More power and torque, a more aggressive riding position and a racier windscreen has added $900 to the price of the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR coming in March.
The standard is $16,899 (+ on-road costs) and the ABS model is $17,899.
Increasing the price is a tough move considering sports bike sales are down, but Honda has been leading the litre sports bike segment for years and actually increased sales by 2.2% to 468 last year, so it needs to safeguard its market leadership.
To that end, Honda has made most of the updates to the 999cc, four-cylinder engine to improve peak power and mid-range torque. After all, that’s what sports bike riders really want.
The inlet and exhaust ports have been re-shaped and polished with the combustion chambers ‘gas-flowed’ to improve efficiency, while the Programmed Dual Sequential Fuel Injection system (PGM-DSFI) has been remapped to match the revised cylinder head. The new map is claimed to provide “accessible power delivery”, especially at low rpm. That probably means it’s more progressive and rideable rather than like a light switch.
The other changes are the result of customer feedback. Rather than wanting a more relaxed riding position, the hard-core sports bike fans seem to want more aggression, so Honda has moved the footpegs 10mm further back, added a race-bubble windscreen and made the handlebars wider.
Unchanged are the slipper clutch developed in MotoGP to prevent rear-wheels lock-up under downshifts, die-cast twin-spar aluminium frame, 43mm inverted Showa forks and rear shock.
It comes in “Pearl Glare White” and “Graphite Black”.
Meanwhile, Honda’s one-off, track-focused, limited edition CBR1000RR SP ($22,499) comes with the option of Team Honda Racing’s Motologic race set-up for an extra $1499. Each CBR1000RR SP can be sent to the headquarters of Team Honda Racing for personalised suspension set-up and dyno tuning. Read about the SP here.
2014 Honda CBR1000RR
2014 Honda CBR1000RR