Honda CB600F Hornet (2007-current)

The MCN review is largely accurate. My experience of my 2007 ABS Hornet has been: Pros: * Brilliant high and low speed handling and chassis set up. Best naked I've ridden, ever. * Decent ~45mpg consumption even if you thrash the hell out of it. * Build and materials quality appears almost up to "old skool" Honda standards. Still perfect on my 2007. * ABS is non-intrusive, unlike old Honda ABS or the BMW systems. * Good value for money - under 100mph as fast as a supersport 600, no plastics to break, with cheap insurance. * Long seat cover, huge grab handles and no painted rear fairing means it's brilliant for bungeeing stuff on without the inevitable scuffed paint. Cons: * The shock is shit. Oversprung and lacking any compression damping, it pogos over the slightest bump, will lose any damping by ~10k miles and is not rebuildable. You then either suffer Fear or pay £3-400 for an aftermarket unit. * It's a 600 four. Needs downgearing at the sprockets if you're not a pipe-and-slippers rider. Blisteringly fast when wound up, but feels like the final drive is made of rubber bands - twist throttle and wait for the engine to catch up. Street Triple, by comparison, gives instant drive when you open the taps. * Pegs are low-ish and the bike tends to sit on its tail unless you jack up preload (which just makes the rear shock more harsh), or I guess unless you weigh 120 pounds or less. Although Honda manages to make this feel great to ride, your toes will hit the ground before your knee sliders you're over about a size 8. * Wind protection even by naked standards is poor (my Duke II was actually better...and it didn't even have a flyscreen), and the Honda option flyscreen looks good but doesn't do much to protect you. Puig, Givi and a bunch of others do higher aftermarket ones for £££. * Typical horrible Honda EFI jerkiness going from shut to open throttle which you have to ride around. Overall, a great A and B road do-anything bike. Not what I'd choose for urban commuters however - the power delivery and EFI issues are a PITA in town.

Owned my Hornet since aug'08 and ridden 7500 miles. I've been riding for nearly 4 years and this is my second Hornet. I ride all year, all weathers and this bike is great. Build quality is excellent, ride is agile, sporty and fun and great in town too. You have to push the brakes hard for the abs to cut in and it is a refined and sensitive system, complementing the whole package. Fuel consumption is 45 - 50 mpg (even hard riding), I have got 170 miles from a full tank, with some to spare but I usually fill up at 150 miles. The engine is a diamond with good torque throughout the rev range. The only 'fault' is the seat - a tad uncomfy after a couple of hours, but hey, either buy a bagster seat or take a break! Fantastic value and probably the best middleweight roadster out there!

Great bike, perfect for commuting, popping around town. Light and agile with a cracking engine

I picked up a snow white Hornet June 1st last year, since then i added 120km to its counter each day, except for when it is raining - which does not happen a lot, as i live in Southern Spain. I had a small color matching fairing and a rear hugger mounted to it - a matter of taste. In the white skin i have it, it is a true looker. The response i had with this bike is unlike anything i ever experienced. Passer by's just stopped and circled around it when it is parked in the street. Anyway, about the ride, after 8 months and 17000km on the clock i can say this: the new Hornet is truly a great ride. Comfortable, agile and swift in acceleration, no a lot of traffic has passed me by i have to say. The combined abs is superb on sudden straight stops and makes the bike drift sideways when braking heavy in sharp bends, but is always keeping the bike in perfect control. One thing that i have experienced a couple of times - and consider a downer just for happening - was the gearbox jumping out of gear between 5th and 6th gears, causing the engine to rev in the red zone. besides this i give this bike a five star rating.

