BABY BLADES...HONDA'S OTHER CBRS

Sportsbikes come in all shapes and sizes, as Honda’s middleweight CBRs hammer home.

- BRUCE

Think Honda, think Fireblade. Why wouldn’t you? For more than 30 years, the iconic head of the CBR family has flown the sportsbike flag for the Japanese brand on racetracks and in showrooms the world over, delivering class-leading performance figures, pioneering tech and the kind of engineering prowess that’ll hurt your head if you study it too closely. Yep, the Blade has made an indelible mark on the world of sportsbikes – to the extent that even those who despise the thought of sporty motorcycles will undoubtedly know of the model, its history, and its significance. But what’s lesser known – albeit no less important – is Honda’s other CBRs…

Throughout the years, the headlining Honda has been backed up by a raft of similarly guised smaller capacity siblings, providing the perfect stepping stones up to the pinnacle of the clan. The likes of the CBR125, 250, 300 and Baby Blade (400cc) of the late 1980s have each done their bit to lead people on the righteous path to bigger and better CBRs, not forgetting the awesome and voluminous versions of CBR600s that’ve come our way over time.

In more recent years, steered by legislation, sales, and (quite probably) commercial streamlining, it would appear Honda’s consolidated its CBR family for now, focusing on two very similar, yet different, middleweights. Of course, I’m talking about the bikes you see before you – the CBR500R and the CBR650R, neither of which I’d ever ridden before this encounter, and therefore didn’t really know what to expect.