WORTH A PUNT...

2004 Fireblade - The 2004 Fireblade is the result of Honda deciding it wanted to go superbike racing, abandoning its ‘less is more’ approach to superbike design and going all in with a 1000cc example. It also drew heavily on Honda’s design philosophy of mass centralisation it was using to great effect on the V5 RC211V MotoGP bike. And it was the first non-Baba designed Fireblade, which, unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 20 years, you’ll know is significant.

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Tadao Baba was the brainchild of the original and groundbreaking Fireblade, which is undoubtedly the very definition of a game changer. He stayed on the Fireblade project right through to the final sub-1000cc version, the 954cc bike, itself a strong contender for a bike worth a punt given that Baba’s original Fireblade has rocketed in value, so why shouldn’t Baba’s last Fireblade? The truth is that it might just be the smarter option, but the case for the 1000cc version is a very compelling one, not least because at the time of writing, they are so damn cheap to buy – £3000 to £3500 gets you 170bhp, 179kg, trick rear suspension set-up, mass centralisation, an underseat exhaust and a design that still looks bang-on fresh nearly 20 years later. As it happens, the World Superbike series switched to a single tyre supplier in 2004, which Honda didn’t agree with, so it took its factory team to the British Superbike championship to showcase the new Fireblade to great effect, with lots of race wins and pole positions, but no championship, in the hands of Michael Rutter. It also went on to win the North West 200 with Rutter on board, in the process becoming the first superbike to ever clock 200mph anywhere in the world and later become the first bike to lap the TT course at an average of 130mph in the hands of John McGuinness. In short, while the British championship was elusive, the all new Fireblade achieved plenty of success.