1993 CBR900RR - rebuilding an iconic super sport

Dale said:

NICE!

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No kidding! And it was only $140 on sale!

Granted, I have to drill it for the mounts and probably fab some stuff up, but I can't touch an OE plastic fairing for that kind of money. This project is on hold for a bit while I finish up with the motor in the CB360. That project I can work on inside ;D

Zombie thread, returning from the dead!

BRAIIINNNSSS!

BRAIINNSSSS AND RACE REPLICAS!

In any case, I fired up our wire welder and used it to repair the fairing stay bracket. In the accident, the bracket, which holds the headlights and nose fairing in place, broke at its mounting point to the front of the frame.

The bracket for the '93 900's is unique, so finding a replacement is hard and/or expensive. I had nothing to lose by trying to repair the bracket.

Here's the bracket before:





Some welding, grinding, more welding, grinding, welding and burning a hole through the bracket, swearing, and then more welding to fix the hole I just burned.





Not perfect, but it bolts up and lines up, and that's what I need! I hit it with some rattle can black so it wouldn't rust, and ta-da!



Next step will be mounting it and the headlights, and mocking up the nose fairing mount so I can start marking and drilling holes in it.

I set out to do work on the CB360, but also did some work on the CBR900RR. Last weekend I welded up and repainted the damaged fairing stay bracket, which is unique to '93 and hard to find. I installed it this week, and, like the old joke, it was hanging a little to the left.



After a scene of unimaginable violence with a dead blow hammer, all was well.



I test fit the Airtech fairing:



and the lights:

ssaawweeeet ;D

Yup yup yup, getting there slowly! Next step is to drill the bolt holes in the fairing, get all that lined up, drill the holes for the windshield and the mirrors (if I go with stock style mirrors), mount the support bar thingie, and start worrying about paint!

At least with this bike, unlike the other two I'm dealing with, it runs well and doesn't leak anything ;D

New goodies!

I found a CBR600RR F3 17" wheel and good used tire, along with a pair of rotors.





The CBR600 rotors are the same diameter as the CBR900 rotors, but have a different inner diameter and even thought the mounting holes have the same spacing, they are slightly closer to the center of the rotor. I figured it best to just get the proper CBR600 rotors.

I also found a piece of the tail fairing that was completely mashed when I got the bike. This piece holds the lock that releases the pylon seat, as well as tying the rear fairings together to the tail light.



More pictures when I throw these parts in the general direction of the bike...

Awesoooome...hurry up eh? I love this bike.

Ringo said:

Awesoooome...hurry up eh? I love this bike.

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No kidding! I was bummed, the closest I got to installing these parts today was leaning the new wheel up against the old one.

I love the look of the bike and the color scheme, and want to get some rides in on it! I can tell this bike is going to be a screamer, but on the flip side that makes me want to take my time and do things right so I don't turn into roadkill the first time I open it up!

The 360 is still taking up all my wrenching time, but I did get a replacement left hand clip on ordered in. The one on the bike had a messed up end internal weight, and the bar end weight wouldn't go on right. $15, so not bad!

A little mini update...

Our body shop guys are very annoyed with the Airtech fairing. They really didn't like how porous the fiberglass was, and found several small cracks, so they've been working on it for quite some time. I hope to have it back soon though!

The left clip on and new front wheel have been sitting near the bike, but are not on it yet. The 360 has been taking up a lot of my time, and then the 650 had to go and start running great and keep me out of the garage ;D

I did figure out what the Pingle switch (that was not hooked up to anything) in the right inner faring was for - it is a dead man kill switch. I suspect this bike may have had some drag racing in its past, yikes!

Ohhh, I thought you said dingle switch....my mistake....That clips to your belt then 8)

Well nice, keep it coming

Look out, work was actually done on the 900 this weekend!

First off, I found the lanyard for the Pingle dead man switch. The wires to the switch aren't hooked to anything, but this makes me think there might have been some drag racing in this bike's past.



Next, the bike went up in the air and the old (bent) wheel came off:





While I was there, I dropped the left hand fork and installed a replacement clip on that wasn't mooshed on the end:



One new wheel in place!



The bad news is that this wheel is not compatible with the cable driven speedometer. I have a few different options, such as new instrument cluster or saying "honest Officer, I had no idea how fast I was going!"

