Shubhabrata Marmar from OverDrive(Dec. ’08) rode the incoming Honda CBR1000R in France and came away awestruck…
The 2008 Fireblade is tiny but spectacular relates Marmar. Honda has designed a smashing HRC special edition which is drop dead gorgeous. More importantly in the flesh, the Blade loses some of its awkward oddness and gains the sort of purposeful smoothness that a crouched cat has.
It looks – ready…
Honda says the styling is there for a purpose. In the quest for lightness and mass centralization, the company had no option but to curtail the nose and the tail. Instead of the usual fairing nose which sticks out well over the front wheel, the Blade’s fairing is short, even stumpy and is tucked in. In keeping with the MotoGP trend; the tail section is almost non-existent and the under slung exhaust has removed the sense of bulk it gave the 2007 Blade. From the rear, the 2008 Blade looks superb and the front doesn’t look half bad either.
Handling wise, the Honda is stunning says Marmar. Smooth and gentle, it hums along the road, pulling left and right with ease. Turning on the CBR1000R is as smooth and synchronized as synchro-swim team and every single component in the bike seems to turn in one cohesive movement. Marmar has ridden a few superbikes and nothing ever, he says, has felt so good at high speeds. He likens the Blade to an electric guitar in an unplugged concert. At high speeds, it likes to wail out long solos that leave everything else gasping. During his ride, he reached 180kmph before he knew it… And it wasn’t brutal like the ZX10R either. Smooth as a pickpocket the bike gathered speed almost as it were a side effect even on a partially opened throttle.
Due to French speeding restrictions, the sheer scale of engine performance ability was hard to comprehend says Marmar, but even then the Blade would hardly notice a Porsche GT2 or its ilk. The power and the weight would fling it far past in a blink.
Ride quality wise too, one can’t really complain. The Blade was never harsh, even over broken or bumpy surfaces. The current generation of superbikes all have mind-boggling brakes of course. There’s feel, feedback and one can modulate the pistons into doing amazing things without actual physical exertion.
Honda will offer its combined braking ABS system from the 2009 as an option. The C-ABS system reportedly works transparently. The C-ABS equipped machines have been upgraded into brake-by-wire and a microprocessor decides how much brake force is needed. The system is transparent to the rider in that it only alters brake force and its distribution front to back close to the limits. In effect, the system reduces rear wheel lift under braking, the amount of dive.
Honda is highly likely to bring this motorcycle to India. While there is no official comment or confirmation, OverDrive (Dec. ’08) is expecting the announcement to come between April and June 2009. And June is roughly when the 2009 R1 arrives as well. While the definitive verdict on which is better in India is still far off, Marmar can see a lot of relatively new riders enjoy the Blade a lot more than the committed R1. Prices, odds are, will be similar. And if all goes well, the Suzuki GSX-R1000 should be here as well.
Marmar can now see why the 2008 Blade has received such rave reviews. Where the R1 is committed, effort-intensive and therefore rewarding, the ZX10R is a brutal, blunt weapon and the GSX-R1000 is a marvelous tool that needs to be wielded with skill, the Honda is a soothing balm. All you need to do is keep your wits about you and ride the crest of a towering tsunami of power. A motorcycle with this sort of power and ability should not be so easy to ride. But then again, only Honda can create a package so slick.
The 2008 Fireblade is tiny but spectacular relates Marmar. Honda has designed a smashing HRC special edition which is drop dead gorgeous. More importantly in the flesh, the Blade loses some of its awkward oddness and gains the sort of purposeful smoothness that a crouched cat has.
It looks – ready…
Honda says the styling is there for a purpose. In the quest for lightness and mass centralization, the company had no option but to curtail the nose and the tail. Instead of the usual fairing nose which sticks out well over the front wheel, the Blade’s fairing is short, even stumpy and is tucked in. In keeping with the MotoGP trend; the tail section is almost non-existent and the under slung exhaust has removed the sense of bulk it gave the 2007 Blade. From the rear, the 2008 Blade looks superb and the front doesn’t look half bad either.
Handling wise, the Honda is stunning says Marmar. Smooth and gentle, it hums along the road, pulling left and right with ease. Turning on the CBR1000R is as smooth and synchronized as synchro-swim team and every single component in the bike seems to turn in one cohesive movement. Marmar has ridden a few superbikes and nothing ever, he says, has felt so good at high speeds. He likens the Blade to an electric guitar in an unplugged concert. At high speeds, it likes to wail out long solos that leave everything else gasping. During his ride, he reached 180kmph before he knew it… And it wasn’t brutal like the ZX10R either. Smooth as a pickpocket the bike gathered speed almost as it were a side effect even on a partially opened throttle.
Due to French speeding restrictions, the sheer scale of engine performance ability was hard to comprehend says Marmar, but even then the Blade would hardly notice a Porsche GT2 or its ilk. The power and the weight would fling it far past in a blink.
Ride quality wise too, one can’t really complain. The Blade was never harsh, even over broken or bumpy surfaces. The current generation of superbikes all have mind-boggling brakes of course. There’s feel, feedback and one can modulate the pistons into doing amazing things without actual physical exertion.
Honda will offer its combined braking ABS system from the 2009 as an option. The C-ABS system reportedly works transparently. The C-ABS equipped machines have been upgraded into brake-by-wire and a microprocessor decides how much brake force is needed. The system is transparent to the rider in that it only alters brake force and its distribution front to back close to the limits. In effect, the system reduces rear wheel lift under braking, the amount of dive.
Honda is highly likely to bring this motorcycle to India. While there is no official comment or confirmation, OverDrive (Dec. ’08) is expecting the announcement to come between April and June 2009. And June is roughly when the 2009 R1 arrives as well. While the definitive verdict on which is better in India is still far off, Marmar can see a lot of relatively new riders enjoy the Blade a lot more than the committed R1. Prices, odds are, will be similar. And if all goes well, the Suzuki GSX-R1000 should be here as well.
Marmar can now see why the 2008 Blade has received such rave reviews. Where the R1 is committed, effort-intensive and therefore rewarding, the ZX10R is a brutal, blunt weapon and the GSX-R1000 is a marvelous tool that needs to be wielded with skill, the Honda is a soothing balm. All you need to do is keep your wits about you and ride the crest of a towering tsunami of power. A motorcycle with this sort of power and ability should not be so easy to ride. But then again, only Honda can create a package so slick.
Source: http://www.indiabike.com/infobank/indiabike_articles/cbr_feb09/index.htm
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