ULTIMATE SPORTS BIKE 2023
What’s interesting about the Fireblade is that unlike the other bikes on this test – pumped-up trick homologation versions of existing bikes in their ranges, so BMW and Ducati can go racing – the Fireblade was made from day one as a race bike. It’s true that there is an SP version, but don’t be fooled – that’s not a homologation special, it’s just a special version with some nice added touches.
It’s easy to forget just how big a shift away from the concept and architecture of the previous Fireblade this latest-generationbig ‘ol soft lump that never stood a chance against, well, pretty much all the other litre bikes when it came to racing. It was around in one form or another since 2008, so by 2020, when this one came out, it was well past its sell-by date. Don’t get me wrong, in many ways the old one was a better bike than this latest Fireblade, but as a race bike it was hopelessly outclassed. So, Honda did what it is often prone to doing and built a bike to go racing with, adding it to the range as a standalone model. Think of Honda’s most extreme bikes from the past, such as the RC30, RC45, SP1 and SP2 – none of them were pumped-up versions of another model, just race bikes added to Honda’s model line-up. It’s convenient that the Fireblade was well overdue an update, and the name itself carries so much kudos, otherwise in another era, the bike we have here could just as easily have an RC prefix. The latest Fireblade is a homologation special in all but name.
