I am currently building a raw striker, I have been a watcher on this site for several months.
I had an old CBR1000 installed but have now decided to install something more modern I am
think either carbed 919 blade or R1, Any thoughts !!!

As you are already in BEC territory I reckon a run out in another car to see if the change is worthwhile. For the same, or less, money as an upgrade I think a big bore kit or turbo conversion for your current motor will give you more power and much more torque than a transplant. Saves the hassle of new engine mounts, wiring, propshaft, exhaust etc etc.

Sorry I should have made it clear I was thinking of the later injected R1.
Not too sure a turbo on the 1000f is possible as space is limited, and no room to move the engine due to prop angles etc

Out of the two I would go for the r1 for two reasons

1) more bhp

2) the gearing is better for normal driving about 1000rpm less at 70mph than the blade on the same diff

But that's only my opinion

Kev............

I'd go for the injected R1 but like Chris says the difference in performance won't be as great as you might expect.

Phil

The R1 has marginally more mid-range than the 'Blade, but in the real world you won't notice any difference. A good friend of mine has an S2 Lotus 7 with a 919 'Blade, and at numerous Teesside trackdays and on the road there was no real difference in performance (except on the brakes, but his were straight off a Herald and mine were 4-pot Willwoods! ).

Maybe the bade seems to be a good option as I believe they are very reliable

Maybe the bade seems to be a good option as I believe they are very reliable

My old '01 R1 had the cods thraped out of it for 7000 miles (including many trackdays) and never missed a beat! I always ran it on Motul 300V oil with either Yamaha or K&N oil filters and kept a keen eye on the oil level. It burned a bit of oil (they all do that) and I have no idea how many miles it had done before I fitted it, but it was grand!

My next car will be R1 powered, oh yes.....

I upgraded from a 919 blade to an injected 03 R1 about 3 years ago so am hopefully fairly well qualified to comment on this one. The reason I upgraded was partly for performance, partially for reliability and partly because I wanted a newer engine with injection.

The blade wasnt unreliable really given the punishment it was put through, but I always had the feeling that it was on the edge of its envelope if you see what I mean, even if it probably wasnt. I had one mechanical failure with the blade which required a new engine (crank drive gear broke up), but Ive since had 5th gear dogs break in the R1 engine so overall Id say a score draw on engine strength / reliability

The R1 does have a far superior clutch though. The blade went through clutches fairly quickly and never really felt that progressive, whereas the R1 is still on its original friction plates having done the (highly recommended) Barnett spring conversion. When you look at the R1 clutch side by side with the blade, the Yam item is about 50% larger so you can see why its better and lasts longer.

The fact that its injected is also a big bonus, it pulls cleanly from pretty much any revs and can be driven much more car like in traffic, you can pretty much pull away at idle and there's no threat of kangaroo-ing up the road if you bring the clutch up a bit too quickly or stab the throttle a bit too hard as there was with the blade. The blade wasn't too bad really, but the injected R1 is a definite step up in that area.

As to performance, its not light years difference but it is noticable. Id say with the R1, its still marginally quicker with 2 people on board than the blade was with only me on board. A mate of mine has a Megablade and when I also had the blade they were unsuprisingly almost dead evenly matched. Now when accelerating from say 40mph to 100mph, mine will pull 3-4 car lengths on him and keeps pulling harder all the way to 120mph+, and at the end of most straights on track I'll be doing 5+mph more than him. Its not as quick as a busa or ZX12, but the R1 is closer in performance to those two than the blade is to the R1 IYSWIM.

At the end of the day either engine will give you good service, but I certainly don't regret the upgrade. Having said that I think if I was building now I'd be looking either at a ZX12 or at something a bit newer still, maybe a CBR1000RR or ZX10R, but it depends on your budget.

Chris

[Edited on 17/5/08 by ChrisGamlin]

Thank you for your replies, you have given me alot to think about, either way I hop to get the car ready for July/august. will post some pics when it is done

Bearing in mind you can get a more modern injected Blade engine with fuel injection too for a reasonable price, that offers far closer power output to an injected R1 than the old carbed engine.....

Its not really fair not comparing like with like

Yes as scotlad says don't rule out the 929cc and 954cc injected blade engines fitted in the bikes from 2000 to 2003,I had a 929 in my last MK,great engines bullet proof and both have no oil control issues,and now can be picked up for less money then the R1 injected engines,keep your options open for whatever comes along at the right price.

I have now settled on a 954 injected blade engine. looking forward to its completion. Thanks for all the coments on this post