During 2006 a total of 2067 Fireblades were sold, comfortably out-selling the second-best machine by 97 units!

The Fireblade has been a consistent top-performer in the sales charts since it was released in 1992 – making 2007 the bike’s 15th birthday!

The Honda CBR900RR FireBlade re-wrote the rules for large-capacity sportsbikes when it first was launched.

Since then it’s grown in stature and capacity, with the 2006 CBR1000RR not only becoming the best-selling machine of the year in the UK, but also taking the 2006 British Superbike title with HM Plant Honda and Japanese ace Ryuichi Kiyonari.

In the early 1990s, sportsbikes were large, fast and heavy. But Tadao Baba decided that a sportsbike should be light, fast and be able to go around corners quickly and safely. He took the lead of a design team that were to build the legendary FireBlade.

The original machine was an 893cc machine, featuring many weight-saving parts, such as conventional rather than ‘upside-down’ front forks and a 16-inch rather than a ‘normal’ 17-inch front wheel. ‘Mass centralization’ was a phrase that was heard for the first time in motorcycle development, where weight was concentrated centrally rather than at extremities to help handling still further. The CBR900RR proved a massive hit after launch, selling many thousands of units and being the best-selling machine in its class and being the overall best-seller in the UK for a number of years.

Originally the FireBlade was the wrong capacity for four-stroke production racing, but since the original machine was launched in 1992, rules have changed, the CBR900RR has since grown in capacity, dropped the capital ‘B’ and developed into the CBR1000RR Fireblade and has won sales success as well as many international championship races including last year’s BSB title.