Introduction

Over the 16 years since its legendary 1987 debut, the CBR600F has won fame, acclaim and countless racing titles with its hard-hitting combination of light weight and strong, responsive performance. Widely praised for its smooth, unruffled power delivery, the CBR has come to be relied on for providing the best of both worlds: easy manners and predictable performance for day-to-day riding coupled with race-winning potential at the most competitive levels of World Supersport competition.

However, as tastes have changed over recent years, and greater interest has been shown in the more intensive performance capabilities of the motorcycles in the 600cc Supersport class, especially as related to racing, the gap between the CBR600F's traditional emphasis on top performance combined with easy, accessible street manners, and the narrow-focused performance required for circuit domination has steadily widened.

In response, Honda decided against totally upgrading the popular CBR600F to full race-ready spec, and thereby altering its position as the class's finest and most effective all-round Supersport road bike. Instead, they set out to create an entirely new middleweight class machine designed to meet the hyper performance requirements of the more focused competitive end of the class spectrum, while leaving the CBR600F to continue in its traditional role.