Here is a chance to own a very special motorcycle. It is one thing when a World Superbike racing machine comes up for sale, because you know that it will be dripping with all the right parts, and have a pedigree to match.
But, it is an entirely different thing when the bike was raced by a rider as loved as Nicky Hayden still is by his legion of fans.
Put those two things together, and you have today’s opportunity, which is Nicky Hayden’s 2017 Ten-Kate spec Honda CBR1000RR SP2 WorldSBK race bike. The ultimate collectors bike, you will need €95.000 in your bank account to make it your own.
For sale from Ten Kate itself, the machine has matching chassis and engine numbers, matching ECU and electronics numbers, and is a matching chassis build-up. The bike is set to the exact specification that Nicky Haden used on the track.
Today is the Friday after Thanksgiving, which means many of you awoke from your food coma, and headed to the stores for Black Friday start to your Christmas shopping.
That is right, the holiday season is upon us, and that means that we should be publishing some sort of Holiday Gift Guide for you, where we pretend to be journalists while taking a small commission from the links we funnel you towards.
It is a sad practice, and one that fills our inbox around this time of year. I wonder how many hundreds of dollars are traded for whatever last scrap of journalism that remains in this industry…it’s probably best not to think about it.
Honda doesn’t want you to see these photos. I am pretty sure that there is a dark room somewhere on the Suzuka Circuit facility, possibly guarded by Yakuza henchmen, where they are keeping Steve captive for his misdeeds in bringing you the detailed photos we are about to show you.
This is how seriously HRC is taking this year’s Suzuka 8-Hours.
“Win at all costs” is the mantra being used by the Red Bull Honda team, which will field PJ Jacobsen, Takaaki Nakagami, and Takumi Takahashi at this year’s edition of the race. Their goal is simple: to restore honor to the company, and win the most prestigious race on the Japanese calendar.
To do this, Honda has built a special machine. A one-off superbike, this Honda CBR1000RR SP2 was designed to race at only one race track, for only one race, for only three riders. This Honda represents everything that HRC knows about making an endurance racing machine.
As you can imagine then, while this story starts with a bit of hyperbole, it isn’t far from reality.
The 2018 World Superbike season will another American on the grid, as Jake Gagne has been announced as Red Bull Honda’s second rider for next year.
The news comes after Gagne impressed with several wild card appearances throughout the 2017 season, as well as post-season testing stints.
The move up from the MotoAmerica Championship to the World Superbike Champion is a big one for Gagne, and for American road racing, as it is the first such transition for the rebooted American series.
Though for Gagne it means a great opportunity, 2018 will still certainly be a test for the 24-year-old. Not only will he have to contend with a grid full of world-class riders, and race at a number of unfamiliar circuits, Gagne will have to contend with the Honda CBR1000RR SP2 superbike platform.
Assen had been earmarked as a key round for Honda in its search for competitiveness in WorldSBK. It passed with more confirmation that the team’s struggles will continue.
Nine points were all that Nicky Hayden had to show for himself at the end of a trying weekend at the TT Circuit of Assen. The Honda rider was able to show some signs of improved competitiveness at times during the weekend, but overall the same flaws of the Honda Fireblade have been exposed once again.
Reliability and inability to bring competitive upgrades to the table cost Hayden dearly at Assen. The week before the Dutch round, the team tested a new engine specification in Portimao and the American came away disappointed with a lack of progress.
They say you should never underestimate the fight in a dirt-tracker, but after Portimao the dirt-tracker isn’t underestimating the fight ahead of him. After four days on the new Honda Fireblade, Nicky Hayden cast a downbeat figure at times, but the American is digging deep.
Armed with his renowned work ethic, the Ten Kate rider will be leaving no stone unturned in finding a solution, but after a troubled opening test, it went from bad to worse for the Dutch team.
“The first day was not a good day for us,” admitted Hayden. “I really don’t know how to sugar coat it any better. We’re really struggling with edge grip, the bike pumping, and not being stable on the exit of the corners. We never found a direction to go in and nothing really helped the problem.”
Nicky Hayden and Stefan Bradl had their first experience of the all new for 2017 Honda CBR1000RR SP2 on the opening day of the Jerez test, and it was clear that there is still plenty of work to be done by the Ten Kate squad to get the bikes ready for the start of the season.
With the Phillip Island opener only four weeks away, the Dutch team faces a race against time to be up to speed for the start of the WorldSBK campaign. Both riders made it clear that it is very early days for the project, and as a result were unwilling to offer definitive opinions – though initial impressions were positive.
*It should be noted that after the publication of this article, American Honda adjusted the price on the 2017 Honda CBR1000RR to an MSRP of $16,499. American Honda has since also announced pricing on the 2017 Honda CBR1000RR ABS, set at $16,799 MSRP.
I’m not sure if I missed the memo, or if Honda just didn’t make much of a fuss about it, but pricing for the 2017 Honda CBR1000RR and its kin are now showing on the American Honda website.
Prices for the new Honda CBR1000RR seems to be only available in the USA right now, but early indications appear that Big Red is asking for quite the pretty penny for its freshly updated superbike.
As such, current pricing is as follows: Honda CBR1000RR – $16,999; Honda CBR1000RR ABS – TBD; Honda CBR1000RR SP – $19,999; Honda CBR1000RR SP2 – $24,999.
Recapping the recent INTERMOT show, Episode 36 of the Two Enthusiasts Podcast covers the three big themes that emerged from Cologne: homologation specials, vintage motorcycles, and rider aids.
With these themes in mind, we have a good conversation about the three homologation specials we saw from the Japanese manufacturers at INTERMOT: the Honda CBR1000RR SP2, the Suzuki GSX-R1000R, and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR.
The conversation then turns to the neo-vintage models we saw in Germany, and how brands like Triumph and BMW are investing heavily in this trendy niche.
We finish up the show talking about motorcycle electronics, inertial measurement units (IMUs) to be specific. This game-changing technology continues to permeate through the motorcycle industry, along with other rider aids, so we have a good conversation about the rise of the IMU.
As always, you can listen to the show via the embedded SoundCloud player, after the jump, or you can find the show on iTunes (please leave a review) or this RSS feed. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter as well. Enjoy the show!
The 2017 Honda CBR1000RR was easily one of the most talked about machines at the 2016 INTERMOT show in Cologne, Germany.
The new CBR1000RR is still the same platform that we have seen from previous model years, though it is also a big step for Honda, keeping the Japanese motorcycle manufacturer relevant in the superbike segment.
This mixture of old and new has certainly lead to some intrigue from the sport bike community, so in effort to answer some of the questions posed by our readers, we reached out to American Honda for some answers.