Bike of the Month - January 2010 - Danm54's RF600
Posted: Tue Dec 15, 2009 11:16 am
Just a few words on my RF600R
I’m sure this is getting to be one of the 'familiar' bikes on the forum now!
A few of you may have followed my thread earlier in the year and read my biking 'history' in the August newsletter, I say 'history', it’s not been a year yet! I’ll try not repeat myself too much else you'll all get bored.
I’ve owned this bike since January 2009, it's a 97 plate, had 24k on the clock and had been used as a commuting bike for a year, looking back it had been neglected a bit really.
It’s undergone a bit of a facelift since, my first intentions were to keep it as a learning bike for a year or 2, not worry too much if i dropped or scratched it, then move on. This soon changed when I joined the forum, I saw other peoples bikes and wanted to make mine all nice and spoilt, I realised it wasn't acceptable to never wash your bike (unless you're Fastfitter) and these RF things are quite rare.
My first mod was a scorpion exhaust as the standard one was scratched and had a hole in it. I also had to free up the front brakes.
I gave the bike a service with new plugs, air filter, oil filter, oil, also replaced the rear pads at the same time, this proved a challenge due to the pins being stuck solid.
My first big trip was to the south of France and i fitted a Givi rack and panniers for this trip, this was my first problem as no-one makes a rack for an RF600! The week before we left my front disc fell apart so new discs and pads were fitted the morning we left!
The trip resulted in my alternator coupling breaking and the bike being recovered to the UK, during the return journey the paint work was damaged, thus resulting in an insurance repair.
During my trip, and the recovery firm accepting liability, my problems continued in the form of the sprocket carrier bearing, cush rubbers, chain and sprocket set, new rear tyre due to a puncture, braided front brake lines, which I can recommend, and HH front pads.
Once I was given the go ahead to repair the bike I got a quote, and not one to miss an opportunity to improve my RF, I decided to pay a little extra and have the whole bike painted with me removing all the panels, this soon escalated into getting the panels smoothed out and a new colour being chosen, I went for H*nda Royal Blue Pearl, it looked a bit darker than the original colour with a few sparkles in it.
As the bike was in bits things escalated a little more, I decided to clean up my forks, the paint was chipped and peeling and was in need of attention. I removed the paint, sanded the forks and coated them in clear lacquer; this gives a brushed finish which looks cool.
This led me onto the wheels, I gave them a clean up from the brake dust and put on some yellow rim tape, its brightened them up and makes them stand out that little bit.
A few bits on the frame were cleaned and painted to cover the rust, the frame had t-cut and a general tidy up.
The panels came back darker than I expected but looked great, the smooth panels gave the bike a different look, a bit sleeker and bought it into the modern world a little. I was pleased with the colour too, I’d spent endless night worrying if I’d chose right and as soon as I saw it, I knew I had. I promptly put the bike back together after 3-4 weeks of being in bits, gave it a good polish, stood back and admired my new look RF! I later added some chrome decals.l
My latest mod has been with the help of our very own R&D Bod, Russell, I took a trip up to his and we replaced the front knuckle bearing, this was in many tiny rusty bits, and replaced the stock dog bones with shorter ones, raising the back an inch or so, this has made a positive difference to handling of the bike and is well worth doing.
Future planned mods are, the rear light mod, Tony Archer seat, fender extender and I may look into fitting an RF900 rear shock. I’ve got some Raask rear sets that I may look into fitting, I’m not too keen on them now I’ve got them though (Raask rear sets have now been sold
Thanks for taking the time to read this and hope i haven't bored you too much!! - Dan
