The 2006 CBR1000RR

Sometimes, even the best of plans don't work out the way they're supposed to. Take my birthday for example. The original plan was to spend it an old girlfriend, one I had been spending a lot of time with, hoping to resurrect an old "spark" that I never really lost. With reservations at a nice restaurant, a great view of the bay, and a live jazz trio playing, I had high hopes for the evening - hopes that ended with the old "I think we should just be friends" speech. Yeah - happy birthday to me.

The original CBR1000RR is another example. Take key elements of the World Championship winning RC211V MotoGP bike, refine it with the same HRC engineering that had won numerous world titles, and place superstar riders like Ben Bostrom and Miguel Duhamel on it - can't lose, right? You would think so, especially during preseason testing when the Superbike pilots were ranting and raving about its power and handling. Instead, the best Honda could manage was the runner-up position in the 2004 championship. Not necessarily a bad finish, but one that was definitely short of the goal.

Not being one to just sit down and let disappointment slap me in the face, I took a new course of action. Craigslist W4M ads, Yahoo Personals, match.com - you name it, I looked into it. It didn't work too well, with zero positive responses after trying to contact about thirty different women. The Honda racing team followed their disappointing season with a new course of action as well, taking development of their Superbike program in-house for 2005. Like me, they fared rather miserably, as both Duhamel and rising talent Jake Zemke struggled to place the place the CBR1000RR on the podium throughout the season.

The bike's luck in magazine shootouts was only marginally better. While it worked very well in production form, it was also the heaviest contender in the open class. Compounding the problem were its horsepower numbers, which were the lowest in the class. Without any sort of standout performances on the stat sheets, the Honda flagship just didn't have the same bragging rights that the other open classers had. It might have had the engineering and reliability that Hondas have always been known for, but open class dominance has always been about stat sheet superiority or road racing championships. The big Honda had neither, forcing the engineers to make some major changes to its roadracing flagship for 2006.

The first task for Honda's team of engineers was to put the big CBR on an intensive weight loss program. Rotating weight, unsprung weight - you name it, Honda trimmed something from it. Thinner walls on the camshafts resulted in a 100 gram loss. A smaller, lighter ECU - another 100 gram loss. Newer, thinner brake rotors (which were increased in diameter from 310 to 320 mm) - a 300 gram loss. All in all, the new CBR1000RR tipped the scales with 17 fewer pounds than its predecessor.

The next task was to massage a little more oomph out of the motor. Additional power was found with reshaped intake and exhaust ports, creating a straighter path and increasing flow. The compression ratio was increased from 11.9:1 to 12.2:1. Lift on the intake cam was increased from 8.9mm to 9.1mm, with redline increased from 11,650 to 12,200 rpm. According to Honda engineers, the end result of the changes is a claimed 3% increase in power - and that's not counting the acceleration gained through weight loss. As most tuners will tell you that a 7 pound drop in weight equals a 1 horsepower gain, you can see the significance of the 17 pounds the CBR lost for 2006.

Then there's the handling. While the 2005 was viewed by many as the most forgiving, rider-friendly open bike in the open class, some felt the geometry was a little flat and uninspiring. Honda engineers changed that for 2006, making a number of changes to sharpen the handling and steering characteristics, while still retaining its rider-friendly handling characteristics. The steering angle became steeper, from 23.45 to 23.25 degrees. 2 mm of trail were dropped. Thanks to a new swingarm, the wheelbase was shortened by 10 mm. To counteract the side effects that accompany a shorter swingarm, an HRC derived rear suspension linkage was used. These changes - together with the weight loss, power gains, and an additional tooth on the rear sprocket - resulted in a machine that not only steers quicker, but wheelies easier as well!

The CBR1000RR received a few styling changes as well. The indent in the front cowl is more pronounced, accentuating the redesigned slim-line headlights. The new side fairings feature a more open look, exposing the new motor with more rounded lines, a big change from the slab-sided lower fairings of its predecessor. It was as though the old bike was wearing granny panties - in comparison, the new bike is sporting a thong!

As the day approached, I thought about how I was going to manage everything. Usually, I'm dripping with excitement before testing a new machine. But in the case of the Honda, I could barely think - much less ride - a few days before the event. Emotionally, I felt like a urinal cake in the Oakland Coliseum after a Raider game; I wasn't sure how I was going to do it.

Thankfully, I was somehow able to get some decent sleep the night before the event - the 1-2 hours a night I had been getting for the past week wasn't cutting it. I wasn't really sure what to expect as we rolled up to the track, as the Honda really didn't have the same kind of kick-in-the-pants reputation that the other open class contenders did. As last year's bike had the reputation of being "rider friendly", I was curious to see just how friendly a cutting-edge, open-class sportbike could be.

