30 Jan On Yer Bike: 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP Fireblade
This month FMM Curator Wayne Harley does a swop and goes like a streak of lightning…
This year has certainly got off to a lightning start and no more so than with our first motorcycle ride of the year, a 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP Fireblade, which came by way of my son-in-law who is just as much a bike nutter as myself. He recently asked to borrow my daily ride, a Honda VFR 800 cross-tourer, to take my daughter on a road trip. This was only because the Fireblade cannot take a pillion passenger, so he needed to ‘trade down’ for a few weeks…! As I am always on the lookout for ‘article material’, I agreed and the swop was made one sunny December weekend. I was going to have the ’Blade for a few weeks and so find out first-hand how one of the most renowned superbikes in the world acquired its legendary status.
So let’s go see where it all started. It was in 1992 when the great Tadao Baba created the CBR900RR FireBlade, a motorcycle that was lighter, more compact and more powerful than Honda’s own outgoing RVF 750, in doing so setting a new benchmark in its class. With regards to the FireBlade name, what is interesting is that it was not what Honda actually envisioned. The company wanted to name the 900RR the ‘Lightning’, however it was incorrectly translated into FireBlade, and the name stayed.
The 1992 CBR was originally going to be another 750 cc superbike, but eventually the capacity was increased to 893 cc while maintaining the lightweight 750 cc-class mass of 185 kg and 1,4-metre length. With 122 hp/ 90 kW, the bike had blistering acceleration and gave outstanding handling and performance, all of which laid the foundation for the next eight years of the CBR Honda FireBlade line-up.
By 1999 Honda was playing second fiddle to Yamaha and that 150 hp beast, the R1. Honda then introduced the CBR900RR Fireblade 929, followed in quick succession by the 952 cc CBR900RR in 2002 and the CBR1000RR in 2004. The latter was the first to feature the 998 cc engine but sadly the last to be produced under the man that started it all, Mr Baba. (It is said that the spelling of Fireblade was changed from this point on in honour of him). With the Honda CBR1000RR in 2006 producing 172 hp/128 kW and only weighing 175 kg in an all-out attempt to reclaim that top step over Yamaha and stay at the sharp edge of the superbike market, Honda redefined the Fireblade.
But Suzuki with its GSX 1000R, Kawasaki and its ZX10R and Yamaha with its R1, Honda’s rivals all had other plans, staying just that fraction ahead in the power and speed departments. However, Honda’s CBR won the World Superbike title in 2007. The model that followed the CBR1000RR that was produced between 2008-11 was a great motorcycle, and by any standard is still a very quick bike. But the Honda had fallen behind when compared with the BMW S1000RR and the aforementioned Japanese offerings. Honda then released the CBR SP Fireblade, the model we are featuring in this article.
The CBR1000RR that was introduced in 2012, and the SP 20th anniversary edition, were revised versions of the previous model that Honda had tweaked and improved upon. The anniversary edition received a design facelift, LCD instrumentation. The standard version got new, improved suspension while the SP received Ohlins front and rear suspension and Brembo brakes, which, coincidentally, was the first time Honda fitted Brembos to a road legal motorcycle. It produced 179 hp/133 kW at 12 250 r/min and was 6 kg lighter than the standard road bike. To many riders of this model, this is the last true and pure Honda Fireblade as many of the rider aids available on the latest Honda CBRs had not yet found their way onto these models. The Fireblade is still on offer today, representing 30 years of production of this model.
So how is it to ride? This is not the first superbike I’ve ever ridden, but I must clearly state that I’m no Guy Martin or Michael Dunlop. From the moment you press the start button you know that this is an animal. The Honda engine revs easily and clearly and the sound is just pure sport and performance. You have to be respectful of how quickly you get off the line, and I found myself often underestimating just how fast I was going: 150 km/h is possible in third gear! Going up the gears is just so precise, with every change feeding into the next cog perfectly. The motorcycle is so well balanced and you always feel surefooted. The ride is hard as a sports bike should be, and the brakes are fantastic. The Honda CBR1000RR SP is a total pleasure on the open road, but oh boy, watch that speedometer as it is easy to find yourself ripping along above the speed limit!
The Fireblade is an amazing machine that has been with us for three decades, and is still a bolt of lightning.
Arigatö Tadao-san
