Shortly following the catastrophic attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, the United States military activated many National Guard and reservists such as myself. I soon found myself on the fringe of Operation: Enduring Freedom (I prefer the original name, Operation: Extreme Justice), and was given open-ended orders to the Azores, a small group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, belonging to Portugal. Being a relatively small island - we drove a car around the coastal road in an hour and a half - there was very little to do. There were, however, a few motorcycle dealers that managed to make a living there. This gave me a chance to ride a little while I was deployed.

One of my buddies decided to make the best of a less-than-desirable situation, and arranged to purchase a new euro-spec Honda CBR600FSport (F4i here at home), red of course. It’s a good thing to be friends with your co-workers, especially when it leads them to offer to lend you their brand new bike while they are working. I jumped on the opportunity, especially having been separated from my Bandit for two months already.

My first sitting on the little CBR, I noticed the seat was a little hard on the tush. Then, I leaned over to reach the clip-on handlebars and realized the seat would probably be comfortable as long as my wrists would hold out. Not an overly-aggressive position, but it reminded me why I bought a comfortable, upright machine like the Bandit. But, we were on a small island, and there’s not much to see after the first hour of riding anyway. I had a chance to ride on the back for a few miles, and didn’t like the view from there at all. Bad enough riding ‘bitch’, but the passenger seat is perched so high, it was hard to keep balanced without leaning all the way into the driver. A small grab rail would be a nice alternative to the crappy little leather grab-strap across the seat.

The new bike cranked up easily and settled into a low idle. I backed out of the parking space, and immediately the word “twitchy” came to mind. Once I got off Air Base 4, I headed towards the town of Praia. The roads are small 2-lane cattle-chutes, with stone walls lining the shoulders. Oh, and they don’t just look like cattle chutes; they are cattle chutes! The island is covered with grazing fields surrounded by stone walls built from lava rock. The local cattle-farmers move their herds down the roads to different grazing fields all the time. Between the blind curves, the potholes, and the possibility of cattle herds in the road, only people with a bonafide death-wish would try pushing a racebike here; I wanted to live to update my website. Even with the uneven road surfaces, the CBR handled small bumps and dips very easily, without jarring the rider too much.

I hit the coastal road south from Praia, and railed a little down to Porto Martins. The scenery was beautiful, as it was one of the few sunny days I saw in 4 months on the island. There are very few grazing fields on this section of road, and the open cliff side allowed for some visibility around the corners. A local on a Honda 919 zipped past in the opposite direction, pushing the bike hard on the cow-patty-covered road. The CBR makes some decent power for one-up riding, but only above 6000 rpms. Below that, it feels quite sluggish, but it’s meant to be revved and does so quickly. The low torque was obvious when I’d hit a steep upgrade (lots of them on the island) and would have to downshift, sometimes down two gears to get the revs up into the power range. Maybe I’m just a lazy rider, but I think a great streetbike (as the CBR600 has always been called) should have a little more midrange power. As far as handling, the bike was almost boring - it would turn and stop exactly when, where, and how I wanted it to, without even thinking about it. A good thing, I guess.

Choosing the right bike really depends on how you’re going to use it, and the CBR doesn’t fit my requirements right now. However, it is a sweet-looking, quality sportbike refined for the real-world. As an avid Bandit owner and fan, I found the CBR600 to be low on power until the rpms approach the redline. Would I buy a CBR600? I’ve thought about it. I wouldn’t give up my Bandit for one, but maybe if there was a track nearby… What it seems to lack in power, it makes up for with scalpel-like handling. For street riding, I’d have to keep another bike for all-day riding or sport-touring; the CBR would just be too uncomfortable for my beat-up thirty-something body after an hour or so of riding over the usual bumps and dips of state-maintained roadways. Definitely not a do-it-all bike or a two-up sport-tourer, the CBR has decent power for those that are willing to keep the revs up, and handles like a racebike on the street without excessively abusing the rider on public roads. Definitely worth a look, if it fits your criteria.