CBR1100XX Blackbird

[Guest]

What model was it? CBR1100XX

When did you buy it and how much did it cost?

05 plate bought Feb'09 for £4,200

Good points?

Super smooth engine, hardly any vibration making for turbine like power delivery. Heavy bike but it's a low down weight so it's managble and makes for a very 'planted' feel. Power spread is excellent for a 'sports tourer' easy to ride around town and yet with full use of the revs its also ballistic! An excellent bike for 2 up use. High speed handling is superb especially cranked over!

Bad points?

Very low speed handling is imprecise making for a lot of 'paddling' with feet approaching junctions. Fuel consumption at low 40's mpg is just below what I'd call fair for the type of bike this is. Seat not comfy considering Honda expect you to cover some miles with this bike.

Would you get another?

No, Life is too short to buy the same thing again, seeing as there are so many more bikes out there

Any other comments?

It's a Honda, so I figured this one would be as boring as most of the others they make..... I was wrong this one is preeeetty good!!

Fitted the 6mm spacer on rear suspension to raise the angle of attack of the bike and it turns in to corners a lot lot better now, but is still poor on slow junctions.

Wiring loom fix/mod needed doing earlier this year, bit of a fiddle but all sorted now. Find it hard to believe Honda and Japan have wiring issues lol

Fitted Corbin leather 'comfort cell' touring seat this year, had reservations when I first saw and tried it but after three different runs of over 500 miles in a day have to admit its almost THE best addition to a bike (second hand purchase off ebay softens the blow of cost lol)

It's the only bike I would never consider putting loud cans on. Honda named it after the Stealth bomber and Stealth speeding with ultra smooth power delivery from the torquey engine is what its all about to me

Torque? hmmm on more than one occasion I've pulled up suddenly into a layby to take a photo when on a touring holiday with a fully laden bike and passenger, then pulled away after taking said picture only to find the bike pulled away without any fuss or complaint.... in 4th gear

Edited September 8, 2011 by Guest

[ses310]

Great review, always nice to hear whats good and bad and what makes it better

[Swiss Rolls]

Very nice bike, although never been on one, beat the zx-11 ninja as the fastest production bike for 2 years before the hayabusa came along.

The hayabusa, was called so as it is Japanese for falcon, which prayed on blackbirds, see what they did there haha

[Guest]

beat the zx-11 ninja as the fastest production bike for 2 years before the hayabusa came along.

 

there lies the problem with lots of bikes I think! I can see why Honda would get lots of publicity for it being the fastest production bike when released but I feel it could have been a better bike had they 'sacrificed' top speed and max'd it down to say 150mph. they could have then focused the best handling to be lower down the speedo. As it is the bike is rock solid at speeds of 140/50/60 and more but up to 10-15mph it's handles and steers like a drunk camel.(you do get used to it but if your other bike is a 1098 then you know this isn't good enough lol) The bike is quite smooth at 80mph with hardly any vibes at all but 90mph is smoother still..... 100mph smoother than 90..... 110mph smoother than 100 and yes 120 smoother than 110

It'd be nice to cruise at 140 some distance on the bike but the police have already told me they aren't happy with me cruising at 80 on it

[dave8204]

I blagged a ride on a mate's carb'd Blackbird and didn't find any low speed handling issues at all.Blindingly fast bike that I found myself doing 130 on far too easily.I expected that knowing how powerful it is etc but what really impressed me was the way I was able to pick my way through a massive traffic jam due to roadworks.I felt as confident filtering between rows of cars and nipping down the outside as I do on my Hornet.

I did find the bars a bit low for me after a while,odd as I'd ridden an old Fireblade a couple of weeks earlier and found it really comfortable and I'd have thought the Bird being touted as a tourer it would have been less extreme,maybe I just didn't fit it or something but after a 35 mile ride my wrists were aching.

I wouldn't buy one purely because I don't have the kind of willpower that let me keep my licence long on one.