Honda’s CBR600 has been one of the company’s most successful models over the years, on the race track and in the showrooms, but despite over 30 years of heritage, the model has slipped out of Honda’s European range in recent years.
Credible reports from the Japanese media suggest that a new supersport machine, possibly dubbed the CBR600RR-R, will be launched in the autumn as part of Honda’s 2021 model line-up. It is not expected that it will be a ground up new design like the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade, but with the old 600 untouched for eight years, it would be expected that the new model would feature an engine updated to meet the latest emissions regulations, as well as the latest electronics, modern brakes and suspension and styling and aerodynamics in line with the Fireblade.
At this moment there are no official details of the new model and, understandably, Honda are not making any official comment, but we’re expecting to find out some more in the coming months.
Where has the CBR600RR been in recent years?
Sales of all sports bikes took a pounding after the global financial crash of 2008, but 600s were hit particularly hard. The early 2000s had seen the Japanese manufacturers update their sports bikes every other year and in 2003 Honda replaced the CBR600F with the MotoGP-inspired CBR600RR. The bike dominated World Supersport racing, powering the winning rider seven times in the next eight years (only Cal Crutchlow, on a Yamaha R6, broke the chain in 2009) and was a sales hit.
The global financial crash slowed sales significantly. Mid-range sports bikes, more typically bought by younger riders on finance deals, were hit hard and manufacturers slowed development and eventually abandoned the class. After introducing an all-new RR in 2007, the model received only two modest updates since – in 2009 and 2013. That 2013 model stayed on sale in Europe until 2017, when sales forecasts were so low it was not deemed worth investing in a new model to meet the Euro4 emissions standards.
Honda were not the only ones to abandon the class. Suzuki’s GSX-R600 got its last update in 2011 and quietly left the Suzuki line-up around the same time as the CBR. Kawasaki repositioned its ZX-6R slightly, punching out the engine to 636cc and giving the model less race focus and a more all-round appeal, while Triumph also dropped the three-cylinder Daytona 675 (an honorary 600 class member) rather than redevelop it for Euro4. Only Yamaha updated its contender for the new regulations, making an improved (but still heavier and less powerful in road trim) YZF-R6 in 2017.
There are a number of reasons why 600s are no longer the flavour of the month. Tastes have changed and more riders are turning to the comfort and practicality of retros and adventure bikes, while those who are staying with sports bikes are finding that new electronic aids are making 1000s less intimidating, with PCP finance packages helping to make them more accessible to buy.
On paper it’s hard to see why Honda would bring back the CBR600, but its not impossible.
Yamaha’s updated R6 sells in small numbers and very few of those can be found on the road. Supersport racing remains reasonably popular and the R6 is currently the only bike to have for racers wishing to taste the champagne. A competitive Honda would certainly add some interest into an otherwise dwindling class, but it’s hard to see a desire to simply go supersport racing making any commercial sense – especially for the company that has won in MotoGP for seven of the last nine seasons.
In recent years the Japanese manufacturers have focussed their sports bike attention on even smaller machines, faired budget bikes aimed at the high volume Asian markets and A2 licence holders in Europe. Perhaps there’s a feeling that these new models have created demand for a mid-class race replica. Or maybe the CBR600 is too much of an icon for Honda to kill off (it’s not currently available in Europe, but does remain on sale in some countries including the United States). Perhaps Honda thinks that there is just enough demand to make an updated (as opposed to new) 600 commercially viable. After all, Honda has a wider range than any other manufacturer, with plenty of low volume models. If Yamaha and Kawasaki can still get away with making 600s, you’d expect Honda to be able to as well….
Why is the Honda CBR600 such an icon?
Launched in 1987, the Honda CBR600F was a significant machine – although few would have expected it to have had quite the impact it has over the next three decades.
At the time the 600cc sports bike class was in its infancy. The aerodynamic ‘jelly mould’ fairing was distinctive but polarised opinion, while underneath lay a fairly conventional steel chassis with a water cooled inline four engine.
Despite being a very usable day-to-day bike, more sports tourer than a race replica, the emergence of a new production racing class, Supersport 600, proved the Honda’s capability. Despite being less sporty than the Yamaha FZR600R and less powerful than Kawasaki’s ZZR600, the Honda did well on the race track too.
The F2 model of 1991 had more contemporary styling and each update (F3 of 1995 and F4 of 1999) was more performance orientated, without losing that great day-to-day practicality.
By the turn of the century, the supersport class was hot. The Honda remained a strong seller and a tough competitor on the track, despite being less focussed than the competition from Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha.
All that changed in 2003, when the CBR600RR was introduced, originally alongside the F4i. It’s a measure of the importance of the class at the time that the 600RR came in a year before the CBR1000RR Fireblade. With styling and technology filtering down from Valentino Rossi’s RC211V MotoGP bike, the Honda was top dog in the most competitive class of them all and swept all before it in supersport racing for the best part of a decade.
Despite not being on sale in the UK for some years now, loads of CBR600RRs remain on the road. They also remain popular on the second hand market, suggesting that there may still be demand for an updated model in 2021.
