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!

TART

Time for a Harris alloy number plate holder. As with all under-seat exhaust bikes, the number plate hangs below, usually on a huge lump of plastic and looks bloody awful.

I wanted to put my own plate/registration on the bike now that I had fallen in love with it and to tidy up the back end too. I'd seen many of these tail tidies advertised, but it was the Harris one that won me over. It cost a bit more, £67.84 (inclusive), but it was well worth it and far easier to fit than the rad guard!!

Basically you just remove the rider seat, rear seat and tail unit, unbolt the old bracket and indicators, careful with the wiring, fit the new bracket, add the original indicators and wrap all the wires together and, er, hey presto, 30 mins later and you're done. Bloody brilliant!!

Things to come next? Another exhaust can and sprayed wheels over the winter, and if I get bored, who knows what ebay could offer up?

STEERING

On a recent trip to the Ardennes it became obvious that there was something not at all right with the front end of the Blade. After due deliberation we decided it had to be the HESD - the Honda Electronic Steering Damper. I harked back to when I'd bought a Gixer 750WX and had experienced a similar problem. I'd cured that by removing the steering damper, but that was a 20 year old design damper. Surely the Honda item had to be better than that?!

Now, before I go any further, the PR blurb for the 2004 onwards Blade was that the HESD was a product of Moto GP and development by none other than Vale himself, so it had to be good. What it also suggests is that the damper should offer no resistance when stationary or at low speeds and that resistance will only increase as speeds and road conditions improve/worsen.

So allen key in hand I removed the plastic covers of the HESD. There was an 8mm headed bolt securing the HESD to the top yoke. I removed the bolt and made sure there was no fouling of the olive jointed connector to the top yoke and proceeded to play around with the damper unit itself.

Moving the damper from side to side by hand, ignition on or off, bike running or not, there was absolutely no difference, far too much resistance. I can only compare it to the old Arrow damper on the RR3 if it were turned well up.

"Even the new electronic steering damper works so well you don’t even notice it, keeping potential tank slappers under control at speed, and effectively switching itself off at very low speeds for good manoeuvrability ..." says MCN. It's pretty obvious that my damper was malfunctioning.

So I left the link disconnected, effectively removing the damper. Riding the bike from Chimay back to Calais the following day in the rain and the dry the steering was suddenly like it should have been all along - back to normal sports bike standards and the Blade was a joy to ride.

It would appear that my unit is faulty, period!! No one else I have spoken to has suffered the poor steering, lack of feel and rapid front tyre wearing problems I have, but now that is all history, as I have fitted a Hyperpro Steering Damper and fitting kit, and what a lovely piece of engineering it is too!!

During removal of the HESD unit, one potential cosmetics nightmare is that when you eventually remove the plastic tank cover (after having to drill and 'easy out' one of the bolts that had been lock tightened in to hold the tank cover on, like I had to) and actually get to the HESD unit to remove it completely, you are left with a huge gap at the front of the tank cover, but those lovely Dutch people at Hyperpro have cleverly shaped the mounting bracket to fit direct to the HESD bracket and as you will see from the photos, it's a very neat job indeed.

Everything fits together extremely well, but I would say the linear damper unit itself is quite a heavy item for what it is, certainly heavier than the Arrow unit I had on my previous two Fireblades, but the mounting bracket is much better, so there are pluses and minuses with everything.

Once the tank cover is removed, it takes approximately 30 minutes to complete the job, all very straight forward indeed and those nice people at Hyperpro even supply you with a resistor to plug into the cable for the HESD warning light on the dash, so you don't have a huge red light glaring at you all the time when the bike is running. This problem I had already overcome by purchasing a resistor from Maplin Electronics and doing the job myself. The resistor I used was a 10 watt, 6.8 ohm affair. The red light certainly does not flash once the bike is running to warn me there is no HESD unit fitted to the bike, but it hasn't been endurance tested yet. Needless to say I'll carry a few spares, just in case.

