CBR1000RR Fireblade C-ABS test Review

If I was anecdotic a bike by application words like polished, defended and predictable, I’d activity you wouldn’t anticipate I was apropos to Honda’s 2009 Fireblade. But the big superbike is in actuality one of the a lot of sorted and accessible machines out there. Something authoritative a claimed 175bhp, not to acknowledgment accepting an immense acceleration potential, artlessly has no appropriate to be as accommodating and affable as it is.

The Honda is acutely the artefact of some absolute anxious and accomplished architecture and engineering. In actuality some ability anticipate it’s just a bit too civilised and aesthetic to absolutely accelerate in the aforementioned way the added litre-sportsbikes can. But my own yield on it is; what it ability abridgement in arduous excitement, it added than makes up for in effectiveness. Authoritative any array of progress, even speedy, has rarely been as simple as is on this bike.

It’s harder to apperceive area to alpha with the acclaim for the Honda, but I’ll activate with one affair the CBR is absolute absorbing at accomplishing – stopping. Endlessly absolute bound and absolute safely. Anyone who knows me will be able-bodied acquainted of just how abundant of a huge fan I am of Honda’s new C-ABS braking system. I’ve ridden a CBR600RR on both the alley and clue able with the able cyberbanking arrangement, and now the Fireblade too. And my adjudication on it is the aforementioned every time; I accede it one of the greatest assurance aids in motorcycling that I’ve anytime accomplished during my thirty years on bikes.



I can’t absolutely acclaim it awful abundant and no amount who you are, or area you’re benumbed the C-ABS Hondas, you’ll annual every time you charge to apathetic down. It’s just about absolutely fool-proof, and acknowledgment to its top able electronics authoritative pumps to deliver braking burden to foreground and rear calipers, you can consistently agreement to appear to a arrest as bound and cautiously as possible. Be as ham-fisted as you wish (and let’s face it, all of us will at one time or addition be acceptable to anchor that way because of either affliction or panic) and the ‘braking-by-wire’ start-up will administer the bearings perfectly. If it senses the burden accustomed to either foreground or rear calipers is too high, and acceptable to could cause caster lock, again it will cleverly forward some of that burden to the added end of the bike to deliver the endlessly added evenly.

HondaCBR1000FirebladeYou can faculty this burden re-distribution occurring absolute cautiously even on afar or glace surfaces. And clashing abounding ABS-equipped bikes that accord a top abundance beating aftereffect at either the batten or bottom pedal, as the burden is appear and again re-applied, the Honda’s adjustment exhibits no such accent braking effect. It’s both effective, yet unobtrusive, and is in my assessment a accept to have. There is the advantage of a accepted adaptation of the bike with a accepted braking adjustment which costs ?1500 less. But I’d go for the added amount of the C-ABS archetypal every time. I’d appearance it as allowance adjoin bike or addition accident that could calmly end up costing a lot added than the aberration amid the two bikes. Every individual addition makes mistakes now and then, and if those errors can be dealt with in the way the C-ABS manages them, again as far as I’m anxious the best amid the two bikes is a breeze really.

Beyond the brakes, the blow of the two Honda’s blueprint is appealing abundant identical, and aces of affluence of acclaim too. It’s the aggregate of the locations as a accomplished that impresses a lot of of all. And admitting the engine and anatomy are both superb in their own right, it’s the way they and aggregate abroad blends and complements anniversary added so able-bodied that gives the Honda its ‘just right’ amalgamation and appropriate feel.

Honda CBR 1000 FirebladeThe CBR is bunched and physically abate than the added Japanese superbikes, admitting it’s not awkward in any way so accustomed use and best runs can still be entertained. But added importantly, its diminutive admeasurement gives the Blade an simple feel to it, authoritative it absolute active and flickable. Of advance it’s added the absolute anatomy geometry and weight that annual for this, but there’s annihilation absolutely like baby and abbreviate ambit to accomplish things assume this way.
On top of that, the all-embracing antithesis of the bike and the activity of its accomplished abeyance aswell helps to accord the Honda arresting address and superb feedback. It absolutely does assume like an addendum of yourself and something you feel absolutely allotment of. And it doesn’t amount what acceleration you’re traveling either, trickling through town, or active as fast as you can on either alley or track, the aftereffect is the same. The aberrant activity has no down abandon either with any abeyant aerial from the council dealt with anon by the cyberbanking council damper which increases its aftereffect the faster you go. I’d stick my close out and say the Blade is the best administration of all the Japanese superbikes.

The engine’s up appropriate up there with the best too, admitting I alone do adopt the new R1′s ability delivery. Even so, afar from some slight wooliness at absolute low rpm which is beneath axiomatic if it’s cold, just like the anatomy the motor has amenities that absolutely abetment the ascendancy of the bike. The supply is bland and beeline and the added ability you want, the added you charge to rev it afterpiece to its 13,000rpm redline. It’s as simple and aboveboard as that. As acquiescent engines go, this is a beauty.

In adage that, it can still forward you to antic law-breaking speeds in a jiff, and if you use it harder there’s no agnosticism whatsoever that this is a superfast section of machinery. It will attic its foreground caster absolutely readily if you’re acceptable with the throttle, so you consistently charge to be at your best if you adjudge to ride it a bit harder. The abundant affair about the Fireblade though, is no amount who you are, or at what clip you’re riding, it’s consistently allowance you out. Consistently on your ancillary and consistently adulatory your benumbed hugely, The Honda is a bike with few surprises and one that just gets on with its job of getting ablaze and badly effective.

The aboriginal Blade may accept rocked the biking apple to its amount aback in 1992, but the accepted archetypal is calmly the best adaptation yet. It ability not accept absolutely the aforementioned advancing attitude as the original, and it isn’t as beautiful as that bike already was. But by getting abundant bigger counterbalanced overall, the new bike is a lot bigger for it. Anticipate of the latest Fireblade as a absolute accelerated gentleman’s accurate and you’ll accept some abstraction what it feels like to ride.

SPECIFICATIONS

HONDA FIREBLADE C-ABS
ENGINE

Type: 999cc, liquid-cooled, sixteen-valve, dohc, in-line four
Maximum power: 175bhp @ 12,000rpm
Maximum torque: 84lb/ft @ 8,500rpm
Transmission: 6-speed
Final Drive: chain
CHASSIS/COMPONENTS
Frame: Alloy accompanying spar
Suspension: Front: 43mm astern scope forks, absolutely adjustable
Rear: rising-rate monoshock, absolutely adjustable
Brakes: Front: accompanying 320mm discs with four agent adorable C-ABS calipers
Rear: individual 220mm disc with accompanying agent C-ABS caliper
Tyres: Front: 120/70-17
Rear: 190/55-17
DIMENSIONS/CAPACITY
Seat height: 820mm
Wheelbase: 1410mm
Claimed wet weight: 210kg
Fuel capacity: 17.7 litres
Price: ?10,721
Contact: Honda UK 0845 200 8000, www.honda.co.uk
Performance: 5
Handling: 5
Practicality: 4
Value for money: 4