| Featured
Bike: 1990 CBR600F
Toolbox,
Migs, SLEX
Runner and Stormrider
History Of A Loved 1990 Honda CBR600F
I can’t help but smile when I think about
it because back in 1993, or it could’ve been 1994, when
I was 19, or 20 years old, I got my very first sportbike.
The bad part is, it wasn’t even a sportbike… it
was Honda’s newly revised 1990 CBR600F sport-tourer.
But if you read on, I did everything I could to make it into
the sportbike she is today!
I bought it fully stock and was extremely lucky
that the previous owner took extremely good care of it. You
could tell from the nuts, bolts and screws that he didn’t
touch a thing. He didn’t do any tinkering around and
even gave me list of its maintenance schedules. I was so incredibly
happy to get my hands on this bike that I didn’t even
ask for any type of discount nor did I even test drive it
before the purchase! From what he presented to me during the
sale, I’m assuming you guys would have done the same.
You could tell that he was an honest guy that was just in
need of another upgrade. And I can’t tell you how happy
I was to know he needed another bike.
As always, from the minute I got home with
that new bike, I put it up on stands and tore the whole thing
down to bits. It’s part of my compulsion to clean every
nook and cranny that had been ignored in the last 3 or 4 years.
To me, the 600F looked a little dull with all those aluminum
looking parts. At this same time, I had just finished completely
rebuilding my ’82 Opel Rekord and with all the chromed
parts I had in that thing, the bike just looked dull. So now,
me and my conscience got this bright idea to chrome everything
I could find! It sounds rather crass now but in the early
nineties, chrome was cool and that’s exactly what I
wanted to be… it never worked though.
Into Chrome Dazzler went the rear sets, passenger
foot-pegs, upper triple clamp, sidestand, brake and clutch
levers, nuts, bolts, screws, pins and the rear brake disc.
I know, pounding on the rear brake would’ve scratched
all the chrome off but that didn’t bother me, I removed
the entire rear braking system to save weight. Besides, I
never used it anyway. I still don’t use it today! I
have never found myself in a situation in where I have to
use the rear brake except maybe in a traffic light where the
road has a bit of an incline. Anyway, I brought the all those
parts to the shop myself and to my surprise, it would take
them 2 weeks to get everything done! What a bummer! Two whole
weeks with a brand new, secondhand bike that I couldn’t
use. “Never mind” I told the old man across the
table… do it anyway!
I get home and continue on with my plan of
cleaning. In the middle of the third day (I think), something
came over me again! An impulse to play around with the engine
and carbs. I don’t know what possessed me at that point
but I decided to call a mechanic over and ask what could be
done to make it go a little bit faster. Being a race fanatic,
this guy gave me tons of ideas which I knew I had to think
really hard about. By the end of the day, I decided that rejetting
the carbs, changing the exhaust system and shaving a millimeter
off the head was the best combination. Besides, I had time
to spare! My chromed parts weren’t going to arrive until
10 days from now. “Off with the HEAD”! The mechanic
got right to work the very next day! While I watched him in
my then, dark garage, slowly take out all the parts to get
the cylinder head, cams and valves out, I pulled out my little
toolbox of drill bits and measured as carefully as I could
to make the jets in the carbs 0.5MM bigger to feed the engine
more fuel.
As it turns out, everything worked out in my
favor! By the time I got my nice and shinny chromed parts
back, the mechanic was back with my cylinder head and all
the little tidbits that had to be machined as well. By now,
I felt like an alcoholic that hadn’t had a single sip
of scotch in the last two weeks and that bartender was pouring
me a double! Yummy! I couldn’t wait to get that bike
back in one piece. It took us three days to put everything
back where we found it. I can’t tell you how frustrating
that part was! I wanted to die!
Nearing completion, while I was sleeping early
that morning, I hear this incredibly loud and annoying roar
from the CBR’s engine! I can’t believe the freakin’
mechanic started it without me! I really wanted to be the
one to turn the key! These things are really important when
you’re a teenager you know. Of course, he didn’t
understand. But after I got over the stupid little anxiety
attack I had because of him, I couldn’t contain myself
and let out this big ass smile. The engine was on fire, it
wasn’t sputtering and it was so nice and shinny! I could
wait until nightfall to try it out. I spent that whole day
at home wishing it were 10:00 at night. By the time I finally
got to ride it, I was so full of excitement, even if it ran
like shit, I would’ve loved it anyway. But, something
was still not right! It choked a bit at the higher RPM’s
and I could tell it wasn’t getting enough air! So, what’s
the sensible thing to do? You got it! Remove the air-filter.
