“Okay what we want you to do is to accelerate hard in 1st gear and then as you ride over the sand covered section to grab a BIG handful of front brake!”

Now if I said that to you, what would your reaction be?
Forget your own health for a moment, if I could guarantee you wouldn’t get hurt would you be prepared to risk your pride and joy on a mad stunt?
No me neither but we weren’t being asked to do this on our bikes. No the big H had some nice shiny, brand new bikes for us to wilfully throw down the road!
The purpose of the stunt was not general silliness; it was simply to demonstrate the latest safety aspect of biking for sportsbikes C-ABS!

Nic and I were guests at Honda UK’s Slough Institute to have a tour of the facility but most especially to see the new C-ABS bikes and to also take them out for a little bit of fun around the roads of Slough.
I’d travelled down on my wife Mandy’s 1996 CBR600FV having failed to finish fitting the replacement engine in my Urban Tiger in time.
So it was perhaps fitting that I was given the C-ABS equipped CBR600RR to test by way of penance.
My initial disappointment not to be riding a Blade must have showed; I’d taken the 08 Blade round Donington Park and a few week back the 09 round my local roads, so was itching to try it with the C-ABS equipped version and it’s not fair; Nic got one why can’t I?
The 600 was such a delight though, just as every CBR600 I’ve ever ridden has been, so much so that later in the road test I was well made up with their decision.
Liberties can be taken with hard charging through the rev range that you just can’t chance on the Blade when riding strange roads.

Anyway more of that later but back to the “stunts!”
To put everyone at ease the very amicable Steve Plater was there to give us a quick demonstration of how not to drop a bike on water or sand under heavy braking.
Regardless of it being the wet section or the sand section each time, Steve would turn and charge back at the section, then with a big handful of front brake nothing would happen, he’d simply slow down!
Now this did look like something rather clever?
Honda must be the motorcycle manufacturer when it comes to safety, so we shouldn’t be too surprised however whilst I did expect it to perform well on the wet, sand is a totally different matter, totally unpredictable.
Okay I didn’t actually measure the depth however I do think there must have been around 5mm. It was a true presentation of a transportation mishap from out of a quarry, as I’m sure you must have seen at some time?
A lot of you can probably relate to this and some will have your own horror stories; years ago following a mate into a bend we had to slam on with sand dumped right in there on the apex.
Fortunately it was a slow bend of around 30-40mph, though it was night time.
Keeping the bike upright, it weaved to a halt running off road at a kerb drop; my friend wasn’t so lucky, although unhurt as his front end tucked at low speed.
With Steve Plater surviving totally unscathed, it was then the turn of the guests; me being last.
Now I don’t want any aspersions of cowardess, but it certainly helps boost confidence watching 5 other guys before you, repeatedly tear up and down the strips of water and sand, (two different stretches) with big handfuls of front brake and zero disasters!
Could I cast caution to the wind?
Hell yes, this beautiful little Tricolour CBR600RR they had provided me with had better be all they claimed or else it wasn’t going to look quite so beautiful with roadrashed flanks!
I took advantage of the normal “untreated” stretch to feel the brakes first; then it was time to try the wet section. While normally a bit of a chicken on wet roads as I crossed the wet concrete I hit the front anchors and!

Well, how do I put this? Stopped; no slide, no slip, no drama.
If you had just watched 5 other guys do it, you wouldn’t expect to lock it up, would you?
But having said that surely you would expect to feel something wouldn’t you?
Maybe a squirm, or a twitch or a judder!
You probably own an ABS equipped car and have probably felt in some of them, a judder as the brakes bite, free, then bite again.
On a bike, which is inherently unstable, it must produce some reaction surely?
Now the fact it did none of these things made me smile!
So now without further a due, it was time for the sand. I used to hate riding on sand when I owned a Suzuki RM370 crosser but I did learn to use only the rear brake; after all you can control a rear wheel slide, can’t you?
But how many can control a front wheel slide?
Each pass I made sure the bike was totally upright and straight (I’m not that soft) and slammed on, and each time we stopped as if on a normal road.
Whilst I hope no one heard me, it would have been worth the embarrassment, it just blew my mind how incredible this system really is; sorry guys, I’m not really mad, though I just couldn’t help sniggering!
Okay mental note to self getting off the bike with a silly grin on my face; remember Dave this is a safety device invented by the most sensible of bike manufacturers and safety isn’t meant to be fun. So put the serious face back on!
After dinner it was time to go out for a wee ride and put this new CBR600RR C-ABS through its paces.
Now in the briefing beforehand Honda had stated that it enabled “immediate and FULL use, everywhere.”
Forget the novelty of riding over the water and sand; I wanted to see what the real world affects of the system actually meant, both to me and what must be the main target market, new riders.
During the safety presentation at the start if the day, Honda had made some claims in a rather matter of fact manner, that a beginner, could with this system, brake just as or almost effectively as an experienced rider.
Okay fair enough, maybe, maybe not.
Unfortunately we wouldn’t find out as everyone here was an experienced rider, so it wouldn’t make any difference to us, or would it?

