The CBR600RR is Back

Despite resounding success both on track and in showrooms, Honda pulled the plug on the CBR600RR in Europe in 2017. A maturing and fast-changing market allied to tightening EU emission regulations made the decision relatively easy for the Japanese manufacturer, but sport bike fans from Madrid to Melbourne were disappointed because the CBR was a fantastic bike. A highly evolved, mass-centralized RC213V for the masses; a pocket-rocket that oozed HRC thinking and quality. It was missed. Honda have now re-introduced it and we flew to the very fast and demanding Portimão track in Portugal to put the reborn screamer through its paces

- Adam Child 'Chad'

BY 2021, THERE WAS HOPE ON THE horizon when Honda re-introduced the 600-cc in-line four to the Japanese market and bikes started to appear in racing—notably in World Supersport and on the roads at the Isle of Man TT, on bikes imported to the United Kingdom by Padgett’s Motorcycles. And now, finally, for 2024, Honda have decided to re-introduce it.

As you can imagine for a bike that has essentially been left untouched since 2017, there was a lot of work involved to bring it up to modern standards. The old CBR had no electronic rider aids, no clever six-axis IMU, no aero package, and it did not even comply with now- obsolete Euro4.

Last seen in Europe in 2017, it looked as if the CBR600RR was passing into history. If you wanted to see one in recent times, the Honda Collection Hall at Motegi was increasingly likely to be the place. But rather than let it become a museum piece, Honda have dusted down their defining sports middleweight and completed the mammoth task of making it Euro5+ compliant while preserving its legendary high-revving performance and delivering it to the street and track with state-of-the-art electronics on a par with the new 2024 CBR1000RR-R Fireblade.

The in-line four-cylinder layout remains, as does the same massively oversquare 67 x 42.5 millimetre bore and stroke and 12.2:1 compression ratio. The throttle bodies, however, have gone up from four mm to 44 mm, cam timings have been revised, and a new exhaust system does much of the heavy lifting in terms of hitting Euro5+. (Honda say more than 50 prototype systems were tried before their engineers were happy.)

Improved gas-flow at (very) high rpm was the main performance goal and despite the strangling effect of those emission regulations, peaks of 121 hp at 14,250 rpm and 63 Nm at 11,500 rpm are similar to the far less restricted 2017 model, which is impressive indeed.