A welcome advantage of the relocated exhaust is the larger, albeit still miniscule, storage area under the pillion seat. Enough for a puncture kit, toolbox and a phone - and as there's no exhaust under there they won't get cooked any more. No more pies then.

The front indicators are now stuck on the front of the mirrors, which makes the mirrors rather bulbous affairs and perhaps not suited to too much urban riding, where 4x4 mumtrucks can instigate the odd bit of mirror to mirror action when you're cutting through the queues. Prepare for more expensive replacement!

Quite a few changes have been made to tweak the bike and get it ready to challenge its competitors.

One of the most obvious differences is the small rear seat unit, aping the MotoGP bikes. The big drawback with this on the road is a wet arse - there is much less protection from all the crud and spray from in the wet. But the number plate bracketry does provide a useful bungy point for luggage.

The HESD steering damper has now got smaller and is hidden under the tank cover, so looks neater. It operates in the same way as before, altering the damping rate according to road speed. Well, that's the theory although we have seen a couple pack up.

Unsprung weight of around a kilo is saved with the new lightweight wheels, callipers and brake discs.

In the engine department the ceramic cylinder sleeves have been dumped and the walls are now direct plated, allowing Honda to increase bore to 76mm and reduce stroke by 1.5mm. Various lighter components save a couple of kilos or so.

The relocation of the exhaust is part of Honda's mass centralisation, moving the weight low down underneath the engine to help with quick direction changes at high speed. The system retains 2 exup valves and the oxygen sensing catalyser.

Honda admit that they have added the slipper clutch because other manufacturers are introducing them, but state that they have overcome the usual problems of freewheel and stiff clutch action with their new design, which uses undercut cams to force the plates back together quickly when the throttle is opened. They also state that the slipper should not engage in normal downshifts, so maintaining engine braking. Clutch action is now lighter they say, so the Blade is back to a cable clutch. Hooray for that!

The frame is redesigned to be stiffer by 40% and stronger whilst saving 2.5 kilos. The new steering head casting now allows for ram-air ducts. Fork offset is upped to 27.5mm and the new gullarm swingarm is 16mm longer. Overall the roll inertia is reduced by 13%, improving turn-in and direction changes at speed.

Suspension is unchanged which is no bad thing.

In summary the changes are:

Strange bulgy nose cowl
Ram air ports integrated into front cowl
Rear-view mirrors with integrated indicator lights
More compact instrument panel design
Smaller, lighter and more compact seat and tail cowl
2.5kg lighter, more compact engine with sleeveless plated cylinders and lighter internals for stronger, faster power delivery
Slipper clutch for smoother downshifts and lighter clutch feel
Compact, new underslung exhaust system improves mass centralisation
Lighter and narrower 4-piece cast aluminium frame
Gull-wing design hybrid aluminium swingarm
Lighter hollow-section triple-spoke wheels
Monoblock front disc brake callipers with aluminium pistons and 6-point floating rotors
Revised steering damper
Aluminium sidestand

Compared to the 2007 Blade the new bike is a tadge sharper everywhere. Well bonkers for the roads and the only thing that'll let you go quicker is x-ray vision.