Honda CBR1000F

Article by John St.John

BEFORE COVID STARTED I HAD INTENTIONS OF PURCHASING A “CLASSIC” AND GIVING IT A GO AND I HAD ONLY PREVIOUSLY SERVED MY OWN BIKES.

So, just as COVID was picking up pace I purchased a 1989 Honda CBR1000F with 13000 kms on the clock. She appeared to have been stored in a rather rough environment and sustained some substantial cosmetic damage.

I was more worried about the internal runnings of the beast. She was a runner, but just. I thought I would give it a go and commenced to start in May 2020 on my “COVID” project.

I started with removing the fairing parts numbering them, laying them out and repairing them. I then commenced to go over the engine which I could see needed some TLC, new seals, fluids, timing chain etc, some of the work was completed by my trusty mechanic who also looks after my 1999 Kawasaki GTR1000. In the meantime I prepped the fairing parts for spraying. One I received the bike back with new tyres as well I started work on the brakes, forks removed all the rust on the frame and started to polish every, yes every screw that holds the fairing in place and is visible to the naked eye. I didn’t want to have the rusty screws letting the bike down once the fairing was reattached.

Over a 5 month period things progressed nicely. The time I would normally spend traveling to work was spent on the project.

At one stage I had to “fabricate” a missing part of the fairing just above the left indicator which was completely missing, this was new territory for me but, it came up really well, even the guy who sprayed the fairing was impressed.

I also recovered the seat with some marine vinyl which I hope will last.So, after 6 months of blood, sweat and cursing she has now been given a new lease of life.