The CBR900RR - Tadao Baba's total control machine. Released at a time when the hottest road machines were the overweight GSXR1100 and the slow steering Yam Exup, the Blade moved the goalposts about 25 miles away.

Wandering into Motorcycle City in Clapham one day there's a black and silver Blade marked up at £6,000 - and a decent trade-in for my Exup. It would be rude not to ...

So one week and a banker's draft later I'm riding away in total control on Tadao's marvellous invention, wrapped around the biggest petrol tank in the world. After the Exup this was a complete revelation. The easiest, quickest steering I had ever experienced. It felt like you never needed to slow down for corners, just turn the bars and throw the thing on it's side.

Brakes dynamite, gearbox a tadge notchy, light cable clutch with loads of feel, nice step in the power band around 7000 rpm - just right to unstick that floaty front end when giving it some torment. And special little holes in the bellypan to aid something or other in the aerodynamic department at speed. Phwar .. this is a race bike, no mistake.

But as the speed increased that 16" front wheel with it's new fangled Bridgestone rubber did get a little tucky, and a fair few Blades got thrown down the road after losing the front.

But 185 kilos and 110 bhp were the stuff of GP circuits. Other than the YZF750 nothing could match the Blade down a good twisty road .... unless there was a hump backed bridge, or some biggish bumps, or smallish ones come to that. Then the Blade's front wheel left terra firma for rather longer than was ideal, and tended to land with a bit of a slap on. Heavier bikes with a more planted front could go through pretty much flat, but try that on the Blade and you'd be spitting out bits of hedge and birds' nests. I should have fitted a steering damper, but we didn't really know what they were so never thought of it.

The famous cubby hole under the pillion saddle was brilliant. Loads of room for toolkit etc. plus spare gloves, waterproofs, even a useful boy scout if you could find one small enough. The first bike with a flip-up boot. Come to that, the only bike with a flip-up boot.

Problems? Not many .. the pegs were a bit low, but then so were other bikes'; sports bikes were more comfy in those days. So a bit more grounding on tracks days but that all added to the fun. And after the stately Exup this bike was all about fun.

Honda calmed it all down a bit for the following model, the Urban Tiger thing. Too many riders had stacked their RRNs and they weren't always "meeting the nicest people" on their Hondas. Meeting too many nurses and policemen instead.

So that was the end of the beginning for the Blade.

And nothing since has ever come close to imitating that amazing leap in bike technology. Forget your Ducatis, esoteric Bimotas and the like; OK, so Suzuki did it in '85 with the GSXR750R, but the CBR900RR did it better - and it had more Rs in it.