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2005 Project CBR1000RR Streetfighter |
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Posted by MikeE
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Tuesday, 16 August 2005 |
Bridal Budget Busting by Mike Emery ~ Photo Evidence by Rob Mealey
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OCD. Obsessive, Compulsive, Disassembler. It’s true; I can never look at a motorcycle without visualizing what it would look like if I owned it. The thing is, I have a very real fascination with nekked’ vehicles. I can’t blame this on old age as I’ve always lusted after that “sit up and beg” seating style and I can hustle a bare naked lady... err bike, just as fast round a race track as its sportier sport fairing-ed cousins.
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My OCD history is constantly repeating itself too, people have oft questioned my questionable abilities to turn dirt bikes into street bikes and attaching dirt bike parts to perfectly acceptable street motorcycles. Witness Yamaha’s dirt oriented WR450 elsewhere on this site currently wearing a smart set of 17” wheels and appropriate (for wheel size) supermoto slicks.
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An illness? Absolutely, and just like any deviant, when Honda originally pitched me for a long-term test bike, I knew what I wanted and I knew exactly why I wanted it. Sure they hummed and erred a few times about my intended project but in reality, I think they knew that I was potentially opening this bike out to a whole new audience, an audience not particularly interested in monkey hugging a gas tank, and a decently skilled riding group that knew how to ride fast and wanted the big bore, unrestricted tackle to do it with.
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Of course, Street fighters aren’t new and the big four have addressed the market with varying degrees of success. Honda in particular with their 919, a favorite, and one of his first choice of bikes to ride, with the big boss of American Honda, Ray Blank. So the CBR was an easy logical choice, it’s fast, handles impeccably and was the perfect donor for the Mike Emery - Jenny Craig make over. Having built a few of these before, I knew I was looking at a fairly conservative 20-30lb weight reduction (as it happened over 20lb of those were front fairing related) pitching it squarely back into the lower middle of the open class fighting weights.
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So where did I start? Like a true two-wheel-freak, and with no particular plan, I proceeded to remove all unnecessary body work. My goal was to make this thing OEM in appearance. I elected to keep the stock HESD steering damper and had a billet triple clamp manufactured to retain that and added a set of motocross style risers to take a set of Aprilia Tuono bars that I stole off of my own Tuono (did I mention I love naked bikes?) The work was done by a talented fabricator, Chris Parker of CPR Fabrications based in Costa Mesa, amazingly he took the stock triple and reverse engineered it to perfection with spot on fitment. At $800 this wasn’t cheap - but it’s safe and consequent copies should be cheaper, if you’re feeling brave.
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This story took a bone-crunching turn for the worse after damaging myself in CA late last year and heading back to FL for some personal repairs. I ended up staying in Florida a little longer than I envisaged (I was hit by the love brick!) and American Honda had to dispose of the partially dismantled bike (it was a pre-production unit). They kindly sent the aftermarket parts back to me and wished me a happy life. Luckily Champions Honda in Cocoa, FL, who had previously helped me with the XR650RR project, stepped up and supplied me a 2005 Titanium gray model and I was back in business.
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Trying to be a little more organized this time, I took that $10,999 mo’bike, stripped it down and stared at it for two whole months before launching into a rewiring frenzy. The newly exposed wiring was significantly lengthened and rerouted inboard of the frame and small brackets fabricated there and here to keep all stuff clean. I’d be tempted to end this sentence right there but the fact is this is the majority of the conversion. I managed to hoodwink one of Champions mechanics, Zeb Cantwell, into “helping” me reroute the loom, basically I just hid, strolling back every now and then with a new part, looking like I was involved. Poor Zeb eventually ended up with more than 140 different solder points. Most of the wiring was rerouted to the seat area due to the snugness of the tank and airbox relative to the frame - I think his fingers are still tingling.
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OK, so with the bike looking nice and skinny it was time to bolt on some performance.
