Honda CBR 650F/650R Comprehensive Ownership Thread

[B7ACKTHORN]

Re: Love at First Sight: HONDA CBR 650F � Yume (夢)

Thanks man, his last price was 7.6 after some negotiation. Im not sure if thats the best price, but i was not willing to let it go as it was the last CBR650f in india upto my understanding, i enquired showrooms in Bangalore, hyderabad and mumbai they informed all bikes including test ride bikes got sold out a month back.

It's an okay-ish deal. Try bringing it to 7.4 that would make it a bargain. Nevertheless, keep your activities posted, pre and post if you intend to purchase, do make a detailed review.

Cheers!
VJ

[murali_db]

Love at First Sight: HONDA CBR 650F – Yume (夢)

I have already purchased it, took delivery last Saturday. [emoji51]

Will post a detailed review on the pre and post purchase ASAP .

[murali_db]

Re: Love at First Sight: HONDA CBR 650F � Yume (夢)

CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty.

Hello Everyone, just want to share my purchase experience of buying the CBR650f . Im not good at write up, will try my best.

Precis :

1. Without Bike for a year
2. Searching for the middleweight
3. Pre-purchase experience
4. Post-delivery and my first short ride.

Without Bike for a year :

After getting married in November 2017 i became riding less for the next few months, happens to most of the newly married bikers i believe . Me and my wife enjoyed riding the benelli tnt 300 for the short breakfast rides and inside city rides. After few months i saw the DSK owner getting arrested, i knew there will be several issues within their organization which might affect buyers like us in spare parts delay(which really happened in the later months), so i decided to sell the bike as fast as i can. Once after i sold it i did not use the money for another bike, as i was waiting for something better in the market like the Interceptor 650. Inbetween i decided to purchase a property for which i spent majority of the money i had with me(includes the bike sold money). Next one year was the tough phase trying to reduce the loans i have taken and settling up as i have just started my own family. I could have bought a dominar 400 or duke 390 and ride happily with it, however i wanted to move to the middleweight segment as i have been in the 300cc-500cc segment for a long time(age is 30 yrs now, dont want to waste anymore), so decided to wait and save some money for the later phase.

Every time i see a bike passing by i feel i have missed something, watching group of bikers riding made me worry a lot about the things i am missing . After October 2018 i decided to buy a bike after the long wait, spoke to a friend who also owns a Royal enfield showroom in chennai, he told me about his experience riding the GT 650 in UK. He assured me that the bike would be great, after reading the launch reveiws and bennets bike reviews of the bike i decided to go for it, my friend told me that the price will be below 3 lakhs which made me think it would be a VFM bike. All my previous bikes i did not opt for loan so i decided to follow the same way for this too and have arranged my savings accordingly. As soon as the bike got launched i was lucky enough to do a short ride on the same day and decided to book it at once.

Later after few weeks I got a chance to ride the bike for 100kms+ , was very much excited on the oppurtunity i got. Took the bike early morning 5:30am and had fun with it till 1pm after noon, it was a excellent bike. The gear box was very smooth, i was able to do multiple down shifts so easily without any hussle, the slipper-assist clutch was doing its job well. Clocked 150+kmph on that day, it was a lot of fun riding that beast. Switch gear quality and overall quality of the bike was very nice. However i thought the full potential of the 650cc twin engine is not utilized in this bike. Initial torque was there from 2k RPM, but i felt after 5k RPM it became less aggressive, which is fine for touring but my expectations were different.

After this ride i had a lot of thought whether i should go for it, Do i need a naked for touring, will i get that Middleweight superbike feel riding this beauty, etc,. Never got these thoughts before the test ride, may be because of the excitement i had seeing the Interceptor 650. Finally decided to search for someother bikes from the BIG4 brands , i decided to go 50% cash and 50% loan on buying the bike.


