With this upgrade, Honda has addressed criticisms of the latest Fireblade in terms of gearing, while tweaking the electronics at the same time. SP available as 30th Anniversary limited edition.

2022 Honda Fireblade Gets Improved Rideability

2022 marks the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the original Honda CBR900RR Fireblade and, despite the latest version being only two years old, Honda has made a few significant changes to counter mild criticisms.

Power wasn't a problem, with a peak power output of 214bhp and 83lb.ft of torque, but the gearing had been criticised for being far too tall. While reaching 130mph in second might appeal to some, it did harm mid-range drive and acceleration. To fix this, Honda has fitted a 43-tooth rear sprocket, up from 40-tooth.

In addition, intake and exhaust gas flow on both bikes has been improved. Airflow into the filter has been adjusted to ‘control the direction of intake air separation and vortex generation’ while the exhaust gets a new middle section to optimise flow into the catalytic converter.

Electronic sophistication was never a problem, Honda using nine-way traction control but this has been further developed to reduce the gap between intervention timing and slip rate giving smoother control.

The high-spec SP version gets all the same mods and is also available as a limited edition 30th Anniversary model with a special paint job echoing that of the original.

So, no big changes, but rather evolutionary changes to keep the 'Blade sharp.