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2008 Honda CBR1000RR - First Ride
1/21/2008
By Adam Waheed
With the yellow over-rev light staring me in the face I grab an upshift. I start to feel the front-end gently climbing skyward as I motor uphill towards Laguna’s infamous corkscrew, I run the bike wide and to the outside, setting up for the famous turn. I close the throttle, snag a downshift and squeeze the tank with my legs as hard as I can while jamming on the front brake lever, then out of the corner of my eye last year’s world champ and certified Laguna expert, Nick Hayden, snakes through, rear-wheel kicked out sideways, then in a instant he’s gone… All on a bone-stock 2008 Honda CBR1000RR streetbike.
Honda defined the modern day open-class sportbike category with its ground breaking CBR900RR. When the first double-R hit the streets as an early release '93 model, it was the perfect blend of a nimble, lightweight chassis stuffed with a compact, high-performance engine-all wrapped in flashy race-replica plastics.
Like you, Honda’s open-classer has evolved quite a bit over its fifteen years. In 2000 it morphed into the 929, and then two years later, it saw another displacement bump to 954 in pursuit of the ideal balance between lightweight agility and open-road performance.
Honda’s flagship sportbike finally made the jump to full-fledged superbike status with the introduction of the CBR1000RR in 2004 and two short years later the platform was tweaked in effort to keep pace with the three other major Japanese big-bores nipping at the double-R’s rear tire.
Last year’s MCUSA 2007 Superbike Smackdown IV saw the double-R reign supreme on the street portion of our liter-class test. However, its more street-oriented focus, absent slipper clutch, and lackluster high-rpm performance really set it back on the track. Considering that the CBR1000RR is one of Big Red’s most popular sportbikes on the sales floor, I assumed that something smaller, faster, and shinier would be in the works for '08 -because coming in behind its Japanese rivals just doesn’t sit well with Honda.
After our '08 CBR First Look preview, I was foaming at the mouth in anticipation of riding the all-new 1000. And when the invitation finally arrived in the mail with the words Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway stamped on top, I was about as giddy as Homer Simpson in a donut factory.
I assembled my gear and jetted off to the site of the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix for a day of getting to know Honda’s all-new liter-classer. Winter weather on the Monterey Peninsula is always a crap shoot, but rescuing that litter of kittens from the side of the highway last week must have finally paid off and with my karma at an all-time high, I was greeted to sunny skies and mild temperatures.
During the morning tech presentation, the Honda crew explained three primary design focuses of this year’s big-bore: First, engineers sought to integrate proven race technologies born on-track in the highly competitive realm of MotoGP. Second, power-to-weight has always been a key fundamental of the CBR pedigree, so it comes as no surprise that engineers continued on their never ending quest to trim weight and bump up power output. And with a claimed curb weight of 435 pounds, it appears that Honda has again raised the power-to-weight benchmark. Lastly, with products like ASIMO, the astronaut-looking humanoid robot, it’s pretty obvious that Honda is an innovative company. That being said, engineers desired to incorporate new trend-setting technologies that will make the bike easier for the rider to control both on the street and on the track.
At the heart of the CBR is an all-new engine that is not only 5 pounds lighter, but also more compact and according to Honda, 6.5% more powerful than its predecessor. Internally, the liquid-cooled, Inline-Four has a slightly more oversquare bore/stroke layout of 76 x 55.1mm, equating to 999cc’s of displacement. Compression has received a minor boost to 12.3:1 (up from 12.2:1) New forged pistons with a special low-friction coating retain the same weight as before and now reside in an innovative separate, sleeveless cylinder block, which allowed engineers to increase cylinder bore without increasing engine width.
Although last year’s CBR had a tremendous mid-range punch, its top-end performance was a bit limited. The solution: A significantly revised valvetrain specifically designed for improved high-rpm performance. New, larger titanium intake valves (30.5mm) replace last year’s 29mm steel units. Exhaust valves have been slimmed to 24mm (down 3mm), which in turn allows the use of a 15mm shorter cylinder head. Controlling the updated valve componentry is a set of lighter (1.1 pound) thin-wall camshafts.
Fueling the all-new powerplant are 46mm throttle bodies featuring Honda’s Dual Stage Fuel Injection. All eight upper and lower 12-hole Denso fuel injectors are controlled via twelve unique 3-D fuel-injection maps. The lower, primary injectors power the engine during low-rpm use, while the upper “showerhead” injectors come alive from atop the twin ram-air fed 9.7-liter airbox during mid-to-high rpm engine loads.
Spent gasses are now passed via a unique stainless-steel 4-2-1 MotoGP-style exhaust that sits beneath the bike just like Nicky Hayden’s RC212V. The low-slung system is positioned as close as possible to the center of the motorcycle in order to aid handling and to allow maximum cornering clearance. Inside the lightweight three-chamber muffler, both electronic and pressure exhaust valves are used to reduce noise and enhance power output at any rpm setting.
Cradling the engine is an entirely new chassis. Like its middleweight sibling, the CBR1K is now bestowed with a more compact four-piece twin-spar aluminum frame that utilizes Honda’s Hollow Fine Die-Cast manufacturing process-allowing frame wall thickness to be as narrow as 2.5mm. Not only is the frame more rigid, it is 5.5 pounds lighter and 1.2-inches slimmer than the one it replaces.
In the suspension department, a fully-adjustable 43mm inverted Showa fork returns, but the distance between the fork tubes has been reduced by 10mm in order to help slim the front profile. Offset has also been increased 2.5mm (from 25mm) in order to sharpen steering response.
Still not a big fan on the looks side, but looks like a solid Liter bike.
