Honda cbr1000rr
How much power is too much power? In the motorcycle world, it’s a question that will never be answered. But if you love customs and don’t mind changing your underwear after every ride, Bill Webb has the solution for you.
His latest creation is the Stoc RR: a 178 hp Honda CBR1000rr turned into a “café fighter.” It’s a stripped-back sportbike with a retro-futuristic vibe, and because Bill is an industrial designer, the mods are easily installed and don’t require welding skills.
Thankfully the CBR hasn’t lost its other main strength when it comes to performance: agile, balanced handling. And the Öhlins suspension front and rear only adds to the Honda’s competence in the corners. Both the NIX30 fork and TTX36 rear shock perform superbly, offering nice compliance on the smaller pavement irregularities and excellent control on the bigger hits. Well-sorted spring and damping rates allow you to make full use of the CBR’s lithe and sharp steering habits since the chassis isn’t dancing around underneath you, translating to confident quick-flick corner entries that enable you to exploit the Honda’s responsive engine.
We had a standard 2014 Honda CBR1000RR alongside at the racetrack for a direct comparison, and it was easy to feel the difference in suspension action and how it influenced the rest of the chassis performance—and it should be remembered that the Showa BPF and Balance-Free rear shock are some of the better stock components available. Although competent in its own right, the Showa suspension had an overall harsher feel than the Öhlins pieces when tightened up for track use; the Showa fork and shock were comparatively firm throughout their range of travel, while the Öhlins units had an almost adaptive feel to them, combining compliance with control. A suspension’s ability to retain compliance when firmed up for track use is a sure sign of higher-quality internals.
Also adding to the CBR SP’s performance repertoire are the Brembo M4 monoblock calipers. While it can’t be said that the Brembos are any more powerful than the standard model’s Nissin calipers, where the Brembos excel is in feel under very hard braking. The Nissin calipers and pads have a comparatively strong initial response, followed by a very progressive ramp-up in braking power as more braking pressure is applied. This requires care as you approach the limits of braking in order to avoid overpowering the front tire. The Brembos, on the other hand, have a slightly softer response, but their feel is much better, and the braking power is more linear, meaning the performance envelope you have to play with is much wider. We also found the SP’s slipper clutch to be much more amenable to aggressive corner entries than previous CBRs, with less movement under rapid-fire downshifts.
Specifications
MSRP $16,699
ENGINE
Type Liquid-cooled, transverse inline-four
Valve arrangement DOHC, 4 valves/cyl., shim-under-bucket adjustment
Displacement 999cc
Bore x stroke 76.0 x 55.1mm
Compression ratio 12.3:1
Induction PGM-DSFI, 46mm throttle bodies, dual injectors/cyl.
Transmission 6-speed
CHASSIS
Front suspension Öhlins 43mm NIX30 inverted fork, adjustments for spring preload, rebound, and compression damping, 4.7 in. travel
Rear suspension Öhlins TTX36 shock absorber, adjustments for spring preload, rebound, and compression damping, 5.4 in. travel
Front brake Dual 320mm rotors with Brembo M4 monoblock radial-mount four-piston calipers
Rear brake Single 220mm rotor with single-piston caliper
Front wheel 3.5x17 in., cast aluminum alloy
Rear wheel 6.0x17 in., cast aluminum alloy
Front tire Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP, 120/70ZR-17
Rear tire Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP, 190/55ZR-17
Rake/trail 23.0°/3.7 in. (96mm)
Wheelbase 55.5 in. (1410mm)
Seat height 32.3 in. (820mm)
Fuel capacity 4.6 gal. (17.5L)
Weight 450 lb. (204kg) wet, all fluids; 422 lb. (192 kg) dry, all fluids no fuel
Fuel consumption 29–37 mpg, 35 mpg avg.
PERFORMANCE
Quarter-mile 9.83 sec. @ 143.75 mph (corrected)
Roll-ons 60–80 mph/3.0 sec.; 80–100 mph/NA
2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP
Engine Balancing—How Much Is It Worth?
The CBR1000RR SP sales brochure touts the engine’s “hand-selected parts like pistons and connecting rods for weight and balance to improve track performance.” When you have an engine spinning at five-digit rpm, the weight of every single reciprocating component gets magnified tremendously, so not only is less weight desirable, but matching those weights as close as possible to reduce uneven loading on supporting rotating parts can be of major importance. If you’ve ever felt the vibration from running an out-of-balance tire/wheel at high speed, then you can imagine the forces that are generated by a crankshaft spinning at 13,000 rpm.
Reducing that imbalance results in a smoother-running engine—but what about other benefits? We asked HyperCycle proprietor Carry Andrew [hypercycle.com, (818) 988-8860]—who has extensive experience building both AMA championship-winning roadrace engines and wildly modified sportbikes that have graced the pages of Sport Rider in the past—for his opinion on the benefits of the CBR’s matched pistons and rods.
“For a stock engine, matching pistons and rods is not going to result in more power,” Andrew stated. “It will mostly benefit engine vibration and extend component life. The only time it really offers advantages is when you’re constantly turning really high rpm like a roadrace bike, and even then, you’d have to be talking about a very high-horsepower modified engine to see a real power difference.”
With racing regulations evolving more and more toward using stock engine internals to reduce costs, the CBR’s balanced pistons and rods should benefit superbike racers as they try to squeeze as much power as possible out of less-modified engines. But Andrew said that manufacturing tolerances with most OEM engine component companies is already pretty good, as they need to demonstrate durability with stock engines turning five-digit engine speeds for the life of the motorcycle. “It’s been pretty rare when I’ve found stock pistons with more than a gram of difference between them,” Andrew recalled.
