Honda CB650R

Welcome to the 2022 Honda CB650R showroom review and specification page. Another late surprise the year is the introduction of the Honda CB650R has an actual 4 cylinder motorcycle competing against the horde of 2 cylinder motorbikes in various configurations and the 3 cylinders championed by Yamaha. 

The CB650R is a naked version of the sports class CBR650R. However and as expected the CB650R is a detuned and more civilised version of the same bike – for the next generation of the cafer racer set. Note that the CBR650R is missing the RR so it’s not supersports class and the CB650R is missing an R…

In terms of looks you’d be hard pressed to tell that they are the same motorbike underneath and I tend to enjoy looking the the CB650R more compared to the CBR650R. That’s probably because I’ve seen too many supersports motorcycles in my lifetime and they are looking kind of the same in 2022. The CB650R also reminds me of the Kawasaki Z650RS in terms of styling. 

In terms of the engine and tech the CB650R has all the gadgets the CBR650R has, like ABS, engine modes, USD,  digital instruments and fancy LED lighting. Mind you these are expect features in 2022 like tyres. Speaking of which the CB650R has a 180 spec rear tyre which means more street cred even before you ride it. It also means easier cafe racer mods – how could Honda marketing miss this? The best feature is of course that it sounds like a proper motorbike which is rare in 2022. *** Note check if you are getting the LAMS version of full powered version. 

Overall the Honda CB650R has the unique selling point of having a 4 cylinder engine with power and standard tech to match. I can see it being a mod monster in a few years. I think this is a better interpretation of a cafe racer than the putt putt twins like the Z650RS for example, which is selling on branding rather than being the genuine Z series successor. The Honda CB650R is also cheap for the package compared to it’s competitors which gets a big tick in our inflation effected economy as I write this in August 2022. That said things can change so quickly these days. ..