Firstly you should know where I'm coming from: This is the first 'proper' bike I've tested in my search since passing my test just recently, and I come from a CBR125. I've got little to compare it with therefore though there may be those in similar situation who may appreciate my feedback so here goes: I gave it a good long ride, including Junc 23-17 and back! Really easy to ride, plenty of speed and great delivery, sounds fantastic, looks great I think. Delivery is smooth yet veeery aggressive if you want it to be. Steering is light at very low speed, I was able to do some very controlled manoevres easily in a quiet narrow street. (I tried to test everything.) My only complaints, which are important to me is Motorway riding. Of course, I've got nothing to compare it to, least of all other nakeds, but I got well blasted by the wind and could only cope with short bursts of high speed. However please note I wasn't wearing leathers and my lid is a Multitec pull-up. The other complaint is Mirrors. These seem ok when you're sitting on it in the shop but out on the road I couldn't see squat, and wasn't able to adjust them favourably. On the motorway at speed this is even more of a problem as you're leaning forward to cope with windrush and theyr're obviously not mounted on any frontal fairing. Take it or leave it, this is my review - discount it if you like re. my experience but don't get me wrong - I think it's an awesome bike!!!

I recently purchased a new Hornet after selling my 02 CBR 600 F-Sport. I do a lot of commuting and was after something practical, good-looking but still sporty enough to be exciting to ride. And the Hornet is all of these things and more. It's sooooooo easy to ride, it looks and sounds great, and the engine is fantastic. Decent amount of grunt low down where you need it, but with it being the CBR 600RR engine it has loads of top end power too. Im really, really pleased with it.

Got mine back in September, wrote a comment on the day I've purchased. Bike is really fun.Sometimes I enjoy just going to my garage and turning on just to hear the noise. Looks great, aggressive, easy to ride, fast,beautiful piece. Yeah it needs a flyscreen for motorway and the one from honda it is quite small and it doesn't look nice. As matter of fact can't find a nice one yet.Have 5000 miles so far, change the tires from the Bridgestone for a sweet pair of Michelin Pilot Power 2ct and I am loving it. and FYI, I always clock my mileages and I have been riding 150 miles in the city with one tank,and because the tank warning starts flashing at 120 miles I am always afraid of wait for longer before I stop.But when I top up my tank can't get more than 16/17 liters so I reckon I may be able to ride 160 with the 19 liters tank. :)

When I was looking for a new bike I spent ages looking for reviews from people who have actually owned and ridden the bike they were pimping, and to be honest good reviews are hard to find. So I decided that as soon as I could write a review that was useful, I would ……. So hear we go. Bought it back in Nov 07 Red / ABS, and have covered 5000 miles so far. My last bike was a Honda CBF 500 (we all have to start somewhere). I have had no problems with the bike at all (well it’s a Honda what else would you expect?). It’s good points are, as mentioned before it’s a Honda and it looks cool and I mean cool. It’s so easy to ride (easier than the old man bike I had before), I have never had the feeling it was going to bite me for making small mistakes. Its got a clock. It has a proper size fuel tank (19l). It’s narrow, so whipping through traffic on he A12 is actually a pleasure (BMW bike owners please pull in and let us pass). I have no idea what the fuel economy is like and with the way that I ride it at the moment I don’t want to, so sorry I can’t be of help on that point. It has just the right engine range that you need i.e. if you are commuting and need to get from A to B it will deliver all you need with good power output at low revs so you don’t have to change gear every 30 sec. Like wise if you are commuting, sat at traffic lights and a chav in a Honda civic R decides that he owns the road, with very little effort at all you can show him the true meaning of ‘power to weight ratio’ and still have room for as smug glance backwards. Oh did I mention that it sounds as cool as it looks when employing the ‘educating chav mode’. Combined ABS well what can I say wet / dry / icy, when you press on the brakes ….. the bike stops …. I don’t think that needs any more said about it except this, on two occasions this amazing invention has prevented me from a trip to the local A+E department, and being that this is Queens in Romford its not a bad thing. Bad points, the mirrors, as you have seen from other reviews you need to move your shoulders to use them. It needs the optional extra rear hugger to protect the underside from all the salt, grit and dirt on the road. So all in all this is a top bike with great reliability and all the performance you need for the commute and the weekend. Oh did I mention it looks and sounds cool. R

Just got my new Hornet 10 days ago and I am very very happy with it, sorry but no faults (maybe I am easily pleased?).

This is first proper bike and just getting used to it. Really can't fault it at all, would advise the ABS version for the weather we have, though I got a good deal on the non-abs version so went for it. Love the acceleration on the open road and its really nimble when in town, buy one- you won't regret it..and looks great to..