Friendly or not, it was COLD during that first session. The combination of open class power and cold tarmac had me poking around Buttonwillow's serpentine layout for the first couple of sessions. With the rounded profile of the OEM Bridgestone BT-015s that were mounted to the rims, the Honda took a bit more effort to turn than I was used to. But compared to the race tires I was used to running, the Bridgestones came to temp fairly quickly, allowing me to confidently pick up the pace while witnessing the sideways antics that test riders Doug Toland and Jeff Tigert subjected them to. While I doubt I was going fast enough to make an AFM Formula Pacific grid, I did feel like I was going at a respectable clip. And at that speed - probably a decent A group pace at any given trackday - I didn't manage a single slip or slide. Definitely impressive for an OEM street tire.

For a liter bike, the CBR was a lot more manageable on the gas than I thought it would be. There was no kick-in-the-pants, low end hit that threatened to spit me into the desert - just smooth, linear power. It was so smooth, so useable, I almost forgot I was on an 1000cc machine. Of course, the CBR was quick to remind me of its lineage, lofting the front wheel on acceleration where I've never lofted it before. Only on an open liter bike.

My next session was spent on last year's bike. It was my first experience on Honda's flagship of yesteryear, as riders on open class bikes generally aren't as open about lending out their rocketships. Under normal circumstances, I probably would have been impressed by its rider-friendly manners. But after riding the new bike, it felt a little uninspiring. The extra weight could be felt as I snapped the bike through left-right transitions. My drives off of corners weren't as strong, and I found myself running out of revs on some corner exits. Corner entrances were a little harder to get right, with the back wheel chattering into corners unless I matched my revs perfectly. On the new bike, I could downshift and peel into same corners with the back end totally settled. The Honda might be the only open class competitor without a slipper clutch, but after riding it, I wasn't so sure it needed one. It actually worked better on downshifts than one bike I had ridden that did come with a slipper!

After lunch I was back on the new bike, with a set of new Bridgestone BT002 racing tires mounted up. With that setup, I was able to get the bike on its side much more quickly, and with considerably less effort. Once it was leaned over, the bike felt considerably more planted than it did with the OEM tires, allowing me to make midcorner line changes with confidence. The radial mount calipers on the new rotors allowed me to scrub speed in a hurry, while still providing enough feel to trail brake all the way to the apexes of different turns.

Usually, an open class racebike reminds me how hamfisted I am. The front will snap at me from time to time when the front comes up in places I'm not accustomed to, while the back might nip at me when I get a little too eager or anxious getting on the throttle on corner exits. That wasn't the case with the big Honda. The CBR1000RR kept encouraging me to enter deeper, to get on the gas harder and earlier. I've always believed that a good bike could make me feel like a better rider than I actually am. And I felt damn good on the Honda.

When I did manage to get it wrong, the Honda would calmly let me know I screwed up. The CBR's power had the front end coming up in places I didn't expect it to, resulting in a few crossed up wheelies that were set down before I was able to straighten the front wheel out. When that happened, the bike would respond with a momentary wag of the bars before quickly settling out - a calm reminder that I had to be gentle with the it. Barreling into the approach to Riverside - the fastest turn on the track - the CBR just cruised through a pair of dips that has been known to get bikes bent out of shape rather quickly. Lap after lap, it railed through without any issues, despite the fact that I was probably going through that part of the track faster than I ever had before. It was dead stable through sections of track that have caused serious instability problems on other bikes, a testament to the excellent stock setup, the Unit Pro Link rear suspension, and the electronic steering damper.

In the past, I've had all kinds of problems at Buttonwillow, struggling to get the bike smoothly and quickly through several of its trickier turns. It felt like much less of a struggle on the Honda, the way it floated through ruts and bumps, settling smoothly into tighter corners from high speed chutes without getting tied up in knots. Thanks to the new Honda, I was able to have one of my most memorable rides to date on its narrow, 3 mile long layout.

And then it was over. All too soon really, as I had no desire to return to the reality of Northern California and the female-induced misery it possessed. In the same sense, it was time for Honda and its team to return to reality as well - a reality involving months of preparation the ultra-competitive AMA Superbike and Superstock classes. After riding the new CBR1000RR, I'm pretty confident that they'll be right there in the mix once the season gets underway. Former Superstock champions Aaron Gobert and Josh Hayes apparently have even more confidence in it, joining the Erion squad for 2006 before ever throwing a leg over the new bike. Championship-winning riders, a championship-winning team, and a new bike with loads of potential - it should make for a very exciting season!

Which brings me back to my present situation - sitting here at my desk as my most miserable holiday season on record finishes up, with friends telling me not to worry since things generally happen when I least expect them to. Sort of like my ride on the CBR1000RR - I wasn't really expecting anything of it, but it turned out to be one of my most inspirational rides on a bone stock streetbike. Usually, I'm pretty happy to get back on my own well-sorted track bike after a day on an stock machine. But after riding the Honda, I found myself wondering how I could make my own bike work as well as the Honda did. It felt that good.

Hell - if the next chapter of my love life makes me feel half as good as the new CBR did, I think I'll be in pretty good shape…

(Mike Solis is a regular CityBike contributor, a former WSMC / AFM race winner, an avid mountain / road bicyclist, and a motorcycle race school instructor. Interested women can reach him at citybikemike@yahoo.com. Go ahead, he needs it...)

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