CBR400 History

[Davez29]

ok, just a shot in the dark but does anyone know the full design history of the CBR400?

I know the basics, like it was made just for the Jap market, possibly Tado Baba (Fireblade designer) had a hand in the 400 and many of the things from the 400 were a good test bed for the later 900. But can anyone shed any light into any of this.

sorry but the nerd in me needs this info.

[cbr_veze]

id be realy inerested to find out to, i was talking to my local back street bike engineer. he was saying how all the honda 400s got alot more top spec stuff before the 600s of the era did. as motorcycles i think they are massivley under rated.

[Cammo]

The haynes manuals usually have a small amount of history on the bikes.

[tanuki]

The 29 is the final bike in an evolution of 3 other bikes the NC17,23 aero, 23 hurricane it was released in 89 and the is no evidence that Baba San had any input into the development of the bike, it was never known as the fireblade or babyblade and any stickers seen on the 400 have been placed there by owners wanting to relate their bike to the successfull 900 (they share very few common parts and are very different bikes).
It was the budget Honda in the range of race rep 400s playing second fiddle the the 30 and later on the 35.

It was raced in the all japan F3 championship as there are kit parts out there but again played second fiddle to the NC30 and the NSRs of the time.

[Davez29]

The 29 is the final bike in an evolution of 3 other bikes the NC17,23 aero, 23 hurricane it was released in 89 and the is no evidence that Baba San had any input into the development of the bike, it was never known as the fireblade or babyblade and any stickers seen on the 400 have been placed there by owners wanting to relate their bike to the successfull 900 (they share very few common parts and are very different bikes).
It was the budget Honda in the range of race rep 400s playing second fiddle the the 30 and later on the 35.

It was raced in the all japan F3 championship as there are kit parts out there but again played second fiddle to the NC30 and the NSRs of the time.

Yes, I generally agree with some of your comments and Im certain there are no common parts but is it not that the technology itself was a good proving ground for the later 900? I don't know what input Tado Baba has had on the nc29 or if he did how much he translated to the 900 but it would be nice to know. I suppose most design and dev will be archived at Honda HQ somewhere. Thats the sort of info I would love to browse.

Also that "Fireblade" sticker was added to the final Type 7 & 8 models by Honda. I suppose it was just a marketing ploy by Honda for the Japanese youth. Babyblade is just a general term used in the UK market from what I have gathered.

Here is a picture from the official brochure : http://www.vsource.org/VFR-RVF_files/Br ... 994-2a.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I know the CBR did race at IOM and was successful but was ultimately beaten by the V4s but hey both bikes are good I reckon.

http://www.iomtt.com/TT-Database/Events ... race_seq=4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Finally just a thought that crossed my mind, as its a bike made just for the Japanese home market, why did it have English graphics on the bike? Im thinking of Castrec Gullarm & Direct Air Intake. Surely a home market bike should be in its own language/text. makes no difference but slightly odd, unless everyone in Japan now speaks English.

[leopard_pagan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honda_CBR400RR" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

if you have a wiki account you can amend the history

[greggo]

The japanese model bikes had english on them because it was perceived in Japan that it was 'high tech' and had a little more marketing or street cred if it had english words.

If you look at some Japanese after market parts, particularly in the car market, you will often see non-sensical english verbs on them. I guess it was all perception and marketing, in the same way you would look at an acronym now, is the way the japanese would have looked at English then.