The test route was along out and straight onto the M25 headed north, picking up the M40 heading west to the next junction, then south along the A355 back towards Slough.
Turning off on the B416 we then headed again away from town before U turning down another minor road and back towards the town, where we picked up the A4, then back into the industrial estate via another couple of minor roads.
Lead by an enthusiastically ridden Pan European it was run at a good pace, without getting daft, over 31 miles of varying road types.
Though speaking of daft, the rider in front of Nic and I, Alan Dowd from Superbike magazine, was it seemed enjoying himself by taking plenty of opportunity to test his CBR600s ability to wheelie.
Maybe he was worried the extra 10kg of the C-ABS might impede this ability, though they seemed easy enough from where I was sat!
Really it wasn’t until we got off the motorway before I got the C-ABS. Pressing on a bit down windy roads the opportunity to leave braking till late and then hit them hard, became the norm.
Whilst ordinarily you would gauge your braking according to the road surface, then brake smoothly and evenly down to the desired speed appropriate to the bend or potential hazard.
Now we were just charging up and slam all on.
The system works incredibly, keeping the bike perfectly stable as if I’d executed it with proper planning.
More and more I try to upset it and every single time it shrugs off my attempts, taking greater liberties everywhere.
Get a bumpy road surface and brake hard from speed. Your instincts and experience take over as you vary the braking force; it’s all second nature after 30 years of riding.
You know how that rippling will take up the forks free travel, increasing the chance of the front tyre skipping, with momentary lock as it crosses them; so you’ll ease off and then get back hard on as they clear.
Not with this system. Sod the ripples; just grab the brake as hard as you want no drama!
Once again I was grinning, this was great fun.
Wait a minute, this is a safety device we are meant to be testing isn’t it?
If we did a word association test; when the tester said safety, would you say fun?
Surely safety goes hand in hand with sensible. So when did fun ever become associated with safety?
Surreal isn’t it?

Then I spotted it; the ultimate test; a cambered road with a sharp turn immediately before a 30mph zone and bumpy as well!
This you just knew for definite would upset the thing!
Nic was safely over to my right and the other CBR600 was far enough in front not to pose a backend smash threat.
Determined to expose its Achilles heel I hugged the kerb right up to the approach (at what seemed like around 70mph but couldn’t have been because we were in a 60mph zone) and then turned in hard on the brakes over the bumps and crested the camber and yes you’ve guessed it, nothing, nothing at all.
No bucking, no weaving, no drama, no nothing. It tracked straight and true absorbing all the bumps, pulling the speed down as if it was along a straight!
You can’t do that, get away with it and not laugh. What a giggle, the system seems flawless.
Had I done that on a conventional bike the least it would have done is sat up. With a beginner on board I’d wager it would have probably have been a close encounter with a bush or tree!
That was just the kind of situation that would catch a new rider out. It would have caught me out when I was younger in my reckless crashing years, that much I am certain of.
A CBR600RR C-ABS costs £8753 on the road, which is exactly £1000 more than the standard version.
That is a lot of money, that’s for sure; however if I was a beginner on a standard version I’d be mentally totalling up the cost of a right side and front fairing, set of forks, a new helmet, boots, gloves and leathers. Then I’d be wondering if it was more than the grand extra I should have paid for a C-ABS version.
Then I’d be wondering how long off work I’d need with the broken leg that is just starting to really hurt as the initial shock subsides!
As an experienced rider you can appreciate its benefits, as a newcomer it has to be worth so much more than appreciation. If in that position I’d consider it a no-brainer!
Is it an effective safety tool?
Hell yes, but it is much more than that, because the bike is so much more stable under braking it is less tiring so its also a performance enhancing tool as well.
Totally sold on the idea, as we headed through Slough I was ideally positioned to witness its effectiveness on Nic’s Blade.
A white transit sized van had pulled up on the left and as he rounded it the driver opened his door.
The typical reactive brake and flip it round from Nic and the hazard was past, again no drama.

