I’d always felt roadgoing sports bikes were a bit of a contradiction in terms after racing an ex-grand prix TZ350 Yamaha in the 1980s. It was about the size of a 125 learner bike but went like a scalded ferret and cornered like it was on rails. At 6ft1 it was a bit of a crowbar job to get myself on it but I managed, and got some useful results out of it. So, getting on a 900cc 4-cylinder bike I thought it would be like an armchair. It isn’t. Despite the bulk of the engine and the big fuel tank sitting atop it, Honda have done a great job making the bike feel small and agile. The only thing that feels “big” is the stretch to the low handlebars, though arguably that forces you into a racing crouch, complemented by high footrests for cornering ground clearance. But I have to stop the praise for a moment I’m afraid. It really is horribly uncomfortable. The bars are too far forward, leaving your crown jewels rammed against the back of the tank, your weight on your wrists leaves you crying for mercy at every junction, and the footrests are too far forward to take any weight on them. Perhaps a smaller rider would find the seating position acceptable but then they’d need a taxi to get them to the handlebars. Having accumulated a bit of girth over the years probably didn’t help me, but try as I might I just couldn’t get comfortable on the Blade.
Despite mixed first impressions the Fireblade is seriously impressive out on the road. Smooth and refined, it’s happy to trickle round town at 2-3,000 rpm but wind it up to the 10,000 redline and ye gods does it shift. It’s hard to find a bit of road where you can open up a big bike these days and I certainly didn’t try it for top speed, but a quick blat on a clear bit of dual carriageway provides total sensory overload. Back on the A roads, it’s confident and assured, not over-endowed with midrange power but happy to nip past dawdling caravans. Despite the large prominent rev counter right in front of the rider, frequent gear changing is a must as the gears are close ratio, much like a racing gearbox, and you’re up and down all the time, in short slick typically Honda shifts.
Road tests at the time criticised the 16” front wheel for making the bike too twitchy on steering, but I can’t fault it. It changes direction effortlessly but remains straight and stable in the bends with no steering damper needed. Plenty of power on tap and two-finger braking make this a bike you can swing through bends like it was made to do it, which of course it was.
Owning the Fireblade is a bit like meeting the woman of your dreams, then finding she’s a Tory voter. There’s so much going for it – a genuinely awesome piece of riding machinery, beautifully engineered and beautiful to look at, but the riding position is just awful. To me, this spoils something that was supposed to be perfect. My other “classics” aren’t perfect but I’m emotionally invested in them in a way that I’m not in the Blade. Is it a keeper? I genuinely don’t know. I’ll keep it this year for sure and I’m hopefully doing a big trip (on another bike) next year so maybe not selling then either. It could be an “investment” but that’s not really me. I like to ride my bikes not just look at them, and it’s money and garage space tied up that I’d rather not tie up. An occasional “sunny day” bike for quick blasts then, beyond that we’ll see. I wonder if there’s space in the dining room.
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...got some good memories of the 96 model I had... Fast , fun , good handling , comfortable if not a little fat around the waist 
well except when I rode it to the South of France when it crippled me. Only issue I had with the 16 inch front was to me the front end was always vague with not much feedback. It never stopped me doing anything but always felt I rode with faith rather than feel with the front. Especially compared to my mates ZX7 and ZX9's.
