SAGARR_46

Hey guys,
Here's the review as promised. Sorry for the wait.

09 BLADE sets Kari on FIRE
By Sagar Sheldekar (SAGARR_46)



“Go easy on the wrist,” said one, “else the rear will spin itself silly before spitting you out.” “Don’t even think about whacking that throttle open on the first straight patch,” warned another. “And what about knee downs,” I asked, and we all broke into splits of laughter. The voices kept whispering in my mind as I stood on the exit of C4 armed with a camera and gunning the shutter like the paparazzi. As I clicked the beauty when she blazed past me one lap after another, I recalled the advice my friends and acquaintances had willingly shared before I set out for this test- the tips and tricks for taming an inline four.

I had been observing the 09 Honda CBR 1000RR FireBlade C-ABS closely as my friend rode her around the Kari Speedway, the venue for our exclusive bike test. I tried to, almost voyeuristically, register her every move- the way she dived into a corner effortlessly or blew past me with her stubby exhaust screaming ‘Bloody Mary’. And then she stormed to a stop in front of me and “Catch!” was the call as my friend flung the ignition keys in my direction. The next thing I knew, I was staring at the ‘Honda’ emblazoned key in my hand. It was time!

As I put my leg around her, the first thing I noticed was how incredibly compact she was. If I didn’t know any better, I would have easily mistaken her for a 600cc super sport thanks to her diminutive frame. As soon as I turned on the ignition the digital display came alive and the rpm needle completed its check run in under a second. With a slight nudge of the thumb the engine roared to life and settled into a throaty purr. As I took in the sweet music, my screaming friend shook me out of my trance. Yelling from inside his helmet, he asked me to make a quick stop at the nearest fuel station before I took her for a spin around the track. I nodded in agreement, shut my visor and popped her into first gear.

As I rolled open the throttle and loosened my grip on the clutch, the Blade responded with precision and sans any drama. No power wheelies or rear slides here, but a controlled forward surge proportional to the angle of the twisted throttle. “Out goes the first advice,” I thought to myself, as I opened the throttle some more with rapidly increasing confidence. Before I knew it, I had easily maneuvered the bike across half the track and was fast approaching the start finish straight. I was supposed to enter the pit lane at the start of the straight to exit the track and head towards to the nearest fuel pump. However, the howl from the second valve of the exhaust as I climbed over 4500rpm corrupted my motives. So I whacked open the throttle instead to leap out of the last sweeping left-hander onto the start-finish straight.

Within a split second the Blade had transformed from a docile cat into a raging bull seeing blood red. The bike lunged forward with such urgency that my body was jolted backwards as if I had been electrocuted. Before I could recover, the wind blast at 180kmph hurled the second blow, knocking me senseless for a couple of seconds. By the time I shook my mind back in place and crouched over the tank, I had already hit 200kmph and passed the first braking point. Off the throttle and a few taps on the front Tokicos and the Blade shed speed in a flash allowing me to take the upcoming corner at a comfortable pace. So needless to say, I had also bypassed the second piece of advice and loved every millisecond of it.

The Blade had inspired oodles of confidence even on the first run and I could not wait to tank up and get in some serious laps. So after a quick fill-up session, I donned my knee sliders and hit the track to see how well the CBR would handle the corners at high speeds. After a few steady laps around Kari I had picked my lines and upped my pace as the Blade seemed happy to oblige. Rock steady and easy to flick, thanks to its new mass centralized design, she banked into the corners with aplomb and made high speed cornering seem too darn easy. Even under hard braking the Blade was beautifully balanced and composed, thanks to the Honda Electronic Steering Damper (HESD) which varies the damping rate with your speed. This allowed me to carry a lot of pace into every corner. The feedback I got from the tyres was so incredible that I could lean the bike over until my knee was digging deep into the ground at over 120kmph.

But having said that, the Blade demands respect when you are gunning her down into the corners. With so much power available at the slightest twitch of the throttle, you will end in an ugly high-side if you choose to abuse it on street spec tyres. Also when it comes to hard braking into the corners, it takes a while to get used to the Combined Anti-Lock Braking System (C-ABS). My first experience with the system was in fact quite terrifying when I was braking late into C1 at 236kmph. As I had observed in my previous (slower) laps, I expected the Blade to nosedive into the corner with increasing braking force from the front brake. This would have allowed me to choose a tight line and set her up for the corner. However, as soon as the front wheel started howling, the C-ABS came into play, suddenly distributing the braking force equally between the front and the rear tyre. This caused the nose to shoot up at the last second and threw me completely off my line. It was a lesson well learnt and fortunately without any broken wings and bruised bones.

On the whole, the Blade is an absolute track scorcher. Her linear power delivery makes her relatively easier to tame at low speeds but on the higher end of the revs she is all hostility and demands reverence. While her V-twin inspired design, makes her extremely flickable and poised in corners, the HESD and C-ABS ensure you are well equipped to unleash the beast in her on a straight patch of road. And if its crisp acceleration doesn’t quite hit the right notes for you, its ballistic exhaust note will surely leave you begging for more.

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Watch my Baby R1 clock 148kmph at http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=cAHbYl...e=channel_page.

Aryan

Topic Moved and Approved.

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...in search of that perfect world - My Travel Blog :)

SAGARR_46

Hey Aryan, thanks for the quick approval.

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Watch my Baby R1 clock 148kmph at http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=cAHbYl...e=channel_page.

ken cool

Some nice shots there. Thanks for sharing.

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The Wheel was a great invention; Two Wheels with a Motor in between was even better!


BMW Motorrad Days 2011

Xbhp's Indo-French Kashmir-Ladakh Tour

Aryan

Wonderful knee down photographs there on the Blade, no less, Sagar! Well done. However, a knee guard would have made the pictures all the more dramatic.

Nonetheless, I am eagerly awaiting the ride report/ test review.

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...in search of that perfect world - My Travel Blog :)

Jonak

Wish we had a race track here in this part of the world. Fireblah where are you?
Anyways, thanks for sharing.

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SAGARR_46

@Aryan- Thanks! Actually I was wearing knee guards during all my knee down attempts. I wasn't wearing any when I took the Blade for a spin for the first couple of laps for the first time around Kari (will mention the reason in my review ) and as can be seen in some of the pics. But then again those were slow laps aimed at better understanding the track. I was completely geared up thereafter during the main review.

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Watch my Baby R1 clock 148kmph at http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=cAHbYl...e=channel_page.

inder.cool

Wonderful Sagar..so the thread is finally up here..

Well i know of this reason though..

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16 Days|Mountains|Lakes|Smooth/Off Roads|Leh Road-trip Saga 2010

SAGARR_46

Shhh!!!

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Watch my Baby R1 clock 148kmph at http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=cAHbYl...e=channel_page.

whizzkid_ram

Good set of pics saagar & waiting for the review

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