I revisit an old acquaintance and ride the Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird again after 22 years. 🤔

Comments · 140

• OG

  @ogdennash2439 · 3 years ago

  I bought a red one in 1998. It scared me a lot. I remember taking my mates on the back, and each one would step off it looking several shades of white lighter than when they got on it.  What an incredible machine.... happy memories :)

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• TO

  @tomnorris1734 · 2 years ago

  Riding a blackbird in 2023 is a massive breath of fresh air.<br>Its so nice to find something with no silly riding modes, no abs, no traction control nothing to get in the way. It&apos;s just really nice somehow.

  6

• AR

  @Arryhall · 3 years ago

  Brought mine in 2006, still have it. Heated grips added, and changed from Oxford wrap arounds to Oxford fitted grips. SW Motech luggage fitted for when I want it without massive girders everywhere (Givi!). Two Brothers racing end cans and I added a 2cm gel insert and better foam to the seat. Last year I changed the shock to a nearly new (3000miles) rear shock as mine was...knackered. The forks had new linear springs and heavier oil in and a 5cm spacer in the top and that sorted to forks for me. Just in the process of resprayng it candy apple red over silver metal flake. It&apos;ll either look amazing or bloody awful. I&apos;ve ridden everything I can get my sticky mitts on and I just get back on that old Bird and it feels like home. It&apos;s like the designer got a picture of my arse and drew a bike around it. I&apos;ve worn the hero blobs down three times, and went around a corner last year leaned over so the pegs were down, but it was still not enough so just kept pushing until the fairing lowers went down, with a small slide on the Pirelli Angel ST&apos;s just to tell me off but the bike just didn&apos;t seem to care. If I&apos;d been on anything else, it would have been a crash, but that fat, heavy old girl just did what I needed it to to protect me. The only bike I can think of changing it for is the Kawasaki ZZR 1400 but that just seems more of the same, but even bigger. And the speed that the &apos;Bird gets....I don&apos;t need bigger. Under 4000rpm, the thing is a labrador that just wants to play and love you, and after 5000, begins to have a bit of a snarl, and after 7000 becomes a rabid dangerous rottweiller. I love my Blackbird and can&apos;t imagine changing it for anything. After 80,000 miles, I had a service and 2 valves needed a tiny bit of a shim, but that was literally it! 80000 miles, and everything was still in spec, and I&apos;m not exactly kind or gentle on her. Incredible machine. I love riding everything, but as an only bike, I can mess around on or go to the south of france, 2 up and complete with full luggage and tank bag (and neither me nor the missus are small people) and just have zero issues and go stupidly fast (until the wife punches me to slow down).

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• MI

  @mikebreen2890 · 3 years ago

  Cracking bike even today.

  10

• GA

  @garyloudon2417 · 3 years ago

  I love when I meet hayabusa owners and they insist on telling me it’s a falcon that hunts BLACKBIRDS my &nbsp;answer is always the same but it’s not named after a bird they look at you like a Labrador yeah but it’s still faster I’m like yes but it has a larger engine 🤔 one guy said oh you just can’t give the busa any credit I said that’s not true it still manages to make my bike that went out of production 16 years ago look beautiful coz it’s still as ugly now as it was then .

  16

• IA

  @iang68 · 3 years ago

  Currently on my 4th Blackbird. Had lots of new bikes but always seem to come back to these. As an all round package comfort, reliability, build quality and power I have not found anything better. And even today its still a beautiful looking machine. <br><br>Mileage on mine is nearly 97.000 now. I bought it 5 years ago with 16.000 on the clock. Take it abroad, commute to work, and do weekend trips. Bike has barely had a problem. Only things are the cam chain tensioner, stator and reg/rec which are all easily replaced. Apart from those, the only money I spend is on tyres, pads and servicing. I service it myself which keeps costs to a minimum. They are also very easy to work on which is great. <br><br>I replaced the rear shock as the standard ones are past there best by 15.000 miles, and resprung the forks. I put a corbin seat on it, peg lowering kit and VFR rises and now its all day comfortable (for me). <br><br>The headlight bulbs are indeed a pain to access, so to reduce the frequency of bulb changes I put in LED bulbs, which seem to last forever. <br><br>Mine came with the Honda hard luggage a rack which looked great.<br><br>No idea what bike I would get to replace this, probably end up with another Blackbird. Its all the bike anyone could possibly need.<br>Hasn&apos;t got all the fancy electronics of modern bikes, but if you have plenty of experience riding, then you don&apos;t need them, and it&apos;s less stuff to go wrong.

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• PA

  @paulbrewis6823 · 3 years ago

  Bought one ! Not letting it go ❤

  4

• VA

  @Vanalleswa · 3 years ago

  i own a 2000 blackbird and its still my favorite bike to take out. &nbsp;absolute great bike

  12

• ER

  @Errrokay · 3 years ago

  My favourite bike by far.

  3

• ST

  @stevesmith6236 · 2 years ago

  Bought my first XX &nbsp;, a 1999 US spec model , as a new left-over in 2000. It was stolen that same year. &nbsp;Tried other bikes from Honda and Kawasaki but I always missed my XX. &nbsp;Bought my second brand new one ( again as a left-over) in 2005, it was a 2003 model which was the final year for the XX here in the US. I did a full custom job on it with a new paint job, full chrome, full 4 into 1 exhaust, Corbin &quot;Smuggler&quot; seat, etc. It was quite a looker and won a few awards at bike shows. <br>Had to sell it when money was tight. I now have a 2001 ( red) and a 2002( silver) &nbsp;XX. The silver has only 5800 miles on it and is 99% stock. <br>Only issue that I can think of is an XX will roast your inner thighs when stopped at a traffic light. &nbsp;Still one of the best motorcycles ever made in my opinion!

  4

• NE

  @netteypatch · 1 year ago

  Last August ( 2024) I rode me Blackbird , that I had owned new in 2000, across &nbsp;Canada. She performed flawlessly. An amazing and reliable machine

• PU

  @Pugwash. · 2 years ago

  You&apos;re very fortunate that your friend let you ride his bike. My bird is 25 years old soon and the only problem to date was a glitch on the kill switch. A known issue on old bikes and easy to diagnose.

  2