November 26, 2006 - Kenny Pryde, SuperBike

The new 2007 Honda CBR600RR was launched at the Barber Motorsport circuit near Birmingham...Alabama. There's a new engine, new chassis, new styling, er, new everything really for Honda's supersport kingpin. ... Scroll down for the full story

The new Honda CBR600RRThere's the rub. The engine is new. The chassis is new. The swinging arm is new. The rear shock pivot point is new, the wheelbase is shorter, the steering damper is different, the plastics are different. It's six – yes six – kilos lighter than the previous model. And there's a claimed hike in top end power as well as midrange grunt too. What we have, people, is a new bike.

Is it a better bike? Almost certainly. Is it a significantly better bike than the model it replaces? Ooooh, now you're asking. I'd say it's better. On paper (more power,lighter weight, change in weight distribution and a shorter wheelbase) it looks like a winner on track. And lord, it felt like it. I don't think I've had as much fun on a racetrack ever. Which is to say it's a bike that lets you creep nearer the limits of tyres without scaring you too much.

The bike feels so light, so chuckable, so manageable, so eager to turn that you couldn't not have a ball on it – so I tried my best to do just that on an engaging, sinuous track that ducked and dived through glorious Alabama sunshine.

Yes, yes, but how much better is it than the previous model? I'll sleep on it and write at greater length in the magazine next month. For the moment, I'm still trying to come down and make sense of the scribbled notes in my notebook. The last line says, "I can't think of anything bad to say about the bike after this session." I'll have to mull it over...

In the end, after a bit of mulling over, I reckoned it was better and ran one as a long term test bike through 2007 which you can read about here.

And if you want to hook up with some other riders, you could try here.