What did the Fireblade do that was new?Supermofo wrote: ↑Fri Jun 11, 2021 8:23 amI'd agree with that. The R1 was a direct result of the Blade, they didn't come up with the idea themselves they responded to what Honda had done. Hence game changer. The Blade wasn't a direct result of a GSXR750 or EXUP it did something new and nobody had anything to respond withDemannu wrote: ↑Thu Jun 10, 2021 4:19 pm The special thing about the fireblade was it was designed to be better than anything else available.
Not a bit better, a fucking whole lot better.
In the 80's, the big 4 launched a bike a month and then looked at what everyone else was doing, and tweaked theirs a bit next year. And so on. Evolution rather than revolution.
When the fireblade was released, it had 1000cc power, 600 handling and weight, ideas straight from the gp's. In 1992, that was as exciting as your first porn mag.
A quantum leap forward in bike design, which stood unchallenged for nearly 6 years whilst the other manufacturers threw away what sports designs they had and started again.
Now remind me how the 675 changed biking again?
I can't think of any new technology on the Fireblade, the light weight, high power thing had been done before by the GSXR750, tbh the only thing new about the R1 is the stacked gearbox.