I have it on very, very good authority that there is a Thai produced CBR500 in the pipeline.
That is all for the inside info.
The inside speculation is that it is to compete with the Thai produced er-6n/f... Should be cheaper, and if they can get it to similar spec, it will be a winner.
They go for 250k and 265k thb respectively.
Thai Honda have blown the Kawa 250cc monopoly out of the water, with the much cheaper CBR250 smashing the ninjette's sales, and the new CRF250L by all reports is better and more powerful, and cheaper... the KLX250 and D-Trkr are gonna take it straight on the chin.
A lighter, nimbler CBR500 at 200k would certainly give the Kawa 650's a good run.
You kidding? They'll hold it out in front of us, here in the states, like a carrot, as they're doing with the NC700S, and snicker in Japanese...
And to add insult to injury they'll tune it to 499cc to keep it under the insurance cutoff, keep it a thumper, make ABS standard, keep it under 6.5k USD, and it'll give you 90mpg...
Sure, yer jus blow'n smoke, last week it was a 400.
I don't see why they can't drop a 500 in the 250 frame. That would be fine with me, I don't care if it flexes a little. But if it only makes 45 hp, would it be much competition for the Er6?
Can we question the bar maid, you got this information from?
Yup, rumours of a new 400 have been doing the rounds for a good few months now.
Luckily yesterday I had a chance meeting with.... Sorry I cannot give the name or title of the Honda Manager in question as they're too high up to be linked with such an information leak, and yes, also had another meeting with a barmaid, though that one was on purpose. CBR's weren't mentioned in that one, though I did take her to the redline limit.
For those who haven't listened to repeated warnings, posting explicit porn on this site is an automatic 7-day ban on the first pass and a permanent ban on the second.
If they could make a single CBR500R with a weight under 400 pounds 45 hp, with similar characteristics as the 250... Wow!!!
Like with the 250, keeping in mind it is not the power that generates the pleasure, It would be a killer...
At that price a single won't cut it. It's competing price wise with larger engines that still aren't guzzling the fuel. That's why I'm thinking, for the sake of sales, it'll have to be a twin of some sort. I just hope it's not a parallel. Otherwise the year old/new vstroms will kick their teeth in with torque and versatility.
Who said what the price point will be? A 499cc single with the new advanced balance shaft, 40hp version of the CBR250R that is an inch bigger everywhere and still gets 70 mpgUS could be the perfect bike. At $5100. A new Strom is $8400.
They should just do a CBR450..that way it wouldn't be so close to a 600. Because if they make a 500, I'm thinking it would be more like a Ninja 650 rather than a 600rr, I would be interested if it was more like a rr..the 650 is cool, but not really something I would buy.
So yea..a 450r with the looks of a 600 and a price tag of around $5400? That would be pretty cool.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Honda CBR 250 Forum
228.4K posts
21.1K members
Since 2011
A forum community dedicated to Honda CBR 250 owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about performance, racing, modifications, troubleshooting, maintenance, classifieds, and more!