I completed nearly 100 laps around Victoria's magnificent Phillip Island race circuit onboard the new CBR 600 F4i and came away impressed.  The chassis has a great balance which inspires confidence no matter how hard or soft you push.  

Talking of soft, the front forks are a little soft for the guys who brake VERY hard.  And, those brakes are great, but if used to their full extent they will bottom the forks.  Into Honda corner I had the forks fully compressed with the resultant chirp, chirp, chirp from the front tyre as it lost contact with the surface at times.  I must stress that I do use the brakes very hard (the practice of hundreds of rolling stoppies comes to good use sometimes) and most will not find this a problem at all.  I did manage to dial it out but then went back on track and proceeded to brake even harder again which brought on the same bottoming problem.  All track day fiends normally modify their forks with different springs, oil weight and air gap so this is no major problem as it will be easily overcome for a minimum of dollars.  The forks do not misbehave at any other time and gave me great confidence when turning in.  I liked the front of the CBR 600 F4i better than the R6 or ZX-6R but they don't quite come up to the same level of the sublime front forks fitted to the GSX-R 600, the Suzuki is the benchmark in this area.

The CBR compares quite well against the opposition on the weight front,

• Kawasaki ZX-6R       198 kilograms
• Suzuki GSX-R 600    192 kilograms
• Honda CBR 600 F4i   193 kilograms
• Yamaha R6               195 kilograms

As a race bike the CBR has a great basis to work from with a really nice balance to the chassis and a lot of over-rev on the standard engine.  This engine is designed to rev a lot harder than it does in it's standard guise which means the tuners will reap great horsepower benefits from blueprinting, aftermarket pipes, cams and injection mapping.  These things will howl in World SuperSport trim.

As a road bike the CBR will also excel, great performance married with practical things like good luggage hooks, a very comfortable riding position and other user-friendly features such as the previously mentioned automatic fast idle system will see to that.  For the every day biker, I see these little things as making long-term life with a motorcycle just that little bit more pleasurable.

If you were to ask me which 600 I would buy?  The answer would be a close call between the GSX-R and CBR.  In standard form the GSX-R has the performance edge but the CBR could easily be put in the same league for track-work with a little suspension fettling and a higher level muffler.  The Honda has the edge over the Suzuki when it comes to build quality but the Suzuki has a rawer and racier feel to it.  The decision between these two is simply too close to call for me.  The nutters will prefer the Suzuki, the more practical will prefer the Honda.

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