Very easy to ride and very unthreatening in her power delivery but as capable of picking up her skirts and tearing into the distance when she feels like it as she is of getting you and your chick on hols
If pound notes are more important than lap times these 600s offer the best compromise of race replica handling with real world practicality. New and secondhand these still top the sales podium
So Honda’s reincarnated Big One should find a place in the market this time round. In the UK the class is already quite busy but my feeling is that the CB1300 could well be the new class leader
Since the dawn of time - well, since the dawn of modern sports 600s - the CBR600 has sat there on or near the top of the pile, like a very old and wise stegosaurus that's beaten off the velociraptors and sits there, gently chewing the cud
Hmm... surely the CBR, in this, its sporty FS guise at least, should be more exciting? This, after all, is the version tweaked for more excitement. Damn it all, my rose-tinted memory is telling me that the standard F with plusher seat, centre-stand, slightly less poke and a few different engine internals felt better than this a few years ago.
We put the new and improved Hornet 600 through its paces. But will it still offer up the vibey ride and shonky tank range of its top-selling predecessor?