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The
current crop of Supersport 600cc class
represents a set of sport bikes that have
been involved in a perpetual conflict for
the last 15 or so years. Luckily for us,
this prolonged battle has seen some
evolutionary changes that for some
companies have meant race championships
under their belt and for others, sales
domination.
 Honda
is looking to head those particular food
chains with the current rendition of the
revered CBR600. A bike, Honda would like
to politely remind you, has sold very
well, thank you very much and a bike that
won all nine races of its first season
back in '87. The common denominator of
that first Hurricane and it's subsequent
F2, F3 and F4 championship winning
brothers, was that it was a street bike
from the very start - converted to a race
bike to dominate at the track near you.
Well, the new RR is different from the
above successful family; it has been
designed as race bike first, and shares
technology direct from Val Rossi's GP
bike, the current MotoGP dominating
RC211V. Take a look at the rear swinger -
look familiar? That's because it's the
same setup on the RC211V - more on that
later. The new 600RR also shares a common
fuel injection set up as the RC, with duel
fuel injectors injecting.
 Now,
lucky for us, Honda have seen fit to
continue offering last years excellent
F4i, to those who don't need or want the
latest and greatest race rep. However, if
you want to be on the cutting edge of
sport bike technology, this RR is for you.
Sure, it's not unusual to see racetrack
technology trickle down to the street, but
when was the last time you saw this years
race innovations on this years street
bikes? Never, my sporty and feisty friends
- This bike is as advanced as it is
focused.
 Obviously
this 600 class is a gossip filled cauldron
and all I've heard over the last couple of
months from the Supersport faithful is
"inverted" this, and "radial" that. Sure
upside-downies look good but Conventional
forks can offer advantages over inverted
types, especially when you're talking
about the beefy 45mm set on the new RR, up
two mill' from last year and the biggest
on any production Honda 600. However the
most innovative part about the RR is the
rear shock set-up.
 Honda
have taken a complete 180 stance over this
side of development, they realized that
most problems with current motorcycle
geometry come from the rear not the front.
On a conventional rear set-up the rear
compresses under acceleration,
specifically whilst twisting the loud
handle out of a turn, this compression is
using valuable shock stroke and should you
encounter a small dip or bump, loss of
traction can occur. The result? Highside
City, and you are the Mayor. An inverted
fork set-up couldn't possibly save you
from this one, tough guy.
Honda's
answer comes in the form of a revised linkage
that sees the top of the shock anchored to the
swingarm, not to the frame. A few positive effects
occur as a by-product of this thinking, the
frame is less stressed and with a new manufacturing
process that allows engineers to create hollow
die-cast members that are lighter and airier,
this less stress also results in less bracing,
less bracing allows room for incidentals, like
a lower gas tank, which in turn allows a bigger
airbox. The knee bone is attached to the thighbone;
the thighbone is attached to the hipbone…
 Anyway, enough of this sleepy stuff let's go
ride one. The venue is Fast Freddie's house
of speed, Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I've been
here a few times so less effort was spent on
track orientation, more on going as fast as
my motor-neuron skills would allow me. Dunlop
was present and the bikes were fitted with the
D208 ZR OEM street tires for the mornings sessions,
Honda were the consummate host and had them
wrapped in hot, sweaty tire warmers to help
with the total opposite in weather conditions
here in the Nevada desert facility.
 The bike felt quite small in stature, and I
felt perched nice and high looking down onto
the redesigned instrumentation. The tachometer
is now central with the fuel bars and idiot
lights either side. As I moved into the open
pit area, I immediately went into tire scrub
mode and swept the bike side to side to scuff
up the virgin tread. The bike moved so well
that I nearly fell over and then repeated the
same thing on the opposite side with my counter
correction. The bike is absolutely effortless
in side-to-side transitions both at speed and
with my silly, potentially embarrassing, tire
warming pit stunts.
 Off into the racetrack the bike was all that
was promised and more. The Honda staff begged
(or was it egged?) us to get on the throttle
as early as we dare to demonstrate the rear
suspension action and traction. Nobody dares
MikeE and I soon had the bike overpowering the
street tires, especially when race warm and
with the consequent slides, one at triple digit
speeds, soon had me hiding at the back of the
pit garage pretending that I was looking for
something (my nerve?) I don't remember being
able to overpower the OEM tire on the last version,
so let that be a strong indication on power
difference. I was also dragging a peg in a couple
of places so I had my personal technician (no,
really) add a tad more preload, a smidgen of
compression, and a dollop of rebound - all to
thoroughly confuse the guy and impress him with
my suspension tweaking vocabulary and cooking
skills.
 After a couple or three sessions of shagging
street tires on the RR, I rode the older F4i
as a back-to-back comparison. Now I really liked
this bike especially after attending its launch
at this same venue, this wasn't a tired 2001
by the way, it was a low mileage unit and was
set up quite well for my (over) weight. At the
track it's hard to get a true perception of
speed, but riding the two together, the older
bike just didn't have the same get up and go
capabilities and wasn't as composed under braking
as the new bike was.
