2008 HONDA CBR1000RR

2008 HONDA CBR1000RR

Remember that Honda commercial back in the 90s that boasted the tag line: Even the Ninja must hide from the Hurricane… Well, friends, unfortunately for the Ninja, that marketing adage rings in as true today as it did when Oakley M-Frames were cool. But this is no old school F-model CBR and it ain’t your Daddy’s 900RR – this is the brand new, bad-ass 2008 Honda CBR1000RR and it embodies the best of the big bore sportbike class. For the past few years the CBR1000RR has been a force to be reckoned with on the international racing scene, with Ryuichi Kiyonari claiming back-to-back British Superbike titles in ’05-06 and James Toseland taking the 2007 World Superbike championship. In stock trim, the ’04 version started out heavy and slow, then lost weight and gained power by the end of its four-year tenure in ’07 and nearly nipped the GSX-R1000 in Smackdown IV, so expectations were high when Honda went back to the drawing board for this latest rendition. Intent on building the best open class superbike money can buy, the 500-lb red gorilla applies lessons learned from its successful CBR600RR project and delivers a motorcycle that leaves the competitors of Superbike Smackdown V searching for answers...