Doing some CBR research it turns out the new CBR 600 has been de tuned softened and more road tuned, now making just 1bhp more than my 92 F-N. With the bottom falling out of the 600cc class, and the last stragglers being 130 bhp unusable screamers I am forced to think the mid 90's 100bhp 600cc bikes were the best made, as they had a very strong top end, but their slightly slower steering chassis were more suited to real roads, and the wider spread of torque made them more flexible on the road. Do you think a 600cc should be a good all rounder or should they be knife edge bikes that a moped will pass until they explode into a blaze of fury at 15,000 rpm with a power band 1500 rpm wide? Discuss.........
Triumph have been building real world road bikes for ages, I guess Honda just caught up with this trend!
I guess its no accident they are the biggest selling brand in the UK...... triple cylinder engines are (in my opinion) the ideal road bike engine
Absolutely,most people buy bikes for the road why do manufacturers insist on selling race bikes to unsuspecting punters who only want a fast sportsbike for the real world. It ll got out of hand and even the Japanese factories recognise this,nobody told MV
it doesn't seem quite such an issue on the liter class bikes, as they retain a decent enough mid range by virtue of their capacity, but the 600 supersports make moped power at anything short of the red line. I remember my old jellymould CBR pulling well from 5 - 11000 rpm, and my SS pulls very well at any engine speed - exactly what you want on the road.
Sportsbikes are becoming increasingly extreme in their design and ability, be they 600 or 1000+. For normal road bikes, the focus is tending towards either large capacity upright bikes a la Multistrada/GS with usability etc or smaller capacity 125-250cc bikes for commuting. The reality is that the older all-purpose 600cc 'sportsbike' is a jack of all trades/master of none. I think fewer people nowadays want the master of none...
Yes, I'd agree with that, even inline 4 litre sports bikes have enough oomph aka torque for everyday road work.
i think personally that 100 bhp is enough for the road. Its only the uk that love sports bikes. The rest of europe like sports tourers and tourers. My old Aprilia rsv mille is well quick enough, about 120 bhp. Sports bike are getting smaller and quicker. And the new law about what you can ride when you pass your test. I think the out out Sports bike R1, ZX10, etc are going to get rare. The Fireblade is quiet nice, not to sporty and nice to ride and low speeds. I dont like 600's inline fours, no midrange, dont come to life after 8000 rpm. I had a go my friends new Honda Hornet, bloody horrible, no guts.
Can't be doing with any middleweight 4's, too gutless. Supersport 600s are irrelevant for the road; they're not comfy enough for daily use, they ain't frugal, they don't work under a ton and they're too damned expensive. The customers aren't there for supersports bikes any more cos we're all older and need something more forgiving to ride. It's a dead category for me. What we will see now however, and not before time, is a resurgence of affordable low to medium capacity bikes (250 to 500cc, say) in order to tie in with the new licensing laws in Europe, in particular the A2 class. And I strongly believe this is a lifeline for biking. The manufacturers are already responding with bikes like the Ninja 300, 390 Duke and the new Honda CB/CBR500 range. And these bikes are far more relevant for the road than a 600 with a million rpm and a 9 grand price tag. Lightweight, punchy, affordable and stylish bikes will sell, and sell well. In all honesty, while I gawp with lust at the very latest superbikes and multi-faceted 'adventure' bikes, they really don't interest me as a prospective purchase. Give me a 170kg, v-twin with 110-120bhp, a semi-sports riding position, some kind of fairing and a stylish look, and I'd be a happy man. But the factories don't seem to want to give me that; they think I want fat bikes with multiple riding modes, fun-crushing safety features and dubious looks. I think they're missing the mark by quite some margin.
I still hear experienced riders state the last VFR 750's as being pretty much the perfect road bike. Having ridden my brothers late VFR I have to say, if you can only ever have one bike for the rest of your life it does make a very strong case for itself.
There are alot of people out there that really think pub bragging rights mean something.200 bhp onthe road?No one needs it do they?But there again,if someone is offering.......As for no power until you get near the redline,Ive had a few when I was alot younger.They were called 2 strokes.
Seconded. My VFR750FK was a peach. Comfortable around town and could mix it with hyper sports bikes of the time
LOL - got out for an hour today on my RGV250SP. If I ever get to the point of preferring "comfortable around town" then I'll take-up golf :wink:
this topic comes up ad infinitum... the real answer is probably that sportsbikes became too much for the road in the early 90s...the stock fireblade (RRN) when tested in fast bikes at mugello would have qualified for the back row of the grid for that weekends 500cc GP..thats with lights, battery, indicators and the rest of it... Now, those bikes would be destroyed..but only really on the track. A good jockey on a 748bip could own most riders on any machinery when riding on the road..still, its about 'progress' (pub bragging rights), and the simple fact is that only about 2% of us can exploit anything like the edge of the performance offered by current superbikes..and it HAS to done on the track because a)the roads arent good enough b)if you push it that hard on the road, you will die....watch the TT for the evidence. Until legislation comes in bikes will get faster, lighter and more impractical...the marketing needs to be tailored so that the thinking rider knows that a little less power, delivered in a more usable manner, with slightly less sensitive steering than is technologically possible is probably the way to go..