The damper unit has 23 clicks of adjustment, turning the adjuster fully clockwise is the hardest damping setting and the manual says not to ever ride with it adjusted to max, maybe it's because it would feel too much like the HESD?? But I have set mine at 2 clicks from minimum to start with and don't ever expect to use many more clicks than that.

EXHAUST

Due to the outright speed my Fireblade will go, I didn't ever expect to start buying exhausts and things to make the bike go any faster, but the 2006 Fireblade has a lighter exhaust and I wanted a lighter exhaust too, saves buying a new bike you see. One other criticism of the Honda is that it is too quiet, even the 2006 model is still very quiet giving out only 92db at 5800 revs.

The muffler / endcan part of the OE exhaust is made from stainless steel and for a good reason too I believe as it gets caked in all that the rear tyre can throw at it, so why have exotic metals there when they only get trashed by everything the British roads can deposit on them?

So, one winter's day when perusing Fireblade pages on E-Bay, I bid for a brand new Stainless Steel Micron Beta Race can and won it for £102, being roughly half price and sold and despatched from Colchester Motorcycles.

Here's a tip, if you can, get someone else to fit your after market end can as it's a pain in the arse to do, from start to finish it took me 2 ½ hours!! Just as well the bike won't require an MOT for a couple of years yet!

Anyway, after removing the side heat shields, foot rest hangers, rear seat unit, number plate hanger and every other conceivable piece of motorbike that gets in your way, the OE end can is easy to remove. One bit that was tricky is the removal of the exhaust valve cables. To get these tucked well out of the way I had to unbolt the tank and lift it up to get to the area of the engine below the injectors and behind the starter motor, this is where I have cable tied the two cables as the bike will still think there is an exhaust valve and these cables will still need to move, (not sure if there will be a noticeable difference without the exhaust valve though??).

The Micron replacement is also easy to install and bolts in place quite nicely. I say 'quite nicely' as it is not perfect. When the end can is in place, it seems to sit at a slight angle and just will not sit quite as flush as I'd like, but it's not too bad and does look better than the OE exhaust, even though the Micron can is stainless the whole replacement unit is still 1.5 kgs lighter than the OE one, therefore lighter than the exhaust on the new Fireblade. Brilliant, mission accomplished!!

However, there is one downside and also another reason why an exhaust such as this is cheap. This reason is that it does not have a removable baffle as many aftermarket road/race cans do, but it does have a 54mm outlet to let the gases and noise flow and by Christ does it sound good and is quite loud at 102db at 5800 revs, so no bloody good for the 'Ring or any other track days. Oh well, sod it, I'll source myself a removable baffle, I've seen them advertised somewhere.

SPROCKET

One more thing I have done to the Blade and that is change the rear sprocket. Doing 3rd gear roll-ons with a K5 last year would leave the Blade too far behind. This was also a another criticism of the Blade, not enough pull through the mid range, so I have lowered the gearing by replacing the 40 tooth sprocket with a 42 tooth sprocket, courtesy of B&C Express supplying me with a Renthal item, so again about 5 x lighter than the standard one with a set of silver ally sprocket nuts to suit too. So too have Honda fitted a 42 Tooth rear sprocket on their 2006 Blade model too, so really, my bike is not that far off the 2006 spec in terms of weight and gearing and certainly has a far superior steering damper on it now too.

It's probably pointless for me to say that nothing else will be bought for the Blade, as you never know, not sure what it really needs though, but no doubt something will pop up somewhere.

It's not been a winter of discontent at my place; it's been a winter of being busy fettling with my beloved Blade. The finishing touch for this winter was a full Arrow race exhaust system to compliment the BMC Air filters and the Power Commander 3, I just have to load the correct fuel map now.

So here I am, 5 hours after starting the job, with a full exhaust system now on the Blade and looking very nice indeed. The whole system saves me 2.65 kgs in weight, but what I really like about it is the fact that you can get rid of the heatshields and the other bits and bobs that make the bike difficult to get to when cleaning it, so you save a bit more weight and enhance the looks no end. Add to this a 9.2 bhp increase, once correct fuel map is loaded, and it makes the idea seem pretty worthwhile.

