Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.RIDINGJMPRESSION' 1995 Honda CBR600 F·3 I mme 18 e res onse By Paul Carruthers and Mark Hoyer Photos by Donn Maeda t would be easy to look at th e new Honda CBR600 F-3 and com e to the co ncl usion th a t H onda has si m pl y res ted on th ei r la urels. Apart fro m th e "bold new gra phics," the F-3 looks strikin gly si mila r to last yea r's rendition of th e ever-successfu l CBR600 line. And a lack of cha nge would be very easy to justify . After all, th e CBR600 came ve ry close to w inning it s s ixth AMA/CCS 600cc Supersport championship in 1994 and it d id win six of the 10 rounds, in the capable hands of Mike Smith. Still, it was Jam ie Jam es and the n ew I ~ 0'. 0'. ,....... ..0 ,....... ... IJ) ,.0 E IJ) > o z 22 Yamaha YZF600 th at en de d th e racin g seaso n as th e king of the mid dleweights, and maybe that's wha t prompted Ho nd a ,int o reworking the CBR600 for 1995. In o rder to properly in tro d uce the n e w mot orcy cl e to m embers o f th e m o torcycling press, H onda presented th e oppo rtunity for a test ride on the F-3 at their testing center in Southern Californ ia's Mojave Desert. We rod e the F-3 o n the hu ge ova l th a t s u r ro u n ds th e facility , an d also on the tight and twisty road cou rse which sits in the center of Ho nda's Proving Grounds. H o n da also p ro vid ed 1994 Ho nda CBR600 F-2s for com pa rison and the d ifferences between the two ended u p to be rat her st u nning . Living p ro of that yo u really can't tell a book by its cover .. . WHArSNEW The s tyli ng on the CBR 60 0 h a s always bee n a hit an d Honda chose not to cha nge it ve ry much . Th e p a int sc h eme is re vised an d co mes in tw o colo r co mbina tio ns . Making the choice sho ul d be a fairly bla ck-and-w hite decisio n, be cause that's yo ur choice, black or w hite, to go wi th the de rigueur pu rp le and yellow tha t covers th e rest of th e b ik e . Rims are bl ack in both cases, a re li e f to those who ac tua ll y h a ve to clean their own bik es. Th e s h a pe o f th e fro n t fa ir ing is sligh tly changed in almost every respect. "Optimi zed " H onda says, fo r bette r aerodyn am ics at high speeds. Th e new sh ap e is pl easing to look a t, less blunt n osed than the previou s m od el , and d oes offer a m arginally sma ller fro nta l area whic h sho uld lower the coefficient Thou gh it doesn't look much different from the F-2, Honda's 1995 CBR600 F-3 is better than last year's model. The bike features a new ram air-induction sy st em, a wider rear rim, and larger carburetors amon g other things. of d ra g. As far as rid er p rotection goes the F-3 did a more than adequate job of keepin g th e o pera to r co m fo rtab le, even at top speed on the seven-m ile oval. Heat fro m the engine is also efficien tly d irected away fro m the rid er 's legs. The tum signa ls on th e fro n t of th e fairing (rathe r than being integ ra ted into the fairi ng itself as they wer e las t year), h ave been changed to s talk-m ou n ted units allowing ea sier rem oval for th ose who w ish to tum th eir stre etbike int o a racebike. The CBR ha s alw ays been one of the m ost co mfor ta b le m ot orcycles in th e m id d leweig ht clas s, a n d th ou gh th e ergon om ics h av e been altered for th is year, the riding position has not chan ged . drastically in regard to the F-2. Still spacious eno ug h for taller rid ers, having a reasonable reach to the handlebars that, w hile b e ing s u ff ici en t ly a gg ressive, doesn' t put un due st ress on the ride r's wrists or back. This is a bike that won't send yo u to the chiropractor after a lon g ride. Th at is, unless yo u're the passen ger. Space is limited , so it is best that you be good friends with the passen ger and, if you w o u ld lik e to rem a in good friends, don't keep he or she up there too lon g. With ra cin g in mind , th ou gh it sh o u ld n' t hurt sa les any, H ond a has refined the engi ne in the CBR in pu rsu it of in creased power o u tput a nd m or e immed iate thro ttle response. The bore and stro ke remain the same as last year (65 x 45.2mm), and it still has fo u r cylind e rs . Th e pi s tons in th ose cyli nders, th ou gh, have bee n m od ified a nd the combu s tion chambers m a de more com pact, toget her rais ing the compression ratio from 11.6:1 on last year's F-2 to 12:1 for ' 95. Al so , in h opes of allo w ing the engi ne to rev more quickly, rotational mass has been decreased, and w ith it frictio na l loss, by usin g ligh ter (5 gra ms each) connecting rods and sma ller cran k pin d iam eters. The hydrau lic camch ain ad ju ste r u sed in ' 94 h a s been tossed in favor of a mechanical unit said to be m ore reli abl e at continued h igh rpm use. Cooling is handled by an aluminum radia tor, curved so th at the su rface area can be increased for better coolin g witho u t en larging th e fai ring and cre ating more drag . A lso, in th e limited space between the front wh eel and the engine, the "U" sha pe allo ws the radiator to be . lar ger without fouli ng the w hee l in any way. The coola nt p ass ages h ave al so been m od ified in an effort to keep the cylinder he ad tem peratu re under con" troJ. The change s to the intake tract are, o ne mi ght say, manifold. Honda has introduced a dual-stage, ram air-indu ction system that, through a seri es of sole-

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