I had noticed the bike was hard to roll, and thought it was the rear caliper dragging. However, I was wrong, it was the front calipers that were hanging up. Disassembling the calipers showed me why - the passageways to the pistons were plugged with "boogers" of old nasty brake fluid. No pictures of the "boogers", as I was too busy flushing them out with brake cleaner. The pistons and seals were in great shape, so they were just cleaned. I use a brake assembly lube that's mostly silicone that prevents seals from tearing, and that worked great here.

Calipers cleaned and pistons back in place:



Reassembled (with thread locker!):



And loaded with pads and whatnot:



Bleeding the system was a pain, and I ended up pulling a vacuum from each caliper to get fluid down to them, and then having to crack open the banjo bolt that connects the master to the calipers to bleed the master. After all of that fun, the calipers grab hard, and almost as importantly, RELEASE!

I fired up the bike (after remembering I had turned off the fuel, oops), and after warming up for a few moments, it ran great. I've had to do nothing to this bike to get it to run other than replace the battery and add gas. Here's hoping it stays that way!

The fiberglass Airtech fairing has been painted a nice Honda black, so the next step will be to drill about 567,342 holes in it to mount it to the bike and mount the windshield and mirrors to it. I'm not sure if I'll be able to save the upper fairing bracket, as it's pretty bent, but I'll try. Closer and closer...

I'll follow! I had a 94, basically the same. Can you believe these scoots can qualify to be vintage? 20 years old I think to qualify! It was the first modern sportbike with mass centralization and big power. 120 hp in the same weight as the 600. It needed a few upgrades. The 17" front wheel you already did.

For my version, I put on a set of RC51 rims, 954 front end, 919 headlight and RC51 tail on mine. It required a few adapters/spacers to make it work.

Wow Eyhonda, that looks amazing. I kinda wish I had gone your route at the beginning - that round headlight and tail looks great!

I can't believe that a '93 is a vintage scoot either! It seems like that was just yesterday. Guess that means I'm getting old ;D

I remember reading that the 900 was something like 100 pounds lighter than the Suzukis and Yamahas of the time and it dominated as a result.

Damn, your 900 is hot! It looks like you're using a smartphone for a gauge, right?

Worst cb650 ever said:

Wow Eyhonda, that looks amazing. I kinda wish I had gone your route at the beginning - that round headlight and tail looks great!

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I told you to fighter it

Can't believe I missed this ;D Always like the 900s !

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. It's one of those bikes I wish I kept. I can't keep all the bikes I build but I wish I could. At the time, no smartphones. It was like 10 years ago I built it. I put the stock tach into a Magna aluminum housing (polished) center mounted and used a bike computer for the speedo. It wasn't complete yet in that pic.

Anyway, you can always change it later. Selling parts is easy these days. My bike went thru three different revisions. Old school 900rrs are still cool. Back in the day, the fat bulldog look was in. I fell in love with that big fat tank and fat rear tire. It gave it a mean powerful stance. Then came the wasp thin waist sharp tail look.

If you were curious about the build for more ideas, here is my page:

http://eyhonda.com/1994_honda_cbr900rr.htm

Sorry, I don't mean to be threadjacking. So, carry on!

hillsy said:

I told you to fighter it

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Yes you did lol! I guess I'm a visual learner, I had to see the picture of a sweet fighter 900

eyhonda said:

Thanks, I'm glad you like it. It's one of those bikes I wish I kept. I can't keep all the bikes I build but I wish I could. At the time, no smartphones. It was like 10 years ago I built it. I put the stock tach into a Magna aluminum housing (polished) center mounted and used a bike computer for the speedo. It wasn't complete yet in that pic.

Anyway, you can always change it later. Selling parts is easy these days. My bike went thru three different revisions. Old school 900rrs are still cool. Back in the day, the fat bulldog look was in. I fell in love with that big fat tank and fat rear tire. It gave it a mean powerful stance. Then came the wasp thin waist sharp tail look.

If you were curious about the build for more ideas, here is my page:

http://eyhonda.com/1994_honda_cbr900rr.htm

Sorry, I don't mean to be threadjacking. So, carry on!

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Thanks for the link, and you are not threadjacking - it's good to have more ideas.

You don't happen to have any of those 900 parts lying around, do you? Like maybe the upper faring bracket...