Fabulous. (Honda CBR600F Sport)

Member Name: Steve P

Product:	Honda CBR600F Sport
Date:	23/04/02 (4798 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Sporty looks, better handling , more feel to the front brake

Disadvantages: Cant really think of any

First things first, this is an owners opinion. If you want all the specifications go to your local Honda Dealer and get a brochure. I am not going into height, length, weight, wheel base plug gaps or tyre pressures (although they are 36 front and 41 rear). Next up, I am not a motoring or motorcycle journalist. So sorry for any spelling or grammatical mistakes.
I had a CBR600 FX, you can read my report of that elswhere, I traded my old bike in for the new Sport. So how does this compare? First has to be the looks, the past models have always looked somewhat short of "sportsbike" particualrly when compared to the more sporty styled GSXR 600's and Yamaha R6's. The new bike with its more aggressive styling makes up for this, the twin headlamps add to the look.
Original colour scheme of red and black look pretty smart too. Its easy to mistake a Sport for the 2002 Blade, they both have similar colour schemes. The fork angle has apparently been altered and this is immediately noticeable on the road. Where as the old bike needed a nudge to get into a bend this bike just drops in, think about the bend and over she goes, particularly noticeable into a series of S bends, along with this change in head angle though comes a little bit of nervousness, it will shake its head a touch on rough roads, nothing alarming. As soon as you pull on the front brake lever you notice another change. The front brake is much more positive than on the old bike. Must be better hoses as the brakes are supposed to be the same, the positive feel seems to be what you would expect of braided lines.
Seating position is identical to the old bike, very comfortable, scratching or touring its fine, the sports seat is a thinner pad but actually turns out to be more comfortable than the old seat. It isnt likely to find many fans amongst pillion riders though, with the little padding of th e seat hump to sit on and a small strap to hang on to. Overall the riding position is not so
race like as its competitors, which for me is fine.
The new dash is a great improvement and surprise surprise we now have a clock. No more wondering what the time is on this bike, I was always getting home late. The speedo is a digital job whilst the revcounter remains analogue. Very easy to read too, lots of warning lights and a countdown on the fuel gauge, not just a light. The new bike is fuel injected to meet emmission requirements, the old bike being on carburettors.
Well what does it ride like, after 700 plus miles I'm starting to 'give it one' and its
quicker than the old bike, although they still claim 110 bhp, it feels more than the previous model. The exhaust has had some modification too, it has a different sound than the old bike seems a little louder too. It has a much improved gearbox, no more false neutrals here, with a positive feel as it snicks into gear, although selecting first from neutral is still a teeth clenching experience. The sport has lower overall gearing than the standard CBR and this is transferred into quicker acceleration (A friend struggled to keep up on his R6). The bike corners beautifully giving the rider a feeling of confidence, its fun to ride.
Overall its a big improvement and the changes bring it more into direct competition with the R6, GSXR600 and the ZX6.
If you want a sporting 600 its worth a try. These are all plus points, any downsides to it? Not so far other than the clutch cable masks some of the dash, and the twist grip is very light perhaps due to the new fuel injection system.
I'll keep you up to date as time and miles clock up.
With 1600 miles on the clock how are things?
Well its fully run in now and had its first service at just over 600 miles. There are no significant issues with the bike, nothing has gone wrong, you wouldnt expect that on a Honda though would you? Two issues have surfaced though, the first is the most annoying. The transition from off to on thr
ottle can be quite sudden, this apparently is caused by the switch to fuel injection, (forced by the need to meet emmission regualtions), on a slow tight corner the sudden surge can be very worrying and it is now spoiling the pleasure of riding the bike. This seems to have got slightly worse over the weeks as the bike loosened up. If you can keep it on a trailing throttle theres no problem at all, so I need to improve my riding style? The second issue which is pretty minor is the bodywork under the riders seat is losing its shine due to contact with my leathers. Hopefully this is fixed by the application of a clear film made by Foliatec, fabulous stuff and virtually undetectable once fitted.
Fuel consumption is higher than on the old FX carb model. Only noticed by the lower mileages inbetween tank fills. I'll update my view as the miles roll on.........

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