Hang on.
What site is this? Hondabloodyspares?
Well, in our defence, we just like bikes. And there seems to be no known cure. So...
It's 3 am. You can't sleep, Scrolling FB Marketplace. Unsupervised. Uh oh. Didn’t know you needed it and…here it is.
A Honda CBR600. 1999 model. First of the alloy frames. With carbs.
Was meant to be a track day bike. Stalled project for at least 5 years. Some work done. Lots of bits. Spare wheels. Yoshimura headers in a box. Owner wants it gone. Been for sale over a month.
Ignore it a few days, and it's still for sale.
Definitely don’t need it.
Message the owner.
Last thing we need.
Ring the owner, Steve.
Sensible. Owns other bikes. Loves classic 80s and 90s bikes. Great yarn. What a good bugger.
Oh.
Really really don’t need a track day bike.
Draw up a pros and con sheet. Decide there’s no room to store it.
Not sure if “Honda” should be on pro or con side of the sheet.
Decide it’s a plus. Wing Of Quality and all that.
Procrastinate a bit more.
In a former life I had a CBR600f4. One of the four Castrol Honda race bikes from 1999. Added a HRC go fast kit and Ray Clee blueprinted the motor. It did 157mph through a Southland club flying quarter mile in standard trim and 163 mph after a few HRC tickles. Thats 262kmph. That’s a 400 metre run up then timed for 400 metres. 262 is fast enough that you can't focus on power poles as they go past. And raising your bum an inch off the seat smooths out the airflow and you can watch the rpm increase 250 rpm. Not bad for 800 metres and an old commuter bike.
So. Mention it in passing to a few blokes whose opinion I respect.
Bad move. Should really ask people who don’t like bikes next time.
Was a bit like asking at an AA meeting if anyone fancied "just one beer".
“Been thinking of another Castrol Honda CBR600, waddya reckon?”
“ ...be cool as fuck! My era of world super sport. McPherson, Muggeridge, Vermeulen, Toseland etc The Original Axe Murderers!”
Oh.
Bike is collected and dropped at Two Wheels in Chch. Jordan Leslie has plenty of experience with these and similar track day bikes, having had a full spec HRC CBR600 in the UK as well as spannering the CBR600 for Team Rees.
He’s agreed to give it a look over, get it running and see what's there.
It's Bad. Very bad. Really Bad.
Jordan does a deep dive into the top end. Finds zero compression on one cylinder. Can see daylight around a couple of valves. Carbs clogged. Coolant system clogged. Bugger.
Honda issued a service bulletin in 99- “make sure you torque the head bolts down in this correct order or cams will seize in the head”.
One of the teams prepping one of the Castrol Honda bikes found out the hard way.
Turns out whoever was in here last didn’t read the service bulletin and has damaged the head and cam. Bugger.
This is the fork in the road.
Plan A, scrap it, sell off the fancy race shock and modded forks, spare wheels and Yoshimura exhaust, road gear and curse Marketplace.
Had said we’d keep Good Bugger Steve in the loop with progress and gave him a call to let him know it's knackered. Rather than ghosting, he offered to give our money back. Wow!
By now Simon at Good Parts wreckers had offered a motor for $600. And Good Bugger Steve offered to pay half of that. Well then, full steam ahead.
So, its Plan B. Make it run and see what we have. There is no Plan C.
Jordan at Two Wheels had the old motor out and new one in before smoko. He's good.
Had a rummage in the “Old Boxes of Stuff That’s Should Have been Thrown Out 25 Years Ago“, and found the HRC set up and tuning manuals from 1999. An HRC loom, race flywheel, HRC CDI, race flywheel, new cams and assorted handy bits. (It's not hoarding if you use it).
Management meeting with Jordan and a plan develops to build a “Maximum Fun, Minimum Dollars Castrol Honda CBR600”. Joint ownership model so no-one carries all the pain. Plausible deniability as “its not mine”.
An inventory of the "Boxes Of Crap” that always comes with a race bike showed a Yoshimura headers set, spare wheels, spare discs, 520 sprockets, engine covers, a mint gearbox, F1 Engineering clipons, 3 x HRC head gaskets, new valves, mint set of cams and a dead mouse.
Hang on! Thats all the stuff I sold off 20 years ago after retiring from racing (except the mouse. That’s not an official Honda part).
Plus Good Bugger Steve has added a nice bouncy shock and upgraded forks while he had it. So, it's all like karma or something. It's all come back round again for another go. Be rude not to.
So, can we build a competitive CBR600 track bike on a budget. Tiny budget. $5k including the bike.
“You're dreaming mate”.
Possibly. Probably.
We always start these projects saying it “won't cost much and it won't take long”.
So, if you're up for a yarn, here it is, warts and all. Jordan will give you the technical summary, I'll note the budget and here we go.
Bike $2500 brought sight unseen after a phone call with a good bugger. $300 refund for dud motor. Road bodywork, headlight, sale $300. $600 for replacement motor. So back to $2500.
Ipone Synthetic Oil and an oil filter $145. Carb parts to stop it dribbling $160. We need to Repaint bodywork, add the Castrol Honda graphics.
Found a Trade me race muffler $168. Rummaging in boxes finds a muffler clamp and a HRC kill switch (It’s actually a Ducati one from 1999). Funny old world.
Ducatispares donate a Brembo PS 16 mm master cylinder and adjustable lever. Gotta have safe brakes. We hate funerals. Let's call that a donation in the interests of rider safety. 25 year old master cylinders are asking for trouble. Or dettol.
Jordan has some HRC bits on the shelf at Two Wheels Chch. The cool HRC overflow bottle, a tacho, and the HRC rear brake reservoir set up. All nice kit.
Closer look after a waterblast to remove 5 + years of garage dust shows a K+N air filter, the HRC water pump block off mod already done, a jet kit in carbs and a drilled sump plug.
Maximum Fun, Minimum dollars. Over to Jordan next for his update.