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Photos: Sundeep Gajjar/motoGrapher.com
Text: Imran Mohammad/xBhp.com

We take the Honda CB1000R to one of the most densely populated areas in the world.

Imagine catching a tiger in a mouse-trap. The giant genie inside the lamp. A whale in an aquarium. And then imagine a 1000cc, 125bhp superbike moving through the narrowest of alleyways that snake their way through one of the oldest and most densely populated areas of Delhi. Yes, we took the Honda CB1000R for a ride through the heart of Old Delhi and came away impressed.



I was offered the CB1000R for a ride. That’s akin to being offered water in the middle of a barren blazing desert. Only that for this once this water happened to be hotter than soup! Super-powerful bikes and super-crowded places don’t go together. And yet there I was shouldering my way through one of the busiest lanes of Old Delhi, the Paranthe Waali Gali, astride the naked Honda . Any rider would baulk at the idea of riding a 1000cc power-house of a bike through alleyways that are at their widest just about twice as much as the bike is long. And crowded with humans, animals (cows and dogs to be precise) and various forms of transport on 2 and 3 wheels trundling through. I was worried and wondered if people who call it agile and comfortable in traffic ever tested it on such ‘traffic’ that flows through the narrow -laned infrastructure that is supporting probably 200 times the population it is supposed to.



But honestly, the CB1000R made it all so easy. The smooth clutch, the precise throttle, the spot-on fueling of the engine, the wide handlebar and the low-slung weight of the bike made it ‘oh! so controllable’ even at walking pace. With the engine idling with a disconcertingly muted thrum under the seat, I slot the bike into first which it does with a soft ‘thunk’. Just release the wonderfully graded clutch and the bike begins moving. Low speed stability is surprising for a bike like this, one that weighs more than 200 kilos dry. Milimetric throttle movements get precisely the expectedly proportionate response from the engine. I tread softly on the Pirelli’s steering around one pedestrian and the next and in a short while almost forget that I am on a naked liter class bike.



The sitting posture is surprisingly comfortable, comparable almost to ZMA. The ergo’s are well sorted, so much so that I close my eyes as I sit on the saddle and my hands fall naturally on the handlebar ends. Bike sure feels big but not heavy and the engine sounds way smoother for even an in-line four. As I start riding it, I am surprised at how much at ease I feel in the saddle. With trails of pedestrians moving in both directions, sharing space and movement with rickshaws, other 2-wheelers and cattle and with the concrete road pockmarked with shiny metal manhole covers which weren’t leveled properly, riding any bike would have been challenging, what of a 100+ bhp one. And yet so much at home was I in a short while on the CB that with all that I started eyeing the gaps in between the crowd to get into. A 15-20 meter empty stretch was enough for the bike to quickly jump to 40-50kmph and still be in control to stop without jitters. The Upright seating, wide handle bar and short turning radius enabled me to maneuver the bike with utmost ease by shifting my body weight around. And all through this I felt absolutely no heat issues on any of my lower limbs though the temperature on the console did jump onto brighter side of 1000C and the cooling fans were whirring away furiously. A half hour long stint of such riding was in no way physically taxing on me either.





So unexpected was the CB1000R’s presence in the area that it took people more than a cursory look to realize they had a performance monster humming so close through their lives. And when recognition did set in, there were crowds around who had a thousand questions about the bike, us and what prompted us to ride a caged tiger through there. The experience was an eye-opener for me in more ways than one. The most prominent being that the CB100R was the truest and most justified in its claim at being a street-fighter in any sense.

xBhp takes the Honda CB1000R in one of the world's most densely populated areas!

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(Been There Done That) x 3.25

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pushkarb

Love that inquisitive crowd! :P Oh yeah, the CBRs too!

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RIP Marco Simoncelli! You will not be forgotten!

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jd666

great pics... wondering how many times you were asked, "Deti kitna hai??? "

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My offerings to the gods of speed -

- KTM Duke 200
- Yamaha RXZ 5 speed

fireblah

I am experiencing a strong Déjà vu.. has this or a similar article been posted before ?
Rode this one 1 week back for the first time.... other than the weirdness of the handle position ( as i am used to superbike position), bike is awesome... no lack of power and fun to ride ! this one is 10 times more practical than super sports..

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May the torque be with you..
My first F1 @ Sepang

sherry_unicornlover

Same here....
And the same continues to few other new Threads.

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