Dan Kyle and Sato stepped up to the plate with a superbly crafted full Ti system that in itself dropped a further 11lbs from the bike. Dan’s has dyno-ed these pipes, and is netting nearly 14 more horses. Great bang for your buck. That pipe also makes you power in other ways, obviously it’s a hand made carbon and titanium sex toy, but what is more important, that weight loss is further power enhancing because every 7lbs lost is one horse gained.
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The online retail portion of Champions, ChampionsOnline.com also suggested a lighter weight sprocket and chain set, it’s a relatively cheap way of dropping unsprung weight and seeing as we wanted to shorten the gearing anyway, a perfect match for the desired effect (and my wallet). As it happens, that further weight reduction tied up in a 520 Vortex sprocket kit is still sitting on my shelf, for reasons explained later.
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For final detailing and tidying up, CRG chipped in with some beautiful billet mirrors and fully adjustable levers. The stock brake lines, courtesy of Champions Online again, were swapped out with some steel braided ones, extended (I think from a Yamaha FZ1) to cope with the revised bar position. The upside is obviously a better performing brake system, and incredibly the clutch action feels a little more positive, offering a greater feel all round. The headlamp is a stock (brackets and all) Honda supplied 599 unit. |
You won’t appreciate these weight loss equations until you’ve ridden this beastie – more beans per lb. than the R1, GSX-R1000 AND the ZX10. Proof? Dry weights for the other open class contenders are as follows Yamaha = 421, Suzuki = 414 and Kawasaki = 409lbs. This CBR now comes in at a feathery 403lbs and is only bested by the Kawasaki in the refried beans department. How’s this for a further endorsement? This bike is also 25lbs lighter than the claimed dry weight of Honda’s own naked 919 and a whole pound lighter than their Honda 599.
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So, enough on the 12-month build, how does it ride? Oh my God... This bike makes you curse like a drunken sailor with the voracity of its power delivery. It also makes me sing out loud with joy every time I ride the thing. I love the way it carries the wheel six inches off the ground from 25mph through to 125mph. It handles perfectly with no vices peeking through the conversion, in any shape or form. Comfort level has gone through the roof too and passenger confidence is higher as well, with you being closer and more upright to your copilot/better half.
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| Side to side transitions are very quick too, compared to stock. Mostly due to the leverage afforded by the new handle bar set up and also due to that 20 odd pounds of fairing lard removed from the front of the bike. I contemplated a lower footrest, but I didn’t want to trade out ground clearance. The stock rearsets seem to be perfectly combined with the sit- up-and-beg seating. |
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As mentioned the planned gearing was never used and I’m not sure it ever will. The gearing seems spot on at the moment. There’s a very strong hit down low and with it wheelieing in fourth gear off the throttle at any slightest road dip, that fifth gear wheelie potential will probably see me serving some time in the big house, especially with my obsessive compulsive wheelie habits - a whole ‘nother story. |
| By the way, I “showed” the bike at the Road Atlanta AMA round this year and never saw less than three or four people around the bike whenever I came back from parking it. Most who saw it refused to believe that it wasn’t an early release 2006 - a great compliment in itself. The bike also got the Al Ludington seal of approval, with Miggy’s No’1 guy riding a very nicely modded 919 himself - I think he appreciated the effort that went into the rewiring. |
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So it’s done and it’s everything I hoped it would be. The bench mark was my own Tuono, in its own right a very highly praised bike in the fun department - this Honda is lighter and bests my Tuo’ by at least 50 horsepower! The good news (actually, bad news - it's sold now)is that this story is a thinly disguised classified advert and
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with less than a hundred miles on it. I’m very happy to say I’m getting married and my new fiancee would gladly see the CBR streetfighter stay - but she doesn’t know yet that I stole all of the money out of our honeymoon budget to buy it. |
I couldn't help myself people, I've got OCD...
Mike Emery
A big thanks to Jon Seidel at American Honda, Grant Hellinger for the CA bike storage, advice and tool usage, Zeb Cantwell for his burnt nubs, Dan Kyle for the patience of a saint, the marketing department at the Constructors Racing Group (CRG) and to Rob Mealey of Champions for the replacement CBR1000RR.
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