ALL New MotorCycle

Thy champion returnith. Like an undefeated gladiator walking into the Roman Coliseum to fight his next battle, the Honda CBR1000RR enters this shootout with the target square on it. But like the bred-to-kill gladiator, so too is the Honda. They’re not here to make friends. They're here to win. Honda has always spent a great deal of time and effort getting its press bikes well set up and performing their best, this year being no different. And like a familiar face, it was reassuring to get back on a bike which you knew would instantly boost your confidence.

Right out of the truck everyone was extremely comfortable on the Honda. Last year at the more tight and technical Pahrump it dominated, but this was almost to be expected as the CBR is unquestionably the smallest and most agile of the group. Literally feeling like a 600 when you first swing a leg over, none of the other bikes comes close to the compactness of the RR. But this was a new day and a new track and a new set of challengers. Thunderhill is much longer and faster than Pahrump, so keeping up with the monster motors of the Kawasaki and all-new Suzuki was going to be no easy task. Standing the test of time, at least in this group, looked nearly impossible.

That is, until we rode them all. It’s hard to believe that the Honda would once again shine so brightly, but that wasn’t to say it didn’t have a serious fight on its hands in the form of the new GSX-R1000 K9. Suzuki’s latest and greatest liter-class beast brought serious heat: But it wasn’t quite enough.

2009 Honda CBR1000RR

With the rest of the bikes in this group, it’s typically the engine that first catches your attention. In the Honda’s case, it’s the aforementioned diminutive size and extremely nimble chassis. And while Thunderhill is fast, it’s also very technical and puts great emphasis on the ability to quickly change direction as well as a premium on how well a motorcycle handles. With the Honda it feels as if by the time your brain thinks about changing direction you’re already there, requiring only the slightest tug on the bars. It’s by far the easiest to ride aggressively.

“The Honda’s ability to turn-in quickly was one of the most neutral of all the

That's one nice rear end. No, we're talking about the bike you weirdo.

bikes,” Sorensen said. “It took very little effort to flick the bike in, but it wasn’t twichy at all and gave excellent feedback from the front as you turn the bike from left to right.”

“Once again the CBR1000RR seems to feature the most well-sorted suspension package of the test,” Hutchison adds. “It required the least adjustments according to our test riders to dial it in and was the most confidence inspiring bike of the test for me personally. I could push harder for longer sessions than I could on any other bike. That’s because I wasn’t thinking about anything but riding when I was on the Honda. It isolates the rider from the track and lets you focus on the task of putting corners together and having fun while doing it.”

It was hard to separate Waheed from the Honda.

Taking a look at the data you can see several interesting things. In Turn 2, while the lean angle may not be the highest, it’s one of the fastest to complete the corner as well as holding one of the highest speeds at max lean. The same thing can be seen in Turn 14 where it is the quickest of all the bikes to get though the corner, though max lean is right in the middle of the field. This shows that not as much lean is required from the Honda to still maintain the same speed or better than most of the competition. It’s also interesting to point out that it has some of the lowest max lateral grip numbers, showing that on this flying lap I was sliding the Honda to a certain degree in both turns more than the others. It’s the Honda’s solid set-up and very communicative chassis that allowed this to be possible without crashing. And equally as important as handling to achieve this was the connection my right wrist had with the rear wheel, another area the Honda shines.