A New Dimension in 600cc Super Sports Design

Setting out to create a more intensely competitive yet more widely enjoyable next- generation successor to the brilliant CBR600RR would be no mean feat. However, unhindered by the limitations of trying to improve on an existing machine, the CBR600RR's development team were given the freedom to explore the vast possibilities and hidden potential of drastically new design innovations in the quest for even greater advances in performance and handling.

Thus, formulating their ideas for an all-new middleweight Super Sports leader around the main design concepts of "Lighter Weight for Ultimate Control" and "New Dimensions in 600cc Super Sports Design," the team focused on achieving an even stronger power-to-weight ratio - with all its inherent benefits - through lighter weight and reduced drag everywhere. Engine, frame, bodywork, even the instrument panel; nothing was overlooked in quest for a lighter and faster CBR. True to Function

As development progressed and initial drawings graduated to prototype production, other concepts came into play. The idea of achieving "Ultimate Fun on Winding Roads" played a big part in guiding the team's efforts in minimising extraneous weight and more effectively centralising the new Super Sports machine's overall mass. The concept of "True to Function" also played an decisive role in the complete redesign of the new CBR's chassis extremities and bodywork to achieve not only a visible sense of lightness and speed, but also the most focused and competitive performance ever, leading to the concept and goal of creating a CBR600RR that is "Fastest on the Track; Fastest Everywhere."

The pursuit of lighter weight everywhere was certainly the fundamental key to the new CBR600RR's design, and the results reveal themselves in the most compact inline- 4 engine to ever power a middleweight Super Sports riding machine. With a targeted 8 kilogramme reduction in overall weight, engine components were lightened by a combined total of over 2kg, the frame was trimmed by a remarkable 4.5kg, other chassis components took away a further 1.2kg, and even the CBR's electronics were lightened by a small but significant 400g. No part, however small, was overlooked in the process of trimming weight for the desired advances in performance. The end result is lighter weight that translates to sharper acceleration and swifter, smoother handling.

Although the current CBR600RR is aggressively oriented toward high-rpm racetrack performance, the new model was designed to improve on these features while also making the machine's full performance potential more easily accessible to a wider range of riders. While the team certainly sought to improve on-track performance and handling for experienced riders on familiar roads, one of their main goals was to also improve the ability of less expert riders to fully enjoy the thrill of the curves, especially on unfamiliar winding roads being travelled for the first time, thereby expanding the CBR's range of riding enjoyment while dramatically increasing its full performance potential.

Factors considered in the determination of the best way to achieve this enhanced winding road riding enjoyment were of course the engine's feel of power and acceleration, particularly through a wide midrange, and quick, linear response to every input. Also, handling that provides an almost fluid response that reacts smoothly and instantly to rider inputs, which has been achieved through a 22mm shorter wheelbase, enhanced mass centralisation and the addition of a new HESD (Honda Electronic Steering Damper) system. Overall fit and finish also play a big part in the CBR's enjoyment factor, as does the exterior design's sense of aggressive style and overall attractiveness, which sets a new standard for audaciousness in the middleweight Super Sports class.

With its impressively designed new compact form, new smaller and more powerful engine, new lighter weight Fine Die-Cast aluminium frame and a host of other dynamic features like its new HESD, the 2007 CBR600RR sets the stage for another generation of world domination on the road and on the track, and everywhere the electrifying thrill of riding makes the pulse quicken. Stamped with the genetic imprint of its RC211V racing lineage, the new CBR600RR is positioned to let every rider feel in no uncertain terms that they too can be The Fastest on the Track... and the Fastest Everywhere.