The Honda CBR600RR is a sport bike made by Honda since 2003, part of the CBR series. The CBR600RR was marketed as Honda's top-of-the-line middleweight sport bike, succeeding the 2002 Supersport World Champion 2001–2006 CBR600F4i, which was then repositioned as the tamer, more street-oriented sport bike behind the technically more advanced and uncompromising race-replica CBR600RR. It carried the Supersport World Championship winning streak into 2003, and on through 2008, and won in 2010 and 2014.
Model history
Honda's previous 600-class sport bike, the CBR600F4i, was considered a balance of practicality and performance, as capable as other Supersport-racing 600s, but a more docile and comfortable street bike relative to the competing Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6R, Suzuki GSX-R600, and Yamaha YZF-R6. When introduced in 1999, the CBR600F "fought off racier contenders on the track while still managing to be a more practical streetbike", as described by Motorcyclist, "one golf club that acts like a whole bag." With the successor 2003 CBR600RR, Honda shifted to a more aggressive, less compromising strategy in the "churning dogfight that was the middleweight class at the time", Honda's CBR-RR Project Leader Hiroyuki Ito said, "We developed the RR in a completely different way from any model in the past. In the past Honda has always developed a roadbike, then modified it for racing. But with the RR, we first built a prototype racer, then gave it to the production department." Rotating an aging model down to the next tier of a product line as it is overshadowed by a model with the latest technology is common practice among sport bike manufacturers including Buell, Ducati, Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki, Triumph, and Yamaha.
2003–2004
The 2003 CBR600RR was based on technologies used in the Honda RC211V MotoGP bike, and was given a similar appearance. It was the first Honda to use Unit Pro-Link rear suspension, a variant on the single rear shock absorber with the upper mount connected to the rear swingarm subframe to help isolate undesirable forces transmitted to the steering head. It also was the first to use Honda's Dual Stage Fuel Injection (PGM-DSFI): both were taken directly from the RC211V. Honda said that the use of its new 'Hollow Fine Die Cast' frame technology, in which sand casting molds were given a ceramic interior coating, made it possible to reduce the thickness of the five-piece aluminum frame from 3.5 mm to 2.5 mm.
The 2003 model carried over to 2004 technically unchanged, with only the addition of an oxygen sensor.
2005–2006
In 2005, the CBR600RR received a major revision with new bodywork, fully adjustable inverted front forks, disc brakes with radial-mounted four-piston calipers, and a new aluminum frame, swingarm and rear shock. The midrange power was also increased. These changes along with additional refinements to the engine and exhaust system brought CBR600RR's wet weight down by , and dry weight by . The 2006 model was unchanged from the 2005 model.
2007–2008
On September 6, 2006, Honda revealed an all new CBR600RR for the 2007 model year.
Weight was the primary focus of the redesign. The result was a reduction in dry weight over the 2006 model, from a claimed to . Tested weights without fuel were .
In redesigning the CBR600RR for lighter weight and increased performance, Honda's engineers started with the engine. The completely new engine was smaller and lighter than its predecessor, the designers having used careful positioning of all internal components to achieve reductions in the motor's length, width, and height, as well as reducing weight by compared to the 2006 model's powerplant. Horsepower increased to about measured in independent tests.
The frame was lighter and more compact than the 2006 CBR600RR. The handling of the new bike was sharpened by its shorter wheelbase, as well as by the designer's focus on strict mass centralization. Despite the shorter wheelbase, the 2007 model's swingarm was longer than that of the 2006, made possible by the more compact dimensions of the new bike's engine.