How much power is too much power? In the motorcycle world, it’s a question that will never be answered. But if you love customs and don’t mind changing your underwear after every ride, Bill Webb has the solution for you.
His latest creation is the Stoc RR: a 178 hp Honda CBR1000rr turned into a “café fighter.” It’s a stripped-back sportbike with a retro-futuristic vibe, and because Bill is an industrial designer, the mods are easily installed and don’t require welding skills.
Thankfully the CBR hasn’t lost its other main strength when it comes to performance: agile, balanced handling. And the Öhlins suspension front and rear only adds to the Honda’s competence in the corners. Both the NIX30 fork and TTX36 rear shock perform superbly, offering nice compliance on the smaller pavement irregularities and excellent control on the bigger hits. Well-sorted spring and damping rates allow you to make full use of the CBR’s lithe and sharp steering habits since the chassis isn’t dancing around underneath you, translating to confident quick-flick corner entries that enable you to exploit the Honda’s responsive engine.
We had a standard 2014 Honda CBR1000RR alongside at the racetrack for a direct comparison, and it was easy to feel the difference in suspension action and how it influenced the rest of the chassis performance—and it should be remembered that the Showa BPF and Balance-Free rear shock are some of the better stock components available. Although competent in its own right, the Showa suspension had an overall harsher feel than the Öhlins pieces when tightened up for track use; the Showa fork and shock were comparatively firm throughout their range of travel, while the Öhlins units had an almost adaptive feel to them, combining compliance with control. A suspension’s ability to retain compliance when firmed up for track use is a sure sign of higher-quality internals.
Also adding to the CBR SP’s performance repertoire are the Brembo M4 monoblock calipers. While it can’t be said that the Brembos are any more powerful than the standard model’s Nissin calipers, where the Brembos excel is in feel under very hard braking. The Nissin calipers and pads have a comparatively strong initial response, followed by a very progressive ramp-up in braking power as more braking pressure is applied. This requires care as you approach the limits of braking in order to avoid overpowering the front tire. The Brembos, on the other hand, have a slightly softer response, but their feel is much better, and the braking power is more linear, meaning the performance envelope you have to play with is much wider. We also found the SP’s slipper clutch to be much more amenable to aggressive corner entries than previous CBRs, with less movement under rapid-fire downshifts.
Specifications
MSRP $16,699
ENGINE
Type Liquid-cooled, transverse inline-four
Valve arrangement DOHC, 4 valves/cyl., shim-under-bucket adjustment
Displacement 999cc
Bore x stroke 76.0 x 55.1mm
Compression ratio 12.3:1
Induction PGM-DSFI, 46mm throttle bodies, dual injectors/cyl.
Transmission 6-speed
CHASSIS
Front suspension Öhlins 43mm NIX30 inverted fork, adjustments for spring preload, rebound, and compression damping, 4.7 in. travel
Rear suspension Öhlins TTX36 shock absorber, adjustments for spring preload, rebound, and compression damping, 5.4 in. travel
Front brake Dual 320mm rotors with Brembo M4 monoblock radial-mount four-piston calipers
Rear brake Single 220mm rotor with single-piston caliper
Front wheel 3.5x17 in., cast aluminum alloy
Rear wheel 6.0x17 in., cast aluminum alloy
Front tire Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP, 120/70ZR-17
Rear tire Pirelli Diablo Supercorsa SP, 190/55ZR-17
Rake/trail 23.0°/3.7 in. (96mm)
Wheelbase 55.5 in. (1410mm)
Seat height 32.3 in. (820mm)
Fuel capacity 4.6 gal. (17.5L)
Weight 450 lb. (204kg) wet, all fluids; 422 lb. (192 kg) dry, all fluids no fuel
Fuel consumption 29–37 mpg, 35 mpg avg.
PERFORMANCE
Quarter-mile 9.83 sec. @ 143.75 mph (corrected)
Roll-ons 60–80 mph/3.0 sec.; 80–100 mph/NA
2014 Honda CBR1000RR SP
Engine Balancing—How Much Is It Worth?
The CBR1000RR SP sales brochure touts the engine’s “hand-selected parts like pistons and connecting rods for weight and balance to improve track performance.” When you have an engine spinning at five-digit rpm, the weight of every single reciprocating component gets magnified tremendously, so not only is less weight desirable, but matching those weights as close as possible to reduce uneven loading on supporting rotating parts can be of major importance. If you’ve ever felt the vibration from running an out-of-balance tire/wheel at high speed, then you can imagine the forces that are generated by a crankshaft spinning at 13,000 rpm.
Reducing that imbalance results in a smoother-running engine—but what about other benefits? We asked HyperCycle proprietor Carry Andrew [hypercycle.com, (818) 988-8860]—who has extensive experience building both AMA championship-winning roadrace engines and wildly modified sportbikes that have graced the pages of Sport Rider in the past—for his opinion on the benefits of the CBR’s matched pistons and rods.
“For a stock engine, matching pistons and rods is not going to result in more power,” Andrew stated. “It will mostly benefit engine vibration and extend component life. The only time it really offers advantages is when you’re constantly turning really high rpm like a roadrace bike, and even then, you’d have to be talking about a very high-horsepower modified engine to see a real power difference.”
With racing regulations evolving more and more toward using stock engine internals to reduce costs, the CBR’s balanced pistons and rods should benefit superbike racers as they try to squeeze as much power as possible out of less-modified engines. But Andrew said that manufacturing tolerances with most OEM engine component companies is already pretty good, as they need to demonstrate durability with stock engines turning five-digit engine speeds for the life of the motorcycle. “It’s been pretty rare when I’ve found stock pistons with more than a gram of difference between them,” Andrew recalled.
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