Blip and miss

5

The RS660 features an up-and-down quickshifter – unlike Honda’s rival CBR650R which has an upshifter as an extra. It works brilliantly well when you’re riding hard, but lacks finesse at everyday speeds. At sedate revs, it can feel clunky on the upshift and, unless you apply a positive prod of the lever, can sometimes fail to change at all coming back down. At these sorts of speeds, it’s best to change traditionally, which is no hardship as each application of the light clutch creates a devilish pop from the underslung pipes.