Rider Review: 1996 Honda CBR F3

The Good

Awesome Bike!

Engine:

Hella strong-nearly 100 hp, Honda quality - over 60K miles on the '96 nothing more than change oil, sparkplugs, and other routine maintenance. Will out accelerate any car costing less than $100,000 on the street and some that cost more. Top end power comes on strong from about 9-13k rpm.

Suspension:

Good compromise between track and street. Tends to be a bit taught for street riding - expansion joints can get painful or at least annoying after a while. Have been on track twice with the '96 - scraping pegs easily and rock solid while leaned over.

Seating Position:

Only modestly comfortable which is considered quite good for these race replica bikes. I'm 6'1", 32" inseam and 200 lbs and have ridden friends' GSXR-600 and R6 and definitely find the CBR more comfortable. Pillion gets a reasonable (by sport bike standards) seat. '96 seat much more comfortable than '97.

Ride:

Can be anywhere from a mild-mannered scooter to a roaring super sport all depending on how you ride it. I love it for this instantly changeable nature: cruise around town in higher gears and the stock exhaust is whisper quiet. Have had car drivers ask me what I did to make it so quiet - they loved it! Even at 4-6K the bike has lots of power - enough to just roll on the throttle to smoothly leave traffic behind. But, downshift a gear or two and bring the engine up and you're outta there at warp speed The brakes are wonderful on these bikes - very strong and offering linear response with good feedback, they can stop on a dime if you're good enough.

The Bad

Engine:

'97 is a little jerky in the off-on throttle transition, which is annoying in corners. Instructor caveat here is that the engine is he11a strong and can easily get the rider going much faster than they mean to. The difference between accelerating through a curve successfully and too much gas can be as little as rolling on just 1/32" more.

Suspension:

Tough on long trips - it tolerates highways but much prefers back road twisties.

Seating Position:

Takes its toll. Spirited riding means you'll be looking for a place to stop after an hour max and stretch out. Consider marrying a chiropractor or at the very least a masseuse.

The Ugly

Looks:

I love the looks, personally. Purple and Yellow scheme (especially Smokin' Joe's) is the best-looking bike out there. The all red is nice for its more mature and less flashy look. The problem with owning one of these bikes is that they look fast just standing still. Draws unwanted attention from the law. Many who ride different style bikes don't like the "boy racer" looks.

Weight:

While "light", the sport bikes tend to carry their weight relatively high compared to other bikes. Also, the seat tends to be high (along with pegs) so that you're out of the way enough to lean the bike over to insane angles. My wife never got comfortable with this and was one of the reasons she only put 2,500 miles on the bike to present.

Verdict

I've absolutely LOVED every minute I've spent aboard my bike. After all this time, I still haven't tapped the limits of what this bike can do - probably never will. I'm very happy with the bike and plan to keep it forever. My wife thought she would love having one too after riding on the back of mine and learning on another bike, but she found the bike to be too much for her: too much weight, too high up, too intimidating. These bikes are very powerful - they are basically barely street legal racing machines. As such, the acceleration is brutal, the braking is phenomenal and the suspension and riding position are "no compromise". What this means, unfortunately, is that it takes quite a bit of skill to be able to handle them. I do NOT recommend them as first bikes for people learning how to ride. The bikes are extremely competent - they can do things beyond what the rider is capable of doing. Yet the bike is so powerful and competent that it's easy to get lulled into thinking you're as good as the bike. Throttle input needs to be very smooth and carefully metered. Braking REQUIRES smooth squeezes - grabbing will bite you: quickly and hard! Just as one doesn't give a new car driver the keys to an Indy racecar to learn how to drive, neither should one throw a leg over this bike when starting out. My wife almost left motorcycling because this was the wrong bike for her. We went out and got a different bike that is much better suited to her that SHE wanted and she's much happier now (and so am I ).

[return to the top]