My first ever CBR600 really blew away my mind. It wasn't even one of the hotter later models but a 31000 mile F1. After an ubiquitous Superdream it was well wild yet at the same time even easier to ride than the CB250N! Trying to overtake cars on the little Honda was a laugh a minute, often feeling like I was going backwards. The CBR just zoomed through the gaps at warp speed with very little effort needed on the gearbox.
A lot has been written about CBR600 gearboxes but after a very worn Superdream item it seemed fine to me. CBR boxes go off with age and aren't brilliantly precise from new but the design parameters are way ahead of old Superdreams; so it just depends where you come from and where you are going. Late model CBR600's almost approach Suzuki levels of gearchange precision; the newer and lower mileage the model the better the gearbox. If you find a low miler with a slick(ish) gearchange chances are it really is a low miler.
Back to those first impressions of the CBR600. It really was well turned out, a natural riding position that gave no qualms and held no hidden terrors, neutral handling that was lighter than the Superdream yet much more stable, and an engine with a power delivery that could be either mild or wild depending entirely on the level of throttle abuse.
That didn't mean I couldn't get into trouble on it, but that when I did it was relatively easy to pull back from the abyss, with none of the Superdream's feeling of being about to fall apart whenever the brakes were snapped on or the throttle backed off in corners. At worst, the slightly flexible front forks would twist and dive a touch, giving some spice to the cornering. The forks have a reputation for going soggy just as the guarantee expires but don't then seem to get much worse with age; upgrade kits abound.
There is a school of thought that suggests that the CBR's very brilliance as an all-rounder, do anything kind of motorcycle, makes it a bit on the bland side, with none of the hidden nastiness of, say, a GSXR750. Which seems, to me, to be a very odd way of criticising a motorcycle.
Again, it all depends what you are used to and looking back on those early adventures, in the light of more recent escapades on much meatier machines, there is perhaps a hint of blandness about the sheer efficiency of the Honda's engineering.
Certainly, it was the kind of bike that worked best when thrashed along flat out, though it ran fine at just about any revs in any gear, all the blood and guts of the design was reserved for the red-line. It was the way that many old CBR's died a death, thrashed through the box at exorbitant revs until thrown into a false neutral and thence tangled valves, especially if it was running a combination of race ignition kit and open pipe.
Mine didn't die from that, though by 78000 miles it was running very poorly with a mere 125mph top end. View any CBR with more than 60,000 miles under its wheels with suspicion. My bike died a death when it hit the side of a car. This wasn't due to incipient blindness on my part, but one of the front discs breaking up. They are infamous for thinning down but don't usually go into a shrapnel act!
The total loss of braking came as something of a shock to the system, as did the noise of the explosion of the brake disc. Rather than coming to a halt at the junction, the bike went into the side of a cage, was dragged along by its sideways momentum and ended up being thrashed down the road. I'd gone over the bars, glanced off the back of the car and then plopped down in front of an Astra - luckily, the driver had good reflexes and swerved around my prone body!
To cut a long, bloody story of despair short, I survived to live another day and the Honda didn't - the wreckage ran to broken crankcases and twisted frame. I then bought a little Honda CB400 Super Four as light relief. This was a naked bike that needed to be revved like a racer to get anywhere fast but was easy handling and very comfortable. It went through the consumables and fuel (40mpg) at the same rapid rate as the CBR600.
It would buzz along at ton-plus speeds but needed much cog-swapping to avoid becoming an accident statistic when overtaking on fast roads. On the latter with sweeping bends it was great fun. Braking and the ability to throw it around offending objects was even handier than on the bigger Honda.
The bike had done 38000 miles in the hands of no less than seven riders, only lasted for another 3700 miles before the top end went all rattly and performance went down to Superdream levels - the camshaft's lobes had lost their hardening, making it impossible to set the valve clearances. The oil filter looked like it had never been changed, though I'd changed the lube twice! Ooops!
The Super Four's a relatively rare bike, not much hope of tracking spares down in the breakers. I did the clearances as best I could, gingerly rode to the nearest motorcycle dealer and did a trade-in for a CB1000N - the only bike on which the dealer would give me decent money as it was a reluctant seller even with a mere 3500 note price tag, which must've matched 1200 Bandits, the defining bike of this genre.
This was a total mammoth, 525lbs of real metal, based on the CBR1100's power mill but detuned for torque. A sort of grown up Super Four. Any hint of throttle abandonment had it charging forwards at an unprecedented rate, seemingly shrugging off its excessive mass. At least until I tried to throw it around in the bends when massive muscle strain set in - not a well settled motorcycle, always straining at the bounds of its torque and mass.
