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. Also, the coolant reservoir is between the engine and the exhaust headers/down pipes?? Odd place to put that I think? It's highly visible too.

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 does seem very user friendly too. It has 2 x trip, 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. Rear seems OK, not brilliant, but then again the shock is for 2 people, not one. However, I will soften it up a bit and try it then, but not too much or you lose the feel.

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 over look 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. The back seems to be damping better on the rebound too and isn't as uncomfortable as it was.

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