New: Honda Fireblade

New: Honda Fireblade

Video table breakdown

Honda Fireblade. Ironically, while shooting a promotional video, the new Honda Fireblade was caught by a Erlkonig photographer. The great thing about it: We now know that the machine will go into series production like this in the photos.

We still have to imagine the headlights ourselves, because the new Honda will be with dark sunglasses like in the photos F.ireblade certainly won’t hit the market. At best, we can also guess at technical changes inside the engine or the fairing. But apart from such intimacies, which she will keep secret until further notice, the Blade shows itself undisguised. It is very likely that this also applies to the paintwork. With the signal color red, the designers direct the eye to the newly designed cladding: an excitingly tight-cut plastic dress with small side surfaces. In the front area, they achieved a spectacular combination of inclined headlights and large air inlets, which, like the old Blade, supply the engine with cool intake air through two side ducts. Visually, these air ducts are very restrained; they are also kept in black, as are the areas underneath that are inclined outwards and which discharge the hot air flowing from the cooler to the outside. The rear fairing has also been redesigned with side cutouts for the rear light that have been pulled far forward.

New: Honda Fireblade

Video table breakdown

Higher performance indicators

The engine, frame and swing arm, in short the technical basis of the motorcycle, seem largely unchanged. That’s a good thing, because after almost nine years of racing, the venerable SC 59 still shows great potential, even in the Superbike World Championship. Your chassis is top notch. If so, then you heard the desire for better controllability from the professional racing environment. Honda certainly worked on that. Tea same applies to the engine, which easily offers the structural requirements and mechanical stability for a substantial increase in performance. That’s a good thing, because the Fireblade will need more steam in the environment of the current series super sports cars – for reasons of psychological dirty and because the recording curves from the last major super sports car comparison test (MOTORRAD 11/2015) document exactly how you are more competitive in higher ones Speed ​​ranges of it accelerated.

The new exhaust system with its very thick connecting pipe between the manifolds and the triangular silencer is an indication of higher performance. Not only does it appear to help comply with Euro 4 regulations, but it looks pretty powerful too. So far, two different informants have provided information about the top performance of the new blade. One spoke of 195 hp on the clutch, the other of over 180 hp on the rear wheel. These values ​​fit together perfectly and also perfectly with the Honda philosophy of delivering finely balanced overall concepts rather than striving for sensational individual performances. Apparently, the motorcycle giant will not take part in the 200 hp battle.

ABS, traction control and other electronic driving aids

If you take a closer look at individual details, you will notice the changed generator cover on the left side of the engine. A comparison with a 2008 Fireblade suggests that the new one will have a narrower alternator. This is linked to the question of how the new Honda super sports car will be equipped with ABS, traction control and other electronic driving aids. It seems pretty certain that Honda will break with previous reluctance to use electronic driving aids and replace Honda’s own combined ABS, which weighs a hefty ten kilograms, with a lighter system from a supplier. There are many indications that this is the Bosch 9ME Plus system used by the competition, i.e. the combination of ABS (with anti-wheelie function) and traction control. We are talking about a very compact sensor unit that covers six axes and a pressure modulator that is not only much more delicate, but also much lighter than the previous heavy system. That alone would also result in a significant weight reduction of several kilograms.

Since Honda will be bringing the new Fireblade onto the market in three different versions, as a standard model, SP 1 and as a SP 2 only equipped for the racetrack, systems with different functional scopes are also conceivable. There is also talk of MotoGP-proven systems such as selective torque and engine brake control. Such delicacies will probably only be reserved for the SP versions, as will the latest generation of semi-active Ohlins suspension technology, while the standard version, as shown in the picture, uses the well-known Showa Big Piston fork and a shock absorber from the same manufacturer. A measure that is also due to the price, because while experience has shown that the price does not play an overly large role in the noble SP variants, the basic Fireblade has to rank in the competitive environment.

According to information so far, the SP versions will be unveiled at INTERMOT at the beginning of October, and the basic machine a month later at EICMA. Nothing is known about the prices of the three new Fireblades.

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