VOL. 51 ISSUE 28 JULY 15, 2014 P105
The CBR650F bridges the
gap in Honda's street lineup be-
tween its "entry level" sport bikes
CBR300R/CBR500R and the
"supersport" bikes CBR600RR/
CBR1000RR - providing an op-
tion for those riders looking for a
four-cylinder motorcycle without
the uncomfortable riding position
and overwhelming power deliv-
ery of the hardcore sportbikes.
The development team at
Honda set out to create a natural,
low-stress and easily controlled
riding position by taking into con-
sideration a variety of possible
rider builds and potential uses
in different situations. Everything
from riding on city streets, trav-
eling on freeways, or hitting the
mountains for the occasional
sport ride was considered when
developing this new breed of
motorcycle. To hopefully achieve
their goal, the seating position
was placed forward, the bars up-
ward and the footpegs down low
for added comfort and to bring
the rider's position closer to the
bike's center of gravity.
A list of performance features
include a newly designed liquid-
cooled, six-speed DOHC, 30
degree forward facing (to help
lower the center of gravity) in-
line four-cylinder engine with a
bore and stroke of 67 x 46 and
a compression ratio of 11:4:1 – all
aimed at delivering strong low-
end torque below 6000 rpm and
a continued power pull between
6000-11,000 rpm.
In reality the 650F isn't made
to be a race bike and you're prob-
ably not going to ride it as hard
as its sister RR model so Honda
bumped up the capacity in order
to boost torque (200 foot pounds
less than 600RR) while still pro-
ducing max horsepower with a
smooth sweep of power to 11,000
rpm all in order to increase the
(Below) The new
CBR650F is a lot of
motorcycle for $8499.
(Below right)) The new
bike features plenty of
torque and handled the
twisties quite well, thank
you very much.
