Honda CB1000+
After a miserable seven weeks without riding, Stuart Barker gets his fix with Honda's CB1000R+ Neo Sports Cafe and realises he's a helpless addict TRY AGAIN
Stu gets his biking fix on the naked Honda after weeks off two wheels.
How long can you go without riding a bike until you start getting withdrawal symptoms? For me it was about seven weeks before my nerves were jangling like a junkie in need of a fix.Even though it was in the middle of winter, I desperately missed riding when I was without a bike and got super-excited the night before I picked up a new Hond a CBlOOOR+.And then Storm Dennis hit, and riding was not an option.
So the bike sat for a week. Then I got man flu and was way too snotty and phlegmy to don a crash helmet. So it sat for another week. When finally the rain stopped for a brief respite one afternoon, and I giddily jumped on the Hond, it was only to discover that the battery on the bike was completely flat. Bugger. Given that there is NEVER a convenient hill nearby when you need to bump-start a bike, my missus had to work up a sweat pushing me up and down the street until it fired and then I had a freezing run for an hour to try and charge some life back into the battery.
That first ride was all well and good. But then it rains solidly for days on end again and, when there 's finally a slight respite, I'm out of the house like a ferret down a rabbit hole to get my fix and ... the bike won't start. I know, I know, I should have put it on trickle charge. I forgot. So, on to trickle charge it went and there went another opportunity to calm my sweats and jittery nerves by getting my first ride out of the year.
By this point, I'm more than halfway through the loan period of the bike and still haven't had a chance to ride it properly. And the brief hour I did manage, just to charge the battery, revealed another downside of riding in a British winter - the bike was absolutely filthy. Maybe this is why most people wait until Spring to ride their bikes.
But I couldn 't wait. I had to
ride. After a lengthy period riding a IOObhpSuzuki V-Strom I was desperate to feel a bit of power under me again and the squat, muscular CBIOOORwith its 143bhp (from its re-tuned 2006 Fireblade engine) promised to deliver. I was almost dribbling at the prospect of it, but still the rains battered down, the wind blew and continued to howl, and the temperature refused to climb above five degrees.
FINALLY, SUNSHINE!
And then the weather breaks, the clouds part, the sun peeps through, the temperature creeps up, and the roads dry out a bit. I feel like the boys in
Trainspotting about to get their fixfrom Mother Superior. And man, is it good-quality gear. The CBIOOOR+is a higher spec version of the CBlOOORb, ut instead of adding bling for the sake ofbling as is often the case with these models, Honda has bolted on some really useful parts that substantially add to the ride.
Chief amongst these for me are the quickshifter and auto blipper, both of which work as seamlessly as you'd expect on a Honda and are so addictive that I find myself changing gears far more often than I need to, just for the fun of it.
And heated grips! My beloved saviours when riding in winter. For me, they should be standard on every bike . I mean, you'd be a bit miffed if you bought a car and it didn't have a heater, right? Yeah,there's other stuff, but it's mostly cosmetic - a tiny fly screen, a single seat cowl, a radiator grille, and front fender and rear hugger panels - but it's the practical stuff that really does it for me. Being able to just pull on the front brak e lever and then kick down through the box sans clutch is a joy that has me grinning under my helmet, as is the ability to come off a roundabout and just boot my way up through the box, unleashing the bike's full
143bhp as smoothly as applying paint with a roller. Bootiful.
TECH TALK
There's three traction control modes that allow you to ride in 'rain', 'standard' or 'sport ' settings, as well as giving you the opportunity to dial in your own preferred settings in 'user' mode. Happily, the traction control system is not too intrusive so you still feel like you're the one riding the bike and not the other way round.
And when you do twist the throttle hard, that aggressive looking, slash-cut exhaust sounds fabulous and gets the testosterone pumping with every gear change.
The CBIOOORis also very easy to ride - it's one of those bikes you can just jump on and feel like you've ridden it for years. There's nothing non-intuitive about it.
GETTING THE FIX
The only issue with th e bike for me is wind blast at motorway speeds, but that's true of all powerful, naked bikes so it depends what kind of riding you intend to do. If you're into touring it may not be ideal. Upright and well-mannered in town, the CBIOOORsuddenly develops a bit of attitude on fast country roads - something you can't say about every Honda.
And this, for me, is the strongest point of the bike: quite often Hondas work so well and so smoothly that they lack character, not so the CB. It looks distinctive, it sounds aggressive, and it packs plenty of pun ch, too. It could almost be Italian ...
Like blood to a vamp ire, the CBIOOOR+gives me the fix I need and after a couple of hours I head home feeling like life has started again after a miserable winter of hibernation.
I'm a shameless addict, I admit it. And I have no intention of checking into rehab any time soon.