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Two Honda siblings out to prove how special inline-fours are

- Kartik Ware

If only we could get a Honda CB300R, we’d have a proper Matryoshka doll scenario here. That was indeed the original idea, but Honda didn’t have a test bike for us, so we had to assemble the bigger and the biggest of Honda’s ‘neo sports café’ machines. And that phrase is perfect, too — what else do these bikes look like? Okay, so the beautiful CB1000R belongs to Kartik Sadekar who’s done a custom wrap job on it along with candy red wheels, and it does make the smaller CB650R look almost anonymous. The wrap job, by the way, is inspired by the Fujiwara tofu shop from Initial D, if you were wondering.

Even without the custom visuals, the biggest CB is decidedly more exotic, what with its single-sided swingarm and a modern café racer tail. However, the smaller CB’s exhaust headers are the gorgeous ones, with the bigger one’s appearing like incisors in urgent need of braces. The CB650R also sports a bronzed-out bits that add a bit of understated style, and when we finally noticed that the bikes’ headlamps, wheels, front forks and some other parts were identical, the CB650R didn’t seem all that starved of substance. The Honda’s air is one of futuristic modesty — but it’s also a stunningly quick and fast motorcycle.