The Honda CBR1000RR is a great street bike, albeit a little long-in-the-tooth in the fast-paced liter-bike category. The big hope and rumor for the 2013 EICMA show was that Honda would have its V4-powered superbike finally ready for debut, though plans for that machine seem to have been delayed…again.
Instead, Big Red has for us the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP, which is basically your standard Fireblade with premium kit bolted onto it, along with a very gentle engine massaging.
This sort of dual-pronged approach is fairly standard fare for the European brands (did you see what Ducati just did with the Monster 1200 and Monster 1200 S?), but for a Japanese OEM like Honda, it is a pretty revolutionary approach to model segmentation, but we digress.
The short and the sweet of it, when it comes to the Honda CBR1000RR SP, is that Honda has added a laundry list of go-fast parts to the Fireblade, which should entice collectors and track day enthusiast alike. The changes are as follows:
- 43mm Öhlins NIX30 inverted fork with spring preload, rebound, and compression damping
- Unit Pro-Link® Öhlins shock with spring preload, rebound, and compression damping
- Brembo front brakes with four-piston calipers and 320mm floating rotors
- Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SC tires
- Lightweight subframe, which lowers CG
- A new cylinder head, intake tract, and exhaust system
- Special pistons and connecting rods
- New riding position with new handlebars and relocated footpegs
- A bubble windscreen
- Solo seat cowl
- Tri-color paint scheme
Despite all this talk of weight savings, Honda’s claimed a curb weight (with a full tank of gas) for the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP is 440.9 lbs, which is actually a pound heavier than the base model CBR1000RR. With the engine re-tooling, the Honda CBR1000RR SP is good for 178hp and 84 lbs•ft of torque, with a fatter midrange power band says Honda Europe.
That is a modest gain over the CBR1000RR’s previous 175hp figure, though we think connoisseurs will appreciate the total package that Honda has put together here, and avoid the spec sheet racing. Still it would have been nice to have been “wowed” about bit more with the SP. Pricing hasn’t been confirmed, but the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP will be in Honda dealers comes February of the new year.
*Note: the photos below are of the ABS-equipped European version. America will only be getting a non-ABS version of the 2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP.
Source: Honda
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