Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade 4000 mile test
Annus horribilis is probably the best way to describe the current Fireblade’s 2017. So the prospect of 4000 British miles couldn’t have been filling our long-term test Blade’s heart with joy. However…
THE NEW FIREBLADE was launched into a firestorm. As soon as we started to get properly excited about its extra power, light weight and fancy electronics, race heroes started crashing – first John Mcguinness then Guy Martin, both blaming electronic issues. So before starting this test, it’s worth reiterating that the race bikes had completely different electronic systems to the road bike you see here. So Mcpint’s and Guy’s problems do not translate to the road Fireblade. It’s an important point because behind all that bad publicity is a Fireblade that has the potential to be a brilliant road bike. So what’s the real story? We rode one for 4000 miles to find out…
Engine and transmission
Ever since the BMW S1000RR stomped into the world with a claimed 190bhp in 2010, the Fireblade has lost out in the Top Trump power wars. However, Honda knew that 99.9% of riders wouldn’t go any faster with an extra 10bhp so they ignored the baying for more top-end and quietly got on with mass centralisation and improving quality. But they had to give in some time, and the 2017 bike does indeed have an extra 11bhp – now up to a claimed 189bhp. (Measured at 181bhp). But ride the new Blade for any length of time and you realise what the Honda engineers have done. Sure, there’s more topend power but that’s not where the effort has gone – Honda could no doubt have gained an extra 25bhp if they wanted. No, the time has gone into refining the power curve and losing weight – 5kg from the engine and exhaust alone. The effect is subtle compared with the banzai antics of bikes like Kawasaki’s ZX-10R with its crazed top-end powerband or the S1000RR with its arm-wrenching midrange – the Blade, by comparison, is unobtrusive yet ruthlessly efficient. The power curve feels so linear that you find yourself using that power more and more because it’s so easy to access. Whereas the topend of a ZX-10R is for special occasions only, the Blade lures you up there on almost every overtake. Below 7000rpm there’s enough oomph to blat past traffic, but above that is where the fun starts. It feels like a speedboat accelerating up onto the plane – hit 7500rpm and you start skimming across the surface and the world goes backwards. From 9000 to the 13,500 redline the motor is monstrous – hauling hard enough to wheelie in the first three gears – but without drama. No surprises, just predictable, blistering speed. In our group test (Bike, July 2017), ex-gp rider James Haydon ranked the Blade engine behind the Yamaha R1, S1000RR and
‘The power curve feels so linear you find yourself using that power more and more because it’s so easy to access’
Suzuki GSX-R1000R’S because they had more power. But my bet is that less talented and committed riders (ie most of us) would actually go faster on the Blade because it’s so easy to ride. In the real world the only problem with the engine and exhaust is the noise. It makes a rorty, hollow racket at tickover, which is lovely – if deeply un-honda – but I couldn’t believe the din it made the first time I accidentally rode off without earplugs in. Above 6000rpm it starts howling and by 12,000rpm it sounds borderline illegal. It is properly loud. You can argue the toss whether this is acceptable behaviour on the road, but several Blade riders have reported being kicked off trackdays for being too loud. The gear ratios are the same as the old Blade (ie perfectly sensible) but the rear sprocket has gone from 42 to 43 teeth, helping the new bike accelerate just that little bit harder. Not that it needs much help with the extra power and 15kg less weight. Changes were slick from the start and improved as the miles increased – at 4000 miles the gearbox feels as positive, fast and smooth as anything out there. The obvious criticism is that at £15,225 the standard Blade should have a quickshifter like every single one of its rivals (and the £19,125 Fireblade SP).
Handling and ride
Mass centralisation is a wonderful concept – if you move enough of a bike’s weight close to its centre of gravity, you can turn a cumbersome machine into something that feels blissfully easy to turn. Same overall weight, totally different dynamics. The new Fireblade is the current pinnacle of the art. Admittedly, it’s very light (just 196kg wet) to start with, but it feels even lighter. Whether you’re pushing it round the garage, rolling into a tight B-road corner or chucking it through a chicane on track, the Blade manages to feel easily as light as a sports 600. In fact, the way it effortlessly glides into corners reminds me of my old VFR400. The steering head geometry is on a par with all the other litre sportsbikes though the Blade has the shortest wheelbase – it’s a full 35mm shorter than the ZX-10R. This helps give the Blade a fast, accurate, confidence-inspiring front-end that encourages you to hunch over the front and boss it. On track it couldn’t quite match the razor-sharp turn-in of the R1, but it wasn’t a million miles off. On standard settings the Showa Big Piston forks are perfect for medium fast road use, feeling firm but without that harshness that kills your wrists if you hit a pothole. My experiments of winding off the compression damping to make the Blade more B-road friendly weren’t a huge success – if I wound off enough so that I noticed, the forks started pumping down on the rebound. Maybe I could have wound that down too, but I gave up – the standard settings are so good my tweaking motivation ran out. On track our tame racers added more compression and rebound damping to reduce movement, the rest of us were happy to stay near standard. It’s a similar story with the Showa Balance Free rear shock – just about compliant enough for UK roads though needed firming up on track for the very fast boys. The brakes are decidedly unglamourous compared with the Brembo lovelies on S1000RRS and GSX-R1000RS, but the Tokico four-piston calipers do the job. Our race-pace testers complained about a slight lack of feel on track, but didn’t mention the cornering ABS, which suggests it cuts in very subtly.
