1997 Honda Cbr1100xx Super Blackbird Sighted
1997 HONDA CBR 11OOXX SUPER BLACKBIRD SIGHTED
ROUNDUP
A 185-MPH, 160-HORSEpower, ram-air road burner will head Honda's 1997 streetbike line-up, if these spy photos taken in mid-June are any indication.
Though company spokes-persons feign ignorance, the photographs confirm the existence of the long-rumored CBR1100XX (see Roundup, March, 1995), which will go by the name Super Blackbird.
Honda apparently named the bike after the famed U.S. Air Force surveillance jet, the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird; in fact, these photos were taken at a Southern California airfield where the bike was being photographed with one of the planes for promotional purposes. The company’s desire to use that name is significant in that the Blackbird was, when it began flying missions in the late ’60s, the world’s fastest, most advanced jet. More spacecraft than aircraft, it flew at speeds of Mach 3plus (more than 2000 mph) at altitudes of over 80,000 feet. This should be evidence enough that the CBR1100XX is aimed at taking on Kawasaki’s 176-mph ZX-11 for the title of Speed King.
Whatever its performance capabilities, the CBR1100XX looks ready for battle. Its rakish bodywork follows the latest aerodynamic practices and its twin-spar frame and dual upswept mufflers hint at its cornering prowess, yet its seating position looks to have been designed with long-range comfort in mind. And while it’s not clear in the photos, the Japanese magazine Young Machine recently published an astonishingly accurate illustration showing the bike equipped with a CBRIOOOF-derived Linked Braking System.
Word is that the Blackbird is powered by a liquid-cooled,
1137cc, dohc, 16-valve inline-Four, though whether this is based on the engine used in the existing CBR1000F, the CBR900RR or something allnew is uncertain. Fuel injection and gear-driven cams, as used on the RC45, would be logical additions, but no one’s talking, so who knows?
All we can do now is wait for official confirmation of Honda’s 1997 lineup. New Year’s has never seemed so far away.
—Brian Catterson
