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Rothmans Blade

 
  2005 Fireblade

I have been riding like a complete girl. Not the thing to do on the new 'Blade so I stopped for a fag and then I decided to start riding it a bit more properly. But I was still feeling a bit reserved, waiting for it to do something wrong, but of course it didn't. It's so damn easy to ride, it does everything so well.

The seat is harder than the RR-3 and the bars are lower, with foot pegs a bit higher. Not uncomfortable, but not AS comfortable as the last model. Still, it certainly is a totally different beast. I've set the gear change light to come on at 6500, as matey in the shop said "don't take it over 6000", so I thought another 500 revs won't hurt. I'll tell you what though, weekday afternoons are a great time of day to do back roads, there's no bugger on them! I did a favourite little run in the bowels of sunny Sussex and saw one car and two pushbikes all the way along there, bloody lovely.

Once run in I was trying 4th gear roll-ons with a Gixer K5 I saw an indicated 181 mph and she was still pulling - the K5 leaps ahead on initial throttle response, but once the Blade gets going there's very little in it. This seems to be the way the Honda delivers it's power, seemingly there is very little torque mid range and all the power comes by the bucket load from 7,000 rpm onwards. Takes a bit of getting used to, but excellent fun on the twisties. Just keep it revving.

Although not the quickest steering of the latest supersportsters, the Fireblade is lovely mid-corner and it encourages great lean angles.

By the way, I managed to get a puncture kit, a visor cleaning bottle, two dusters and the Honda tool kit under the rear seat, but what a squeeze!!! I took the front one off to see if there was any room under there, but no way man, there is zilcho room there for anything.A trip to France proved that luggage strapping is easy enough with a couple of bungies, but my experimental flameproof velcro strap under the exhaust didn't last long!

  Tetley's Rothmans Rep Blade

It is well known in the industry that 2007 was the last of the good 1000cc Superbikes. Since then manufacturers have had to add gimmicks to sell their bikes to us: traction control, power reducing switches (huh?), ABS braking etc. But in reality, the older ones are the best ones. So, if you own a 2005 Blade, have spent time and money getting it to how you want it, why would you part with it for something that is not quite what you want? I myself nearly took the plunge and went for the HRC coloured Blade, but decided against it. Admittedly though, mine was in need of a makeover.

Whilst surfing on e-bay, and as I am sure many others have noted, China produces replica fairings for almost any superbike, spraying them in money-parting colours and offering them at silly prices. I umm'd and aahd about this for a long time and after seing a Blade in Rothmans colours in Superbike mag some time ago I knew that was the colour scheme for me, and lo and behold, the Chinese just so happened to do that exact colour scheme. So I parted with my £290 (including P&P) and ordered them up.

A week later a huge box arrived with all the panels nicely packed inside, no damage noted and everything looked OK for the money.

This weekend I decided to do the makeover. I started on Friday evening and finished on Sunday afternoon, naturally with breaks and sleep in between, but all in all, I would guess at 10 hours work to get it right.

The first thing you notice is that the majority of the lugs inside the panels are pre-drilled with 5mm threads. As Honda use a lot of plastic pop in, pop out fasteners, this posed a problem, but not one you can't get around.

The places in which these are used most are; the rear tail unit for securing the vent mesh either side and on the inside on the lower side panels which is tricky. I used 5 x 12 and 5 x 16 mm flat head screws with 5 mm washers and locking washers, I managed to get all of them except 2 that sit mid way down the inner panel and that is only because you need a stubby screwdriver to clear the front wheel. In time I shall probably replace these with allen head screws, but my local DIY store didn't have any, so I had to make do. Oh, one extra tip, the Honda brackets that secure the rear light assembly do need to be bent around a bit to ensure you do not stress the lugs on the pattern panel as they will break off, as I found, but nothing some super glue, care and patience won't solve.

Another thing you will notice if you ever venture in this makeover direction is that the holes do not line up perfectly where the pattern fairing has to align to the frame lugs, but there isn't much in it, a couple of mm here and there, and with a bit of pulling and pushing you can persuade it all to fit.

Be careful not to over tighten some of the screws, as the lugs on the pattern fairings are plastic welded, but not to the standard and quality of Honda. This is probably why it took so long to get the panels fitted, but now they are on I imagine they will go back on again much easier.

I have decided to leave the wheels blue for the time being and even left the original front mudguard in place as the blue of this and the new panels matches quite well.

In summary the finished article looks very good. The paint finish is not up to Dream Machine quality, but for 290 quid what do you expect? And the added bonus is you have a spare set of OE panels!

Good luck to anyone that goes this route, but be patient, allow time and have some DIY know-how and you will have a bike that looks nice and fresh and save you a fortune compared to buying a new bike.