‘Mass centralisation is a wonderful concept… the new Blade manages to feel easily as light as a sports 600’
Electronics
Of all the changes to the Blade, this is the biggie. For the first time on a Honda production bike, there’s a fly-by-wire throttle, an IMU (Inertial Measuring Unit - the gyro-infested gizmo that tells the ECU how the bike is moving), three pre-set riding modes of varying aggression, two customisable ones, five power levels, nine traction control levels, three engine brake settings and cornering ABS. There’s also wheelie and stoppie control. Overall, it all works brilliantly, though there is one weirdness we’ll come to later. Most importantly, the fuel injection is smooth and predictable in all power modes, and the pick-up off a closed throttle is gentle enough to inspire mid-corner confidence no matter how slippy the road. Combined with the linear power delivery, it makes the Blade easy to ride smoothly (and fast…). The electronics are organised logically and are intuitive – you just press a mode button on the left bar to highlight the modes, then click up or down on the toggle switch to change them. There are three base modes – fast, medium and rain – and creating your own customised riding mode is just a matter of selecting either User 1 or User 2 mode, holding down the mode button then adjusting the power, traction or engine braking to your desired setting. Most riders manage it without recourse to the manual. The main electronic niggle concerns the wheelie control, which is linked to the traction control – the idea being that as you increase the traction control, you automatically increase the wheelie control. Sounds sensible enough, but the problem is that the interaction of the two systems makes it unpredictable. On my commute home, for example, there’s a major road junction with a slight ramp in the middle where the road builders messed up. If I accelerate away from the lights on most bikes, I hit the ramp and get a little wheelie. Nothing spectacular, but pleasing. On the Blade, I can’t do it because sometimes the system will cut the throttle hard enough to mash my spuds against the tank. Mostly it doesn’t, but after one particularly painful episode I’m not risking it again. And the same applies when accelerating hard and the front comes up. Sometimes the system cuts in, sometimes it doesn’t, rendering it useless. For fast road rides I switch the whole system off and concentrate harder.
Controls and comfort
Comfort is pretty good for a sportsbike. The screen takes most of the breeze off your shoulders, leaving your lid in the wind, and the saddle gives plenty of room to move about, though I found it impossible to use the wide part of the saddle at the back without making it an uncomfortable stretch to the bars. Inevitably your knees are fairly close to your arse, but not ridiculously so. After a 500-mile day in the saddle, I had a sore neck from holding my head up during the final hour of low speed city drudge and slightly stiff knees. The saddle is good enough to last the 150-or-so miles between fuel stops and the clutch is so light you don’t notice it (it’s 17% lighter than the old Blade’s), as is the fly-by-wire throttle.
Practicality
It’s a sportsbike so this is limited – the pillion pad is perfect if you’re the size of a garden gnome, riding in town will hurt your wrists and neck after 30 minutes, and carrying luggage takes cunning. But, being a Honda, there’s plenty to like. The LED headlight is powerful and the orange running lights in the mirrors seem to help car drivers see you coming up behind at night – I’ve never ridden a bike where so many of them pull over. The mirrors themselves
are clear and fold away, though being narrow, the inside half is obscured by your elbows if you wear a winter jacket. The fancy TFT screen is clear, easy to read and changes to white on black at night, sometimes flicking back to black on white under streetlamps. But it shows all the stuff you want – apart from how much fuel you’ve got left (there’s no gauge). An orange fuel light comes on, usually around 140 miles (it averages 44mpg unless you go bonkers), and from there you’ve got a 40-mile countdown to find a garage.
Finish
After 4000 miles, the last 800 on salty roads, the Blade is holding up well. All the important fasteners look high quality and even the shonky screws holding jubilee clips look to have been plated competently. There’s no rust anywhere so far and it comes up a treat after a clean - the fairing plastics are thick and high quality and the whole bike has a solid, well-made aura.
Verdict
The Blade is a superb sportsbike – rolling proof Honda’s obsession with mass centralisation, accessible power and class-leading quality is going strong. And after all the bad publicity, the Blade’s electronics are actually hugely sophisticated and, wheelie control aside, highly effective. If you want a modern sportsbike that’s built to last, test ride a Blade... and take advantage of its 0% finance deal.