Searching for the middleweight: First i wrote a new post on the what bike page in xbhp asking fellow xbhpians on their piece of advice, got a lot of tips from many, specifically got a detailed tip from "dual disc 200" about the CBR650f. After this researched few things such as the ownership experience service & maintainance budget of few bikes i shortlisted such as the CBR650f, versys 650 and vstrom 650. Dropped vstrom because of no service center in chennai and i had to pay 5k labour charge for a technician to come from Coimbatore to do the service, which is not practical as sometimes even the local service center of reputed brands make time delay in completing service, i dont know how its possible for someone to travel 600kms to complete service and claim warranty if necessary. Next is Versys 650, i read the long ownership of many owners however one such review was neat, read a longtime ownership blog of a 2016 versys 650 owner from coimbatore (https://onaversys.wordpress.com/) who is also a xbhpian, that gave me an idea of the versys ownership experience During Bajaj dealership days and after JMB takeover days, which made me decide not to go for it, im also not interested in Adventure centric motorcycle as i rarely ride to such places. Finally started reading the longterm ownership reviews of CBR650f in xbhp and teambhp, i read the complete thread from the purchase till date, found a lot of positives that i was looking for in the service & maintenance category. Decided to book the Bike.

Pre-purchase experience:

As soon as i decided to go for the CBR650f first spoke to my wife on my choice and explained why i need that, she initially feared looking at the cost of the bike. I explained that i need something for the next 5 years and above, assured that this would make me happy and wont be intimated to buy anything else. Finally she accepted and we decided to go for it. After her nod, I spoke with several friends in the Xbhp chennai offline thread to understand if my decision is right, later proceeded to book the bike. I called SVM honda,kilpauk, chennai on December 11 to enquire about the vehicle booking, Got a call back from the manager saying that they have stopped bookings on the CBR650f and he has delivered the last 2018 bike in india 1.5 months back and he informed me about cbr650R launch for 2019, got disappointed. Messaged him to try for one last bike by requesting honda, also sent few mails to honda.

I decided to not go for the CBR650R because of the sporty riding stance and feared the cost might increase higher due to the added features, new body work. Manager called me later and informed about the test ride bike they had and asked me to testRide it, went for the test ride and the bike was very new as it was May 2018 registered and has clocked 853kms , out of which a chennai-bangalore trip was done by the showroom owner. Even the barcode paper stickers in the side of the bike with Engine & chassis numbers was without any fade . Informed the manager that i was very much interested in the bike, but the guy said he will update me once honda approves him to sell it, and also said some others have asked for the bike but he would give priority to me. After this I followed him up later after a week, he asked me to wait and replied for very few messages, i felt fishy about his reason on approval from honda . Immediately I called honda sbk showrooms in bangalore, hyderabad and mumbai. All of them confirmed that bookings were stopped in october and all of them have sold their test ride bikes a month back. I also mailed honda zonal office and spoke with them over call, they said they have not officially informed dealerships but however confirmed the news of 2019 CBR650R launch and informed that cbr650f is no longer in production.

After this i messaged the showroom manager Mr.sunil about the matter honda zonal office informed me, and also asked why he is not selling test ride bike while the other showrooms have sold it (This happened on December 14), no reply for any of the messages. I understood that someone else is asking about the bike and asked him to hold it for them, happens for sbk test ride bikes. I prayed to my father to get me this bike and told him i really love it, most things i ask him he will make it happen if thats the right thing to happen if not he will know what to do. Later on December 17 i contacted a cousin of mine who is a relative of JSP honda, JSP honda had honda car showrooms and 2 wheeler showrooms in chennai and hyderabad. My cousin spoke with their MD who then pushed their manager to speak with SVM management on behalf of them and finish the deal.

My cousin spoke with the SVM honda manager with the recommendation from JSP honda management and came to a deal of 7.75 On road, its a bit costly but we were fine with that. After the deal was finalized the SVM manager asked my cousin to send a lakh token advance and his proof for further processing. I transferred a lakh token advance and my cousin sent My Address proofs, immediately after receiving the manager called him and confirmed if it was the same person who had been following him up for last 1 week, he felt really sorry for not replying and remained unanswered to my cousin for a moment, later said he will talk to his MD for a better price. The manager again spoke to his MD later and reduced the price to 7.6, with which the deal was finalized.


Post-delivery and my first short ride:

On December 19 we paid 1 lakh token advance and signed the necessary documents with valid proofs for Name transfer, informed the manager that we take delivery on Dec 22. Myself and my wife went on the delivery day, Paid the remaining amount by cash and online transfer, we were given a lesser bill receipt for cash we paid so that they can save some tax in their audit. Bike was brought from service center and was waiting for us .

