2WF.com - Online and on the Gas - 2005 Honda CBR600RR

2005 Honda CBR600RR

Monday, 29 August 2005

Page 3 of 4

The back end of the bike features the MotoGP derived Unit Pro-Link and has a redesigned swingarm. The shock linkage is now incorporated into the design of the swinger, rather than a few separate cast pieces and the whole kit and caboodle is lighter and more compact. Another upside is easier access and fewer parts to deal with. It’s a handsome swingarm set-up and very purposeful looking especially with no exhaust covering it up. Although the Unit Pro-Link works very well, I’ve had a bunch of mean mail from “Honda-haters” who don’t buy into the “frameless shock mount” theory but the simple fact is, it does work. Our day started pretty wet and the rear hunkered down and found me the traction to keep me feeling comfortable - so no complaints here.

Walking around the outside of the bike, you can’t help notice that the new bike is better looking than the old one. Again the differences are very subtle with revised aerodynamics and an even more pronounced RC211V look. The rear seat unit also has a slightly slimmed down look, again very subtle, but groovier. Paintwork is typical Honda glossy good with my particular bike having a tribal wing design that looked fresh and up to the minute. If you’re not into graphics, but into black, there is a blacked out graphic-free bike for your enjoyment. I quite liked all the paint options that Honda have to offer on the CBR-RR (old and new) as the Honda wing logo really suits the slabby bodywork on the newer CBR range.

Although it looks similar, instrumentation is new too, again more dieting with a nice slim clock design. The look is all business too with that large tachometer dominating your eye and a couple of LCD screens offering a mixture of speed, gas, coolant temperature, petrol gauge, and dual trip meter’s digitized within. Similarity seems to be the name of the game here, in fact, the only way I could really tell between the old and new bike was the fact that the new bike had a smaller exhaust hole - I do wear glasses though, and you’re all much smarter than me anyways.

One of the factors of this test was the Dunlop tires used at this event. The bike comes stock with the 218 and worked really well especially on this cold (and wet in the morning) track. The afternoon session saw a 208GP up front and a new 208GP-JLB (Jointless Band) rear. The tread pattern is familiar but with the front enjoying a stickier compound and the rear re-engineered to incorporate a lighter carcass with a reputed zero-growth. The footprint is both flatter and fatter and is less affected by heat cycles - a clubmans dream. They worked well with it’s rounded less aggressive profile, but then I was riding a little shy for reasons mentioned.

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