There was one more test it occurred to me I hadn’t seen anybody do yet, the panic test!
A lot of beginners panic in a dangerous situation and pull the clutch in too early, whilst hard on the brakes, removing their engine braking.
So as we returned to the compound I ran across the sand trap one last time and pulled the clutch and hit the front brake.
Finally at long last after all my “hard work” I’d found something that upset it. It pulled up to a stop with just a very slight weave from the front end, which was all!
So despite many, many attempts to provoke a reaction this was the worse, I could muster.
Overall a great result then!

So how it’s all work?
Well unfortunately after the test ride I more or less forgot about the whole presentation, though fortunately Honda must have realised we would so thoughtfully provided us with full press packs.
Well a lot did go over my head; that’ll teach me for working on my bike till 11:00pm the night before!
Now if we had ridden the bikes first then had the presentation I would have been riveted, but fear not there were journalists there from I think, Superbike magazine, though I can’t be certain any of them were any smarter than me, as it seems none of them had figured out how to clip on the name badges we’d been provided with!
However I did recognise one of them from off the TV, Chris Moss.
He surprised me in what seemed to be a determination on his part in putting a negative spin on the system.
From what I can gather, some folk spend an awful lot of their time on the track and like to fit tyres that might provide a few upsets for the C-ABS due to altering the effective rolling diameter of the tyres, which might throw the system off guard.
It seems that at the bikes debut in Qatar, Honda had a couple of ECU’s for the C-ABS specifically set for the “wrong tyres” so to speak.
Chris Moss seemed stuck in a loop over Honda not supplying different ECU’s for such purposes.
No doubt an opening for companies such as Dynojet but until then clearly anybody wishing to use the bike at a track with different tyres could do so simply by pulling the fuse and relay to disable the system.
Then as in the event of a fault on the system, it automatically defaults to standard braking; not exactly rocket science is it?
They could then change wheels and tyres to their hearts content!
The system is in effect “brake by wire” with its own dedicated ECU collecting and processing information from speed sensors at front and rear wheels.
This information is then used to power two fast acting motors and a system of solenoids to regulate the pressure to all three callipers.
The result is, as you’ve already read practically flawless.
Whilst everyone seemed clearly impressed that rode them, I noticed one or two of the journalists present got to take a bike away with them to give a real going over.
So it will be interesting to see what their findings were.
Below is a diagram showing these various components, another showing the reasons why a new system was necessary for the Sportsbike and hopefully if I’ve been able to do all correctly they are followed by a video presentation of the system components in action.

All of these images were taken from the press pack, kind courtesy of Honda UK.

Just to wrap up, I feel I should tell you something.
When Mandy took her direct access, I bought her by way of an incentive the Suzuki SV650S she wanted. Unfortunately she couldn’t gel with the V-twin power delivery, so we moved to the inline four with a lovely little Yamaha FZ6 in candy red.
This time it was the quirky fuel injection that made gear changing while tootling around a bit of a chore.
Then I did what I knew I should have done right from the start and bought her a CBR600; guess I’m just a bit thick.
With the first few rides on the other bikes she would be very apprehensive, so when she pulled over 20 minutes into the first ride I feared the worse.
“This is fantastic” she said “I feel totally at home on it. It is so easy to ride!”
That was sometime back now, and she is on her third CBR600.
Would she like the new CBR600RR with C-ABS?
Is the pope a catholic?
If she saw that pearlescent white paint of the petrol tank of the tricolour, dancing in the sunlight I would fear approaching pocket craps I can tell you.
There is just one reservation. Like most women she is a little short in the inside leg; so though she stands slightly taller than me she would struggle to reach the ground!
Come on Honda, you backed the International Women’s Day only a few weeks ago; surely you realise the fairer sex like to ride Sportsbikes as well?
Since 1988 with the first version, in the UK at least people have usually chosen the CBR600 above all others in what is an extremely competitive market, as their first proper bike.
Each year it has usually been the one to beat.
I have a sneaky feeling it will clean up this year with the C-ABS.
Whilst this may well be the only one of the new 600s I’ve ridden, do I really need to ride all the others to be convinced of that?
After all none of the other contenders have C-ABS, do they?

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