Just to complicate things, the pair of front discs were typically worn (22000 miles in this case) Honda items. Rather than bring the monster to a controlled halt, they sent massive judders through the steering head whilst making strange screaming noises. Left me running into corners far too rapidly, causing the undercarriage to grind away as I took the Honda right over on the edge of its worn Avons... talk about feeling like I was about to fall off the edge of the world. At least there wasn't any hint of the bike biting back nastily.
There are quite a lot of CB1000N's in breakers, didn't have a big problem finding replacement calipers, discs and pads for sixty notes. Added some new Goodridge hose and fluid. The net result of all that effort was predictable braking but not really up to the performance when hustling through the faster bends. Later, Ferodo pads gave the bike the edge it desperately needed.
With a top speed of close to 150mph, the nakedness of the brute was emphasized! After half an hour of highly illegal high speed jinks, I felt like I'd done a couple of rounds with Mike Tyson - the wind buffeting so heavy that if I tried to move my head it felt like some huge gorilla was trying to tear it off.
I could get my head down and do about 120mph for an hour before some vicious pains hit my body, so it was well on the pace and there was loads of power in hand to outmanoeuvre plod cages. Hardly any need to play games on the gearbox, which was just as well as it needed the same kind of attention and sweetness of foot action as an old Superdream. I had a couple of missed gears resulting in myriad revs but they failed to blow the motor to smithereens.
In fact, the CB held together for about 30,000 miles and nine months of extremely hard riding in which I did very little to the bike except replace the quick wearing tyres (3000 miles!), change the oil and give it the odd friendly kick. I then detected the beginning of a camchain rattle, traded in for a 1996 Honda CBR600 that only had 3700 miles on its clock. Total prime meat!
A bit of an anticlimax after the CB1000N. Until I realised you had to rev the bearings off it, then its combination of more power and much less mass added up to some serious speed. Thanks to its excellent aerodynamics and modicum of protection, 120mph felt like about 70mph on the CB. 140mph was a realistic cruising speed, 160mph on the clock when taking everything to extremes, with none of the wind bashing from the bigger Honda. A kind definition of blandness.
The big problem was that I wanted to ride at heady speeds all the time and the police wouldn't let me! I had several sessions with the law, speeding off into the distance only to find the plod appearing out of nowhere up front - cunning bastards. One took great delight in telling me that being copped for doing 154.3mph would result in a prison sentence. Silly bugger. I'd leave the country rather than face that. In fact, a couple of address changes seems to have thrown them off the scent.
This CBR had a nice gearchange but a slight hesitation in power around 5500-6000rpm. As I was lusting after even more power I went the race pipe and dynojet kit route, which widened the hesitation from 5000-6000rpm but made the power come in all the harder. No extra speed but better acceleration, the aerodynamic effect at high velocities needing a lot more horses than mere external mods could generate.
With 23000 miles under its wheels, the exhaust began to smoke heavily and it didn't want to run above 5000rpm! Had to whip the engine out and take the cylinder head off. One holed piston found - probably running too lean due to the modifications. A used piston sorted it, plus a bit of baffling in the silencer to enrichen the carburation. Just as well, as it had previously made a window shattering bellow. Lo and behold, the flat spot disappeared!
Stock CBR's last much better; retrospectively, I should've left well alone. The bike never really regained its previous finesse after the rebuild, feeling a bit rough where it had previously been dead smooth, and not really wanting to cut through the 150mph barrier with any sense of elan. Come 26000 miles, the suspension went quite slack at both ends, nothing frightening but again the absence of the previous quality feel. Someone not used to CBR600's probably wouldn't complain but those in the know would give the bike a miss.
Added up to time for a change. What should turn up the local paper but an 8000 mile CB1000N, a mere year and a half old. The owner was willing to do a straight swap for the 600. He reckoned the bigger bike was almost impossible to ride above the ton. It was, too, but only because some plonker had put an extra 10psi in the tyres. Felt like riding on glass.
Once that was sorted, the big Honda was a ball to ride around on, in a heavyweight champion of the world kinda way. This one had a sweet gearchange and a staggering amount of low end power, some minor tuning mods made to emphasize the torque even more than on earlier models. It would stomp on a friend's Bandit 1200 and would burn off most bikes up to the ton when the inevitable aerodynamic nastiness began to overwhelm its torque.
I had such fun with the throttle that it turned in an all time low of 28mpg! Nearly ran out of fuel in the middle of the countryside, no way I would even try to push such an old hulk a few yards.
That brings me up-to-date with my adventures on hot Hondas, enjoyed them all but reckon that a CBR900 will be the next game in town. I'd prefer one with the plastic stripped off and flat bars fitted, just to save my back.