So rare, you’ve never even heard of it – CBR500F

To be honest, it’s kind of a kick to the plums when you fashion yourself as a connoisseur of Honda sportsbikes — and one turns up that you’ve never heard of. I suppose in fairness, I poured though the dozen or so Honda and more generalized sportsbike coffee table books; nothing.

I present you with the 1989 Honda CBR500F:

As with many motorcycles from that time period, there were many different displacements to fit into many different markets. This bike lives life in Mexico, where it appears to have been one of two countries getting the 500F, the other being Austria. If you didn’t notice the 500F stickers, you could easily mistake it for a domestic market CBR600F. It appears to share lots in common with the 600.

From the seller:

It was one of the very first sport bikes to be sold legally in Mexico along
with the CBR 1000, up until then all motorcycles had to be smuggled in from
the US or imported through a very very complicated and expensive process
which usually did not happen if you did not know someone in Mexican customs.
It was around the time Honda setup a production plant near Guadalajara,
Jalisco (Can you say Tequila? it’s about 40 miles from the town where it is
produced)

It is my understanding that this particular model was only sold in Austria,
Australia and Mexico because of import tariffs.
It was sold in Mexico only in 1989 and in 1990 the ever popular CBR 600 came
in to replace it

The bike was bought by its first owner and never got any significant use for
15 years, then my friend bought it and has put on 32,000 kms (20k miles) on
it. all of which have been accident free!

Any way I have some pictures of the motorcycle, I hope it makes for a decent
post 🙂 (CBR’s are not the kind to be considered exotic, but this one just
might)

It has always been adult owned and in incredible shape, more so for a 22
year old bike

32,000 kilometers
Owners manual and toolkit
Copy of the Sales brochure from when it was new at the dealership
All paperwork, bill of sale, tax payments etc…
Jalisco plates all paid to this day.

It looks to be in top nick. The seller is looking for $3500 USD, plus shipping and any border arrangements that may or may not need to be made. It’s surely rare, so that may drive the price. And while examples as clean as this one are nearly as rare as this one, CBR600Fs can be had, sometimes, for half that figure.

–RW

Please post your interest in the comments below. Thanks! -dc