Honda CBF600

I bought two used cbf600NA for my wife and I a while ago. I needed a bike that is reliable, easy to maintain, forgiving and capable of being taken on longer road trips with luggage.

I was not disappointed. It has enough power to hold its ground on the highway but also enjoy twisty roads. It has punch to let you have fun in curves. Good brakes to save your skin and no jerkiness when you accidentally end up a gear too high before a curve at 2500 rpm.

Lots of parts are easy to find or compatible with other Honda models so customising it and adding accessories is really easy. Another good point is the adjustable seat height (77cm to 80cm) and the size of the tank (consumption oscillates between 250 and 320km per tank depending on the driving style).

A lot of people including our revered motorcycling press say the CBF600S is a great bike, but just a bit boring, needing more performance and a more aggressive look. I'm now on my second CBF and I can honestly say it's not boring at all. In fact it's a great all-rounder. It's reliable,comfortable and has enough power for holding motorway speeds all day long. It's great at filtering through heavy town traffic, being slim and easy to manoevre. it's light and handles well. Top that with good fuel consumption (both of my bikes have averaged 55mpg)and it has a lovely deep exhaust note on the overrun. Open that throttle wide though and it will quickly whisk you to over 130mph.

Plus it's ultra reliable, has Honda build quality and practical things like bungee points. It has decent lights, and the combined abs brakes give confidence in slippery conditions. It has useful hazard warning lights and a headlight flasher. It's fuel injection system is smooth from zero to its top speed, unlike many modern bikes.

I've had all sorts of bikes over the years, from 125 scooters to Fireblades and thumping great V-twins, but I sat down and said to myself what do I really need from a bike? I came to the conclusion that the CBF600 does everything I need. It might not win any beauty contests or have mega power, but for day to day all round motorcycling it takes some beating.

brilliant bike had two cb500s before and this one is much much better okay not the most fashionable looker around but boy is this bike reliable and does the everything you want. excellent bike good mpg and a great tank range

I have done over 21,000 miles since I bought my CBF600 from new and I am very impressed with the bike as a whole. As mentioned by others the bike has a buzzy vibration at around 70 miles an hour in top gear, which can be very annoying during a long ride. Fuel consumption is excellent, I have managed to get 60 miles per gallon on a long run at a constant 70mph so good for touring. I would recommend the bike to any one.

Having ridden bikes from a 50cc scooter to a Goldwing, Pan European, cbf1000, gs 500 etc I have found what I consider the bike for all occasions. It is much lighter than its big brother the cbf1000 and has plenty of acceleration to make it fun to ride. It is a complete all-rounder and handles brilliantly, being highly versatile in all occasions. It is exciting enough if you dont want a sport bike, but fun enough if you want spped combined with comuter skills. This bike is superb in all aspects and conditions even fully loaded with luggage and two up. Honda have got this perfectly right.

Yes i've given 4 stars each for build quality, reliability & value for money but this bike has one real problem for me. Hold a steady 70mph on one of these and you'll see what i mean in about 10 minutes time! Yes your hands will be completely numb off the buzzy vibration it emits. Yes this engine is from a CBR600 but for the love of god Honda please just leave it there. Yes it will go and it will go fast if you want it to but, it's just not exciting and not very involving. The old CB500 was much, much better at everything. The CB500 feels like it was designed to be a bit of everything to everybody but the CBF600 just feels like its designed to be not much of anything, to nobody! I was excited when Honda said they would be replacing the CB500 but it just wasn't to be Honda, not this time. Still, you can't win them all.