Is your life lacking in ’80s superbike content? As in, early ’80s superbike content? Before the OEMs got all plasticky, covering mechanical bits with fairings?
Lucky you, then, because this latest project out of Honda UK looks like a tasteful, refreshing update of classic pre-plastic superbike design. The Honda CB1000R 5Four is a collaboration between Big Red and custom bike designer Guy Willison, using the CB1000R as a basis.
Willison has worked on similar projects before;Â he put together this very tasty CB1100 RS project a while back. However, the CB1100 donor machine is really an old-school bike at heart, while the CB1000R is very much a modern bike, with quickshifter as standard, ABS, fully-adjustable Showa forks, ride-by-wire throttle, and preset electronic Ride Modes that manage power, engine braking and traction control. In stock form, it comes in neo-retro clothes (sort of toned-down, like a Blade Runner knock-off, from a less-daring movie director).
In this format, the CB1000R 5 Four gets some new bodywork, new paint, a tail tidy, and a hand-stitched leather seat. There’s new LED lighting, new hand controls, new mirrors—most of the changes are only in the looks department. There is a new titanium Growler-X exhaust, but owners are supposed to only use that on the track, not on the street …
So, adding it all up, you get a factory custom Honda CB1000R (a limited production run), with most likely the same 143 horsepower output as before. If you’re interested, it’s for the looks, not the performance.
This bike, at this point, is only available in the UK. Thanks to Canada’s import rules, you probably could get it into the country, if you really wanted it … but with a £16,954 MSRP, plus import fees, taxes, and freight, you’d have to have a pretty bad case of the gimmes, to buy it. More deets at Honda’s UK site, though, if you’re interested!
