With the 2008 Honda CBR1000RR, the Fireblade has completed 15 years, and still continues to evolve and improve. The first FireBlade came out in 1992, and as the lore goes, the bike was an absolute revelation for its time. The earlier Honda CBR1000F weighed 235kg and had about 130bhp. The CBR900RR weighed only 185 kilos dry, and its 892cc inline-four made 124bhp at 10,500rpm. The tone was set for a lighter, sportier and better handling machine. Honda CBR 1000RR 2008 2009 Fairings.

Created by Tadao Baba, then a ‘Large Project Leader’ at Honda, the first FireBlade followed his ‘Total Control’ ethos. Rather than just brute force, the first CBR900RR was designed to work as a cohesive whole, and it did. Compared with bikes like the Yamaha FZR1000 and YZF1000R, Kawasaki ZX-11 and ZX-9R, and Suzuki GSX-R750 and GSX-R1100, the FireBlade was lighter, sharper, often quicker, and definitely more responsive. The first FireBlade did the standing quarter-mile (400m) in 10.8 seconds, hit a top speed of about 245km/h, and right away made everything else look and feel old and ponderous.