So I took home a new bike a couple weeks ago -- a 08 R1 with 37k on it. I was in the market for an R6. it was a daily search, but somehow I stumbled onto this R1. I've owned 3 bikes before this one and what caught me first was the colour and modifications. I always wanted to run a black and gold theme but couldnt justify putting any more money out on my Ninja 300 for it. This bike had mostly what I wanted to have done at a great price. I had the chance to take her out for an afternoon in the rain as I only ran a day permit. I will be insuring the bike in April, so it's a painful wait but i guess that's part of the game when you pick up such a steal in the off season.
The mileage was a bit of a turn off, but considering that-- it's in wonderful condition. A bit of maintenance work I'm not too worried about, and it'll be a bit of fun and a good learning experience (pls dont make me eat my words). This build will mostly be about maintenance. The bike was also an Alberta bike, I am the third owner. The VIN ran clean and with 0 claims.
Modifcations:
Termignoni exhaust + Y pipe
Scorpio 2 way alarm system
CRG levers
Power Commander 3
HIDs 8k low beam
Solo seat cowl
Oxford Heated grips.
Flush mounts + integrated tail light.
Well the first thing I did when i brought her home was put her through a full detail including clay bar and polish. Black is a tough colour to take care of but it turned out great. I plan to go for a black and gold theme and have some little goodies coming in to complete the look. the previous owner decided to spray paint the pegs black and they are now peeling. I will either peel the spray paint off or have them powder coated down the road.
The owner decided to get rid of the R1 sticker and peeled the termi decal on the exhaust, as he preferred more of a stealth look. I will be replacing both of these.
I had the oil, coolant, and spark plugs replaced this weekend.
I measured about 2.9 litres of oil coming out -- the spec is approx 3.1, pretty negligible and im not quite sure when the last oil change was completed so I do have a good base now. Filled up with Motul 5100, will put in fully synthetic next oil change.
Most of the fairing bolts are quick release, so a 90 degree turn and they're off quite quickly. I had the coolant replaced with Honda type 2 coolant.
There was a ton of road grime collected on the bottom of these fairings that I missed/ were not easy to get out when I detailed it. It was a lot easier to get to with it off the bike and i decided to give it another polish before throwing it back on.
The plugs were okay to get to-- since I had the fairings off it was nice I only had to go a few extra steps to reach the plugs. The top air intake channel had to be removed and the radiator mounts dropped. Then I could get my hands in there. I decided to put in iridium plugs as noted by NGK as a performance plug. The wear on the old plugs look pretty normal and actually don't look too bad of shape -- however I didn't check the gaps on the old ones nor do I know when they were last done. Plugs ran me approx $30 bucks so why not?
I decided to do a compression test while I had everything out. It tested at an even 190psi across the board, and a squirt of oil saw little increase. I also had an adapter installed to connect to these smaller than usual m10 plugs compared to cars which may have created some losses. I wasn't able to find what the specification was but I feel pretty confident seeing these numbers are even.
How does my sprocket look? from what i've read they shouldn't look jagged or curled. They do look a little thin though. for that matter the tires are in okay shape, maybe around 60% so I may end up needing to do those also. It may be a good time for me to learn how to rip the rims out
..He also said the air filter was replaced last year. Uhhhhh
. I was able to get a peak through the intake pipe. They are filthy and will be done probably closer to spring. Tank removal looks like it'll be fun :P
The heated grips work wonderful. The grips themselves have a great texture and the heat @ 100% is so damn hot.
Plans this winter? I am debating whether to get rid of the front turn signals because they are not as bright as I'd like. I'm going to take a look at what kind of mappings been done on the power commander and to backup the map. The weights been tuned to someone about 180lbs whereas I sit closer to 150 with gear on. I will have it professionally done when I get more riding done just so I can really appreciate a good suspension tune. Also will be getting some new running lights up front shortly. The flush front turn signals look great, but visibility is horrible. The rear integrated tail lamp isn't the brightest either so i'll need to figure out what to do with that.
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). On the right side of the bike the bolt came out bent out of shape, likely from an impact. I had to tap the holes and fortunately was able to have it torqued up to spec.
