Another week, another rumor about a new Honda CBR1000RR. You can almost set your clock to the rumors that surround Big Red’s future superbike offering, and there are several factors for this.
First, the Honda CBR1000RR is a woefully old machine, even in its “all-new” guise, the current model can trace its lineage back to the 2008 model year. Second, the Honda CBR1000RR is obviously underpowered when you make spec sheet comparisons, by a palpable 20hp/10% margin.
The Honda makes up for this by being one of the lightest superbikes on the market, and it is easily the best handling of the bunch. But even still, in our tests, we found it to be a second a lap slower than the rest of the superbike class…and the stopwatch decides all in this segment.
Despite all this, the real reason that we keep seeing rumors about a new CBR1000RR likely stems from one simple reason: Honda is working on a new machine. Will that new bike debut for 2019? 2020? 2021? Well, that’s the debate, and even a broken clock is correct twice a day, so…
Here we are, another week, and another rumor about a new Honda CBR1000RR.
This week’s edition comes to us again from the folks at Young Machine, who have been the driving force behind many of these past Honda superbike rumors. This time, the Japanese publication says that the 2020 model year will bring us a new CBR1000RR, which they have of course mocked up in render (and looks suspiciously like their “V4” concept).
The 2020 model year arrival is actually a pretty strong guess, considering that is when the Euro5 regulations will take affect that year in Europe for new motorcycle models. If Honda was going to bring to market a brand new 1,000cc sport bike, the 2020 model year would make the most sense.
Judging from the results in WorldSBK, the Suzuka 8-Hour, and other domestic series, a new superbike is precisely what the Japanese brand needs, if it wants to compete with the ever advancing competition.
Kawasaki recently just refreshed its WorldSBK-winning ZX-10RR and progeny, and at EICMA we expect to see the potent (and expensive) Ducati Panigale V4 R, and just this week we saw spec leaks of a 204hp BMW S1000RR, which has a counter-rotating crankshaft. The game has evolved, it is time that Honda did as well.
If Young Machine’s renders can be believed, then the 2020 Honda CBR1000RR certainly looks the part. We have almost exactly one year to wait in order to see what comes true. Until then…
Source: Young Machine
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