Honda CBR1000RR

It was with a great deal of curiosity and a fair amount of trepidation that I collected the latest and blackest generation Fireblade from the Honda bunker out at Campbellfield in Melbourne's north. After all it was the first of the new range of 180-horse sport bikes (which includes the Yamaha R1 and Kawasaki ZX-10) that I'd thrown a leg over, and that amount of go is enough to demand respect - certainly from mere mortal road riders like yours etc.

Honda shook up the sports bike world in a big way when it launched the Fireblade brand in 1992, with the first 900 providing a lot of performance in a compact package that was both exciting and occasionally flighty to ride. It was a hell of a lot of fun.

More than a decade down the track, we're presented with a significant new leap albeit in a machine that has a lot of very close competition.

So was there any need for the trepidation? No, not really. This Blade is, if anything, more user-friendly to ride than its immediate predecessor, which is a pretty good trick.

On the 'blow' side of the equation, there's a new exhaust featuring an electronic valve which effectively changes the 'shape' of the exhaust depending on the demands being made on the engine.

The six-speed gearbox is a cassette type - one of a number of features which make the machine fairly easy to convert for race use. Another is the high capacity radiator, which the company claims is a competition-ready item.

Front suspension is relatively conventional and boasts the now 'compulsory' radial-mounted brake calipers. The alloy frame and swingarm use what the company calls a semi-pivotless design, and the swingarm itself is a work of art.

 Speaking of the chassis, a fascinating addition is the electronic steering damper mounted atop the steering head spindle. Honda says it's designed to adjust the resistance it applies to steering movement according to the bike's speed and acceleration - in other words the actuation valves are wide open at low speed. An interesting gadget.

All up, that package weighs a claimed 179 kilos dry, for a claimed 180 horses - or there-abouts. One Honda staffer recently suggested to us that this whole horsepower claim game is getting silly as the correct spec for any of the current super-sports machines is "enough". And I can see his point.

An aside here is that you could be forgiven for thinking Suzuki's current GSX-R1000 is some way back in the power race, claiming somewhere in the region of 164. The only side-by-side dyno comparison of the four top sporties, so far, suggests the gap between them is much narrower than the 164 versus 180 claims would suggest. In fact you could easily halve it, and it's worth noting that raw power doesn't tell anything like the whole performance story.

It likes a few revs to get off the line, but from there most experienced riders will be okay on it. The powerplant has a very solid mid-range, which is more than ample for the majority of road use and it's really only at the howler end of the rev range (say 8000-plus) where you need to be very much on the proverbial ball. Yes, it's stunningly fast when you want it to be, though I have to admit that we haven't played with one on the track - which is the only hope of fully exploring the feral end of the performance.

On the few occasions I got to give it a decent fang, it came across as very precise - to the point of demanding a high degree of accuracy from the rider - and entirely predictable.

The injection is smooth and reliable, while the clutch is user-friendly. The gearshift on a pretty young example (a few thousand kays) required a slightly more forceful approach than is usual from Honda. There was also a little more driveline snatch than ideal when getting on and off the throttle. (And yes, we did check the chain tension.)

Steering was very quick, as you'd expect, while being accurate and easy to live with. The suspension response was terrific - simple as that. Well modulated and forgiving of mid-corner surprises.

Overall the steering and suspension package (combined with the Pirelli Diablo rubber) provided a lot of feedback - to the point where you wonder whether some folk would be happier with a little less.

The front brakes also supplied plenty of feel, with the lever delivering a relatively 'soft' response at first, then firming considerably when you needed it. Out back, the foot brake gave no cause for complaint. Nothing special in that direction.

You won't be surprised to learn the riding position was head-down and bum-up, though this version wasn't extreme. It rates as one of the more forgiving versions out there and allows the rider to move around in the saddle with a fair amount of security. Though we were intrigued to notice that the seat cover material was very slippery for denim jeans but was grippier and about perfect for leather. Instrumentation is typical analogue tacho and digital everything else. Not my fave combination - which is a reactionary response - but offering plenty of info.

Finish was generally good. Some of the decals lacked a clear coat over the top, but the metal-work was sensational. We scored the black version of the machine, which we really loved the looks of.

The exhaust note was predictably quiet but had a fair bit of raw 'character' - something resembling an angry rumble emanated from the CBR600 look-alike muffler under the pillion seat.

In any case, the current Blade is a good thing. It's fun and surprisingly easy to ride (when you want it to be) and has loads of performance on tap should you want to stretch a personal riding envelope at the local track. The pricing is a shade under 20 thou, plus the usual on-road costs, and I've got no argument with that.