Living with a Honda CBR Fireblade 954RR: How we got it up & running

With this setback, I was ready to give up on the motorcycle and just salvage some cost by selling its parts. The engine was properly stored and we got along with our lives.

BHPian AtheK recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

It's been some time since I posted in this thread, but there is a lot that has happened over this time. Let me break it down into two different posts in a series of two.

The bike after all that we had done, was running fine except this one issue highlighted in this post.

7. Second Gear slips on and off, specially if I am at high speeds and I downshift, it slips back to Neutral sometimes. Though not much of an issue, it just gets irritating sometimes, worse still people around you thinking that he is revving without any reason, though that kind of sound while revving is more embarrassing. I have now mentally trained myself to go from 1st to 3rd gear, but still since there is no gear indicator, you sometime do end up making the mistake.

We went on a ride late last year and everything was working fine, there is a new road STRR that had been recently built (last year) and with hardly any traffic on that road, it was easy to maintain a decent speed in a relatively safe environment as the road is cordoned off. Me and a friend were cruising comfortably and after a downshift to second gear, I started hearing an odd sound coming from the engine and bike wouldn't slot into second gear and slot only into third gear with a lot of effort. I knew immediately that the long-awaited second gear had failed. I stopped to take a look and saw that the chain was loose as well, immediately got the chain tightened, but after riding a few kilometres it went loose again.

Few photos that we ended up clicking that day, even in this Harakiri!

Rode back home mainly in 1st gear and created a video of the sound and sent it to Yassar at Motospark. He sent the video to another senior mechanic and he told us that it seems like the crankshaft is gone. I was a bit apprehensive about this diagnosis and analysis as if it was a crankshaft failure, I should have not been able to ride the bike back home. This left me quite devastated and I just decided to park the bike and put a cover on it for some time and think about what to do next after a few months.

Here is the video that was shared.

Only if it was that easy as it kept playing on my mind and I was sure this was not crankshaft, so after a couple of weeks I called up Yassar and told him I was sending the bike to him. He should open the engine and figure out if we can salvage it, and then we will decide next steps. With this, the bike was towed to him and I waited for him to get time to open up the engine and reach back to me. He called me after a few days and as expected I was right and it was not the crankshaft, just that the gear teeth of 2nd gear had given up. This was a relief as if it was crankshaft failure, we would have had an engine seizure.

The video that was shared with me confirming it was gear getting stuck.

This was not a difficult fix and all it needed was the transmission tranny gears. Little did I realise that it was just an oversight on my side. I started looking for the parts on various sites and worst of all, all the parts that were on sale, majority of them had the same issue, second gear teeth worn out or broken. I started reaching out to friends travelling back from the US to see who might have space to carry it back as this is a heavy part. After frantic searching we found a seller selling the part in working condition and as luck would have had it, another friend was travelling back and he agreed to carry it back. Payment was made by Sourav and the part was shipped to my friend along with the required gasket. Luckily there was no other damage to the engine and no other part was needed.

Received the part after a few weeks and took it to Motospark, we were all excited that it was time to fix the bike, and when we opened the packet, guess what, a part is missing. The missing part is highlighted below, and all excitement came crashing down. They had already got the engine cleaned up and ready to throw the part in. With a loss of money, time and excitement we reached out to the seller who flatly refused saying he sent all parts. He said he would raise an issue with USPS but we know how that turns out to be and we dropped following up on it.

The parts that were received.

The part that was missing.

With this setback I was ready to give up on the bike and just salvage some cost by selling parts, the engine was properly stored and we got along with our lives.

With a couple of months gone, while having a beer with a close friend he casually told me his brother was travelling from the US to India with his family and they are travelling business so if I want anything I can order as they have more than enough space. Was this a sign, just to check my luck, I searched on eBay for the part, and what do you know, a perfectly clean part is listed for sale. Immediately the part was ordered but this time made a change and sent the part first to Sourav's place so he could examine if everything was in order and send us all the pics. We were all relieved to see that the part was perfect and everything was in order, the part was then shipped to my friend's brother's house and we eagerly awaited for the part to land in Bangalore. 6 months had hence passed.

The part arrived and duly next day I was at his place to pick the part and off I went to Motospark again, and this time it was confirmed again that we had everything in place, and this started the work on the bike. Below are some of the pics that we captured during the rebuild which lasted around a couple of weeks as we did not want to rush it and wanted all the fitting to be done in a perfect manner with all bolts tightened to perfect torque specifications. Below are a few pics of the rebuild.

The engine was cleaned inside out all the parts were thoroughly checked and cleaned, you can see how clean the engine is while putting it back on.

One test start before putting it all back.

The bike was then put together and it was time to test everything put together and here is the video I received after the first start.

It was now time for the first test ride, I was in Singapore, so Yassar decided to take it for a spin. I eagerly awaited his feedback as he wanted to take it out late in the night which means later in the night in Singapore, and after a wait which felt like ages, I got the first video of the bike in motion, and the happiness and excitement in his voice was next level, everything was working perfectly. In the meantime we had also fixed the speedometer, the bike he said rode like a dream and there was no more gear slipping.

I have the video but I am not posting it as there are too many explicit words used out of pure joy and ecstasy of riding a bike which was working the way it should. All I heard a lot is Honda are magicians with the engines. I saw the video a few times and with a smile on my face, slept for a few hours before running to the office.

The bike was finally fixed. I told Yassar I would pick it back once I was back from Singapore. Called him after my return and told him I would come the next day and get it back home. Surprisingly I did not get a call back from him the next day and when I called him got some unexpected news. Tragedy had struck.

To be continued...

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