Upon spotting my first Y2K Fireblade earlier this
year, I tagged it as bland and not worthy of the Fireblade moniker,
purely because it did not instil the same amount of WOW factor
as the original CBR900RRN when that was launched nearly a decade
ago.
Well, let's be fair, that's a tall order to achieve a second
time, let alone get it right first time? Tadao Baba is the man
who invented the CBR900RR, but I think it was some Swedish bloke
that actually came up with the name "Fireblade" - whilst
pissed on Saki? Alright, (for Wayne only) Suzuki did have a go
earlier in the 80's at doing what Honda managed successfully later,
but the 1100BC didn't quite do what the Fireblade did. It looked
alright for it's day and did have an ally frame, with a good power
to weight ratio, but then Suzuki went completely the other way.
The reason they did this is because, at the time, Euroland "sports"
bike riders wanted big heavy bikes with straight line power and
long bendy old chassis, so that's what the Japs built for us,
so it's our own fault. However, when Tadao (T to his mates) designed
the Blade, he wanted a good power to weight ratio, so, voila,
a Fireblade!! 120 odd ponies in a package weighing no more than
185 kgs dry. Unheard of by the other bikes on the road at the
time, so easier to do and to get right first time, because, love
'em or hate 'em, Blades are the business and have been for a long
time, although no Fireblade model since the RRN has quite captured
what that one did. I had an RRN and I had Street Tiger RRR. The
RRR was a nicer all round bike, but Honda had taken the rough
edges from it and somehow spoiled it.
For the past few years the R1 has been top dog and we all thought
that Honda would get it right this year. Well, Honda claim that
the new Blade produces 152 bhp at 11,000 revs and that the bike
only has a dry weight of 170 KGs, so one would think that Honda
had got it right. After the launch earlier this year, and then
comparisons against the Y2K R1 and the Y2K Gixer, it didn't seem
that Honda had done what they did back in '92. The R1 was more
powerful, the Gixer was better on a track and the Blade was not
producing 152 bhp!! If it was, it was losing a lot, certainly
more than you would normally lose, between the crank and the rear
wheel somewhere!
However, as time went on and a few long-term Blades were being
used by the magazines, people started to find the qualities the
bike truly possessed. This was not meant to be a Blade that conquered
all, it was meant to push the other factories that bit harder
to beat them, but certainly not as an all rounder and I believe
that is what the Blade truly is, it's brilliant everywhere, not
just in one department.
How do I know this? Well, I've just bought one and I'm absolutely
delighted with it, below are some of the reasons why.
Chassis - Excellent!! Complimented very nicely by a good suspension
set up front and rear. I must admit, I do now know why Alec Criville
is doing so badly this year in the 500s', it because I have his
swing arm fitted to my bike!! I do and he's not having it back.
It's a work of art. It's also bolted to the rear of the crank
cases and this would explain those funny looking bits of ally
that the footrests are bolted to. The only comparison I can make
to how good it holds a line is a 996 SPS, I do believe it is that
good.
Tyres
- This is the first time I have bought a new bike that comes with
pukka rubber as OE. Bridgestone 010s'. Don't know why they chose
MEZ3s' or 207s' (although these aren't bad) for the SP-1??
Brakes - Excellent!! 330 mm disks, the largest on any mass produced
bike, Honda claim. But, boy do they work. They will be great fun
entering Brakelikfuk curve at the Nurburgring, can't wait.
Looks - Not so excellent at first glance, but they do grow on
you. Blue and Yellow is by far the prettiest, just happens to
be the colours I have.
One odd thing, the coolant reservoir is between the engine and
the exhaust headers/down pipes ... odd place to put that don't
you think? Bit exposed to flying debris.
Controls
- As you'd expect, excellent!!, They all work and are easy to
use and the dash is very easy to read, nice big speedo numbers
flashing away at you - seems to be the order of the day now and
it is very user friendly.
It has 2 trips, again the norm these days and a clock too, so
no one can nick your Casio watch velcroed to the top yoke any
longer, they just nick the whole bike.
Suspension - Front are now USD forks, certainly something Honda
don't normally go for, but these babies work beautifully on the
road, loads of feedback and not overly hard once travelling, but
do seem very firm while at a standstill. That's low and high-speed
damping for you. Perhaps the front is a little bit flappy exiting
bends hard -that could be down to the rear: seems OK, not brilliant,
perhaps it can be improved with some adjustment.
Engine - Clutch is very rumbly on tickover. This will be mentioned
come service time. Other than that? Faultless, but maybe lacking
in character a tad, it doesn't go mental at 8 or 9,000 rpm, but
produces loads more grunt than you might expect from 3,000 rpm,
that may be to do with this H-VIX thingy that it has, but I don't
know. Certainly feels fast enough, even without Ram Air.
Fuelling
- PGM-FI, fuel injection for want of another term. Pretty good,
seeing as Honda have only just started this on mass produced bikes.
I won't call the RC45 mass produced as it wasn't really, but it
did have FI first. The Blade FI is a bit flat at times, but you
get used to these things and work around them. Haven't tried it
in town traffic too much, so can't really comment on it at present.
Gearbox - Well, what can I say, apart from….excellent!!
(in bold letters too) Yes, you read right, Honda have produced
a good gearbox. It really is a joy to use, it's snicks into gear
here and snicks into gear there. It's bloody lovely.
Lights - Good god, there's 5, (five) bulbs up front, 2 x side
lights, 2 x high beam and 1 x dip beam. They work well too turning
night into day at the touch of a button. The light at the back
is red and that's all I know or ever wish to know about it.
Security - It has a thing called H.I.S.S. (his? no mine), this
is Hondas' very own Immobiliser system. Brilliant!!, well, it
would be if NU recognised it. But Honda Link do! (of course),
but hey, aren't they underwritten by NU? Oh yeah, so they are.
