HONDA CBR500R (2019 - 2021) Review

Overall rating

The latest Honda CBR500R is refined, well balanced, beautifully built and peppy. First introduced in 2014, it's a stalwart of the A2 genre and is now in its third iteration.

• Latest news: 2022 Honda CBR500R bike review
• Related: 2022 Honda CBR500R unveiled

It offers credible performance alongside aspirational styling, complete with MotoGP-inspired wings. Finished in a delicious glossy red and black and complete with a chunky 17.1-litre fuel tank between your legs, it offers a ‘big-bike’ feel.

You can’t help but steal glances at yourself in shop windows as you cruise through town and could easily mistake it for a  Fireblade. It feels far more special than a simple stepping-stone between licences and at a fraction over six grand, is stonking value for money.

• Related: 2021 Honda CBR500R becomes Euro5 compliant

This is complemented by the LED headlights and all-new LCD dash, which features a similar layout to the larger capacity, four-cylinder CBR650R. An adjustable brake lever, blue anodised fork tops and well-finished, logically-placed switchgear seal the deal, with the only major gripe being the mirrors, which are largely consumed by your gloves and forearms.

A2 licence holders should be feeling pretty chuffed when they discover just how dazzling 47bhp can be. 

Listen to the Honda CBR500R exhaust sound in our video review!

Ride quality & brakes

A new Showa rear shock and fork internals, featuring progressive springs (hard in the middle, soft at the top and bottom) keeps the Honda composed when you're jamming it into corners like Marquez, or maintaining Lorenzo-like momentum. It’s stable and plush with an unquenchable appetite for corner speed.

After all, it’s more exciting carving through a 60mph corner on a fizzing CBR500R, than doing the same on a Honda Fireblade SP, as it yawns back at you. A single wavy 320mm disc and twin piston Nissin caliper set-up has decent power, but is best supplemented by the rear to really get the Honda stopped.

• Related: See this bike in our best A2 motorcycles feature

Bars are now fitted beneath the top yoke, canting you eight degrees further forward, but the new riding position doesn’t hammer wrists and the seat is all-day cosy.

Engine

With its new valve timing, bigger airbox and straighter inlet tracts the CBR500R now has a surprising amount of grunt, so there’s no need to chase gears and revs on a rainy commute, but it’s properly fast when you poke it with a stick and well…abuse it. Breaking the ton and beyond, is a piece of cake, which isn’t surprising when you realise it has the same power as the beloved Yamaha RD350LC.

We never thought that was slow, did we? Unlike that smelly two-stroke, the Honda has a wide spread of perfectly delivered power and its throttle, new assist and slipper clutch and new gearbox are buttery and precise.

Wound out fully, you can expect a Honda CBR500R top speed of 112mph. 

Reliability & build quality

CBR500Rs are pretty much bomb proof and our online reader reviews give nothing but glowing comments. It’s also a machine used at the Honda Ron Haslam School, thrashed for thousands of miles around Donington Park with zero mechanical problems.

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Value vs rivals

Six grand is very little for a machine that offers so much. Service intervals are every 8000 miles and you can expect over 70mpg with a careful right hand. You also get a Datatag, two years unlimited mileage warranty and European breakdown cover.

Group test: Honda CBR500R vs Yamaha R3

First published in MCN on 26 June 2019 by Dan Sutherland

MCN road tester Dan Sutherland had a whale of a time testing two junior sportsbikes - the Honda CBR500R and the ever-impressive Yamaha R3. Here's his verdict: 

"With their comfortable, roadbiased stance and frugal twin-cylinder engines, it’s all too easy to cast A2-compliant sportsbikes off as little more than a styling exercise, with none of the traditional thrill power or cornering prowess that we seek when choosing a bike.

"However, 500 miles on the Yamaha R3 and Honda CBR500R have smashed that preconception to pieces, with both offering bags of cornering ability and enough poke to keep up with and stay ahead of the traffic – all wrapped up in a set of sleek, superbikeinspired plastics. Both would make the perfect poster bike for the aspiring sportsbike enthusiast, but top honours have to go to the CBR. Although £800 more expensive, there’s more road presence, a better soundtrack and plusher suspension. Capable, frugal and comfortable, it’s the perfect do-it-all performance bike, regardless of your skillset."

Equipment

LED headlights, blue anodised fork tops, MotoGP winglets and carbon effect fairing infil panels all sum up the attention to detail lavished on this 47bhp 500.

The paint and finish wouldn’t look out of place on a £20-grand superbike and a new LCD dash now has a gear position indicator. Its Blade-style screen is low, but manages to offer decent wind protection even for a taller rider.