Soon, Visordown will find itself at the challenging Portimao circuit in Portugal to sample the new 2024 Honda CBR1000RR-R SP. Or if you’d prefer a name with fewer ‘Rs’, the Fireblade.
We’ve no doubt that it’ll be an incredible machine, but it ought to be, considering the expected cost. A figure hasn’t been revealed at the time of writing, but it’ll likely be somewhere around £25,000, and as the SP is the only version coming to the UK, there’s no way of getting a cheaper new ‘Blade.
But if you’re happy going used, the world’s your oyster. You could save thousands by getting a much earlier version of Honda's current generation, 2020-on CBR1000RR, and although you’re missing out on all the various updates since then, that might not matter hugely if your name isn’t Dean Harrison.
Or, you could go much earlier, and get a bike that’s about one-sixth of the expected 2024 ‘Blade’s cost yet still a very quick bike. And as a bonus, it’ll let you pretend it’s still the early-to-mid 1990s, when superbikes were starting to be a really big deal, and not a forgotten afterthought in an OEM’s line-up as they’re sadly becoming today.
Our chosen bike is a 1995 ‘Foxeye’ CBR900RR currently for sale at Rotate Motorcycles in Bournemouth. It’s not a minter, with only a partial service history and a few non-original parts including a love-it-or-hate-it carbon fibre can and some anodised grips that are just a bit ‘ick’. But all the fundamentals are there, including the Urban Tiger colourway. Whether or not you want to get matching one-piece leathers to really get into the 1990s vibe is up to you - we won’t judge.
While redesigned from the original, twin headlamp CBR900RR, this is part of the same generation as that bike, featuring a 893cc carburetted inline-four cylinder engine. Fuel injection wouldn’t come to the ‘Blade until 2000.
It develops 120bhp at 10,500rpm, and while that doesn't sound like a great deal compared to the whopping 214bhp doled out by the 2024 CBR1000RR-R SP, it's still enough to make the 900RR very fast. And, you'll be able to keep it at full twist for significantly longer before having to back off.
The price for all this is a thoroughly reasonable £4,199. Please buy it before we do.
