1992 Honda CBR900RR

If you wonder how sportbikes got on the lighter, faster, more specialized path they’ve been on for the last 25 years, look no further than the original “Fireblade” (not that it was ever called that in the U.S.). Open-classers at the time were the FZR1000, GSX-R1100, ZX-11 and Honda’s own CBR1000F – all of them more than powerful enough but also quite large. Mr. Baba’s baby wasn’t much bigger than a typical 600; in fact it was a mere two pounds more than the F2 – but more than 100 pounds lighter than a GSX-R1100. And if its 893cc straight-Four didn’t make quite the power of the bigger engines, the CBR’s unprecedented power-to-weight ratio more than made up for it. It also pointed out the fact that a little more trail than 89mm, a 17-inch front wheel instead of the 16-incher the CBR came with, and a stronger fork wouldn’t have been bad things, all of which would have to wait til later. Could be why you don’t see many of these around anymore.