2003 CBR600RR Reader Feedback

[ddub]

I agree. I've seen all 3 colors in person. My black RR gets more attention than my bud's Red/black at local hangouts.

[ddub]

I rode both back to back, and they are both damn nice. The RR front end feel much more planted than the R6 even at street speeds. The R6 feels more narrow between the knees and feels less like you're sitting on the tank. The RR has a noticeably heavier steering when going hard left/right (price of stability, I guess). The RR motor is more linear feeling. The R6 hits soft then revvs really quickly, 2 stroke-ish. Both shift crisp (although Motorcyclist reports R6 shifting deterioration with time/mileage). The R6 FI might be slightly less snatchy (might be due to softer midrange powerband). I've ridden my RR hard through stuff I usually ride on my motard and it did surprising well--although it was bumpy, it dampened the sharpness out of the bump, and it was so stable that it always stayed pointed toward the intended trajectory. Sweet ride. Can't go wrong with either bike.

[Cherii]

I was wondering if anyone else noticed that's a V-4 motor. Looks like the VFR to me... they moved the cam drive from the center to the right side in '98. It scares me, too, that new riders may get started on such a rocket, but hopefully they'll not use the upper half of the rpm range for a long, long while...

[busa1300]

The article is great but that definitely isn't an RC51 motor at the end, unless of course someone managed to fuse two fo them together. Sure you didn't mean RC45.

[Buzglyd]

Come on now. A bike first sold in 1986 and unchanged since then would be perfect in a test of modern motorcycles!



Perhaps you should just include the Concours and the SV650 in every comparison on MO. Dirtbikes, Sport tour, quads. It doesn't matter just put 'em in and shut these people up.

[seruzawa]

You don't believe the 200mpg ad copy on the old Cub?



200mpg might very well be possible from the old Honda Cub. The stepthrough Honda was my very first bike. I never attempted to get 200mpg out of it. But considering that it got something like 120mpg while riding around at full throttle all the time I imagine that 200 mpg might be possible if one rode around at 25 mph.



It did need a new piston and rings about every 9 months when riding it around L.A. at 40mph all the time. Since it was the last of the easily maintainable Hondas the job only took about an hour, much like a two-stroke



2nd rant: Okay. Now that we've finally tested this all year's slightly improved 600-4s for the benefit of the sportbike mafia can we stick with bikes that actually have torque and other usable street applications?

[staff]

Heh, we were wondering when someone would notice...



See, nothing is right in MOHonda land

[rsheidler]

When you see people thinking of these 600s as "entry-level" bikes you can understand why so many countries are going with graduated licenses! My first street bike was an RD400 and I came so close to killing myself on that so many times. Maybe kids now have more self control than I did at that age -- I know that, for example, KPaul feel that his Ninja has pleanty of low rpm torque and never needs to be revved beyond 7000.



Maybe that is the trick -- let newbies buy new 600 sportbikes but with electronic rev limiters set at 6000 for the first year or so, until they get the experience.

[seruzawa]

Oh, poop, their credibility is just fine. If it's unadulterated sycophancy to Honda you are craving try Cycle World or Motorcyclist.



Honda has no bike at all that would have competed in the parameters set for the last sport-touring shootout. The VFR800 is a bit weak comparatively and the STs are way too overweight.

[seruzawa]

This could get a bit cumbersome. To shut the whiners up you would also have to add a 600-4 and a VFR800 to every comparo as well.



Well actually you might have to add all 600-4s to each comparo. Apparently these people can't get enough of test after test after test of a class of bikes that change little to year.