Honda's CBR1100XX, released in the fall of 1996, was the flagship sport bike with the pet name Super Blackbird. It was an ambitious machine that competed with the world's fastest Kawasaki ZZ-R1100 with the world's highest performance.
Make it the flagship of all motorcycles, not just within Honda.
The CBR1100XX, the successor to the CBR1000F, was planned as the flagship of Honda's largest displacement sports model, and several directions were considered. The most promising proposal was a model change that would focus on the fun of riding by putting Honda's lightweight technology at the forefront.
In the early 1990s, Honda's focus on the liter-class large motorcycles was on high-speed touring bikes, and the company was ahead of its competitors in terms of supersport performance. The idea was to apply the lightweight technology of the CBR900RR, which debuted in 1992, to the liter class.
However, there were doubts as to whether the ZZ-R1100 would be successful in competing with the ZZ-R1100, which had been well received at the time its features were lightweight. The company, therefore, decided to make the ZZ-R1100 the flagship of all motorcycles, not just Honda's, with the world's fastest speed and advocated the Greatest Supersport.
Honda set out to develop the CBR1100XX with the aim of creating a true flagship that would offer the best performance not only in terms of acceleration, but also in terms of driving performance, comfort, and safety. This included aiming for the world's fastest speed of 300 km/h, which led to the outbreak of the battle for the fastest in the late 1990s.
CBR1100XX SUPER BLACKBIRD [HONDA] Wild final sketch with large CBR letters. The concept of the lightweight CBR900RR as a starting point while enhancing high-speed performance is evident.
ZZ-R1100 (1993) [KAWASAKI] The catalog claimed that comparisons were meaningless and the highest peak. Kawasaki's flagship with a meter that ticked up to 320 km/h was the virtual enemy of the CBR1100XX.
CBR1000F (1993) [HONDA] The domestic version of the CBR1000F appeared in Japan for the third time since 1987. It had features such as front and rear interlocked brakes, but its 249 kg weight, compared to the 233 kg of the ZZ-R, made it difficult to ride.
Full utilization of the efficacy of Honda's first engine with a 2-axis secondary balancer
The development of the CBR1100XX was also focused on weight reduction from the CBR1000F, which weighed 249 kg, and the engine was set at 1137 cc with a 9 mm larger bore based on the new-generation liquid-cooled straight-4 design of the CBR900RR. In addition, a biaxial secondary balancer was introduced to achieve the high quality of the flagship model.
To improve power output, the ignition timing was controlled by a knocking sensor, and intake resistance and friction loss were reduced. Despite the larger displacement and balancer from the CBR1000F, the engine output was increased by 29 PS and the engine weight was reduced by more than 10 kg.
In addition, the engine has been made more compact by reducing the connecting rod length through low vibration. The engine can now be mounted fully rigidly to the frame, resulting in both high rigidity, direct handling characteristics, and stability. Incidentally, the frame is more than 20% lighter than conventional vehicles in the same class.
Aiming to achieve aerodynamic drag equivalent to that of a 600cc machine, the upper and lower two-stage headlights are approximately twice as bright as the conventional ones, while the cowl has excellent aerodynamic characteristics. Furthermore, a new molding process was used for the plastic parts, and the front fender was made lighter and more rigid.
CBR1100XX SUPER BLACKBIRD (1996) [HONDA] Debuted with a maximum output of 164 PS, 17 PS more than the ZZ-R1100, and loaded with advanced mechanisms. It created a huge sensation around the world.
Launched in the fall of 1996. The main market was Europe, where three body color types were available, but the North American version was only available in black and did not carry the pet name. In 1997 alone, more than 3,000 units were sold in Japan as reimported vehicles.
The engine uses a right-side cam chain system similar to that of the CBR900RR with a straight inlet port. The crankcase is a lightweight open-deck type that integrates the cylinder and case.
Secondary vibration is greatly reduced by using a two-axis balancer that cancels out the secondary vibration transmitted from the handle. The first XX used for the first time had trouble in the first design, and after design changes, it was completed.
The basic configuration of the aluminum twin-tube frame and parallel four-cylinder engine follows that of the CBR900RR. The early XX had oil cooler cooling ducts installed in the upper cowl instead of twin ram air ducts.
The engine was rigidly mounted, benefiting from the use of a dual-axle secondary balancer. In 2006, Kawasaki's ZZR1400 used this exact same approach to reduce frame weight.
The aerodynamic drag coefficient was reduced to 0.325, about 18% lower than that of the CBF1000F, due to the long nose of the front cowl and other factors, achieving a value similar to that of the 250cc class. This is largely due to the benefit of the upper and lower two-stage headlights.
For the front fenders, gas-assisted injection molding, a molding method that forms hollow sections by pumping nitrogen gas inside thick-walled sections, was adopted. This method enables high rigidity and weight reduction.
The speedometer features a whopping 330 km/h scale. This is 10 km/h more than the ZZ-R1100's 320 km/h. In fact, the speedometer reading exceeded 300 km/h, which the ZZ-R could not reach.
The engine width is more compact than that of the CBR1000F and is mounted on a diamond frame. The engine was tilted forward about 30 degrees for downdraft intake. The 1999 model shown in the photo adopted FI for fuel supply.
Perhaps sensing the arrival of the GSX1300R Hayabusa, the 1999 model featured a ram air intake as well as FI. The maximum output remained unchanged at 164 PS, but the power when ram air is pressurized must have increased.