Manager introduced me to the Service Rep and mechanic responsible for SBKs, they were two kind gentleman who assured their full assistance anytime when i spoke to them later that day in their service center. They explained about the Bike features and informed me about the Do's and Dont's . First service was completed in July and they completed the second service on December 21st, i was informed to bring for 3rd service later by April 2019 . Odo reading during delivery was 873 kms.

We fitted the Puig Frame sliders on the delivery day and happily took the bike for pooja .

Before Pooja


After Pooja



The next day went for a short Breakfast ride with fellow xbhpians, we did some 210kms that day on the East coast road and had a lot of fun as there was heavy rain that morning. Current ODO is 1225 kms.

Next day morning ride pics


Will keep on updating about this black beauty, have not named it yet. Looking for something unique.

[Akash.Yadav]

[murali_db]

CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Hello Everyone, just want to share my purchase experience of buying the CBR650f . Im not good at write up, will try my best.

Precis :

1. Without Bike for a year
2. Searching for the middleweight
3. Pre-purchase experience
4. Post-delivery and my first short ride.

Without Bike for a year :

After getting married in November 2017 i became riding less for the next few months, happens to most of the newly married bikers i believe . Me and my wife enjoyed riding the benelli tnt 300 for the short breakfast rides and inside city rides. After few months i saw the DSK owner getting arrested, i knew there will be several issues within their organization which might affect buyers like us in spare parts delay(which really happened in the later months), so i decided to sell the bike as fast as i can. Once after i sold it i did not use the money for another bike, as i was waiting for something better in the market like the Interceptor 650. Inbetween i decided to purchase a property for which i spent majority of the money i had with me(includes the bike sold money). Next one year was the tough phase trying to reduce the loans i have taken and settling up as i have just started my own family. I could have bought a dominar 400 or duke 390 and ride happily with it, however i wanted to move to the middleweight segment as i have been in the 300cc-500cc segment for a long time(age is 30 yrs now, dont want to waste anymore), so decided to wait and save some money for the later phase.

Every time i see a bike passing by i feel i have missed something, watching group of bikers riding made me worry a lot about the things i am missing . After October 2018 i decided to buy a bike after the long wait, spoke to a friend who also owns a Royal enfield showroom in chennai, he told me about his experience riding the GT 650 in UK. He assured me that the bike would be great, after reading the launch reveiws and bennets bike reviews of the bike i decided to go for it, my friend told me that the price will be below 3 lakhs which made me think it would be a VFM bike. All my previous bikes i did not opt for loan so i decided to follow the same way for this too and have arranged my savings accordingly. As soon as the bike got launched i was lucky enough to do a short ride on the same day and decided to book it at once.

Later after few weeks I got a chance to ride the bike for 100kms+ , was very much excited on the oppurtunity i got. Took the bike early morning 5:30am and had fun with it till 1pm after noon, it was a excellent bike. The gear box was very smooth, i was able to do multiple down shifts so easily without any hussle, the slipper-assist clutch was doing its job well. Clocked 150+kmph on that day, it was a lot of fun riding that beast. Switch gear quality and overall quality of the bike was very nice. However i thought the full potential of the 650cc twin engine is not utilized in this bike. Initial torque was there from 2k RPM, but i felt after 5k RPM it became less aggressive, which is fine for touring but my expectations were different.

After this ride i had a lot of thought whether i should go for it, Do i need a naked for touring, will i get that Middleweight superbike feel riding this beauty, etc,. Never got these thoughts before the test ride, may be because of the excitement i had seeing the Interceptor 650. Finally decided to search for someother bikes from the BIG4 brands , i decided to go 50% cash and 50% loan on buying the bike.


