The Hurricane is back!
Classic good looks
A long, long time ago, before god was born /sometime in the late eighties Honda released a new bike. It was an inline four engined sports bike. In our part of the world it was known as the CBR600F. In the US it was called the altogether cooler ‘Hurricane’. In the fashion stakes it has to be said, it hasn’t aged well.
That problem was rectified and the bike gradually got better and better looking as the years passed. By the time we got to the early noughties it was downright good looking. It had also evolved to being one of the best performing machines in its class. Then in 2017 the bike was discontinued. Nobody really knows why, but it’s been missed ever since.
Winglets come as standard
Now six long years later baby’s back and back with a bang. One of the much more interesting bikes in the Honda range has a whole lot more to offer.
The new middleweight machine still has the same capacity as the origional, 599cc, and configuration, an in line four, engine. This one, however, would be unrecognisable in any of the original CBR 600s. It puts out 119bhp and delivers 63 neuton metres of torque. Getting all of this power down is made easier via the standard slipper clutch and quickshifter.
Everything else on the new bike leans heavily on Hondas MotoGP experience. It comes, as standard, with a pair of 41mm Showa Big Piston USD front forks on the front and a Pro-Link Showa rear shock. The all new chassis is well proven twin-spar aluminium frame married to an aluminium swingarm.
Up, up and away...
The body work is beautiful. While it’s available in a number of different colour options, the HRC inspired blue, white and red leans back on the bikes heritage. The sharper headlight shape sits above a pair of MotoGP-derived winglets. These look really cool! They’ve also kept the exhaust end can under the seat cowl. Indeed, the bikes overall styling keeps true to its forebears.
It comes with a reg plate carrier, a pillion seat, pillion pegs and a set of indicators. All of these can be removed and safely stored for the next owner!
But all the 2024 technology is put to use in the new CBR600RR. It uses a 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) which is the same as the one used in the mighty Fireblade. There are no fewer than five riding modes, a choice of nine torque control settings, wheelie and stoppie control. There is also an electronic steering damper as standard.
A new and even more dynamic bike