The end can I have is a titanium one and the rest of the system is some sort of stainless stuff, with loads of springs holding it all together. The can has a removable baffle as most systems do these days, and there is a whacking great circlip holding the baffle in, but it still gives a nice note. Needless to say the baffle won't be in that much anyway.

The complete system is in many parts. Last night, before I started on the full fitment task, I connected the headers with the downpipes, these being numbered 1 to 4. There is a reason for this: number 1 pipe goes on to number 1 cylinder, which if you don't know is on the left hand side of the bike as you sit on it. This is not in the fitting instructions, but it doesn't take much to work out, especially if you put 1 and 2 downpipes on cylinders number 3 and 4, as it just won't fit to the remainder of the exhaust parts, so you cannot fit it incorrectly ….. but I managed it, although I was advised that number 1 cylinder is always where the camchain is.

Looking at my engine it appears the cam chain is on the right hand side of the engine, so I fitted pipes 1 and 2 and found out they were on cylinders 3 and 4. This expert advice could be a bit confusing if your cam chain is in the middle of the engine too, so follow my instruction, number 1 is on the left and work your way through. Also, top tip here, fit number 3 downpipe first, it's the most difficult to get to as the cooling fan sits rather close to it. Also, do not connect the 2 springs to the header and downpipe (of number 3), as that makes life difficult to get to the nuts when fitting it all back together.

The rest are fairly simple to get to with a 10mm spanner. Careful doing the nuts up though, do not over-tighten, and I couldn't get my torque wrench in there. Remember, it's ally that the head is make of. Do make sure the headers them selves sit flush against the exhaust gaskets in the cylinder head, they can be a little out if you are not careful, so check that they are sitting correctly. If not you will find that, when tightening the nuts back up, the studs will not be flush with the ends of the nuts. When the nuts feel quite tight but you cannot see/feel the stud in the middle of the nut, take the header off and check the seating of the header onto the cylinder head.

To fit a full system, you do have to strip off the lower side panels, seats, and rear tail unit, but I did not have to remove the number plate and indicator frame work, as mine is not standard, it's from Harris Performance Products. The Arrow instructions say you do, but they are assuming our bike is totally standard. I also saved my self some time as I was removing a Micron end can, so I have already done away with the exhaust valve paraphernalia, so it really was just a case of remove the old and on with the new. It's best to give yourself plenty of time to ensure it's all fitted OK and I must admit, I'm glad I did, it's not a job you want to rush.

At the end of it, I was left with a few bits and pieces left over: I had 2 bolts with nuts and washers, 2 radiator brackets, (oh yeah, you only have to remove the lower bolt of the radiator to give yourself a bit more room to get to the header nuts), 1 short spring, 1 exhaust clamp, 3 stickers (small), 3 empty boxes and loads of plastic bags and packaging. Oh, and one old Honda exhaust system that now clutters up my garage. The Micron end can will go on e-bay at some point. The radiator brackets supplied are for a 2004-05 and a 2006-7 model blade, (yes, same exhaust system for both models), but the brackets are not as good as the Honda one, so I used the original.

The 4 downpipes go into 2 x 2 into 1 sections that divert either side of the lower part of the sump, they don't touch anything, and then go into a 2 into 1 pipe that leads to the end can and link pipe, it's so simple it's untrue and I must admit, it does fit perfectly. Just remember to use all the high temperature grease stuff you get as it helps everything slot together perfectly and fills your garage with smoke when you start it up.

My compliments go to Arrow once again. I have fitted several of their systems to my bikes over the years and I really can't fault the quality and the way it all fits so nicely, you can see why top race teams use their products, they really are best in class.

Through the Winter of 2007/08, I bought quite a few bits and pieces for the Blade to 'freshen' it up a bit. Some of these were purely cosmetic, but some of them were functional and perhaps even performance enhancing. The biggest spend was the full Arrow Race system.