Searching for the middleweight: First i wrote a new post on the what bike page in xbhp asking fellow xbhpians on their piece of advice, got a lot of tips from many, specifically got a detailed tip from "dual disc 200" about the CBR650f. After this researched few things such as the ownership experience service & maintainance budget of few bikes i shortlisted such as the CBR650f, versys 650 and vstrom 650. Dropped vstrom because of no service center in chennai and i had to pay 5k labour charge for a technician to come from Coimbatore to do the service, which is not practical as sometimes even the local service center of reputed brands make time delay in completing service, i dont know how its possible for someone to travel 600kms to complete service and claim warranty if necessary. Next is Versys 650, i read the long ownership of many owners however one such review was neat, read a longtime ownership blog of a 2016 versys 650 owner from coimbatore (https://onaversys.wordpress.com/) who is also a xbhpian, that gave me an idea of the versys ownership experience During Bajaj dealership days and after JMB takeover days, which made me decide not to go for it, im also not interested in Adventure centric motorcycle as i rarely ride to such places. Finally started reading the longterm ownership reviews of CBR650f in xbhp and teambhp, i read the complete thread from the purchase till date, found a lot of positives that i was looking for in the service & maintenance category. Decided to book the Bike.

Pre-purchase experience:

As soon as i decided to go for the CBR650f first spoke to my wife on my choice and explained why i need that, she initially feared looking at the cost of the bike. I explained that i need something for the next 5 years and above, assured that this would make me happy and wont be intimated to buy anything else. Finally she accepted and we decided to go for it. After her nod, I spoke with several friends in the Xbhp chennai offline thread to understand if my decision is right, later proceeded to book the bike. I called SVM honda,kilpauk, chennai on December 11 to enquire about the vehicle booking, Got a call back from the manager saying that they have stopped bookings on the CBR650f and he has delivered the last 2018 bike in india 1.5 months back and he informed me about cbr650R launch for 2019, got disappointed. Messaged him to try for one last bike by requesting honda, also sent few mails to honda.

I decided to not go for the CBR650R because of the sporty riding stance and feared the cost might increase higher due to the added features, new body work. Manager called me later and informed about the test ride bike they had and asked me to testRide it, went for the test ride and the bike was very new as it was May 2018 registered and has clocked 853kms , out of which a chennai-bangalore trip was done by the showroom owner. Even the barcode paper stickers in the side of the bike with Engine & chassis numbers was without any fade . Informed the manager that i was very much interested in the bike, but the guy said he will update me once honda approves him to sell it, and also said some others have asked for the bike but he would give priority to me. After this I followed him up later after a week, he asked me to wait and replied for very few messages, i felt fishy about his reason on approval from honda . Immediately I called honda sbk showrooms in bangalore, hyderabad and mumbai. All of them confirmed that bookings were stopped in october and all of them have sold their test ride bikes a month back. I also mailed honda zonal office and spoke with them over call, they said they have not officially informed dealerships but however confirmed the news of 2019 CBR650R launch and informed that cbr650f is no longer in production.

After this i messaged the showroom manager Mr.sunil about the matter honda zonal office informed me, and also asked why he is not selling test ride bike while the other showrooms have sold it (This happened on December 14), no reply for any of the messages. I understood that someone else is asking about the bike and asked him to hold it for them, happens for sbk test ride bikes. I prayed to my father to get me this bike and told him i really love it, most things i ask him he will make it happen if thats the right thing to happen if not he will know what to do. Later on December 17 i contacted a cousin of mine who is a relative of JSP honda, JSP honda had honda car showrooms and 2 wheeler showrooms in chennai and hyderabad. My cousin spoke with their MD who then pushed their manager to speak with SVM management on behalf of them and finish the deal.

My cousin spoke with the SVM honda manager with the recommendation from JSP honda management and came to a deal of 7.75 On road, its a bit costly but we were fine with that. After the deal was finalized the SVM manager asked my cousin to send a lakh token advance and his proof for further processing. I transferred a lakh token advance and my cousin sent My Address proofs, immediately after receiving the manager called him and confirmed if it was the same person who had been following him up for last 1 week, he felt really sorry for not replying and remained unanswered to my cousin for a moment, later said he will talk to his MD for a better price. The manager again spoke to his MD later and reduced the price to 7.6, with which the deal was finalized.


Post-delivery and my first short ride:

On December 19 we paid 1 lakh token advance and signed the necessary documents with valid proofs for Name transfer, informed the manager that we take delivery on Dec 22. Myself and my wife went on the delivery day, Paid the remaining amount by cash and online transfer, we were given a lesser bill receipt for cash we paid so that they can save some tax in their audit. Bike was brought from service center and was waiting for us .

