It’s an old Fireblade – with a new fireblade motor in it!
Is John Bennett’s homemade brew the tastiest Fire Blade ever? It’s arguably one of the prettiest...
We gratefully receive countless numbers of reader specials, emails teasing us with offers of a ride or the chance to stick them alongside our centrefold starlets. We get everything; from stickered and anodised monstrosities to complete nut and bolt overhauls. Some are politely declined, while others demand a thorough spanking. John Bennett’s Honda FireBlade fell into the latter category...
What started out as a pristine example of a 1996 FireBlade has ended up as a nineties/noughties mash up, with (nearly) every painstaking process and bloodied finger happening in John’s own garage. John was bored of the ’Blade’s gutless straightline performance and getting whooped by his mates on faster machinery. But instead of buying new, John locked himself in the garage...
I’ll admit to being slightly dubious about this bike. The recipe points towards a horrific bodged-up bastard of a ride; a 1996 FireBlade frame housing a 2004 Fireblade motor, with an Aprilia RSV Mille swingarm, and the rider nestled in a Honda RS125 seat unit. It’s got boneshaker written all over it.
But let’s talk about how damn sexy this bike looks – and it looks even better in the flesh. While this Honda is far from the most exotic special we’ve sampled, it’s by far the most personal. I didn’t know what to do; ride it or stroke it.
There’s something undeniably cool about any bike built with an RS125 seat unit. It has never dated. All the weight is poured towards the front, through the wrists and onto the bars. Although mile munching was never on the job card, the tall seat disguises high rearsets
and consequently plenty of ground clearance. Funnily enough, John’s ’Blade isn’t too dissimilar to the TT Legends endurance bike we rode last year.
For a project lasting just over a winter, this isn’t a rush job. Indicators are hidden in the LED rear cluster tucked away under the seat unit, a LiPo battery and a concealment of carbon fibre shed weight, and the onslaught of naughty wiring caused by the modern loom transplant are all intricacies that should be noted – along with the more palpable graft, like shoehorning a 2004 fuel injected motor into an archaic FireBlade frame.
A brief glance in your mirrors will display a sizeable pair of 1996 headlights and bulky fairing (and Marc Marquez’s RCV front fender from a test!), but it’s the rear of the bike that does the damage. An Aprilia RSV Mille swingarm and shock support the rear end, lending another aesthetic element to the ’Blade. The OZ wheels complete the full factory look.
Manufacturers spend years and ridiculous money on developing and refining their bikes, only for a bloke in a shed to render their efforts redundant. These manufacturers regularly bang-on about a chassis’ torsional rigidity during press launches, and how much better a bike handles with a one per cent increase in stiffness here or there. But with a wild concoction of diverse ingredients and geometry, how can a bike like this ride as good as it looks?
I’ve never ridden a modern-era MotoGP bike, but this ’Blade exudes the sort of rigid feeling I’d expect from a GP steed. A very stiff, unforgiving, yet responsive chassis mated to soft suspension is my idea of peachy, and John B’s Honda is exactly that. It’s like a frenzied moth to a light bulb, just without the manic manners.
Those Öhlins forks aren’t Öhlins forks. They’re original RR4 forks, stripped and anodised, and treated to TiN coated stanchions. While the 2004 suspension wasn’t exactly renowned for its aptitude, the forks function beautifully on this bike. John had to wind everything counter clockwise to soften the ride, as his teeth were threatening to make an exit. But it’s worked, and now there’s a mix of supreme bump management and extreme athleticism contained within.
The additional rigidity caused by motor (and probably the swingarm) ensures stability at committed speeds, yet you know that when it bites it’s going to bite hard. Cutting through the Hampshire countryside, John’s bike was hungry for running insane corner speed and it’s a bike that exudes a mass of confidence from the off. It flows beautifully without a malfunction in its handling portfolio, and there’s always an abundance of grip to be exploited. The 200-section rear tyre does nothing to blunt the steering.
Obviously, the motor’s insertion wasn’t a straightforward task. An engine, designed for a bike 10 years younger was never going to slot in effortlessly. Consequently, I was expecting some agricultural rattles or vibrations, but there was nothing. How can a man from
the south coast with a background in IT and with zero engineering expertise somehow unearth a magic formula by complete mistake? Beats us...
Many mod addicts aim for big power and lust after a spec’ list that makes a WSB’s engine envious. This 2004 motor has a fairly standard tune, but the combination of Power Commander, K&N air filter and a custom (GSX-R750) Akrapovic exhaust plumps the midrange nicely and lengthens the top-end. Unless it’s on an open exhaust, Hondas have struggled to produce any meaty-sounding bikes, and even this shorty doesn’t deliver the note this bike deserves.
Other than Jessica Alba’s botty, nothing in this world is perfect and, even by John’s own admission, this bike is crying out for a slipper clutch and a quickshifter. The early RR ’Blades suffered during corner entry downshifting (Honda was last to the slipper clutch shindig) and the hydraulic clutch brings little to the party. Manual slipping is so 1990s...
The braking could also be improved. Japanese bikes, even to this day, endure poor anchoring through the OE master cylinders fitted. A 2010 ’Blade unit stops John’s bike with the help of some Galfer discs and Hel braided lines, yet would seriously benefit from a Brembo unit – the chassis certainly warrants it.
But we can’t hide from the fact this is one of the trickest, most dynamically formidable specials we’ve ridden. I didn’t want the ride to end. The fact it owes John a measly £6k (thanks to bits sourced from a generic online auction site) makes it even more appealing. Too many chuck a chequebook at a special.
The badges point towards Japan, but there’s an edgy and European feel to this creation. Though it’s a bastardisation, we think even Baba would be proud...
This is one of the trickest, most dynamically formidable specials we’ve ridden