Clinton Pienaar flies to Portimao for the world launch of the new Fireblade RR and SP versions, he comes back impressed, these are his words.
Before I even rode the bike I kind of knew what it was going to feel like. Honda is a bit of a predictable manufacturer and is going to please the masses rather than the few lunatics out there who always want the cutting edge. For want of a better word in the bike market, it’s almost as if Honda chose to be the Toyota model because everybody drives one and it might not win most competitions but it will always push hard for a podium place in all departments. But I am happy to say that with Honda’s new model I was sorely mistaken!
Let me start off by saying the images do the bike absolutely no justice! In real life it’s small, gorgeous and light. When just sitting on the bike it feels very light and more like a 600cc than a litre sports bike.
Even the howl of the exhaust sounds different and it’s loud for a standard pipe. There are three colours on offer on the standard RR bikes; those being Matt Ballistic, Black Metallic and Victory Red, and this was the bike we were given for our fi rst outing on the circuit. It is shod with road-going Bridgestone S21tyres and fi tted with the optional quick shifter up and down which is standard on the SP version. I’ve always said it; you don’t need 10 laps to say if a bike corners well or handles well. The start of the lap down the pit lane, flicking left to right, already gave me the right impression. From there on it was sublime and the SP version was still to come. I had the privilege of going out behind Freddie Spencer and Steve Plater for our first few sighting laps and then they started pushing on a bit. Luckily I knew the track from my previous visits there and could vaguely hold on for a while longer. They did say that I shouldn’t follow too closely and have other bikes in the picture, so that was my excuse and I’m sticking to it. Still quite a privilege doing this as a job hey!
Let me tell you a little more about the test track so you get a better perspective of the bike’s handling attributes. Portimao is almost 5 kilometres long and, by far, has to be the most undulating circuit in the world with blind rises over crested mine shafts at the other side. It has a few hairpin bends with faster corners, all with undulations, and the most ballsy high speed right hand bend which starts as an off camber sweep, dives downhill as you start gaining traction as you get into the dip for a crest, as you change to sixth onto the start and finish straight. From there, it’s tucked in behind the small fairing, and I saw 290km/h once and that was at the end of the day. You have a downhill braking zone for a 3rd gear right corner but not once did I feel I braked late enough.
This is a man’s track and it needs a properly sorted bike to make you feel safe and both these bikes did just that. It will be interesting to see what final pricing in SA will be but rumours have the RR at about R240k without the up and down quick-shifter and the SP model at hopefully below R300k. Don’t even ride the bike out of the shop without the optional quick-shifter; It is that good! It is the new standard and you even have three settings to adjust how hard the lever pressure must be for selecting the next gear for both up and down. The blips with down-shifts are spot on and soon all bikes will have this technology. When braking for a corner you only concentrate on not locking up the front wheel. Oh no, you don’t, the 3 axis IMU system does that for you with the ABS on standby so you can just sit there and relax and gear down because the engine revs match the road speed. Hell, it’s even got a slipper clutch that does that for you should you get too eager with your down shifts. The point I’m trying to make here is that bikes nowadays, and specifically this Blade, improve the normal man’s riding ability quickly, but, make no mistake; you still need all hands on deck because it’s still a missile. It will bite hard and it will not suffer fools!
Let’s get the basics out of the way. This is a new bike from the floor up because 90% of the major components are new. While the CBR retains its familiar 998cc liquid-cooled, inline-four mill, a host of engine updates have provided a claimed 11hp increase in peak output with a 750rpm higher rev ceiling of 13,000rpm. Predicted figures are around 190hp. A modest boost of bottom-end torque also provides improved everyday street performance that any rider can appreciate along with its revised slipper / assist clutch’s 17% lighter pull action.
Torque figures are similar to the previous model but it comes in much earlier with the max still at 11,000rpm. The exhaust valve helps with this and the low down punch is easily felt. Compression ratio is up 0.7 to 13.0 to 1. Honda is not competing in the all out war of being the most powerful bike out there but has rather gone for their original ethos which has given this bike a 14% power to weight improvement over its immediate predecessor but, shockingly, a 65% improvement over the old original CBR900RR which set the world alight all those years ago.