Manager introduced me to the Service Rep and mechanic responsible for SBKs, they were two kind gentleman who assured their full assistance anytime when i spoke to them later that day in their service center. They explained about the Bike features and informed me about the Do's and Dont's . First service was completed in July and they completed the second service on December 21st, i was informed to bring for 3rd service later by April 2019 . Odo reading during delivery was 873 kms.

We fitted the Puig Frame sliders on the delivery day and happily took the bike for pooja .

Before Pooja







After Pooja



The next day went for a short Breakfast ride with fellow xbhpians, we did some 210kms that day on the East coast road and had a lot of fun as there was heavy rain that morning. Current ODO is 1225 kms.

Next day morning ride pics


Will keep on updating about this black beauty, have not named it yet. Looking for something unique.

[Varun Manoranjan]

[xBhp]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Thread approved.
Many congratulations brother, she's a beaut.
More rides. More photos. More Stories. That's about all we want.

Ride hard and Ride safe brother.

[Ivin]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Great that you found one despite the troubles of Honda taking the bike off the market. New one is coming, but since like you said that would mean lots of months without riding. Good and honest choice here, as the services and service costs are brilliant for an inline 4. Wishing you happy miles ahead.

[kiran2508]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Congrats on the bike, looks sweet. Ride safe.

Yes, CBR650F is no longer in production (sad ) and not available anywhere in the world. Looks like super-sport touring is a dying breed of bikes, first happened with the 2019 R3, now with CBR650F/R.

If there is going to be any 2019 model it is going to be R model, which is more sporty lower riding position, lower placed handle bars, narrow pillion seat and higher placed rear foot pegs, has twin headlight setup. But on the good side it has lot more tech, power and weighs lot less.

P.S. What's that ugly saree guard still doing on the bike

[murali_db]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Thread approved.
Many congratulations brother, she's a beaut.
More rides. More photos. More Stories. That's about all we want.

Ride hard and Ride safe brother.

Thank you very much for approving this thread, stories and pics will continue . You too bro, ride safe.

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Great that you found one despite the troubles of Honda taking the bike off the market. New one is coming, but since like you said that would mean lots of months without riding. Good and honest choice here, as the services and service costs are brilliant for an inline 4. Wishing you happy miles ahead.

Thank you bro, wishing you the same.

----consecutive posts auto-merged-----

Congrats on the bike, looks sweet. Ride safe.

Yes, CBR650F is no longer in production (sad ) and not available anywhere in the world. Looks like super-sport touring is a dying breed of bikes, first happened with the 2019 R3, now with CBR650F/R.

If there is going to be any 2019 model it is going to be R model, which is more sporty lower riding position, lower placed handle bars, narrow pillion seat and higher placed rear foot pegs, has twin headlight setup. But on the good side it has lot more tech, power and weighs lot less.

P.S. What's that ugly saree guard still doing on the bike

Thank you for the wishes bro. Many in the offline thread too asked me to remove the saree guard, dont know why but i still didn't get that ugly factor thought on it, will remove it tomorrow and will see how it looks.

[murali_db]

Re: Love at First Sight: HONDA CBR 650F � Yume (夢)

Guys is there a possibility of CB 500 X coming to India next year?

A honda showroom manager in chennai informed that there might be two CKD bikes for 2019, one being the CBR650R and other being a 500cc platform. No official news till now, better to wait till March 2019.

[Akash.Yadav]

Re: Love at First Sight: HONDA CBR 650F � Yume (夢)

A honda showroom manager in chennai informed that there might be two CKD bikes for 2019, one being the CBR650R and other being a 500cc platform. No official news till now, better to wait till March 2019.

That could be the Rebel with 500ish cc engine. They want a piece of pie that is currently being devoured by RE and crumbs taken by Jawa and plate taken by Dominar.

[murali_db]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Today tried to fit the radiator guard with help from a friend . It was easy to remove the fairings, but had tough time putting it back, made it right 90% (have to check the 10% in service ).

Purchased a evotech radiator guard, it fit perfectly. Fit and finish is top notch .

[dilipkumar7278]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

congrats for the purchase. Ithink you made a sensible choice. I purchased my 650 after a verylong thought....Precisely 3 years and two months. Dont regret the decision one bit till now...

