Japanese firm releases ‘pocket rocket’ 500 with four-cylinder 70bhp engine, full fairing and basic road sports chassis for under £7k
We’d seen this bike before – it was shown off at trade shows in China earlier this year. But Honda has confirmed that the Honda CBR500R Four will be coming to the UK for 2027, and it should give the Japanese firm an interesting new entry into the light-middleweight road sportsbike class.
The big advantage it has over more lowly competition is the engine: Honda’s developed an all-new inline-four powerplant, rather than the parallel twins and even single-cylinder options found in the sector.
It’s a fully-fledged design, with a 502cc capacity, DOHC 16-valve head, 12.3:1 compression ratio and liquid cooling. Peak power output is 53kW/71bhp@ 11,000rpm, with maximum torque of 46.3Nm@10,500rpm – so she’s a not a big rev-monster screaming up to 14,000rpm as you might expect.
Rather, those numbers suggest something with more of a torquey, big bike feel. Honda’s also pulled a bit of a flanker in the six-speed gearbox: the CBR500R comes with Honda’s E-Clutch setup as standard, giving a semi-automatic transmission, with a clutch lever still present for when you want to over-ride the computer.
You don’t need to use the clutch to pull away or when stopping: the ECU operates the mechanism as needed. And gearshifting just needs a flick of your toe, again with no clutch actuation required.
An interesting little powertrain then, but it lives in a fairly standard sports chassis. The CBR500R has a steel tube diamond-style frame, with a dual-sided aluminium rear swingarm and 41mm KYB USD front forks. There’s a rear monoshock with five-step preload adjustment – the only suspension tweaking available on the bike as standard.
Brakes are by Nissin, with radial-mount front calipers and dual 296mm discs, backed up by two-channel ABS. Finally, there’s a solid sporty tyre option: Pirelli Diablo Rosso IV in 120/70 17 front and 160/60 17 rear sizes. Kerb mass for all of this is a decent 189kg ready to ride, and there’s a 14 litre fuel tank.
When it comes to electronic rider aids, the CBR500R is reasonably well kitted-out. There are three default rider modes: Standard, Sport and Urban plus two customisable ‘User’ settings. Riders can fettle between three levels of Engine Power, Engine Brake and Honda Selectable Torque Control (HSTC) in the settings.
There’s ride-by-wire fuel injection, making the rider modes more sophisticated and working well with the E-Clutch setup, but no IMU-assistance on the rider aids, or cruise control function. The dash is a five-inch TFT colour LCD unit, with Bluetooth phone connectivity and new switchgear; you also get a handy USB-C charging socket.
The serious competition here is probably the likes of the Kawasaki ZX-4R, which is £1,800 pricier at £8,799, more powerful though revvier with 79bhp@14,500rpm, and about the same weight.
From the left field though is the new ZXMoto 500RR from China, with a 470cc inline-four making 83bhp in a 168kg package for just £5,899: that’s a ‘bingo’ on all spec sheet fronts pretty much…
It’s all moot till we ride the new bikes though – which we’ll be aiming to do as soon as we can. In the meantime, the new Honda CBR500R Four will be in the shops for January 2027, priced at £6,999.