Foreword Foreword

For 30 years the Honda CBR Fireblade has been the benchmark big-bore sportsbike for a generation of motorcycle riders. Developed in the late 1980s, when sportsbikes were fast, fat and heavy, Honda’s CBR900RR FireBlade turned race-replica motorcycle design on its head. This was a relatively lightweight machine, featuring mass centralisation and with the focus on agility through the corners, not sheer power in a straight line.

On release in 1992 the CBR900RR became the yardstick for all large-capacity sportsbikes and it was mostly down to one man –the machine’s maverick designer Tadao Baba – who was insistent that a sports bike should be fast and agile. Over the years the Blade moved from 893cc through 918cc, 929cc and 954cc versions: each of which bore the hallmark of Baba-san.

For 2004 the machine became the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade. The capital ‘B’ was dropped in honour of the retiring Baba, but the ante was upped, with an all-new angular styling and under-seat exhaust pipe following Honda’s MotoGP machines. Further new versions came along over the years – each successively more technically advanced until the latest 2022 version which is the pinnacle of sportsbike design.

Out on the track the Blade had a slow start due to capacity rules in the various racing classes. Even early on though, it would win the USA’s Formula Xtreme title and do well in production racing, including at the Isle of Man TT races until the 1000cc model of the Blade could finally compete in World Superbikes, taking the title in 2007 with James Toseland. A total of four British Superbike Championships would be won with Ryuichi Kiyonari (three) and Alex Lowes.

Today after three decades and many model generations the story of the Honda CBR Fireblade continues on both road and track…

Thanks to Yuko Sugeta who helped with the original interviews with Tadao Baba way back in 1998/99.

Thank you to Stuart Barker for help with both the Isle of Man TT exploits of the FireBlade and its World Superbike results and story too.

Thank you as well to the likes of Dave Hancock, Bob McMillan and Phillip McCallen as well as many from Honda UK, Honda Europe and American Honda, big thanks to ex-Honda UK employee Scott Grimsdall. Thanks also to Neil Fletcher, Nick Bennett, Iain Baker, Havier Beltran, John McGuinness, Tom Neave, Glenn Irwin, Ryo Mizuno, Takumi Takahashi and Becky Simms from Redwing Media.

Thanks also to all the journalists who helped with quotes and images (seen in the original Haynes book and this latest updated for Mortons Publishing) and they are: Roland Brown, Andy Findlay, James Wright and Sue Ward from Double Red, Martin Child, Steve Westlake and Olly Duke, Rob Gray, Trevor Franklin, Chris Moss, Marc Potter, Warren Pole, John Cantlie, Alex Hearn, Dan Harris and latterly Alan Dowds and

John Hogan. Satoshi Kogure, Vassilis Karachilous, the late, great Ken Wootton, Jonathan Bentman, Ben Wilkins, Mitch Boehm and the late, Greg McQuide, Dean Adams.

Picture acknowledgements

The biggest of thanks must go to Roland Brown for raiding his archives and then donating most of his fee to Riders for Health/Two Wheels for Life. Thanks to Graeme Brown/2Snap for the excellent Honda WSB shots and Valerio Piccini. Mortons Archive, Erion Racing and Ken Vree, Honda UK, and big thanks to Honda R&D in Japan for reproducing the original model illustrations at no cost whatsoever.

Bibliography

World Superbikes – The First 15 Years (by Julian Ryder) Haynes Great Bikes – The Honda FireBlade (by Rob Simmonds)