[#bpk]

Re: CBR650f 2018: Tried so hard to get this black beauty

Hello Everyone, just want to share my purchase experience of buying the CBR650f . Im not good at write up, will try my best.

Precis :

1. Without Bike for a year
2. Searching for the middleweight
3. Pre-purchase experience
4. Post-delivery and my first short ride.

Without Bike for a year :

After getting married in November 2017 i became riding less for the next few months, happens to most of the newly married bikers i believe . Me and my wife enjoyed riding the benelli tnt 300 for the short breakfast rides and inside city rides. After few months i saw the DSK owner getting arrested, i knew there will be several issues within their organization which might affect buyers like us in spare parts delay(which really happened in the later months), so i decided to sell the bike as fast as i can. Once after i sold it i did not use the money for another bike, as i was waiting for something better in the market like the Interceptor 650. Inbetween i decided to purchase a property for which i spent majority of the money i had with me(includes the bike sold money). Next one year was the tough phase trying to reduce the loans i have taken and settling up as i have just started my own family. I could have bought a dominar 400 or duke 390 and ride happily with it, however i wanted to move to the middleweight segment as i have been in the 300cc-500cc segment for a long time(age is 30 yrs now, dont want to waste anymore), so decided to wait and save some money for the later phase.

Every time i see a bike passing by i feel i have missed something, watching group of bikers riding made me worry a lot about the things i am missing . After October 2018 i decided to buy a bike after the long wait, spoke to a friend who also owns a Royal enfield showroom in chennai, he told me about his experience riding the GT 650 in UK. He assured me that the bike would be great, after reading the launch reveiws and bennets bike reviews of the bike i decided to go for it, my friend told me that the price will be below 3 lakhs which made me think it would be a VFM bike. All my previous bikes i did not opt for loan so i decided to follow the same way for this too and have arranged my savings accordingly. As soon as the bike got launched i was lucky enough to do a short ride on the same day and decided to book it at once.

Later after few weeks I got a chance to ride the bike for 100kms+ , was very much excited on the oppurtunity i got. Took the bike early morning 5:30am and had fun with it till 1pm after noon, it was a excellent bike. The gear box was very smooth, i was able to do multiple down shifts so easily without any hussle, the slipper-assist clutch was doing its job well. Clocked 150+kmph on that day, it was a lot of fun riding that beast. Switch gear quality and overall quality of the bike was very nice. However i thought the full potential of the 650cc twin engine is not utilized in this bike. Initial torque was there from 2k RPM, but i felt after 5k RPM it became less aggressive, which is fine for touring but my expectations were different.

After this ride i had a lot of thought whether i should go for it, Do i need a naked for touring, will i get that Middleweight superbike feel riding this beauty, etc,. Never got these thoughts before the test ride, may be because of the excitement i had seeing the Interceptor 650. Finally decided to search for someother bikes from the BIG4 brands , i decided to go 50% cash and 50% loan on buying the bike.


Searching for the middleweight: First i wrote a new post on the what bike page in xbhp asking fellow xbhpians on their piece of advice, got a lot of tips from many, specifically got a detailed tip from "dual disc 200" about the CBR650f. After this researched few things such as the ownership experience service & maintainance budget of few bikes i shortlisted such as the CBR650f, versys 650 and vstrom 650. Dropped vstrom because of no service center in chennai and i had to pay 5k labour charge for a technician to come from Coimbatore to do the service, which is not practical as sometimes even the local service center of reputed brands make time delay in completing service, i dont know how its possible for someone to travel 600kms to complete service and claim warranty if necessary. Next is Versys 650, i read the long ownership of many owners however one such review was neat, read a longtime ownership blog of a 2016 versys 650 owner from coimbatore (https://onaversys.wordpress.com/) who is also a xbhpian, that gave me an idea of the versys ownership experience During Bajaj dealership days and after JMB takeover days, which made me decide not to go for it, im also not interested in Adventure centric motorcycle as i rarely ride to such places. Finally started reading the longterm ownership reviews of CBR650f in xbhp and teambhp, i read the complete thread from the purchase till date, found a lot of positives that i was looking for in the service & maintenance category. Decided to book the Bike.