Confused? You should be. So I've had a Spyball fitted to it which
is nowhere near as user friendly as the Abletronics one I had
on my Gixer. But it was 150 quid cheaper.
Boot - PUKKA !! Loads of room for your sarnies and weekly food
shopping, just so long as it's a couple of tins of Baked Beans.
The keyhole for this is now below the rear light so it's all been
tidied up a bit from the last efforts.
Comfort - Well, the seat is a bit hard, but you only notice this
if you are mincing around on motorways and I do not intend for
my bike to do hardly any of that unless I'm going somewhere really
nice and need to get there quickly.
Commission for writing this blurb? - None, I just truly love
this bike. It really is a revelation to ride and I seriously recommend,
that anyone wanting an R1 or a Gixer or a Shed X9R, for that matter
should really take a long hard look at the Blade as a better option,
because to be fair, the others don't come close to the Blade when
it really comes down to what you get for your money. I paid £7695
for mine and I think that is excellent value for money, when the
R1 is only a few hundred quid cheaper, the Gixer is now about
800 quid cheaper, so this may be a deciding factor, but would
your Gixer last as well as a Blade? The answer to this is, No,
it won't and that is a fact. I've had a couple and the finish
and quality of them both was not that good. Yamahas? Well, the
last one I had a few years ago had all the bolts work lose in
the oddest places, so it'll be a long time before I go there again.
Anyway, ultimately the decision is your's on what you buy, but
you may make a big mistake to overlook the Y2K Blade.
And
now, some mods
Since
I did my write up on my Blade it appears that Superbike Magazine
agree with what I say and, after very extensive and punishing
road and track testing in France, the Blade IS the Y2K Sportsbike
to have.
Apparently Fast Bikes were the first UK mag to say this, way
back in April, but no one reads it much so only JtP knew this,
as he is an avid reader of Fast Bikes. Tony also found on a recent
marital trip to the Caribbean that Cycle World (US mag) reckoned
the Blade was top dog too.
So with all this fact now coming through it appears that what
I said about the Blade is true. Hahahahaha, I was right all along.
With all this in mind it makes it very difficult to improve on
perfection but, as I am human and have many spanners and such
like in my garage, I do have to try. However, I have since learnt
that it's best to leave modern Japanese engines alone, so no way
will I ever attempt to make the internals different from what
they currently are in my engine. If Honda can't get it right,
then I certainly don't have a cat in Hell's chance.
The bike has now had its first service. There are a couple of
(non Honda) rattles appearing, which I don't like too much, but
can certainly live with when told by a Honda technician, 
.... or "That's nothing to worry about, the clutch is supposed
to rumble that much and the tapping noise you here when starting
from cold is the H-VIX valve". That'll do for me, after all,
the bike's got a 2-year warranty.
Whilst talking to the above-mentioned Honda technician, I asked
him about the H-VIX thingamybob and if the exhaust end can is
developed with this in mind. Of course the answer was "Yes",
but you can still fit an after-market end can to the bike if you
like, with no re-mapping, but it gains you nothing in terms of
performance. Apparently the HRC guys that race Blades around the
world remove the H-VIX valve (it's a bolt on unit) and replace
it with a modified piece of exhaust or remove the exhaust all
together and replace the whole thing, end can et al.
Remembering
all I had been told I was resigned to leaving the exhaust system
on my Blade as it was, but when I was given the opportunity to
buy a secondhand Micron oval titanium end can and polished Harris
bracket, I couldn't resist and bought both for a very competitive
price. These are now attached to my Blade and it looks and sounds
much better.
One thing that did surprise me though was the fact that the standard
end can is about the same weight, or even a few grams lighter,
than the Micron, which is certainly not heavy. In fact, I was
shocked!!
I inspected the inside of the standard can and all it has in
there is an offset baffle tube and very little else, just a few
small bits to keep the noise down, very impressive. I saved more
weight by changing all the mild steel bolts used to hold the can
and bracket on to titanium and alloy than I did by changing end
can - first time that has ever happened!!!!
The
other thing I have done is twiddle with the suspension a bit.
The standard set up is quite firm, so for the forks I have taken
the compression damping out half a turn and the rebound a quarter
turn. The preload I've left alone for the time being. The rear
shock I have taken the compression damping out half a turn and
the rebound half a turn also. All these adjustments have been
done from standard settings. Certainly these are not major adjustments
and there's probably more I can do, but they have helped the bike,
especially the front, over rough uneven road surfaces.
That's about it for the time being, for now I'm just going to
ride the thing. As and when developments take place I'll keep
you posted.
Not being able to resist fiddling about with the Blade for long,
Tet has now decided that Gold Wheels are essential for making
the kind of statement he feels is right for him, so gold wheels
it is.
Painted by a mate of Mark le Plombier, they look
very nice too, in a gold wheel kind of way.
'Course,
the wheels have to be fully stripped before they're painted, so
discs and tyres must be removed, and this includes the tyre valves.
Now, without the proper tool they can be a bugger to get back
on the wheel. If you're a do it yourself tyre person, the easiest
way is to go and buy the proper tool of course, but if you like
a challenge then a deluxe tyre valve extractor thingy that screws
onto the valve can be employed, together with an adjustable spanner
and a suitably sized bit of wood. Adjust the spanner to fit under
the arms of the valve extractor and lever upward using the wood
as a fulcrum on the wheel rim. Job done.
"Broad
bosomed, bold, becalmed, benign,
Stands Tetley's Blade, full square in the salty rhime
Unmatched by vision save in Eastern scene,
Gleam polished wheels, half as gold as green"
 
Another mod that's impossible to resist.
Braided hoses make finer brakes |
