Honda CB1000R
Maxabout Review
Best Looking Naked Bike
Friday, February 27, 2009
For years now, Honda’s popular lineup of Performance Naked motorcycles have consistently set the stage for exciting riding fun coupled with slim, lightweight proportions and cool, attractive looks that set hearts on fire. Gauging recent trends in the litre-class European street bike scene, Honda’s development team set out to create a bold new statement in Performance Naked design, incorporating many of the latest innovations developed for its cutting edge line-up of high-performance super sports bikes.
The exciting new CB1000R will surely write a whole new chapter in Performance Naked motorcycle design for years to come. In conceptualising their new Performance Naked street scorcher, the CB1000R’s development team set out to convey the powerful impression of performance in a bike that looks fast even standing still.
Looking to create a bike that can be just as fun and thrilling to ride casually prowling around the streets of the city as tearing up the twisties outside of town, the team adapted recently developed and proven engine and chassis components that could together provide the desired range of top performance in a compact configuration that more people could fully enjoy.
With this fun-loving image firmly in mind, the CB1000R’s development team set about making a compact, great-handling midsized bike that packs an eye-opening punch of exhilarating litre-class acceleration with each and every twist of its throttle. The new CB1000R features a dynamic, hard-edged design that immediately grabs attention with its unmistakeable look of muscular performance. As cool to look at as it is a blast to ride, its lightweight form shows off its sharply styled bodywork and sculpted mechanical parts to riveting effect.
The bold styling projects a wild ‘Bar Star’ image with cool, sophisticated lines that evoke a big jungle cat poised and ready to pounce on its prey. Much of this aggressive impact is embodied in the CB1000R’s distinctive ‘mass-forward’ orientation, which positions the rider slightly forward and seemingly above its dynamic inline-four engine.
Its short and slim tail cowl and brawny forward-tilted fuel tank and side cowls further convey an image of awesome ‘Twist King’ street performance. Mechanical parts like its magnesium head and ACG covers and natural finish aluminium pivot plates exude a high-tech look of purposeful performance, accentuated by the eye-catching array of nickel-plated Allen-head bolts that describe the outer perimeters of the engine’s side covers.
The new CB1000R’s remarkably short and slim seat and tail cowl takes obvious design cues from the newly redesigned CBR1000RR Fireblade and Honda’s powerful RC212V MotoGP racer before it. Its compact form locates the rider closer to the steering head, for a riding position that shifts the CB1000R’s balance of weight slightly forward onto its front tyre, achieving a greater feeling of crisply responsive control along the winding roads that sports bike riders love so well.
Up front, the CB1000R’s compact bikini cowl surrounds a brilliant new three-corner shaped multi-reflector headlight with a distinctive LED position lamp integrated into its ‘chin’. Behind that cowl resides an eye-catching, high-tech, fully digital meter panel featuring three large LCD readouts of all operating information.
Even its tachometer features an instantly responsive multisegment LCD readout of engine speed displayed in a wide, sweeping bar that extends across the entire upper side of this compact unit. Below, a large, highperformance inverted front fork complements a robustly styled single-sided Pro-Arm swingarm, while both support stylish 17" swept 4-spoke wheels that provide a strong accent on the CB1000R’s exciting performance potential.
Remarkably, the CB1000R looks and feels more like a compact mid-sized sportbike than the full-bodied litre-class performer it really is. Once seated aboard, its compact form and easy reach to both the ground and its controls are simply extraordinary in this class of Naked road machines.
Its comfortable seat narrows at the front with a shape that smoothly integrates with its side covers and cast aluminium pivot plate, offering a slim and pleasurable position for fully satisfying riding enjoyment. Behind the roomy, tapered seat, the CB1000R’s sleek and compact upswept tail cowl, supported by a strong and rigid cast aluminium rail, confidently carries a pillion passenger and integrates an attention-getting LED taillight into the underside of its tail.
A long and slim moulded plastic arm extends out from under the seat cowl to provide support for the licence plate holder and rear indicators. The new CB1000R’s compact yet powerful 998cc liquid-cooled fuel-injected inline-four engine ably delivers the breathtaking power and brilliantly responsive performance one expects from a litre-class street performer.
Its high-energy thrust of excitement is generated from a direct descendant of Honda’s racewinning Super Sport powerhouse, the exceptional 2007 CBR1000RR Fireblade, winner of the 2007 World Superbike Championship.
Rather than peak power, it is torque, especially in the midrange, that is the real ‘power’ experienced when the throttle is opened. That strong thrust of acceleration you feel pulling at the handlebars and pressing you firmly back in the seat are the signs of powerful torque working to produce maximum excitement, rather than just maximum power generating big numbers. In racing, it is torque that pulls a motorcycle quickest out of the corners or up the hills.
The CB1000R is a whole new bag for Honda, designed with Europe, using a retuned version of the 2007 FireBlade engine and with 2008 FireBlade forks and brakes, a beautiful single-sided swingarm and fabbo styling. Now, Honda India has launched the CB1000RR in Indian Market at an ex-showroom price of Rs. 12 lakhs.Honda reckons its brand new CB1000R has all the style, dynamics and performance to go head to head with any of the current opposition.