The best streetbike isn't the new BMW S1000RR, a Ducati 1098R or even a Hayabusa. There's a well-kept secret that's been roaming the streets since 2008 and can be purchased for less than many new 600s. This forgotten favorite is none other than the 2008-present Honda CBR1000RR-the perfect bike to base our build on.
When the CBR hit the streets just four years ago it cleaned house thanks to its light curb weight, excellent chassis and motor with monster midrange. The big Honda received accolades from magazines across the world, but its reign at the top would be short lived when newer models were released just a year later. In a matter of months the all-conquering Honda was all but forgotten as the latest new models raised the bar with higher peak power or unique engine configurations. But the black and white numbers are only part of the story.
The idea for this article started innocently enough, as an afternoon aboard the BMW S1000RR left us speechless against its blinding top-end acceleration. The BMW is more powerful than even the ZX-14 or Hayabusa, but it's a bit underwhelming everywhere below warp-speed. Still, bar and bikenight banter across the land is based on the BMW's insane peak power output. But do bragging rights also make it the most desirable streetbike?
The BMW isn't actually this...
The BMW isn't actually this light. It's 31 pounds heavier than the Honda.
Naturally we started discussing bikes with street-oriented powerbands full of heavy midrange power-unlike the Bimmer. That slowly morphed into a debate as to what attributes make the best streetbike. In the end we decided the perfect example should be affordable while offering big midrange and with a feathery curb weight. But the BMW has fancy options so we wanted our paragon to also have traction control, a quickshifter and potential ABS. It was a tall order indeed but we collectively agreed that the CBR1000RR fit the bill, and what it was lacking from the factory could be sought through the aftermarket.
A quick perusal of several online classified ads revealed that new and used 2008 models were still on showroom floors and selling for pennies on the dollar. Then it hit us; what if we built a budget BMW S1000RR beater for under $10,000 that had all of the BMW's electronic features alongside a healthy dose of midrange torque to make street riding even better? A little challenge never stopped us before so we scooped up a CBR.
Building The Beast
A few weeks of searching and a short drive later we were the proud owners of a 2008 CBR1000RR with a tick under 9500 miles. After some haggling we managed to scoop it for $6500, which means we had $3500 left to mod it to the moon and still remain some $5000 cheaper than an equally equipped S1000RR.
We opted for a 2008 model purely based on price, but aside from ABS entering as an option in 2009, little has changed other than color. In our case we skipped on the ABS to save a few bucks, but for those who prefer the braking nannies it only raises the price roughly $1000.
With the CBR in our hands we looked to Yoshimura for tuning advice. After a few calls with the Yosh crew we decided to also team up with the fuel injection maestros at Bazzaz to help find every last ounce of power.