Honda's new CB900 Hornet has arrived.  We were lucky enough to cover around 750 kilometres on the new model along with a few laps at Victoria's magnificent Phillip Island circuit recently.

The roots of the new Hornet extend back to Japan and a look pioneered by the 1996 domestic model Hornet 250. This was soon followed in 1998 by the Hornet 600 which proved very popular in European markets. Built on essentially the same chassis configuration as the 250, but powered by a slightly modified version of the engine that drove the CBR600F to fame.

However the market demanded an even larger-displacement machine and Honda has responded by slotting the 919cc engine from the 1998 Fireblade in to a slightly beefed up Hornet chassis.

To suit the 'naked' style of the machine the engine has been re-tuned to provide a lot more bottom and mid-range performance at the expense of some of the Fireblade's howling top end.

When fitted to the 1998 Fireblade the engine made do with carbs' but in Hornet guise it scores fuel injection to handle the go juice delivery.  The system features 36mm throttle bodies with 4-hole injectors and ensures that good response is had from the engine at any revs, even when asked to pull from as low as 1,500 rpm in top gear.

At Phillip Island the machine topped out at a little over 220kph down the main straight which is about all the bike is geared for.  However, it felt that it could pull a slightly taller top gear ratio and go a fair bit faster, but this is hardly important for a road bike.

For some strange reason the machine has a manual choke down near the engine, unlike the automatic fast idle system on some of Honda's latest fuel injected bikes.  But the choke is not normally needed for the Hornet to fire up and settle down to a smooth idle.

A smooth six-speed gearbox transfers the refined four-cylinder power through to a 180mm rear tyre.  The test machine wore somewhat outdated BT56 Bridgestone rubber and out of tight corners such as turn four at Phillip Island they tended to slide quite nicely on the exit of the turn.

A low-fuel warning light glows on the attractively styled dash when there is around 4.5 litres remaining in the 19-litre fuel tank. At legal speeds the Hornet provides a touring range of around 300 kilometres and can even be stretched to 350 kilometres with a little restraint of the right wrist during highway touring.

And highway touring is where the Hornet, somewhat surprisingly, comes in to it's own.  An excellent riding position and supportive seat keep the rider comfortable at all times.  In fact I think the Hornet probably has what is the most naturally comfortable bar-to-seat position I have yet sampled.  My only gripe would be that the narrow bars can transfer a few small vibes to the rider's hands at around 110kph, but these are not strong enough to become really annoying.

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