O U R
I got my first bike in 1979 and until 1997 all the
bikes I owned were Kawasakis. Some of the
Kawas I owned were absolute crackers (hello
GPz900R) and some were less than stellar (bye
bye early model ZZ-R1100 although, in fairness,
the D model was epic). One of my favourites was
the ZX-9RB, yep the chubby one that needed at
least 20kg removed from its carcass – but it was
a brilliant sports tourer regardless. I loved mine,
it’s a shame the bloody thing was stolen by some
low-life. Luckily, my local dealer knew I’d be at his
gates as soon as I got the insurance payout, so he
kept me sweet by lending me a 1996 FireBlade to
get around on for a few weeks.
S PL A S H E D T H E C A S H
That ‘Blade put a huge smile on my face… and
one thing lead to another. So, when I was cashed
up again I became the proud owner of a 1997
CBR900RR-V. In yellow. And purple. And what
the hell were they smoking when they came up
with this colour scheme? Well there is a bit of
a backstory to that; Honda won the 1995 AMA
32 KIWI RIDER
B I K E S
Superbike series with the RC45 and the AMA
Supersport series with the CBR600F3. Both bikes
were ridden by Canadian Miguel DuHamel and
both were sponsored by Smokin’ Joes (i.e Camel
cigarettes) and the yellow/purple/black of my
FireBlade is a nod to the colours of DuHamel’s
championship winning bikes. Have the colours
aged well? Some days I love ‘em and some
days, I’m not so sure but there’s no arguing that
they’re distinctive.
Where does the ’97 fit in the pantheon of
FireBlades? If you’re keen on model numbers,
this is the SC-33, identical in every way except for
graphics to the ’96 model and it represents the
third generation of the original carburetted 900cc
(or thereabouts) ‘Blades. The first two generations
(92/93 and 94/95) had the 893cc engine, the third
generation was the first to have the bored out
919cc unit. Aside from the extra cubes and 12
more horses, the ‘Blade had undergone a gradual
evolution of changes to suspension and frame that
had softened it up a little, a path that would come
back to bite Honda when Yamaha released