Faults:

Cracked front mudguard around mounts.

Cam shaft holder cracked.

General Comments:

Quick, confidence inspiring bike. Handles really well, responds more to input from your feet than the bars.

Could do with wider mirrors as I can see 50/50 elbows/road. Double bubble screen is not particularly effective at high speed as your head gets knocked about quite a bit.

Absorbing to ride, and eggs you on to go quicker than legally allowed. If you red line it, first gear finds you breaking the speed limit, and the steering becomes vague; oh that's because the front wheel is no longer in contact with the floor. Second gets you overtaking very quickly if you can be bothered to drop down through the gears.

Don't like it too much 2 up; find I have to put a lot of weight on the bars, which makes small adjustments more difficult and the bike responds less well to your feet with the extra weight, but then I am used to a sit up and beg position on my CB750 with 100% bar input.

When I got it, it had a leak from a weep hole near the exhaust port. I thought it was a gasket, but unfortunately it wasn't. The camshaft holder had cracked and the bearing face was shot; not sure what caused it; either incorrectly tightened at valve clearance adjustment, or I did read that the FX/FY had problems with this on bikes that had been raced; dirt marks near fork mounts suggest they had been lowered, so a raced bike is a possibility. A second hand engine solved this. Awkward to work on compared to my 750, but logically put together and well thought out.

Faults:

None.

General Comments:

Absolutely well impressed with my Honda. Power delivery is smooth and progressive. Very quick at higher revs.

Handling feels sure footed and confidence inspiring. I tried taking corners I previously took on the ZZR600, and the Honda was superior in every way. It followed the road perfectly and allowed me to enter faster!

Everything on the Honda just feels right (upper market), from the fantastic finish (black) to the ergonomics to the neat and tidy cockpit. Top speed is up with the other newer 600s, although I don't ride that fast preferring to cruise around, and in that department the relaxed seating angle and comfy seat suit me perfectly.

The bike, weighing in at 170kgs, is light and nimble on the move, allowing for rapid line changing. My only gripe would be the wind blast, as the double bubble screen is too small. Never mind, I don't plan on sustaining high speeds for long if at all. Love my Honda!!!

Faults:

The cam chain tensioner needed replacing by 5000 miles. This is a well known fault on FX and FY models. Given this, I asked the Honda dealer to change the tensioner for free - they contacted Honda UK, who authorised them to do the job at no cost to me, so top marks to Honda as my bike was already five years old at the time.

General Comments:

Apart from the tensioner, nothing else has gone wrong with the bike.

It is very comfortable (much better than the Yamaha Thundercat I had before). Doing a few hundred miles in one day is no problem. The bike does need a double bubble windscreen though. I am six feet tall and the wind blast with the standard screen hits the bottom of my helmet - the wind turbulence makes things very noisy.

The handling (especially with Metzeler Sportecs) is superb. It is a very quick steering bike that you can flick from one corner to the next, but is also very stable in corners. It is very confidence inspiring. When the back end does start to slip at extreme lean angles, the slide is very progressive; I haven't had any scary moments on it yet.

I did think about "upgrading" to a bigger bike, and had test rides on a new Yamaha R1 and the new Triumph Sprint ST. The Triumph felt no faster than the CBR, and definitely wasn't worth the extra money to me. The R1 had explosive power, but was much, much slower steering than the CBR, and took a lot more effort to ride fast - it just wasn't as fun through the twisties as the CBR. Having tried a litre bike, I don't think you need more power than a 600 gives you for road use anyway. The R1 is a lot quicker over 100 mph in a straight line, but not so in the corners, where it counts.

So overall I'll keep the CBR for its excellent mix of comfort, power and handling. It also looks pretty good, too with the matt black lower fairings with gloss black tank & upper fairings.