Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird Review

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Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird
4.7 stars
Average rating for this product is: 4.7 out of 5

From 14 ratings and 69 reviews

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mutsnuts64's Review of Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird Sports Bike

11th Apr 2009

Overall Rating

4.5 stars
  • Value for money
    5 stars
  • Length of ownership
    successive
  • Reliability
    5 stars
  • Year Manufactured
    2000, 2002, 2003 and 2004
  • Build quality
    4 stars
Good Points

Reliability - starts and stops EVERY time
Excellent parts supply - not Honda
Acceleration - AWESOME
Comfort - sublime
Respect - unparalleled


Bad Points

Build Quality - Now Spanish!!
and no new 1200 as promised two years ago.


General Comments

The Honda CBR1100XX SuperBlackbird is at the end of its lifecycle - honda knew it and after owning four of them, two out of the crate and two pre-owned, I now know it. What I have just written has saddened me, but it is what I believe. They have let me down by compromising on build quality by handing production over to another European country and permitting the inevitable degradation of build quality to save a few quid per machine. Every one of my machines has been destroyed - and I mean halved their value - due to the use of salt on British roads during the winter. This stuff apparently has had molasses added to it and sticks, eating and corroding its way through the half a dozen microns of plating that apparently is now acceptable if you ride in Florida, but is completely worthless in acid rain and frost infested GB. I hunger for a new shiny machine and Honda have nothing in the larder. I have gone to Kawasaki, who have stepped up to the typewriter and provided the next chapter in the hyper-tourer manual, the ZZR1400. I haven't got it yet (09 plate out of the crate next week) and I am praying it is merely as good as the Blackbird - if it is, I will be happy. The Blackbird: Unstoppable super smooth power, glorious motorway madness with an insatiable appetite for miles. Everything that has been written about the Blackbird that extols its virtues is absolutely true. There is only one real problem with the bike now and it has crept up on the old stalwart as it does us all - age. For that, you have to blame Honda. I have tired of looking at 10-year-old VFR's that are still mint while my four year old Blackbird is rotting like a 70's MZ! The irony is that I would happily have paid more for the old attention to detail that is now sadly lacking. Honda should note the old addage: a good reputation is hard earned but easily lost.
Footnote: but, what a bike.

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