Your specials: Bike 6

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Click here for Your Special: Bike 1.

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Click here for Your Special: Bike 5.

Your special: Bike 6: David’s Saul’s 1999 Honda CBR900 Fireblade

After six years riding sports bikes, I felt I wanted something more suited to UK roads and fancied a ZRX1100. I really enjoyed the ZRX apart from the weight, soggy handling & lack of ground clearance. I liked the idea of a Hornet (only 600 available at time) but was concerned about budget suspension and lack of performance.

Then this Blade became available. I fancied street bike styling and sports bike handling so decided on the project. The Honda had belonged to a friend, but was crashed when it was lent to another mate. It was written off but I purchased it from the insurance company for £1700 as the damage was very minor. I even managed to clean up and sell all the fairing panels.

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The Honda was then completely stripped, with every component either repainted, or polished, and all fixings replaced with Stainless steel. The stock rear sub frame was modified to accept a Yamaha R1 seat unit; meanwhile the front seat was modified to fit the R1 plastics but still remain in the stock location.

The bars were removed and new handlebar risers were fabricated to accept Renthal handle bars. One-off parts in polished stainless steel include under tray, number plate mount, chain guard, headlight brackets & clock bracket.

Aftermarket parts include Harris Rear sets & exhaust hanger, Headlights, LED indicators, Renthal Handle bars & bar mounted mirrors.

The hardest part was all the polishing, as remvoing the paint on the wheels revealed a very rough machined finish, and some of the other aluminium parts also eneded plenty of polishing. The sub frame modifications were also tricky as I wanted the R1 seat plastic, but also the stock rider position and a pillion seat.

The project took a total of about £3100, including buying the bike ,and six months. Since finishing it in 2002, I have covered around 18,000 miles, including the Isle of Man, France and MCN’s events in Skegness.