LAUNCH HONDA FIREBLADE
S ome bikes just sound that little bit naughtier than others, that little more special, but even then, few come close to the audible ecstasy that was booming from the ’24-spec Blade as I rounded Portimao's final corner. Throaty, deep, and suggestive of absolute lunacy, you'd be forgiven for thinking I was on some trick racebike, with kit electronics and more firepower than you'd find down the local army range. To cut to it, it's obvious this wasn't the Blade of last year – not just by sounding different or looking different, but also riding different, too. A few days earlier, I'd been primed for this by Havier Beltran, Honda Racing UK's team manager, at its headquarters, where he'd gone through the mass of changes that have put the Honda on a whole different level to the two versions we've seen hit the market since 2020. The list was long and impressive, and chief among the tweaks was the introduction of split-throttle bodies, which meant that while cylinders one and two would be set to kick off the initial part of the punch out of a bend, the other duo would be moderating constantly to maximise the delivery of the remaining ponies as lean angle was reduced and the throttle position got cranked open. Why? Well, it turns out Honda came to realise that accessing the latter model's armwrenching 214bhp was nothing short of terrifying at times… for both the rider and the rear tyre.
While there is undoubtedly so much to love about the revolutionary Blades of the last few years, I'd be lying if I said the either of the 2020-plus machines have been a polishedimagine. Sure enough, the Blade sports a new tank, reworked bodywork, and has unmissably different wings that are smaller, mounted further forward, and still maintain the same amount of downforce while encouraging a more positive attitude for the front wheel. Scratch the surface a little further and you'd be forgiven for thinking the frame is a mirror image of what's come before, but that's simply not the case; it's been honed to within an inch of it life, losing a whole kilo in mass while being fine-tuned for big gains in torsional (-15%) and lateral (-17%) rigidity. Less weight is never a bad thing, and a chunk of the savings have come from removing internal bracing and expanding what is dubbed the thin-wall zone, but the real gain over the first iteration chassis is the added flex. The old frame was simply too stiff, unforgiving, and a hang-up for corner exits where grip was often compromised, made all the harsher by the Blade's on/off power delivery.
