For many riders, myself included, sportbikes were the reason we fell in love with motorcycling. I don’t know, there’s just something about the way they look, the way they sound, and of course, the way they feel that gets your heart racing even when you’re sitting in your driveway.
We all have that one sportbike that we could say defines a generation. For some, it’s the Ducati 916, or perhaps, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR. But for me, as a kid born in the mid-90s, it was all about the early-generation Yamaha R1s, Suzuki Gixxers, and of course, the Honda CBR1000RR.
The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade was, is, and always will be iconic for good reason. Like its counterparts, it was a machine that balanced raw performance with a surprising amount of on-road usability. Personally, I’ve always dreamed of owning a mint-condition CBR1000RR, or even the smaller CBR600RR, from like 2005 or something. I just feel like these bikes captured the golden era of street-legal superbikes. You know, back when traction control and ABS relied solely on the human touch, and not a bunch of code in a plastic box.
And while that dream remains to be fulfilled for me, someone else might soon tick it off their bucket list, thanks to an epic find that’s hitting the auction block next month.
The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade above isn’t a picture from two decades ago. It’s a fairly recent image of a bike that’s set to go on auction at the Devitt MCN London Motorcycle Show. And it’s as close to brand-new as you could possibly get in this day and age. For starters, the bike is all-original and is still in its original transport crate.