That simply did the trick! My bike was finally done and I
was going to ride it everywhere I went – as long as
its night time! Not once did I ever take that bike out in
the day time. I remember when I had the papers changed to
my name, I put it on the back of an old pickup truck and had
the driver bring it to the local LTO. It didn’t seem
right to give myself a hard time through daytime traffic.
Months had gone by and that bike continued
to run perfectly! It was quick, light at the time and looked
great! Then, a friend of mine says let’s take a trip
to Eagle’s Nest in Antipolo. Saying yes was the big
mistake! On the way up there, a dog scratching his ass behind
a corner was in my line and I wasn’t smart, good or
fast enough to avoid it! Down I go, sliding on my left side
for 40 feet on concrete wearing jeans, a t-shirt and no gloves!
I also had a new helmet and I didn’t want that getting
scratched so I used my elbow to keep my head away from the
road. That also proved to be a mistake! ?
And that’s when the fairings went to
Eric Umali for the first time! I decided to have it painted
the same scheme as my helmet! That would look cool, a helmet
that matched a bike perfectly! How I wish I had a camera at
the time! I loved that paint job! I’m still trying to
dig pictures up guys. I know that Migs, Francis
and Ken would love to see those radical colors!
I can’t even explain it but it had silver, white, black,
yellow, orange and somewhere in the mix, a checkered flag.
When Eric was done with it, even he was surprised at how it
turned out because he didn’t like my drawing. That drawing
of it was crap and yet, as any artist does, he made the best
out of what he had.
Then came the days of hanging out at the parking
lot of McDonald’s at Greenhills! That’s where
everyone talked and showed their bikes to one another! I was
young and kept out of the loop but that’s where all
the drag race brewing started out as well. The big boys would
scan each other’s bikes and set the bets there! By 1:00AM
when all the rules and races were settled, a group of over
200 riders would saddle up and all head towards Commonwealth
at the same time which was very, very far away!
That’s where another one of my addictions
started as well. I never knew how much fun it was to drag
race! My already fast bike was all of a sudden, not fast enough
to keep up with the then dominant 600CC bikes. The ZZR600
and FZR600 were just too light and fast for my older, heavier
CBR600! Or so they thought! After months of watching, practicing
and playing with other people’s drag setup bikes, it
was finally time to race my bike against the other 600’s
that thought they could easily leave me in the dirt. Of course,
I prepped for this, weeks ahead! Some of the things I did
to get it drag worthy was:
• Dropped the front forks 2 inches so
the front wouldn’t come up.
• Stiffened the rear suspension as far as it would go.
• Pushed the rear wheel as far back as possible stretching
the chain out.
• Getting stickier clutch plates.
• And mixing methanol in my fuel.
What fun that was to see the faces of owners
of newer bikes get beat! It wasn’t long until that bike
had a reputation of racing the bigger 750’s. The deal
always was, whomever was racing my bike that night had to
go backwards at least one bike’s length head start for
every 50cc difference in displacement. Funny enough, I never
bet money when I could have made so much! What an idiot I
was with principles of no gambling! My bike must have won
6 or 7 major races where the bets exceeded Php. 100,000!
In this little road down Commonwealth is where
I also learned that quitting while you’re ahead is best!
One of those off nights where no races were planned, a group
of friends, including myself decided to go down there anyway
and test our bikes with whatever little adjustments we made
over the week. After an hour of zooming up and down the strip
at over 200KPH, cops come in and put everything to a stop!
Some resident must have called it in. They stormed in there
with such precision and speed, none of us ever saw it coming!
We all spent that night in an outdoor cell at the station.
That’s the same day I stopped buying methanol and put
drag racing behind me!
No doubt, it was a hell of a lot of fun while
it lasted but I promised myself never to spend a night out
other than home ever again!
The CBR spent the rest of its day’s leisurely
running up and down Tagaytay, Batangas and Marcos highway.
I only had Keith as a riding companion back in those days.
And when he sold his bike and hung his helmet, riding just
got boring on my own. I found myself riding less every week.
That's when I decided to put her up for sale. A good friend
took her off my hands and before long, Migs
was the new owner.
Come back to read more about the history of
this bike in couple of days when Migs and
Stormrider turn in their the story's of their little
love affair with the very same Hurricane.
Along with that, dozens more images. =)
Go
to Page 2
|
