Introduced in 2003 the CBR600RR has gone on to dominate Supersport competition around the world. Brisbane’s Chris Vermeulen won the World Supersport Championship onboard a CBR600RR in that debut year for the model and his team-mate Karl Muggeridge wrapped up the 2004 World title a round early after dominating the category in a fashion that had never been seen before.

While Australians have been dominating supersport competition on the world scene on the back of CBR600RR machines, here in Australia the trend has been reproduced with Adam Fergusson and Josh Brookes dominating nearly every race they have entered. In fact in Australian Supersport competition Honda amassed nearly twice the amount of manufacturer's points than any other distributor.

Our UK correspondent Colin Schiller recently spent some quality time with the newest incarnation of the CBR600RR and came away impressed with what he found.  From here Colin takes up the story...

Some things never change. Like Honda UK’s reluctance to lend me a motorcycle so I simply bought one instead. What better way to get an objective test?

First up we were impressed with how well finished the CBR600RR was compared to the CBR1000RR we had bought a year earlier.  We surprisingly had a few concerns over the build quality of the plastics etc. with our 2004 Fireblade but in contrast the new 600 gives an impression of solidity, integration and deep core lustre to the bodywork and ancillaries. 

I still was not game to take any chances though so actually wedged a beer towel twixt my tank and textiles to make absolutely sure of preserving any vulnerable tank paint under the pressure of the mighty Schiller luv spuds.

It’s an absolute jewel of a machine, though, and seems so much more homogeneous than the Blade, the only thing that lets it down in stock trim being the standard issue semaphore size indicators, which are the first thing to graze against gateposts, garages, alleyways etc., and transfer the shock and damage to the flimsy Italian built fairings.

It’s also a tiny bike, more like an overgrown 400 compared to the ZX, the R6 or even the Hummer-ungous Daytona, but the seat is still plenty accommodating despite the fact that the ride height¹s been raised over the years, and is now more uncompromising racer than ever that pays scant lip service to supersize riders.

Climbing aboard the overall and immediate impression is of the unequivocal diminution and lack of mass. The controls aren't as animate and sensitive as the ZX's (the levers for instance are as cheap and formless as only Taiwan can) and apart from the new, lighter (of course) integrated tacho/speedo unit, you could be forgiven for thinking that this was the same bike you had tested last year, or the year before, or the year before or the year before, right back to 1996...

Even the way the tank unit joins to the fairing is similar to generations of yore, however funky and new-for-03 the headlight and exhaust design might have been.

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