Ownership Verified: My '07 Honda CBR 1000 RR Fireblade

Polkky

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 28, 2012
Messages
757
Location
Finland
Car(s)
Eunos Roadster 1991, Renault Clio 2014
After a while of looking through 1000cc bikes, my options ended up being either a Kawasaki ZX-10R, Yamaha YZF-R1 or Honda CBR 1000 RR Fireblade. I found good examples of all of them but either they got sold just before I had time to go check them out, they were weird coloured or they were just badly maintained/overpriced.

Then this little gem popped up from Central Finland. It didn't have a proper service history, but the PO had kept his own books about all services done. There was even a little letter from the PO telling about the bike and what he'd done to it :) I had seen this privately sold in the beginning of the year, then it disappeared and now appeared at a dealer's at cheaper price. I slept over the night on the matter and this morning we drove three hours North to check it out. It was as good as expected, so I bought it.

The weather didn't permit a test drive, but it fired up right away, the engine ran as it should and the throttle response was just amazing.. The tires are in OK shape, the brake and clutch fluids need to be changed soonish and the engine oil is 1 year/2000km old. The brake pads were gone but they promised to change new ones before I go pick it up next week, hopefully riding it home. Oh yeah, so it's a 2007 model with 32000km on the clock.

Here are photos taken with a potato right after signing the papers. The proof pic will follow next week once I get it home.

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:thumbsup:
 
The first necessity bought for the bike to come home:

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Do they make chains for motorbike tyres? :p

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Someone please edit Dr. Evil saying "Winter". :D

Yeah, no snow here anymore. The roads are wet and have gravel on them, but that'll be taken care of before next autumn, hopefully.

I bought the insurance yesterday. The best possible coverage was under 2000?/year, woohoo...!
 
Yep, frame sliders will go on once I find good looking ones for reasonable price.

My riding gear, which I still fit in, is now washed and ready for use. The insurance is OK, the bike will be registered in my name tomorrow and I've got a train ticket to the dealer's door step for Saturday. Now, it's all about surviving three more days at work before the fun times begin.
 
The bike is home now! I took a train to the dealer's in the morning, they fetched me from the train station, served me coffee and off I went. A bit over 300km of riding in fresh spring weather resulting in me being tired and happy :)

The bike is just ridiculously powerful: when cruising at 100km/h on sixth gear, it bounces to 120km/h with just a blip of the throttle. I've ridden 1000cc naked bikes and a Hayabusa before but this feels much more enthusiastic. It's also much more peaceful to ride highways with a sports bike rather than a naked bike.

It also gathers curious spectators whenever stopping, from small children to grown men. A fun conversation was had with a member of the local amish:
Amish: Yeah, it's quite a risk for your license and life with the 150hp and all.
Me: Actually, this has 170hp.
Amish: :blink:

It goes around 250km on one tankful when blasting through country roads. Bearing this in mind during the first leg of the Ringmeet roadtrip that I'm attending.

Here's the proof pics and some potatopics. I'll take photos with my DSLR later on after removing unnecessary stickers etc.

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:thumbsup:

*stands in line, begging for a test ride*
 
Not really. I only have my 125cc Benelli I've had since I was 15. Other than that I just borrow bikes from friends/brother when available. That and 5 riding days at French alps last summer on a rental Agusta. :cool:
 
As a side note, I have a friend who once put his Mustang away for the winter and bought a sport bike. He said that snow is soft so falling over doesn't hurt much :?

Wat.

More potatopics, yay! Got rid of the ugly stickers, now it only needs some wax.

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My two best friends and I have a fun collection of toys, that'll be alot of horsepower in the summer!

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Also checked the coolant today. It was on the upper level of the expansion tank and the color was clean green. Excellent things regarding the fact that it's already a few years old. I'll change it after the next 4000km as the service intervals suggest.
 
Washed and waxed!

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Also made a quick, slightly out of focus video of the first startup in a week:
 
I got the bike home last weekend, couldn't wait any longer. And now it's snowing outside :p

The rear tire is gone - it's so worn that the next time I'm riding, the destination is a tire shop near by. It was worn when I bought it, I've ridden ~650km and done plenty of speed burnouts in the rain, so having to change it is acceptable :cool:
 
I got new rear rubber two days ago after finding a drive-in tire change nearby. I went for Bridgestone BT023 in the standard 190/50/17 size. It should be a good tire for everyday use ranging from trips in the rain to country road blasting.

It was cold and raining so I really felt the difference between the old and new tires: on my way to the shop I really felt the rear working on fighting the conditions but on my way back home the rear was planted and stable. I even tried to get it to spin by accelerating in the wet, but the bike just blasted on without any trouble. Me likey. The front tire is next later on in the spring.

The tire shop left the chain too loose, so I spent yesterday evening tightening it. For an OCD-oriented guy like me tightening a motorbike chain is a real pain in the behind. Is the rear wheel exactly straight, is the slack on the chain exactly 2.5cm, are the bolts tight, should I start all over etc. etc. :p
 
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Yay, new air filters! I'll change them next weekend. Clutch and brake fluids are next, then coolant and finally motor oil.
 
I managed to change the air filters without breaking anything! Much.

My Hayne's manual had nice instructions on how to get the job done except for one minor thing: to get the air filter box open you have to raise the front end of the gas tank. There was no mention of this in the manual, I had to work it out myself with the aid of Google.

I raised it and heard a slight popping sound. A little storm went through my head when I thought that I had detached the fuel line but luckily the dripping liquid wasn't fuel, it was water! I had popped off the overflow hose and it was quickly re-attached.

Based on the test ride, the new air filters work well. The engine running temperature is about 2-3 degrees celcius colder and the throttle response is slightly quicker. We'll see what it does to the fuel economy.

After the test ride I noticed that both of the oil gaskets on my front suspension are gone: the lower end of the fork is wet on both sides. That means no riding until Tuesday when I get it fixed :(

While waiting for time to get the front repaired, I decided to change the brake and clutch fluids. The brakes went well, I even managed to remove some air from the rear brake, but the clutch either got air during my fiddling or it had plenty of it already before. I had to buy some more brake fluid later on to get all the air out of the clutch, but that's also done now.

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