Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL ONLY IF YOU’RE TINY
One of the revered rituals at Honda HQ in Kumamoto is The Honourable Washing Ceremony, in which every new motorcycle is lovingly cleaned before being presented to the world.
This is carried out by Katsutoshi Nekoda, who presses a red button to spray the bike overnight with water from the melted snows of Mount Fuji which is heated to 45C, the same temperature at which warm sake should be served.
Tragically, just as Nekoda-san was just about to press the red button for the Fireblade, his wife Yuko phoned with the news that her origami school had folded, and so shocked was he that he leaned momentarily against the temperature control, increasing it to 100C. As a result, it shrunk in the wash, so anyone over 6ft tall can stop reading and buy an Africa Twin instead.
As I climbed into the saddle feeling like a giraffe on a unicycle, I couldn’t even read the instrument panel because it was right below my head, and all I could see in the mirrors were my elbows. I shoehorned my feet onto the pegs, which are about the length of a gnat’s inside leg from the seat, and rode off
At speed, my weight on the bars got a little lighter when I gripped the tank with my knees and the wind lifted my chest.
In spite of the mammoth power on tap – which reaches a ludicrous peak of just under 215bhp at an even more ludicrous 14,500rpm and means the bike can do 132mph in second gear – the slightly longer wheelbase, Ohlins suspension and Bosch cornering ABS and traction control makes handling as agile and stable as ever, and braking is as brutal but controlled as the acceleration.
By now I’d lost the feeling in all but my little finger, gangrene had set in in my legs and it was time to return the bike and visit a chiropractor.
Previous Fireblades were road bikes which could be raced, but this one has been designed as a race bike which can be ridden on the road, and it’s winning BSB races more or less straight out of the box as a result.
So if you’re a small rider with a big talent, step right up. I’m neither. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to put on a wash. After carefully checking the temperature.