The saying “when a sheep has jumped over the fence…” could well be true. Until Kawasaki announced the Ninja ZX-4RR, the comeback of the small four-cylinder for the European market seemed a utopia, but it looks like Team Green won’t have the exclusive rights for long. Honda has filed a trademark application for the “CBR400R Four”.
The bike that turned the world upside down: the 1988 CBR400RR
It was a real, but damn pleasant shock when Kawasaki announced the Ninja ZX-4RR for the European market, until then the comeback of the little four-cylinder seemed a utopia. Team Green had already launched the supercool ZX-25RR 250cc four-cylinder as a counterpart to Honda’s CBR250RR, but that – like the Honda – was reserved exclusively for the Asian market.
When the first rumors emerged that a Ninja ZX-4R was on the way, we initially feared that this bike would also be an Asian exclusive, until documents showed that this bike would also be released in Europe. In what can be called a resounding success, the first production run sold out in no time, not least because of the insanely cool ZXR400 replica colors.
After Kawasaki, Honda now also seems to be playing with the idea of putting a 400cc four-cylinder “Screamer” on the market. Big Red filed an application for the trade name “CBR400R Four” with the Japanese Intellectual Property Office on August 27.
The application concerns the use of the word mark for “two- and three-wheeled automobiles and their parts and accessories, automobiles and their parts and accessories”, but you really can’t interpret it as anything other than a four-cylinder sports motorcycle.
The bike that started it all: the 1983 CBR400F
The original CBR400 models (and the first Honda CBRs, for that matter) were first introduced in 1983. The 1983 CBR400F was powered by an air-cooled, 399cc four-cylinder engine that featured a unique REV (Revolution Modulated Valve Control) valvetrain, which operated 4 valves at high rpm and 2 valves at low and mid-range speeds – indeed, the forerunner of the VTEC system.
The CBR400F (by Four) was still a sporty Naked, in January 1988 a super sporty CBR400RR was added, which quickly became insanely popular. To this day, CBR400RRs in mint condition are worth a lot of money.
Today, Honda has a CBR400R for the Japanese market, but it’s a smaller version of the twin-cylinder CBR500R. The CBR400R has the same 67mm bore, but with a shorter stroke of 56.6mm instead of the CBR500’s 66.8mm, reducing displacement from 471cc to 399cc.
Specially for the Japanese market, the twin-cylinder CBR400R, the little brother of the CBR500R
For the Japanese market super interesting, because thanks to that smaller cylinder capacity the CBR400R falls into a different driver’s license class. By now adding “Four” to the trademark name, Honda is clearly trying to distinguish it from the existing Twin, and given the fact that “Four” has always stood for a four-cylinder at Honda, it can hardly be anything other than a 400cc four-cylinder.
NOW, filing a trademark is never a guarantee that it will be used on a final product, let alone that it will be marketed in Europe, but it does tell us what a company has been working on. It’s far too early to say if and when Honda will actually release a CBR400R Four, and whether it will be exported to Europe, but we now have evidence that the project is far enough along for Honda to start reserving names.
Honda’s other groundbreaking bike: the 1987 VFR400R
– Thanks for information from Motorfreaks.