THE rumours regarding the return of Honda to the flailing supersports class with the CBR600RR are beginning to gain momentum.
Firstly, was the news that Japanese magazine Young Machine had heard it on the Tokyo grapevine that the new bike was indeed in the works. They even featured a mocked up rendering of how the motorcycle cold look on the cover of a recent issue.
Next up was the whisper that the new bike could follow the latest Honda CBR1000RR-R nomenclature in gaining that all important extra ‘R’. Because, you know, the more ‘R’s in the name, the faster the bike is, right?
Now we are hearing rumours that the new bike is scheduled to make an appearance at a MotoGP round this year, as and when the season gets underway again. The rumour mill has to be taken with a healthy dose of sodium chloride though – that’s salt in case you were wondering – as these are unconfirmed by anyone internally at the factory.
When could the new Honda CBR600RR be unveiled?
More specifically, the new bike is believed to be appearing at this year’s Malaysian MotoGP round at the Sepang circuit, currently scheduled to take place between the 30th October and 1st November. With current restrictions on travel and large events being as they are, whether or not this stays as the date for the event remains to be seen.
The move does make sense on some fronts and then less on others, let me explain… The Asian market is massive, and it is growing. Its prudent to assume that the current big sellers at the moment – 125 to 400cc machines – will fairly quickly become outgrown by the hoards of eager bikers looking for a more performance oriented ride. Moving from bike like the CBR500R and CBR650R to a race-bred machine like the new CBR600RR (-R) would seem like a sensible choice.
You do though have to question the motive of Honda to release, or at least announce a bike like this, at an event which they effectively lost control of at the end of the 2018 season. From 2019 onwards Triumph has been the control engine in the Moto2 class, and by all accounts it’s outshone the less powerful 600cc inline four unit, breaking pretty much all of the previous engine’s lap records in it’s first, and so far only year of competition.
Why would Honda choose an event that they basically got ousted from as an official engine supplier to launch a new version of the bike that’s engine used to power the entire Moto2 grid?
They wouldn’t, unless it’s a job that they wanted to get back from the clutches of the Hinckley-based Triumph outfit that is…
