Honda CBR 600F

Brief History

Ever since Honda fired the first salvo of the 600 Supersport wars back in 1987 with the introduction of the revolutionary 600 Hurricane, Honda has, for all intents and purposes, owned the middleweight-sportbike class. And things look to be no less dominant now with the arrival of the all-new  and once again, benchmark-setting  2003 CBR600RR.

No surprise, really considering the CBR600  from the Hurricane to the CBR600F4i  boasts a lineage as stunningly successful in the showroom as it has on the track. And as both the best-selling middleweight in history and the winningest 600 ever in AMA SuperSport racing, there's quite simply never been another sportbike like it.

The original 600 Hurricane, of course, set the tone by rewriting every rule of the sportbike game. In a single, class-defining stroke, Honda unleashed the lightest, quickest, most powerful and most versatile middleweight the world had ever seen. Moreover, the perfectly balanced Hurricane answered the needs of street riders as ably as those of racers.

Several major makeovers followed, each radically different and equally awe-inspiring, from 1991's CBR600F2, 1995's F3 and 1999's F4 to the F4i in 2001. Another such revamp  and one perhaps receiving slightly less fanfare due to upgrades more subtle in comparison to its totally redesigned brethren  was the 1990 CBR600F. It didn't hurt, either, that the '87 600 Hurricane was so successful and superior that Honda left it virtually unchanged for its first three years.

Subtle though the 600F's improvements were, the impact felt throughout the sportbike landscape was indelible. Honda had sent a message, loud and clear, that it had no intention of resting on its laurels, not to mention, its numerous AMA 600 SuperSport Series victories. The "new" CBR600F not only boasted a new moniker, officially adopting the CBR600 handle in place of "Hurricane," but 10 more horsepower in its much-vaunted powerplant as well.

In other words, the most powerful engine in the class was now, well, that much mightier. Revised cylinder porting and cam timing, plus reshaped (and faster-revving) pistons and combustion chambers, a slightly higher compression ratio, revised carburetor and ignition settings and an all-new stainless-steel exhaust system all combined to create not only a faster-revving mill, but beef up the CBR's already prodigious powerband to boot. And what was an 83-hp liquid-cooled, 599cc, twin-cam inline-four became a 93-pony bolt of middleweight lightning.

The immediate effect, of course, was the competition now had a moving target that was that much harder to hit  let alone keep up with  whether on the street or the racetrack. The CBR600F also continued to fly out of showrooms as quickly as it circulated around back roads and racecourses, adding further luster to its best-selling mantle.

Honda had once again fired a shot across the bows of conventional thinking by fine-tuning a groundbreaking sportbike that really needed no improving. It simply begged the competition to try to keep pace. And it also set the stage for the arrival of the completely redesigned, second-generation CBR600F2  a bike that would go on to sweep the AMA 600 SuperSport Series, winning all nine races  a year later.