up spending $3k on a $2k value bike. If you oem restore do it for personal passion not from an investment perspective.

I've restored a dozen written off sportbikes and and make a minimum 100% profit every time.
I don't understand why it's so expensive for you.
I purchased the above 'blade for $900, spent $300 on parts and sold it for $2700.

[Road_Clam]

I've restored a dozen written off sportbikes and and make a minimum 100% profit every time.
I don't understand why it's so expensive for you.
I purchased the above 'blade for $900, spent $300 on parts and sold it for $2700.

Good for you for finding ton's of suckers both at the buying and selling end of flipping sport bikes. I speak from my experiences of OEM restoring to original excellent clean condition a 1984 GPz1100, a 1987 GSXR 750 , and most recently (NOT oem) a 1973 Kawi H1. You ALWAYS end up spending more than the bikes TRUE street value. I have a total of $6K invested in my OEM '87 GSXR750 restoration, it is in mint condition, NOBODY is going to pay $12K for it that I guarantee...

[Jedz123]

Good for you for finding ton's of suckers both at the buying and selling end of flipping sport bikes. I speak from my experiences of OEM restoring to original excellent clean condition a 1984 GPz1100, a 1987 GSXR 750 , and most recently (NOT oem) a 1973 Kawi H1. You ALWAYS end up spending more than the bikes TRUE street value. I have a total of $6K invested in my OEM '87 GSXR750 restoration, it is in mint condition, NOBODY is going to pay $12K for it that I guarantee...

For a 750 Slabby? Likely not...

I turned profit on almost every flip... Sometimes it's just a smudge above breaking even but I rarely loose out. I've learned being patient is Critical.