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FastestThings

Motorcycles

Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade

MCN lists 187 mph for the 2020 CBR1000RR-R Fireblade. Honda's UK page does not print a top speed.

Also known as CBR1000RR-R, Fireblade SP
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Top speed

Published as 187 mphPublished as 187 mphPublished as 187 mph

MCN specification table for the 2020 CBR1000RR-R Fireblade lists 187 mph. The review does not describe a radar gun or GPS logger for that cell. Honda's UK page does not print a vmax. A Japanese speedometer reading of 299 km/h is not stored.

VerifiedMotorcycle News (opens source in a new tab)

In context

  • 2.9× a cheetah's timed top speedSourced · Cheetah, 29 m/s. Sharp 1997, mean of three timed runs over 201.2 m
  • A football field in 1.1 sConstant · American football field, 100 yd (91.44 m)
  • London to New York in 18 h 30 minConstant · London to New York, 5,570 km great-circle

Worked out from the sourced figure above, which stays the ranked number.

This list

Why it's so fast

A motorcycle is fast because the air only has to get around a rider and a fairing, not a cabin. The engine still has to stay in its power band, and many of the big numbers are factory limiters.

  1. A small hole in the air

    Less frontal area means less drag for a given speed. The rider's tuck is part of the shape. A sitting-up test is a different motorcycle.

  2. Limiters are common

    A published top speed on a modern sport bike is often an electronic cap the makers agreed to, not the speed the engine would reach with the cap removed.

The capped one people mean is the Suzuki Hayabusa.

This is how the category works. A note written for this entry appears here once it is in the database.

Provenance

Every measurement

Claimed, measured and official figures side by side, each with its source. The ranked figure is marked.

  1. 301km/h187mph83.6m/s162knRanked figure

    MCN specification table for the 2020 CBR1000RR-R Fireblade lists 187 mph. The review does not describe a radar gun or GPS logger for that cell. Honda's UK page does not print a vmax. A Japanese speedometer reading of 299 km/h is not stored.

    Verified
    Motorcycle News (opens source in a new tab)

Reference

Specs

Model
2020 CBR1000RR-R
Test
MCN specification table, 187 mph
Not this bike
2017 CBR1000RR at 186 mph

Spot a wrong number?

Every report is read by a person, and corrections are dated on the page.