The Secret of the Resurrected Honda CBR600RR’s Sales Success

Top-selling new motorcycle charts are usually fairly predictable affairs. BMW’s big boxer GS (and GSA) has been the UK’s best-selling adventure bike for nearly 20 years; Honda’s PCX125 is invariably the top A1-class scooter; Kawasaki’s Z1000SX regularly makes an appearance in big bike ‘road sports’ or sports tourers; while pure sports bikes, whether 600 supersports or 1000cc superbike are simply, er, nowhere…

Except this year that is.

According to official sales (well, strictly speaking registration) figures from the MCIA (Motor Cycle Industry Association), there are two big surprise sales success stories going on in 2024.

The first is the booming popularity of bikes in the 125-400cc category. While other capacity classes are fairly static or actually down a smidge on 2023, (with some of that put down to poor spring and early summer weather), those of 125-400cc machines are actually up a whopping 23.4 per cent, so much so, in fact, that the category is now the second most popular overall, behind only 125s.

Why? Two simple words: ‘Enfield’ and ‘Triumph’. To be more specific, Royal Enfield’s recent resurgence has continued this year thanks to an ever-increasing range of affordable and accessible singles and twins with its HNTR, Classic and Meteor 350s among the most popular of all.

While Triumph has done better still in 2024 thanks largely to the launch of its all-new, single-cylinder 400 duo, the Speed 400 and Scrambler 400X. Both have been best sellers in the MCIA’s Modern Classic category every month since their January launch, while the Speed 400 was Britain’s best-selling bike overall (excluding scooters) in January, May and July.

But an even bigger surprise, albeit one perhaps not involving quite as big numbers, has been that of the revived 2024 Honda CBR600RR.

We’d all become so used to stories of the supersport class’s demise since around 2010, seemingly backed up by the dropping first of Suzuki’s GSX-R, Triumph’s Daytona 675 and the CBR600RR in 2018, followed by MV Agusta’s 675 F3, Kawasaki’s ZX-6R and Yamaha’s R6 in 2021 (although a track-only version lives on), that, increasingly, it seemed there was no hope for the category at all. Indeed, I remember wondering repeatedly in the years since what the point of British, TT and world supersport racing was when the bikes being raced couldn’t actually be bought for British roads (many racers brought in bikes from outside the EU). Then Honda reintroduced the CBR.

Now, and perhaps even more surprisingly, it’s been the best-selling bike in the 501-750cc class (something not to be sniffed at considering the category also includes Honda’s NC750X and Yamaha’s MT-07), not just in May, but in June and July as well.

OK, they’re not massive figures. In May 75 CBRs were sold compared to 353 Triumph Speed 400s, while in July the ratio was 71 to 170 – but they’re not to be dismissed either.

Personally, I put that success down to two things. First, the new 2024 CBR is not just a revival of the old. New bodywork complete with MotoGP-style winglets now makes the 600 virtually indistinguishable from its big brother, the CBR1000RR Fireblade. It also has a full suite of superbike-style electronic riding aids, including a quickshifter and multi-adjustable suspension. In short, it’s every inch the ‘mini-superbike’ and goes as well as that sounds. It even has the racing pedigree to back that up, with Jack Kennedy’s Honda Britain supported example currently leading the British championship.

And second, and perhaps even more importantly, the new CBR600RR costs just £10,529. That’s £2500 less than the track-only R6, barely any more than an MT-09 and less than half the price of the only surviving Fireblade, the £23,495 CBR1000RR-R SP, of which the 600’s virtually the ‘spit’ and which is barely any use on the road anyway.

So, the new 600RR is a MotoGP lookalike sports bike which is as much spec as a superbike, more ‘real world’ performance, a proven race pedigree and all for the price of a middleweight roadster? No wonder it’s selling. If I was a little bit younger, I’d be tempted too…