Honda letters - what do they mean

Hi,

Does anyone have any information about the Honda motorcycle letter
system?

For example, RR = Race Ready

The CB600FS is a fired version of the CB600F (Honda Hornet) so I'm
guessing S indicates it's faired? S = Sport?

Obviously 600 = 600 cubic centimetres

CB = ? Cop Burner I think (no - that was a joke).

Is there a list anywhere that enables me to look at a character string
like CB400 or CBR400 and decode it, or work the opposite way --
start with the features and come up with a string of letters?

I searched the forum and Googled likely terms but haven't come up with
anything. Does anybody have a complete list? I'd also like the same
thing for Yamaha.

Thanks,

M

 

I doubt any such list exists and I doubt it'll be a rational naming
process anyway!
Sure, R and RR-R is meant to convey how racy a bike is but the rest is
pretty vague. (Although V pretty much always means it's a V engine
configuration.)
When I were a lad I thought CB stood for Commuter-Bike but I doubt it's
anything that simple.
Honda road race-bikes generally had the initials RC for the 4-strokes
and NS(R) for the two-strokes (but they've also had road-bikes with the
NS/NSR initials)
Suzuki 4-stroke road-bikes used to be fairly straight-forward; GS was
the code and then when they became 4-valve heads they became GSX.
Liquid-cooling added an R but then they branched-out and the
sports-bikes were GSXR(R-RR) and the more touring were GSXF.
Yammie race two-strokes were TZ (from the mid-70s) and the works
two-strokes were YZR and when they went four-stroke they called them
FZ(R) and YZF.... Then to muddy the waters they made road bikes that
were also called YZF (and TZR although RD or RZ were the more common
initials for the road two-strokes).
Kwakka four-strokes were generally Z here in Australia (ZX in some
markets). Later versions became GPZ (some two-valve, some 4-valve, some
liquid-cooled), GPX, ZX, ZRX & ZZR (4-valve liquid-cooled) and even a
re-use of the old Z (but with a 4V/LC engine).

Now... anyone know what Harley's FLSTCC stands for?

 

Whoops; I should've said Yammie 4-strokes started with XS (or TX for
air-cooled 4-valve engines) and didn't switch to FZ until the 5-valve
engine (though some FZs were 4-valve as are the newest YZFs).
There's also been XJ and FJ air-cooled two-valves and XJR & FJR
liquid-cooled 4-valves.

 

Followup... by picking apart Wikipedia and piecing it back together
again, I have found that:
VTR and Spada (VT) were/are V-twins.

and
"According to Honda the abbreviation CBF means - Cheap to keep.
Built to last. Fun to run."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CBF_series

Oh great. I guess I need a CBR then. Presumably a CB600 is no fun (CB
= Commuter Bike).

 

FL is the heavy duty road Harley, usually any bagger is called an FLH
ST is the Softtail
C is the Custom
CC is the custom Classic

 

Yes; this is true for road-bikes that had some HRC input but I was
meaning the actual race-bikes like the RC142 (125/2), RC160 (250/4)
RC166 (250/6) or the RC181 (500/4) GP bikes or the RCB1000 endurance-racer.

Maybe it's that simple (but there's still anomalies like the GS1000S and
the GSX750S/1100S Katana)

Well bugger me; I just guessed those initials!

 

YEAP...

SHIT/CRAP etc, take your pick!

Stands for [wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!] overpriced underdone shitbox
that no longer win anything as they have failed in branch-stacking/
safety-in-numbers like they use to do in the old days.

How the F1 project going?.....LOL, PRICELESS!!!!!!!

"We will destroy him, we dont need him to win" LOL,PRICELESS!!!!!!

Only ever mad junkbox mopeds, nothing has changed.......

Although "some say" [tm J.Clarkson]:

"Had One, Never Do that Again"
"History Of No Decent Acceleration"
"Hand Over Dollars to Asians"

Just stick with HUNK OF SHIT, even Sims Metal don't want them...lol

 

RC36 VFR

 

Oh dear. Why don't you just get back on your Ariel 3 and disappear (very
slowly) off into the sunset.