MARCH 2018 | PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK 75THE GARAGE /EXPERT GUIDE
CHASSISMichael Hancock
“The CBR600RR is a great machine when it comes to
both road and track riding and it is very easy to sort the
suspension according to how you intend to use the bike.
Ifyouarearoadrider,thefirstthingtodoislookatthe
spring rates. The forks on both generations run
9.5N springs, which are OK for 14/15-stone
riders, but if you are a bit lighter you really
want a softer 9N spring to reduce the
harshness of the ride. The rear shock is
asimilarstory:itrunsa102Nspringas
standard and lighter riders need to be looking at closer
to 95N. The damping is fine as standard for road use,
butreallybenefitsfromaserviceandanoilchangeas
the OE oil is pretty poor quality.
“If you are looking at track riding, then inters or fast
group riders will quickly start to over-work the
performanceavailablefromthestandardforks.The
issue when this happens with the BPF fork is that you
can’t just drop in a piston kit; instead you need to go for
a full-blown cartridge kit, which is quite expensive. The
previous generation with its conventional upside-down
forks can easily be upgraded with a piston kit, which is
far cheaper and makes it a complete track weapon. It’s a
brilliant upgrade.
“The Showa shock is rebuildable, so it can be
revalved if you are on a budget, or you can just swap it
completely. We generally recommend the revalve route- for around £700 you can get a piston kit for the forks
and the rear shock revalved, and you are left with a
proper track set-up.”
ENGINEDave Wood
“When it comes to the CBR I’d recommend getting the
ECU re-flashed rather than fitting a Power Commander
asthereisjustsomuchmoreyoucando.WithaPCyou
arequitelimitedinwhatyoucanachieve,butbygoing
directly into the ECU you can adjust all eight fuel
injectors individually in each gear, so you can have an
eight-injector map for every single gear. And that’s not
all... you can also alter the ignition timing for every
gear, the inlet air pressure table, the throttle position
table,theignitiontiming,andevenaddlaunchcontrol,
a pitlane speed limiter and a quickshifter. There are
spareconnectorsontheECU,soallyouneedisabutton
mountedonyourbarsandyoucanhavealaunch
controlsystemthatwilllimitthepoweruntilyoureach
a certain throttle position or rev limit. That’s prettyHEN HONDA released the
CBR600RR in 2003 they
knew they were taking a risk
in dramatically changing the
focus of one of the most loved supersport
bikes. Far from the comfortable and
reassuring all-rounder that the CBR had
maturedinto,thenewRRhadone
purposeinlife–towinontrack.Arole
it most certainly succeeded in...
After taking its debut World
Supersport title in 2003, the RR went on
to defend its crown for the next five
years straight before the competition
uppedtheirgame.Undeterred,theRR
still took two more titles, but in essence
Honda stopped the bike’s development in- So when you consider it remains
competitive on the world scene to this
day, you’ll get an idea of just how
impressive a machine the CBR600RR is.
And you can own one of the latest
generations of CBR for in the region of
£4000 – which is nearly a third of the
price of a new Yamaha YZF-R6...
WhenitcomestotheRRthereare
effectively two generations: the original
motor and the post-2007 engine, with
thelatterthebettermodelduetoits
increased power and low-end grunt.
While Honda did upgrade it slightly,
technically there is very little difference
betweena2007modelanda2017one,
so in many ways you are better off
buyingthecheapermodelandinvesting
the difference in performance upgrades.
Soundlikeaplan?Wellhereareour
experts’ pointers to help you get the most
bang for your buck from the world’s
greatest supersport bike...BOLT-ONS
Giles Harwood, HPS
Giles established Harwood
Performance Source (HPS) in 1999, which
has become one of the UK and Europe’s
most respected technical mail order
companies. CBR parts are some of his
best selling ranges. http://www.bikehps.comSPECS116.10 b hp
47.50lb.ft
MeasuredWEIGHT199kg
Wet, measuredABS
The RR gained C-ABS as an option in 2009. The
system works by measuring pressure from the
front master cylinder before feeding this data to an
ECU which evaluates data from the wheel speed
sensors and then regulates the braking pressure
between the front and rear calipers to keep the
bike level. It’s not a bad system, but swapping its
fluid requires careful bleeding of the ABS pump
and should only be done by a Honda technician,
which can result in a bill in excess of £100.
Forks
The pre-2013 CBR runs 41mm
upside-down forks, which were
swapped to 41mm BPF units in the
update. As far as PB is aware
these are interchangeable,
however we have yet to hear of
anyone doing the swap. Several
owners have swapped the
12-spoke wheels over, so this is
a simple visual upgrade.New fork springs, set to
your weight, will greatly
enhance enjoymentPaint schemes
The CBR600RR was sold in
official Repsol replica
paintscheme for several
model years as well as a
Hannspree rep (below) in
2008 and some truly
hideous ‘limited edition’
colours in 2009, one of
which looked like a bird had
shat all over it. Don’t pay
extra for a used one that
isn’t in conventional colours- they weren’t that limited,
or special!