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Tuesday, 18 September 2001 |
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Page 2 of 5
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BBRRIIINNGG, BBRRIIINNGG...
The hotel alarm clock wakes me up at 6.30am, what an angry end to a wonderful dream I was having.
All was well though as soon as I arrived at the speedway, because we had the opportunity of meeting one of Honda’s great ambassador and assets Mr Freddie Spencer. We got a chance to look around Freddie's school and in one of the classrooms was an original NS500 GP Bike that Freddie had used in his quest for the 1983 GP crown. Trick racebikes aside, the Freddie Spencer Race School seemed a fitting venue for the release of Honda’s sharpest 600 yet. |
I'm smokin' em ...
Mike leads Freddie (on Goldwing with passenger!) through LMVS's tight infield. |
Going outside to the track I noticed that Honda was kind enough to supply a couple of the older carbureted versions of the F4 for comparison. I decided to reacquaint myself with the older model, as I hadn’t ridden one for some time. A chance to relearn the older bike and the track at the same time. Incidentally, I’d also pinched a 2001 Yamaha R6 for the previous weekend, so I was well acquainted with the current 600-performance envelope and in the best position to evaluate the F4i. To start the morning session the bikes, old and new were fitted with Michelin Pilot Sports (street compound).
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Now the traditional Honda forte is Comfort and performance. Us sporties have always had to trade off one for the other, basically because we had to. But if you didn’t want to ride a bike that had your feet tucked under your bum or a wrist-breaking tip forward to pull in the clutch, your choice was limited. This old F4 (which is no slouch) offered great comfort on the way to your favorite twisties, but was sometimes an anti climax on getting there. But Honda was in no hurry to change things with the CBR they sold a ton of them, so why should they? |
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I’d have always considered the older CBR to be a very capable mount. It just lacked that certain something... Sure, it was Honda nice, but it just wasn’t exciting enough. I had to remind myself that this is Honda’s bread and butter bike. It had to be a good compromise between Weekday comfort and Sunday performance that’s why it’s a best seller.
I grabbed the 2000 and after a couple of sighting laps I started to get into my track groove.
The bike was OK. Typical for the CBR, I suppose. Easy to ride to your ability, whether a beginner or an expert. But it lacked that certain something... It was that soft, compromising ride previously mentioned. It was a good safe feeling but it didn’t trim, slice and dice the track, like the usual 600 scalpels that we’re starting to see. The course we were running was the AMA layout. A Daytona-ish combination of infield course and Nascar style banking. The bike felt a little squirrelly on the transition going in and coming out of the banking. After a session of no particular anxious moments, we were given the checkered flag and even on this older model, I was reluctant to come in.
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