The 2005 CBR600RR incorporates a host of next-generation upgrades that elevate this full-on sport mount to all-new heights.
The CBR600RR offers some visual clues of its evolution for 2005, but the biggest changes lie below the bike's slippery new surface. Introduced in 2003, Honda's CBR(r)600RR created a revolution in design, a machine that brought real-time racing development to the streets in the form of exotic RC211V MotoGP technology.
In its first year, the CBR600RR won the World Supersport championship. Just to underscore the efficiency of its racing pedigree, the CBR600RR once again captured the World Supersport title in 2004, and-in modified guise-won the newly re-formulated AMA Formula Xtreme championship with Honda stalwart Miguel Duhamel at the controls.
Even a casual glance at the new 2005 CBR600RR reveals striking similarities to the Honda hot-rod Formula Xtreme bike Duhamel campaigned. Right away, your eyes pick up the sharper-edged bodywork, and a front end that appears to be lifted straight from Miguel's ride: A stout-looking inverted fork with full adjustability, plus a set of track-inspired radial-mounted disc brakes with four-piston calipers.
These visible prompts may be impressive enough to get some devotees of middleweight sport bikes foaming at the mouth. But in truth, there's a lot more hidden away deep down inside, out of reach of casual eyeballing. The new front end and aero-sharp bodywork are only part of a larger package of carefully orchestrated chassis changes, including an entirely new aluminum frame, swingarm and rear shock. These changes, plus additional refinements to the engine and exhaust system and a host of masterfully massaged components that help whittle the CBR600RR's weight down by a whopping nine pounds, all add up to a huge difference in the way this new 600 feels, functions and performs.
In keeping with Honda's fundamental RR design concept of optimized mass centralization, much of the CBR600RR's weight loss was achieved at the outer extremes of the bike's overall form. This impressive reduction not only results in a significant increase in the CBR's power-to-weight ratio, it also sees major gains in standing-start and roll-on acceleration, braking response, and-because its weight is now even more closely concentrated around the bike's roll axis-a newfound measure of agility that makes the 600RR eminently more flickable when hustling down a twisty backroad.
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