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'Biff' from Kiwibiker takes flight with a 2005 Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird

Biff's 2004 Super Blackbird enjoys the view - before it made way for the new, improved 2005 model I guess I'm lucky in an odd sort of way. You see I wrote off my 6 month old 2004 CBR1100XX Super Blackbird at a local race track in. It was a stupid mistake, and a mistake that was to result in the early retirement of the original 'BiffBird'. Not to worry, save for a sore hip I was fine, and I got a brand new 2005 model out of it. Which was nice.

So what is the story behind the Blackbird? Introduced to an unsuspecting world in late 1996, the Blackbird was simply leagues ahead of the competition, and led the way for modern, high performance sports tourers. This bike was, and of course still is fast, very fast. It will easily out accelerate a Yamaha R1 and with a top speed just shy of 180mph, you really do need to keep a close on that (digital) speedo. Incidentally, if you ever wondered why the Blackbird is so named, it's because it was named after the SR71 US spy plane, commonly referred to as the Blackbird due to its sleek jet black appearance.

The 4 cylinder injected, 1108cc engine is smoother than my dad after too many whiskeys flirting with my aunt Karen, and the power delivery is progressive, with no power bands, and is very predictable making it a very easy bike to manage, despite the huge power on offer. This is not a bike if you want edge of the seat sports bike characteristics. It's quite clearly, and intentionally, a sports tourer.

The mighty Bird weighs in at a burger guzzling 224 Kilos (claimed, and dry). Far heavier than modern sportsbikes, but you'll never really notice this once on the move.

Despite the fact that the Blackbird has now been with us for some time, it has only undergone one major overhaul, otherwise adhering to Honda's practice of gradual enhancement. 1999 saw electronic fuel injection added with new three-D mapping for throttle position, ignition timing, and intake pressure that adds to the machine's mid-range power. The same EFI is shared with Honda VFR, allowing 30% extra fuel flow over the older naturally aspired carbed engine, improving the engines mid range power. Despite this increase in fuel flow the overall fuel consumption of the bike was also improved. Another benefit of the introduction of the EFI was that the airbox could be moved forward allowing the bikes tank to be increased by 2 litres. Now enabling over 300 Kilometres on a single tank of fuel.

The two ports on the nose of the original pre '99 bike, which originally looked like ram air intakes, were in fact simply cosmetic. Post '99 the cosmetic ram-air intakes were actually turned into ports that now feed air, under high pressure, into the beasts giant 9 litre airbox. This single upgrade improved the bikes 'boost' at high speed, ensuring that the engine no longer ran out of breath towards the top end. In fact the front air ducts are one of the only ways in which you can tell a carburettor driven bird from the later fuel injected variant. The older Blackbird will have a mesh grill inside these ducts. The later fuel injected models have had this mesh removed.

Biff's 2005 Super Blackbird sitting back and taking it easy Performance wise the bike is good for a claimed 180 MPH. But hey, we're talking silly speeds here anyway, and that's not why I bought my Bird. Safe to say that it's a wonderful feeling knowing that you ride one of the worlds most powerful production motorbikes. A quick flick of the wrist and the bike will accelerate very quickly to licence losing speeds. On which note a word of caution, such is the smooth manner in which the Blackbird achieves high speeds it is imperative to keep an eye on the speedo.

For road riding the handling of the bike is sublime. It 'wafts' through corners. Once set into a corner, you could lay back and read War & peace thanks to the way in which the bike plants its 224 Kilo frame into the tarmac. Where it does become a bit more of a handful is in the tighter corners. Not that it has any difficulty manoeuvring its' 58.6 inch wheelbase around them, just that it struggles to cope with these in the same way a genuine sportbike would.

I use my Blackbird for commuting, touring, the occasional track day and weekend blast. And talking of blast, wind blast that is, there's virtually none, particularly on the post '99 models which benefit from a higher screen, which actually changes colour depending on the angle in which you view it.

Of all the bikes I've ever owned I must say that this is by far my favourite. It'll keep up with sports bikes if that's your thing. It'll keep your pillion in comfort thanks to the comfy seat and excellent rear hand rails, and it's, well, just so damned sexy. I was asked recently," If money were no object what bike would you buy?" I know this may sounds corny, but I'd buy a brand new Blackbird. And maybe, just maybe, something silly like a Benelli TNT for those 'special' days.

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