Honda Cbr1000rr

Honda CBR1000RR

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Big Red fires its biggest salvo yet

HERE ARE THE FIRST PHOTOS OF HONDA’S SPANKING NEW CBR1000RR—the bike that has been called “RCB1000” in the Euro-press. As the CBR600RR is Honda’s plat-form for Supersport racing, this will be its new Superbike platform. Other than these images, American Honda has so far provided only two lines of information on this bike. Quiet whispers suggest a bore and stroke of 75.0 x 56.5mm for 998cc displacement, and horsepower comfortably exceeding that of the class-leading Suzuki

GSX-R1000. The prediction is 155 bhp. The weight rumor is 370 pounds dry. Engine details are otherwise shrouded in, er, well, plastic.

This bike continues the work begun with the latest 600RR, as the wheelbase is short, apparently close to 55 inches. Of this, the swingarm contributes nearly 23 inches, putting it in line with long-running trends in Grand Prix racebike design. The fork-angled at around 23 degrees-carries its brake calipers in radiale style, almost directly behind the front axle rather than higher up as has been usual in the past. This minimizes the rider-unsettling motions transmitted to the calipers as the front wheel deflects laterally in bumpy corners. Also contributing to better feel on the brakes is the stiffness of the large tubular front axle, likewise long a feature in GP roadracing.

Note that the cat’s-eye fairing is considerably

forward of a vertical plane drawn through the front axle. Regulations in GP racing now permit the fairing to come 100mm (almost 4 inches) ahead of this plane, giving rise to the “fairing-forward” look. The bodywork now becomes an aggressively open mouth, about to swallow the front tire. Exhaust is routed upward past the bridged aluminum swingarm on the right side, behind the chassis upright and under a black heat shield, to exit 600RR-style through a central under-seat muffler. Shall we speculate about the engine? The easy route would be to further tweak the existing CBR954RR, a design that has evolved over the past decade. More tempt

ing would be to start fresh, ensuring that a motorcycle intended to be raced in AMA and World Superbike events has the best of everything. The first thing these pictures tell us is that this engine is very short front-to-back. The straight-up shift linkage points to a Yamaha YZE-R1-style vertically stacked transmission as the crucial design change, allowing use of that looong swingarm. There is nothing shorter than a transverse inline-Four, and it makes a super-compact package with the stacked trans. Still, just add 2.5mm’s worth of extra stroke to last year’s 954RR dimensions of 75.0 x 54.0mm to get 998cc. Why would Honda add stroke when the trend of power is toward

higher revs from shorter strokes? My numbers may be wrong, but a keynote of this engine is rumored to be low roll polar moment. That means concentrating engine mass closely around a horizontal line running fore-andaft through the bike's center-of-mass. The bigger you make the bore, the wider the engine becomes, and the slower the rollover into turns. As an aside, com bustion improves as bore becomes smaller and stroke longer. I know you'll wince when I say it, but "com promise" is the operant word here. To further help the bike roll over in mini mum time, engine accessories such as the starter and alternator must perch on the centerline, either above the gearbox or ahead of the crankshaft. Might there be other, more radical weight shifts with in the engine as well? Power for the track? The magic figure these days is 200 bhp-well within engineer ing's reach on the numbers heard so far. The manufacturers are taking turns upping the ante in each class. Honda's 1000cc play is this GP style chassis, possibly unique mass properties, lighter weight and more power. All will be revealed at Honda's dealer show, still three weeks away as this is written. Until then, we have only the pleasure of anticipation. -Kevin Cameron