 One major
difference, engine-wise, was the ability for
the RR to over-rev. Peak power is a claimed
127 gee gee's at 12,500 RPM, however, peak rpm
is a heady 15,000-RPM. It was a beautiful thing
to be able to hold that gear, on tight corners
and not need to grab a potentially unsettling
extra gear, just let it eat for 2500 RPM. Also,
if you down-changed an extra gear on a typical
race-rep 600, you would have the back dancing
around like a drunken fool at a wedding party,
with the RR it would grumble under it's breath
like a bridegrooms father, but let the party
continue. That ability to rev comes from over
a third of a pound in weight shaved off of the
pistons, piston pins and new nut-less connecting
rods. That's reciprocating weight-loss, my two-wheel-fiends.
That party continued in a big way in the afternoon,
under the watchful eyes of Dunlop's road race
manager, Jim Allen. Sticky 208GP's were spooned
on, warmed up and let loose (with us on board)
on the nicely warming race track. Now, being
used to the Michelins that I've been running
all year - it took me a little while to explore
the limits of this strange (to me) tire. The
RR responded very well to the abuse that I could
dish out, no slides or dramas. These new 208's
have a rounder profile so the differences to
stock OEM's is starting to become negligible;
you just get lots more grip - lots lots lots
and lots more. The new RR couldn't be tide up
in knots even with my ham fisted fumbling's.
Someone obviously did their homework here -
as promised it gets its power to the ground
and is stable whilst doing so.
 The fuel injection always smoothed out the handfuls
that I was trying to squeeze out of the RR's
newly designed engine too. The twin injectors
per cylinder are positioned ala' 211V with a
lower one close to the intake, controlling low
to midrange throttle inputs and the upper injector
within the airbox that was reserved for when
you wanted to get the party really rowdy. The
two injectors were seamless in operation, with
the lower unit contributing to the impressive
and claimed 49.9lbs of torque. If you wanted
to be lazy, you could lug this motor in top
gear everywhere, almost like an open classer.
 The motor itself has been shortened with the
crankshaft moving upwards and forwards and with
a corresponding move of the countershaft running
close behind and beneath it. The bike handily
employs a deep sump so that crank is never swimming
against the tide of oil. This offered a redistribution
of engine size and weight that it is responsible
for good mass centralization. Everything, including
the swingarm, has been moved forward thus helping
to gain nearly three inches of extra swingarm
length. Consequently, the rider is forward too
by nearly 3 inches, your hip bones connected
to your back bone, your back bones connected
to your shoulder bone…
Getting going
is good, controlled stopping is good too, the
conventional brakes were pretty decent on my
bike, and two stubby pinkies were all I needed
to haul this bike down from an indicated 160mph
out on the speedway banking. The rotors are
each a dinner plate sized 310mm and the Honda
tech's had said that they had investigated radial
calipers, but for the Joe Public and even for
factory rider Ben Boz, the stockers worked just
as good, but more importantly felt better. So,
two fingers to radials it is then.
 Anymore trick stuff? How about the headlamps?
A first for production motorcycles, natch'.
Line beam headlights, the bulbs radiate light
which reflects back from a reflector that then
reflects forwards to the road. Zig-zagging beams
to help you to zig-zag at night… cool beans.
What about that exhaust? Luvverly. Looked pukka
and sounded good too. Slightly higher pitched
than the F4i but not annoyingly so. No additional
crash bills with this zorst', expect some clever
aftermarket cans to compliment this feature
too. The gas tank has a unique touch as well,
only one third is visible above the frame line,
the rest is nestled behind the newly configured
engine. This narrow within-frame design eliminates
side-to-side fuel slop, is the same capacity
as the F4i, and is, of course, lighter. Finally,
let's not forget the led rear light. Brighter,
lighter and de rigueur.
 Is there any downside to this bike? There may
be. The forks were a little soft. Mine had max
preload and I added a few clicks of compression,
but to no avail. The squished flies on the fork
leg were being squished almost all the way to
the top, not very technical I know, but even
when I had the audacity to put a zip tie on
the leg it still confirmed that I was using
all the travel. My main concern was bottoming
out the fork under track conditions, be it at
a race or track day and losing the front. Obviously
it didn't happen, but I think I may lose that
reserve once I had the title in my back pocket,
especially as I'm the wrong side of 200lbs with
my Kushitani's on.
 So, what do we have here? Well, quite simply
it's a bike that was first conceived within
six months of the RC211V's (immaculate) conception.
It's a race bike masquerading as a street bike
not 'tother way round. It's weight distribution
is mirrored from the RC211V and is as perfect
as you're going to get (Just ask Valentino and
Nicky). As far as the rear suspension
is concerned, it's such a groundbreaking development
that I feel pretty confident a similar version
will be seen on the next generation of sportbikes
(after the patents have run out, of course).
 Honda has won 50% of the titles since this 600
class began and every rendition has won Daytona.
This bike comes from very good stock so they're
not expecting that trend to end any time soon. The RC211V was built with one
purpose in mind and was an unqualified success. This 2003 CBR600RR shares
the exact same philosophy, 'nuff said.
A Ripping Yarn by MikeE ~ Artsy Stuff by Kevin
Wing. Article
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