For many riders, myself included, sportbikes were the reason we fell in love with motorcycling. I don’t know, there’s just something about the way they look, the way they sound, and of course, the way they feel that gets your heart racing even when you’re sitting in your driveway.
We all have that one sportbike that we could say defines a generation. For some, it’s the Ducati 916, or perhaps, the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10RR. But for me, as a kid born in the mid-90s, it was all about the early-generation Yamaha R1s, Suzuki Gixxers, and of course, the Honda CBR1000RR.
The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade was, is, and always will be iconic for good reason. Like its counterparts, it was a machine that balanced raw performance with a surprising amount of on-road usability. Personally, I’ve always dreamed of owning a mint-condition CBR1000RR, or even the smaller CBR600RR, from like 2005 or something. I just feel like these bikes captured the golden era of street-legal superbikes. You know, back when traction control and ABS relied solely on the human touch, and not a bunch of code in a plastic box.
And while that dream remains to be fulfilled for me, someone else might soon tick it off their bucket list, thanks to an epic find that’s hitting the auction block next month.
The Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade above isn’t a picture from two decades ago. It’s a fairly recent image of a bike that’s set to go on auction at the Devitt MCN London Motorcycle Show. And it’s as close to brand-new as you could possibly get in this day and age. For starters, the bike is all-original and is still in its original transport crate.
It’s never been registered, and despite being taken out of the crate and started in the past, has spent nearly all its life as dealer stock in long-term storage in Hong Kong. So yeah, it’s been hibernating for around 20 years now, waiting for its forever home.
Clearly, whoever gets their hands on this thing will be in for quite the treat. And while it isn’t exactly a rare bike per se, the fact that it’s probably the only brand-new condition CBR1000RR Fireblade in the world adds quite a lot to that rarity. I mean, it’s by all means a refreshing sight in a sea of clapped-out, rattle-can-sprayed, early-2000s sportbikes, right?
The estimated price for a bike like this? Around £10,000 to £15,000 (about $12,000 to $18,000). That’s around twice that of a used ‘05 Fireblade on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace, but hey, none of them have the creds this thing’s rocking.
The bike is set to go under the hammer with Iconic Auctioneers and the Devitt MCN London Motorcycle Show at the ExCel London exhibition hall on Sunday, February 16. Spectators and visitors will also get to see the bike up close and personal during the show held from Friday to Saturday.
So if you’re traveling to the UK, you might want to check it out and see it for yourself. Who knows, you might just end up heading home with an early 2000s time capsule of a superbike.
Source: MCN
