Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP falling out of gear @ 140 mph!

Please note: I am writing this during the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. However, the events captured happened before the UK Government introduced the lock down and social distancing.

This is a follow up to a previous blog I wrote about ‘My year with the Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP’, if you haven’t seen that blog you can read it here.

I’ve owned this bike since 2018, I initially had concerns about its brakes and gears after a couple of months and raised the issue with my local Honda dealer. Now, I have to say that the dealer has been great, they have tried to locate the problem with the gears but it’s not easy to replicate. This seems to be because it only happens when I’m on track and pushing the bike a little harder than normal road riding. To date, all they’ve had to go on is me telling them what happens when it drops out of gear. Unfortunately I have not had a camera on the bike when it’s been having one of its ‘moments’. Well, that has changed, I now have video evidence!

In mid March this year, 2020, the persistent rain had subsided, the weather was definitely starting to brighten up and it appeared that spring was in the air. Having not ridden much over the previous months I decided that I wanted to get out and have a blast on the track. So I booked a track day with MSV at Bedford Aerodrome.

This was my first time riding at Bedford and after the first couple of sessions I managed to start to learn the track. The weather, albeit a little cold was dry and not much wind around. As I got more familiar with the track the first problem occurred, I triggered the noise meter. Despite passing the static noise test the Fireblade seems to create much more noise at a higher RPM. Not the first time I’ve had an issue noise, I’ve been pulled in at other tracks as well. This is a completely stock system, how have Honda managed to produce a road bike that fails to meet track day limits?!

As the day progressed all seemed well, I was gradually getting more familiar with the circuit and feeling confident with my riding. I was thinking to myself that the bike had behaved itself today, however, during the last session it dropped out of gear, this time on the back straight. Not that much of a drama really as it was on a straight. I have had it do the same whilst in a corner, which was proper scary. I have challenged Honda about this and their stance is that its a characteristic of the bike. Anyway, this time I got it captured on video… try denying it this time Honda! I’ve embedded a link to the video below. Is this a ‘characteristic’ of the bike? I’ll let you decide.