My Lovely CBR600

Faster Faster

Oh the good times...I remember taking Gayner out on a nice sunny day, loads of grip, so I fly down this slip road to join the motorway. I do a quick check to see if she's Ok. I can see her nodding, so I open it up a bit...we are doing over 150mph two's up and even over the noise of the engine and wind I can hear her screaming "Faster..Faster"...crazy girl!

The Jenster

Ahh the poor girl. I picked her up to do some singing round my place. She had never been on a bike and had finally given in to the temptation. Waiting for me was her whole family, they were saying goodbye like it was the last they would ever see of her. I gave her my armoured Jacket, which did look funny on her...her father said "what are you going to wear" as I only had a T-shirt on. I said, "nothing, it will remind me how fast we are going", I said it to reassure him, but he took it the wrong way and went a ghostly shade of pale.
She jumps on, and I try to pull away slowly so it wouldn't look bad, but with a race exhaust it is hard to pull away quietly! Out on the road though she relaxed and really enjoyed it. So much so that I opened the bike up a little, but I soon realised that the pain I could feel was her punching me in the side, and when I listened I could hear her screaming, "slow the f*ck down"

The Honda CBR600FR
The Baby Blade

My Lovely CBR

I sold the little beauty in 2003 and miss her dearly...

The only mods were the Arrows Race exhaust
(Straight through and loud as f*ck) the dynojet and K&N air filters.

I had polished the front forks, fitted some tasty bits around the cockpit, like the blue levers, and a plate saying CBR600 (of course) a carbon fibre scratch guard.
I'd pumped up the front forks a little and knocked up a few clicks on the monoshock for stiffer but better handling. The tyres were Bridgestone BT56's, yum yum. The colour was officially Candy apple red.

What can I say, its got a six speed sequential, one down, five up. First gear runs out to 85mph at 12,500rpm.
Top speed is around 165mph-170mph

In its day it was the best handling road bike by far, it cornered better than I ever could! You can't see in the photo, but trust me, I've got scratch marks on them foot-pegs from playing games on roundabouts.

Its a pocket rocket alright, 0-60 as quick as you can drop the clutch! It would pull over a G in accel and over 2 under breaking...it really takes your breath away.
To brake without smacking your head on the tank, you need to be ready, best method is known as "punching up", thats where you stiffen your arms as if you were about to do a press up and lift your body up over the screen.
Only thing is...make sure you are not going too fast before you lift up.
I was flying down the motorway, at around 150mph and wanted to come off at a slip road, so I "punch up" and nearly get ripped off the bike by the force of the wind...from then on I'd do a little gentle braking before lifting above the screen.

Want a ride?

It was a sunny day at work and this girl (no names) said she'd like a go on the back. Lunchtime comes around and I say, have you ridden pillion before. She says "of course". Well always trying to impress, in case she was going to judge my riding, I take her down to Hayling Island. Yes..down West Lane, a twisty hedge lined B-Road, with two blind hairpins! I've blasted through it, over the long bumpy section, tucked in round the hairpins and generally ragged the bike. Then coming back off the island I've overtaken 3-4 cars at a time, and done the mandatory overtake into oncoming traffic. We get back to work, I wasn't wearing a Jacket, just a shirt, and she just had a top on. As she gets off the bike, she nearly falls over, and I realise that she was stuck to my back with sweat!!...turns out she was blagging about having ridden before to look tough...poor girl was absolutely terrified!

CBR600 Engine

115 HP at 12,000 rpm

Weight 169Kg
Stroke 63.5mm