Honda CBR600RR is no more

[Papa Weeley_imp]

Funny this is even a thread here, not many sportos on this forum. The CBR600RR is a vintage motorcycle as is the CBR1000RR. Neither is the slightest bit competitive anywhere, either racing or for a track day or street-oriented sportbike. They are slow, and have no electronics. The big fun in modern superbikes is the traction control, you can really get on the stick early and blast around, and they are rocketships in a straight line. The CBR1000RR is very slow, and feels slow, compared to any other superbike. The CBR600RR is even worse off, it's slow, and just doesn't have any feature that would sell it other than the Honda badge.

For example, you have the Kawasaki Ninja 636, with traction control and great 600-class engine with a nice meaty bottom end and excellent handling. Triumph makes its 675 triple Daytona, not a good racebike but a great streetbike, gutsy and handles really well on the tight stuff. Then of course, the GSX-R 600/750 and the YZF-R6, all class-leading, feature-rich motorcycles in zero danger of extinction. Ducati has its 899, and so on.

Honda have got to revamp their entire sportbike line. And they will. Who remembers the advent of the Hurricanes? Completely upset the balance of power. You never see them on the road anymore, most of them were crashed, but they crushed the competition and the 600 Hurricane was the pre-eminent production roadracer for some time.

Whatever Honda have got coming it will be good, very good. Because what they have got now is not very good at all.

I don't know...I guess you can just call me "old school", or something, but I feel like all of those electronic goodies are just babysitting devices. Personally, I LIKED to slide the rear end around in corners (much as I did/do in cars), and if I want to pop up the front end, I'd like to be able to do it on demand, without having to switch off TC, etc., first. To me - unless you're a world-class rider, of course, and/or are always tracking your bike - the electronics seem to just be there to keep any yahoo from overstepping his skill-limit and getting into trouble. And constantly re-adjusting this and that as you ride, often having to actually come to a stop along the way to allow the changed setting? Sorry, not for me. I'll never be a Kenny Roberts, or a Marc Marquez these days, by a long shot, and even though I was a pretty decent rider in my younger days (by my own account ), I certainly wasn't then, either. BUT, I really recognized and enjoyed the connection of rider-to-bike-to-road. Feeling the tires start to squirm in a corner, the miniscule degrees of counter-steering at the bars, the compression of the suspension, the minute adjustment in steering by sliding around in the saddle as speeds increased and decreased in corners...it's a mechanical connection that thrills me to the core; I don't want one of isolating, electrical, and safety control.
Maybe now that I'm an aging rider that values comfort over the sporting details that I loved so much in my younger days, I'll someday grow to value that kind of thing, but for now, no thanks.
And I fully understand that not sliding, and that putting power down more efficiently, etc., makes for faster times around a racetrack, but I buy bikes for the street, and the main reason I buy motorcycles is to have FUN. I liked that about the CBRs, in a sea of other electronically-controlled sportbikes. I really don't think of that more simplistic Honda approach as a negative; in fact, anything but. I've heard all of the facts and arguments - all valid, mind you - but this remains my own, albeit subjective, opinion.

Funny this is even a thread here, not many sportos on this forum. The CBR600RR is a vintage motorcycle as is the CBR1000RR. Neither is the slightest bit competitive anywhere, either racing or for a track day or street-oriented sportbike. They are slow, and have no electronics. The big fun in modern superbikes is the traction control, you can really get on the stick early and blast around, and they are rocketships in a straight line. The CBR1000RR is very slow, and feels slow, compared to any other superbike. The CBR600RR is even worse off, it's slow, and just doesn't have any feature that would sell it other than the Honda badge.

For example, you have the Kawasaki Ninja 636, with traction control and great 600-class engine with a nice meaty bottom end and excellent handling. Triumph makes its 675 triple Daytona, not a good racebike but a great streetbike, gutsy and handles really well on the tight stuff. Then of course, the GSX-R 600/750 and the YZF-R6, all class-leading, feature-rich motorcycles in zero danger of extinction. Ducati has its 899, and so on.

Honda have got to revamp their entire sportbike line. And they will. Who remembers the advent of the Hurricanes? Completely upset the balance of power. You never see them on the road anymore, most of them were crashed, but they crushed the competition and the 600 Hurricane was the pre-eminent production roadracer for some time.

Whatever Honda have got coming it will be good, very good. Because what they have got now is not very good at all.

Wow give me some of what you've been smoking. Antique, slow? Seriously? Those are words I could see fitting a cb1100 because it is designed to emulate the early air cooled CB series but even a 10 year old cbr600/1000 can hold it's own on the street or track against any sport bike with the latest electronic crutches.

Absolutely disagree that the cbr600/1000 feels slow on the street. Not sure which cbr you've ridden on the street or raced on the track but if you have actually done either there is no way a cbr 600/1000 is gonna be categorized as slow.

I don't hold a racing license, just a guy that's been around for a long time riding the street mainly throughout california's mountains and canyons. In the real world the fastest riders I've seen on the street or track are on either older Honda and Suzuki SS bikes with no rider aids whatsoever.

Not sure how fast you wanna go, especially on the street, but if you feel you can't get it done on a cbr600/1000 it's likely not the bike.

I've certainly got to agree with you there on all counts...and sounds like we've got a very similar background.