#Honda

The 2016 Commercial Bank Grand Prix of Qatar marked the beginning of a new era in MotoGP, that of Michelin tires and standard electronics across the grid. In the run-up to the race, hopes that some new faces would emerge from the pack and find their way to the podium had been soaring. Under the lights of Losail, however, defending champion Jorge Lorenzo held serve for Yamaha against a strong challenge from Andrea Dovizioso and Marc Marquez; the Usual Suspects had once again asserted their dominance of the sport.

Here we are again, nosing around the garage area and the vicinity of the start/finish line, anticipating a full new season of MotoGP. Everyone is optimistic. Everyone is putting their best foot forward. The power brokers, the likes of Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis and Honda’s Livio Suppo, are maintaining low profiles, keeping their powder dry in case – this probably of more concern to Suppo than Jarvis – their 2016 project turns out to be a dumpster fire.

At the pace the 1000cc literbike field is advancing, it’s easy to overlook the middleweight 600cc sportbike class. For instance, few might have even noticed it’s been three years since Honda gave its CBR600RR a slight refresh. Tom Roderick rode the bike both on the street and the track, where he came back impressed but not overly enthusiastic about Honda’s middleweight supersport. With the march of time giving way to technologies like traction control, cornering ABS, inertial measurement units and apps that can adjust the bike’s attitude at the push of a button, we thought it was time to revisit the CBR600RR to see if time has given us a new appreciation for the simpler things in life.

Twenty-fourteen World Supersport Champion, Michael van der Mark, began the 2016 World Superbike season last weekend with two podium finishes: 3rd in Race 1, 2nd in Race 2. In his inaugural season last year, van der Mark scored three podiums, so he’s nearly matched his success last year in the first race of this year.

The different takes on cruiserdom was in full effect in the early 2000s, with the custom chopper scene getting most of the attention. However, the muscle cruiser crowd was also well represented with seemingly every cruiser manufacturer getting on board the bandwagon, stuffing big V-Twins into whatever they could. Honda’s big Twin was a 1,795cc, liquid-cooled stump puller first found in the VTX 1800 for model year 2000. Five years later we had this, the Honda VTX1800F. Same 1800cc V-Twin, this time wrapped in more muscular gym clothes capped with tribal graphics. You know, to really intimidate those other posers at the coffee shop. Despite its brawny appearance, however, the VTX1800F was actually a softy at heart. Sort of. As Gabe Ets-Hokin describes in his review below, it does all the things you expect from a big cruiser, but it definitely isn’t for the novice rider. For more pics of the 2005 Honda VTX1800F, be sure to click on the photo gallery.