What owners say…
THERE’S A REAL range of owners, from young to not so young, and from newly qualified to gnarly, experienced trackday hands. And the ages and experience don’t always correspond... Us-based Randy Brown is just 22 but he’s been riding for many years. He’s got 14,000 miles on his 2008 RR. “I grew up riding Honda dirt bikes, so then I just stuck with Honda. The RR is very, very fast. The ’08 is the fastest year they made. I guess starting in 2009, they had to implement a load of new environmental standards, killing off some of the performance. I still have a slip-on Two Brothers exhaust and love it. It’s a very balanced bike and is super-easy to do maintenance on. I will usually just ride around my city (Buffalo, New York) with a bunch of friends. At my college, I’m in a motorsports club, and we took a trip to ‘Tail of the Dragon’, located in North Carolina. It’s one of the hot spots in the country to go to for curvy, windy roads.”
Jon Baud’s twice Randy’s age but he’s only been riding for four years. He’s packed a lot in though, and now he’s a trackday regular on his 25,000-mile 2008 RR: “My first bike was a Bandit 600 but I really liked the look and spec of the 600RR. It is a good balance of power and affordability. On the whole, it’s been very reliable; no major mechanical issues whatsoever, considering I’ve done high mileage and ridden on road and track pretty hard. It’s a quick bike with good looks, plus there are a whole host of modifications possible. For track use, it’s good as it’s light and is also predictable, though it loses out on the straights to bigger bikes. It’s very simple to work on yourself too - buy a Haynes manual, watch tutorials on Youtube, there’s a lot on information out there. Most jobs are very straightforward, though for anything more technical, I would tend to use a garage.”
Belgian-based Quentin is another fairly new rider who’s also gone down the trackday route with his heavily modified 2008 bike, which he chose in preference to a Triumph Daytona: “What swung me
“It’s like a tank - never broken down on me” Quentin Honda CBR600RR owner
over to the Honda was its reliability, comfort, and the readily available mods and spare parts. It’s built like a tank - it’s never broken down on me. The riding position isn’t as aggressive as an R6. I really like the undertail exhaust, stock steering damper, the way it looks, etc. Love the bike. Suspension is on the soft side, especially the shock. Even so, it isn’t the most comfortable of bikes to commute on. I’m thinking of making it into a full-time track bike.” You can see all the mods to Quentin’s bike on his Instagram account (@Nuithari) or on his build thread on the excellent forum at www.600rr.net.