MRW Issue 1

NEWS
DESK
HONDA’S NEW
SUPERSPORT
Who said Supersport 600cc
machines were dead?
Well, just about everyone,
except for Yamaha who
took the massive leap
in releasing a (slightly)
revamped version of their
class-leading R6 machine
a few years back. None of
the other manufacturers
followed suit, not wanting to
spend money on what they
considered a dying breed.
The designers obviously got lazy, and
just put the tailpiece from the 2004
model onto the new bike... not very nice.
It’s no secret that sales of the
screaming 600cc machines
worldwide took a huge dive,
with many riders in that market
rather wanting to go for
the older, stronger, and faster
1000cc brother.
But, Yamaha do not have to
feel so alone anymore. Honda
have now also come to the
party and released an updated
version of their very ancient,
yet reliable CBR600RR.
What you see here is leaked
pictures that have flooded the
web of the new 2021 Honda
Supersport machine, which
lends many design ques from
it’s also new older bro, the
CBR1000RR.
Sporting a very similar HRC
racing livery, and slightly more
“Turning Japanese” eyes, the
little bro also gets wings, for
whatever reason we have no
idea, but they are there. No
doubt those were put on just
to have one up on their rivals
To really revive the Supersport 600 market,
and their dated CBR600RR Honda should
have gone completely wild with the design of
the bike, instead, they have just given it a bit of
spit and polish and released what looks like a
bike from back in 2004, apart from the wings,
which seem pretty pointless on a 600 machine.
in the market, namely the R6,
which doesn’t have wings, so
Ne neh ne neh neh, say Honda.
Apart from the odd new design
here and there, the 2021
model pretty much stays the
same. The new 600RR keeps
its classic 599cc inline four engine
configuration, but moves
peak power up to 14,000 rpm
on the dash. New camshafts,
valve springs, and cranks make
use of lighter metals, which
helps it rev a bit more and
free up the motor. The throttle
bores have been enlarged and
the intakes and exhaust have
been tweaked to boost peak
power from 113 horsepower to
119 – putting it one up on the
R6 once more, 2 in fact, with
the blue bike pushing out 117
according to the spec sheet.
Keeping up with the times,
the new middleweight RR
gets a fly-by-wire electronic
throttle that goes to the bike’s
ECU before it decides how
hard to accelerate. The bike
gets an inertial measurement
unit to sense lean, pitch and
how sideways you’re getting,
and that feeds in with data
from a dozen other systems
to determine your final throttle
opening. So, the 2021 bike