Honda CBR 600F2

The 1991 CBR came in one of two color schemes: Ross White with Fighting Red or Black with Real Blue, Light Blue and Pink.

The bike had "60" series radial tires and rated 100 hp (up from 7 hp from 1990). The engine and chassis had a new design, the engine was a 599cc DOHC 16 valve liquid-cooled inline four cylinder linked to a 6-speed transmission, The serial number began JH2PC250*MM000008.

 
When Honda's 600 Hurricane debuted in 1987, it was a revelation. Not only was it the quickest and most powerful middleweight ever made, but it also perfectly satisfied the disparate needs of street riders and racers alike, with a finesse no other sportbike had ever achieved before.

Four years later, when it was time to revamp the CBR600, Honda adhered to exactly the same formula to create the CBR600F2: class-leading performance, but with the same uncanny balance that characterized the original. Indeed, the F2 took over right where the Hurricane had left off, setting new class standards for peak power, acceleration and handling as well as comfort.

In its first two years, 1991 and 1992, the F2 won every 600-class comparison test in enthusiast magazines, even taking the laurels in two magazines as the best sportbike money could buy—period. The F2 took the AMA's 600 SuperSport title as well, even duplicating the original Hurricane's feat of winning every 600 SuperSport race on the calendar in 1991.

While the formula and the subsequent results were identical to the Hurricane's, the F2 was completely redesigned, from the wheels on up. The 599cc powerplant was six pounds lighter, considerably more compact and boasted an astonishing 100 horsepower, thanks to more oversquare cylinder dimensions, 2mm larger carburetors, a higher compression ratio and significant reductions in internal friction.

That more potent engine bolted into a stiffer, shorter-wheelbase frame that was composed of rectangular-section steel. And virtually every piece of unsprung weight was made lighter, yet more effective, from the brakes to the suspension components to the RC30-style U-spoke wheels and low-profile radial tires. Just as the F2's power and acceleration was a quantum leap over its predecessor, so was the F2's handling. And yet it still managed to balance those qualities with a comfort that marked the first CBR600 and still characterizes the current F4 model.

To say the enthusiast press liked the F2 understates the case:

"... the CBR600F2 ... combines a new standard of middleweight performance with the greatest comfort and versatility in the class." Cycle, July 1991

"The CBR has, above all, balance." Cycle World, July 1992

"Comfortable ergonomics, agile handling, and more horsepower than anything else in the class make the CBR600F2 the machine to beat." Motorcyclist, June 1992

"... the CBR600F2 takes a middleweight's inherent virtues and amplifies them into almost unassailable advantages." Sportbike, 1992

Over the course of its four-year tenure, the F2 remained virtually unchanged, a clear testament to the bike's inherent rightness. The F2, just as every CBR600 before or since, rewrote the rules of performance plus practicality, not only in the 600 class, but in all of motorcycling. Honda's CBR600F2 was a generation ahead of its competitors, and once again struck the perfect balance of poise and power.