No Breakable Plastics by Mike Emery ~ Photos by Sir Peter Jones

Less, more? What...?

Many years ago, in a land far, far away, a sportbike got into a fight with a street. The street quite rightly won, especially after damaging the sportbikes nice shiny clothing. The owner of that said vehicle neglected to replace the bodywork, added a set of comfortable upright bars and a new genre was born. The streetfighter... or something like that. Now across the pond (and then some) Mr Honda was watching this spectacle with great amusement, especially as many times the donor bike (mostly unwittingly) was his very own Honda CBR-F1234i. His answer? Give them what they want - a naked 600. The subsequent bike, named the Hornet, went on to win many sales from those same spotty 'yoofs' looking to skip that aforementioned crashing part.

And this, my two-wheeled streetfighting freaks, is where the 599 comes in. New for 2004 for us, available for the last 8 months or so for those wacky Euro's, this pint-sized bike (it's got a lower seat height than the SV650) compliments its bigger bro' the 919. Sure, I got a little bent out of shape when I finally discovered the price - $7099 - but that's before I rode the thing…