Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/133062
VOL. 50 ISSUE 21 MAY 29, 2013 P67 >>The CBR500R will sell for $5999 in non-ABS and $6499 with ABS. land, necessitating adding another assembly line to the plant to bring it up to a production capacity of 1.7 million units a year – around 150,000 of which will be these new CB500 models. Building them in Thailand helps hold down prices to a very competitive $5499 for the CB500F and $5999 for the sportier R-version, thus providing a key stepping stone in the Honda range for new or returning riders. the Honda CB500 family has been developed with two purposes in mind – to act as a prestige model in developing markets for customers who want to step up from, say, a CB250R, and as an affordable 'real' entry-level middleweight elsewhere. So, in Europe it's been developed to satisfy the new EU licensing rules that came into effect in restricting all 19-24 year-olds to an A2 license after passing their test - thus limiting them to bikes with a maximum output of 35kW (equating to 47 horsepower). Sporty middleweights like the Kawasaki Versys or Suzuki SV650 have to be detuned via restrictor kits to meet that limit, so if you want to step up from the new Kawasaki Ninja 300, or indeed Honda's own CB250R, there's not much choice outside a not exactly street-cred scooter. Not any more. Honda, in an attempt to re-establish the 500cc class for the first time since the 2005 demise of its much-loved do-anything CB500 twin, has cannily trodden first where other manufacturers besides it and KTM will surely follow in plugging that gap. To do so, Honda's engineers - led by the company's Large Project leader Naoshi Iizuka - have developed what's claimed to be the first all-new Honda motorcycle engine ever to be built outside Japan. Specifically designed to meet the A2 Euro-license's 35kW ceiling, but powering a range due to be sold globally as true world bikes, this is termed "half a Fireblade" by Honda Europe's head of product planning, Dave Hancock, and indeed in mea- suring a 'square' 67 x 66.8 mm uses the same bore size as the CBR600RR. With its intentionally prominent twin overhead camshafts (driven by a central camchain) acting as a focal styling point, the good-looking new parallel-twin eight-valve motor has a one-up/one-down 180-degree crankshaft, a geardriven counter-balancer behind the cylinders to smooth out vibration, roller-bearing rocker arms and grooved piston surfaces like on the 600RR. It also gets a newly patented anti-turbulence guide plate in the air-box that separates the airflow evenly to each cylinder, a first for Honda. Producing that 47 horsepower at 8500 rpm (and peak torque of 43Nm/31.7ft-lb at 7000 rpm) with impressive economy of a claimed 80 miles per gallon or 270 miles from the 4.1-gallon fuel tanks, the 500s also have an ul-