When did we first utter what’s become the standard cliche upon riding a new sportbike for the first time? “How are they going to make it better next year?” Was it the 1989 FZR1000? Or maybe the original CBR900RR of ‘93? Whatever. We liked the CBR929RR well enough in ‘00 to rank it above the Yamaha YZF-R1 and Kawasaki ZX-9R in spite of a (relative) lack of horsepower. Year-2001 ushered in the spaceship-odyssey Suzuki GSX-R1000, whose 144 rear-wheel horsies made it impossible to vote down. For ‘02, Honda closes the missile gap with a bike that’s even more precise than the 929 (which was already more precise than any of its open-class competition), and with enough new-found torque to at least hang in the GSX-R’s draft. Mr. Baba has done it again.
Honda’s goal with the CBR line has always been to produce streetbikes that can also be ridden hard at the track, rather than the other way around, and the 954 is the best example of that philosophy at work to date. Not only is the thing faster around the very fast Las Vegas Motorsports Complex’s road course and down whatever public road you aim it, it’s also more comfortable, smoother-running and more user-friendly across the whole work-a-day pantheon than before.
Pity the greasy high-school salvage-yard shopper 10 years hence when thinking this 929 side cover will fit his 954 because the two parts look identical. Wrong. Although the 929 and 954 look almost the same at a glance, save the cool new swingarm, not many parts interchange. Inside the new, lighter cases, forged pistons 1mm larger in diameter weigh 6 percent less-and look like they belong in a Formula 1 car thanks to their almost completely skirtless design. Honda took a little off the crank, too, and the result is not just more power but increased smoothness, also; at low revs you get some typical CBR buzz, but once humming along at 80 mph and 5500 rpm, the 954 is its own sweet spot.
