The last of the 600s

This month, we’ve been riding the CBR 650R - and you can look forward to a video of our opinions soon.

While this bike might not seem like much of a big deal - it actually is. You see, the 600cc sports bike category is just about dead. There are a number of reasons for that - it’s not all down to the Euro5 emissions regulations, although that is a bike part of it.

The thing is, sports bike sales have been in decline for a number of years. While there was a boom in biking (in general) - especially in the 125 market - about ten years ago, that same trend didn’t extend throughout the entire market. And bike manufacturers started to realise that they never really needed to have a 600cc sports bike that could set your hair on fire AND a 1000cc bike too.

When it comes to going racing - the big thou is the one that manufacturers actually care about. So, why have a 600cc version - especially when they’re not selling as well as most big naked bikes anyway?

The solution is to try and make a sports bike that is more usable on the road.

Couple that with the fact that European emissions regulations have pretty much eliminated any chance of them continuing to be produced and you can see how we got to this point. It’s also worth pointing out that these Euro5 regulations are only in effect in Europe - but Europe is such an important market that it’s not worth producing bikes just for Asia and the Americas.

So while Kawasaki has killed off the ZX-6R and Yamaha has relegated the R6 to track-bike form only - Honda has seemingly combined its CBR 650F and the CBR 600RR to create a balance of the two. It’s still a four-cylinder 650cc sports bike, but it’s more refined than you’d expect. While that might not do much to help dispel the myth that Hondas are boring, it’s wonderful that these bikes aren’t quite extinct just yet.

But is it any good? Well you’ll just have to wait for our road test to find out.