Honda is expected to unveil a lighter, more powerful and more technological advanced CBR1000RR Fireblade at the INTERMOT auto show in Cologne on October 4, 2016.
Excuse us if we don’t get very excited, but lighter, more powerful and more hi-tech just doesn’t seem to cut it anymore as worldwide sales in the sports bikes category continue to spiral downward just as fast as the bikes can go.
In fact, it just means Honda is catching up with Kawasaki, Yamaha and BMW which have raced away over recent years as the Fireblade has spun its wheels for the past seven years.
That’s right! It’s been seven years since the Fireblade had any updates apart from cosmetics and an SP edition.
Honda has tried to inspire some excitement in the coming Fireblade with the release of a lacklustre teaser video, named “Total Control”, which shows very little.
While few details of the 2017 ‘Blade have been confirmed by the Japanese manufacturer, the rumours are rife that Honda will unveil a Fireblade with semi-active Öhlins suspension (probably only on an SP version, while the standard may retain Showa suspenders) and hi-tech rider aids such as traction control, ABS, cornering ABS and anti-wheelie control.
That means you can ride faster without having any greater skills.
Equally as uninspiring is the new styling (according to the spy shots by Sandro Rubinic on Twitter) which seems to be more of the same over-complicated Transformers style we have seen from Yamaha and Kawasaki.
If you enjoy bench racing, debating about poofteenths of a kilowatt and collecting Transformers figurines, the 2017 Honda Fireblade will be a revelation.
For those who enjoy the simple pleasures of riding a motorcycle or are sick of being stuck in third gear on a bike too powerful for our world of the ubiquitous speed camera, it will pass as yet another waste of money and technology.
It’s such a shame, as the Fireblade set the benchmark in this category, not only with power-to-weight ratio, but also with its ease of riding.