This is also Honda’s first fly-by wire 4-cylinder bike. Small weight savings in several engine and chassis components have dropped the curb weight to 195kg. A world first on the SP version is a titanium tank which saves 1.3kg from the standard RR version. Interestingly it’s where this weight is saved which makes for such a remarkably light feeling bike. Again on the SP version you have a Lithium Ion Battery which is again 1kg lighter. Tokico calipers are fitted to the standard bike, while Brembos are fi tted to the SP, and a further change is the Öhlins electronic suspension which is fitted to the SP version while the standard bike still runs Showa. Expanding the bike’s Total Control ethos is the electronics suspension package.
With this suspension (SP version only) set to automatic mode, it will automatically adjust to your riding technique and speed. Honda takes it further still and this took me a while to get my head around. They divide every corner into three parts which, for me in the past with my racing, was always a compromise to get a good setting. Honda has a braking and tipping-in zone, then a mid-corner zone and an accelerating zone. When you are out on track, and you decide that at a specifi c corner (and it would obviously be at the one where you are braking the hardest) that the bike is doing something that you do not like, you can then pull into the pits and delve into just the braking aspect of the bike. All other settings for mid-corner and acceleration will stay the same. You can do that over and over until you get braking 100% right.
Then you can work on mid- corner or acceleration. For the hell of it I had Freddie as my mechanic. Every two laps I came into the pits and Freddie messed around with the bike settings. I could feel the changes and sometimes we made the wrong choices but no screwdriver was used and you can default back to base settings every time which, let me tell you, are as close to perfect as you could get. I have not even started telling you about the other riders aids, like rear wheel lift detection, which gradually lets the front brake go just enough to bring it down gradually.
The Fireblade has also got 9 levels of traction control which you can also switch off completely, if you so wish, as well as wheelie lift control. The wheelie lift control is affected by the amount of TC you want. The IUM communicates every 10 milliseconds and can effect changes in that time. Just a word on the wheelie control; I tried and you quite quickly get to the point where you trust the electronics and I tried to open the throttle fully out of corners and over rises and then, when the wheelie was too high, the wheelie control took away power but did not give it back to me immediately.
So I found myself rather riding the bike in the old school way, where I was in control of the front wheel and, in doing this, just knew I had a parachute on my back should I take it too far. I started lapping faster, so although the electronics are great, you must not ride the bike against them but rather use them as a safety bracket should you take things too far. You’ve even got 5 power selections which either give you all the power in all the gears in level 1 or adjusts full power in the last 2 to 3 gears. Level 5 is for rain weather so I tried it for a lap but what’s the point?
I bet you Nicky Hayden wouldn’t tune his down. You’ve also got three levels of engine braking selection and all three of the South African journos had our own preference.
The dash is also the new standard in the superbike world and you have two layouts to choose from while riding by the flick of a button and those are circuit and street. When you come into the pits you even have a mechanic’s mode which shows all vital information to do with the bike’s health.
So, how does the Fireblade compare to its rivals must be the question?
I’m going to answer it in the most honest way I can. I don’t know how good the new Suzuki is going to be but I have spent quite some time on the others. Yes, this Blade did feel fast but I was at sea level so even that is a 17% difference in feel but I still came away saying that if the RR BMW is going to be faster it will only be by a smidgeon. What I can say, and I feel confident in saying this, is that the new suspension (especially on the SP model) is the new industry standard as well as the quick-shifter up and down. The dash is straight out of a high end exotic car and the bike is really easy to ride and ride fast. Honda has taken a long time to bring this bike out and I, for one, could not fault it at anything.
Well, maybe the wheelie control a little, but then I could correct it quite easily with my input. All these electronics are making faster bikes safer to ride and I predict a bit of an upswing in superbike sales because the offering now is so good. I could quite easily see a bike like this is my garage. Don’t be surprised to see Honda eat back its market share in this segment, this bike is that good.
The SP comes in Victory Red and in HRC Tri Colour and the SP2 in HRC Tri Colour with a lighter metallic blue colour.
Some facts on the SP2:
Only 500 will be produced over the next two years, starting in March this year. HRC and Sports kits for this bike will be announced in March as well. This bike is hoping to build on the legacy of the previous Blades which have 23 TT wins, 43 WSBK wins and 9 Suzuka 8 Hour Endurance wins to their name.
To find you closest Honda dealer go to www.honda.co.za