Pre-purchase experience:

As soon as i decided to go for the CBR650f first spoke to my wife on my choice and explained why i need that, she initially feared looking at the cost of the bike. I explained that i need something for the next 5 years and above, assured that this would make me happy and wont be intimated to buy anything else. Finally she accepted and we decided to go for it. After her nod, I spoke with several friends in the Xbhp chennai offline thread to understand if my decision is right, later proceeded to book the bike. I called SVM honda,kilpauk, chennai on December 11 to enquire about the vehicle booking, Got a call back from the manager saying that they have stopped bookings on the CBR650f and he has delivered the last 2018 bike in india 1.5 months back and he informed me about cbr650R launch for 2019, got disappointed. Messaged him to try for one last bike by requesting honda, also sent few mails to honda.

I decided to not go for the CBR650R because of the sporty riding stance and feared the cost might increase higher due to the added features, new body work. Manager called me later and informed about the test ride bike they had and asked me to testRide it, went for the test ride and the bike was very new as it was May 2018 registered and has clocked 853kms , out of which a chennai-bangalore trip was done by the showroom owner. Even the barcode paper stickers in the side of the bike with Engine & chassis numbers was without any fade . Informed the manager that i was very much interested in the bike, but the guy said he will update me once honda approves him to sell it, and also said some others have asked for the bike but he would give priority to me. After this I followed him up later after a week, he asked me to wait and replied for very few messages, i felt fishy about his reason on approval from honda . Immediately I called honda sbk showrooms in bangalore, hyderabad and mumbai. All of them confirmed that bookings were stopped in october and all of them have sold their test ride bikes a month back. I also mailed honda zonal office and spoke with them over call, they said they have not officially informed dealerships but however confirmed the news of 2019 CBR650R launch and informed that cbr650f is no longer in production.

After this i messaged the showroom manager Mr.sunil about the matter honda zonal office informed me, and also asked why he is not selling test ride bike while the other showrooms have sold it (This happened on December 14), no reply for any of the messages. I understood that someone else is asking about the bike and asked him to hold it for them, happens for sbk test ride bikes. I prayed to my father to get me this bike and told him i really love it, most things i ask him he will make it happen if thats the right thing to happen if not he will know what to do. Later on December 17 i contacted a cousin of mine who is a relative of JSP honda, JSP honda had honda car showrooms and 2 wheeler showrooms in chennai and hyderabad. My cousin spoke with their MD who then pushed their manager to speak with SVM management on behalf of them and finish the deal.

My cousin spoke with the SVM honda manager with the recommendation from JSP honda management and came to a deal of 7.75 On road, its a bit costly but we were fine with that. After the deal was finalized the SVM manager asked my cousin to send a lakh token advance and his proof for further processing. I transferred a lakh token advance and my cousin sent My Address proofs, immediately after receiving the manager called him and confirmed if it was the same person who had been following him up for last 1 week, he felt really sorry for not replying and remained unanswered to my cousin for a moment, later said he will talk to his MD for a better price. The manager again spoke to his MD later and reduced the price to 7.6, with which the deal was finalized.


Post-delivery and my first short ride:

On December 19 we paid 1 lakh token advance and signed the necessary documents with valid proofs for Name transfer, informed the manager that we take delivery on Dec 22. Myself and my wife went on the delivery day, Paid the remaining amount by cash and online transfer, we were given a lesser bill receipt for cash we paid so that they can save some tax in their audit. Bike was brought from service center and was waiting for us .

Manager introduced me to the Service Rep and mechanic responsible for SBKs, they were two kind gentleman who assured their full assistance anytime when i spoke to them later that day in their service center. They explained about the Bike features and informed me about the Do's and Dont's . First service was completed in July and they completed the second service on December 21st, i was informed to bring for 3rd service later by April 2019 . Odo reading during delivery was 873 kms.

We fitted the Puig Frame sliders on the delivery day and happily took the bike for pooja .

Before Pooja







After Pooja



The next day went for a short Breakfast ride with fellow xbhpians, we did some 210kms that day on the East coast road and had a lot of fun as there was heavy rain that morning. Current ODO is 1225 kms.

Next day morning ride pics


Will keep on updating about this black beauty, have not named it yet. Looking for something unique.

Honda has discontinued it, parts availability will be difficult .