The front forks have grown to 45mm with an HMAS cartridge configuration similar to that used on the Fireblade and SP-2. As you expect, full adjustment to preload is available, as is adjustments for rebound and compression damping. 

A new Yagura braced box section swingarm is lighter than the much smaller swingarm it replaces. Based on the RCV, the new CBR's Pro-Link rear suspension is self contained within the swingarm. As you can see from the above pictures this is an extremely neat way of doing things.

On the road the suspension is just about perfect. Turn in is sublime and stability is fantastic.  Only once when charging particularly hard over a bumpy set of bends did the CBR600RR wiggle a little, and I mean a little.  The rear suspension was also fantastic on the road, quite clearly Honda have spent considerable time tuning the suspension package for the ultimate balance of comfort versus real world performance.

With this in mind, it brings me to think that the Honda is a particularly ideal mount for an eager young rider to move up to after graduating from their first machine. The way it steers is so natural and responsive that it really is quite amazing that Honda have managed to engineer such a high degree of stability in to an extremely light machine.

At the track I found the suspension a little too supple for my liking. But you can't expect to have such a user friendly machine behave as impeccably on the road as it does on the track without turning some attention to the clickers.

During the morning session I circulated on a machine with standard settings and got my head up to speed with just how fast things happen at Phillip Island. Riding the Island is the closest thing I have found to finding religion, but the first couple of hours always involve me trying to get my poor old brain to keep with the pace.

In the afternoon session we stiffened the suspension up a little and the benefits were immediately obvious. Where during the morning session I had some trouble with the rear suspension out of turn 11, on the stiffer machine no such problems were evident. We also let some air out of the Michelin Pilot Sport tyres which aided things along a little further. Ground clearance is excellent.

All up I would say the CBR600RR has the absolute best balance of road and track performance for the vast majority of riders. On the road the machine handles brilliantly, and given a few tweaks the CBR600RR also performs highly at the track. It is rare to find a machine which behaves so perfectly sure and stable on dodgy roads, while also managing to take full advantage of the smooth surfaces provided by a racetrack.

The fastest CBR600RR buyers will want to firm things up a little more than what the standard adjustment offers, but only if they are really getting stuck in at the racetrack and have a high level of experience in that arena.

Honda claim the new die-cast frame is based on the RC211V. The sub-frame is also die-cast and an impressive piece of engineering itself, the new sub-frame aids the routing of the new underseat exhaust system.