Streetfighters are perhaps the ultimate fun motorcycles, and the 2025 Honda CB1000 SP, priced at RM69,999 in Malaysia, certainly aims to be so. As a motorcycle, streetfighters are simple, take your current model superbike, throw away the fairings, slap on a pair of straight handlebars and voila!, instant hooligan motorcycle.
The truth is, this is in practice a lot harder than it looks. Just take a look at the competition for the CB1000 SP, and it is obvious it’s playing in a field populated by offerings such as the Ducati Streetfighter V4, the Yamaha MT-10, the Triumph Speed Triple 1200, KTM 1290 Super Duke R and the Aprilia Tuono V4.
So, in the presence of such illustrious company, what does the CB1000 SP bring to the table? For a start, it should be remembered Honda first unleashed the four-cylinder sports bike unto the world in modern times, with the CB750 back in 1968.
This begat a generation of riders who took reliability and handling for granted, with Honda, and the other Japanese manufacturers, upping the ante continously until the schism of 1983, when Suzuki split sports bikes into race replicas with full fairings and naked sports, launching the GSX-R750.
Soichiro Honda, a man not to rest on his laurels, commanded the 1,000 cc inline-four cylinder to be made, coming in the form of first the CB1000F, then the legendary and much vaunted CBR1000R Fireblade. Which brings us to today, and the CB1000 SP.
Thus, we have the four-cylinder mill taken from the Fireblade, and mounted into an all-new chassis, and, with the ‘SP’ designation, upgraded suspension to match. The thing with streetfighters is, once you throw away the fancy bodywork, the bells and whistles, the dress up parts, what it has to be is… a motorcycle.
Two wheels, an engine (suitably tuned to give giggle inducing horsepower), the ability to go around corners in a interesting manner, a place for the rider to sit, and lets not forget enough braking power to burst blood vessels in your eyes.
In this, the CB1000 SP takes Honda’s four-cylinder superbike engine and tweaks it to produce 155 hp at 11,000 rpm with 107 Nm of torque at 9,000 rpm. In case you’re interested, the full blooded CBR1000RR superbike gets 214 hp at 14,500 rpm and 112 Nm of torque at 12,500 rpm, but let’s not forget, just a couple of decades ago 150 hp was enough for you to win World Superbike Championship races.
Power for the CB1000 Sp, despite the street fighter classification, is delivered in a somewhat… subdued fashion. If you’re expecting the kind of power delivery from, say, the CB1000 SPs Italian rivals, you’re going to be disappointed.
The CB1000 SP is not a hooligan bike, despite its looks. Switching through the ride modes, power at all times was controllable and predictable, and we have a feeling the CB1000 SP was designed this way, in a manner that is approachable to riders of any calibre.
You get on the CB1000 SP and it instantly feels comfortable, for want of a better word. In this, it reminds one of the original CB750, which an entire generation of riders used for their introduction to the world of Japanese four-cylinder machines.
If you are somewhere between 1.65 to 1.8 metres in height, the CB1000 SP is going to fit you like a glove, with a slight bum raised in the air feeling. Reach to the handlebars is moderate, and well suited for head down, elbows up riding.
And despite the lack of any sort of wind protection, the CB1000 SP will get up to twice the national speed limit. Just don’t expect to get there as fast as its direct Japanese competition, the GSX-R1000 S. At the top, in sixth gear, there really isn’t any difference to it, the CB1000 SP will hold its own against the Italian, German, Austria or Japanese competition, you just have to be a little patient.
What you don’t get is that throttle snatch and raging bull response people tend to expect from a street fighter. What you do get is a refined power delivery, building inexorably to… well… however long your arms and shoulders can stand it.
The mid-range, roll-on torque is there, and perfectly adequate for purpose. At 90 km/h, no matter what gear you’re in, just twist the throttle and watch that that Myvi disappear in your mirrors, indeed, the CB1000 SP, used on city highways, is almost perfect, with a combination of power and torque to humiliate anything expect proper super bikes.
With that smoothness an inline-four delivers, the CB1000 SP does make a very suitable candidate for an all-rounder naked motorcycle, with that Honda reputation for reliability. High speed runs on the highway, canyon carving on the weekends, teh tarik meet ups in the city, all done with no fuss.
Except when things start coming to the edge. We were not sure if it was a function of the tyres, or the suspension geometry, but the CB1000 SP was one of the few motorcycles we’ve ridden recently that made us ask why Honda did not install a steering damper from the start.
A check of the tyre pressures revealed all was fine, and the suspension settings were to specification, since I trust Pan more than I trust Honda. There was a tendency to head shake at high speed, and the beginnings of a Pan-European “death wobble.” Those of you of a certain motorcycle era will know what I’m referring to.
At normal speeds it was fine, but when the throttle was twisted hard, it felt like the rear suspension was having a tough job keeping the front and rear wheels in line. Perhaps a change of tyre compounds will yield some benefit, we won’t know till we try it.
In the meantime, the CB1000 SP was ridden carefully to keep it out of the head shake zone. No, that’s a lie, what the CB1000 SP showed was the incipient beginnings of a head shake, and the front wheel was beginning to wander a little.
Changing seating position and weighting the front helped but this is something that bears in-depth investigation. In any case, for maybe 85% of Malaysian riders, this will not be an issue, just keep your tyre pressures in spec and use premium rubber.
With premium suspensions components used, Showa SFF-BP forks in front, and fully-adjustable Öhlins TTX36 monoshock in the rear, we did spend a little time tweaking the suspension to see if it would make the CB1000 SP more stable at very high speed, but in the end, we left well enough alone and rode around the issue.
Make no mistake, the suspension for the CB1000 SP, while biased towards road use, did exhibit enough changes in the adjustment to show it wasn’t just a marketing gimmick. As befits its name, the CB1000 SP does indeed have the equipment to slug it out with the top flight in its market niche.
This includes the Brembo callipers, Stylema four-piston callipers radially-mounted in the front. As always, over the last decade, Brembo brakes are something we’ve come to take for granted, and in this case, delivering easily modulated and controlled braking with just two fingers on the brake lever.
Honda has seen fit to install a full electronics riding suite on the CB1000 SP, including traction and wheelie control plus three ride modes and two user configurable modes, and, in practice, changing the settings around did change the bike’s character, a little. What is missing is, despite this being a top range motorcycle, cruise control, and self cancelling turn signals, something the competition in the CB1000 SP’s class in Malaysia all offer.
There is a USB charging socket though, so be grateful, and the somewhat down spec of the CB1000 SP is reflected in its price because the competition is all priced above six-figures. There is Honda’s RoadSync as well, for Bluetooth connectivity to the rider’s smartphone but somehow I don’t think this is going to be very high on anyone’s list, especially if you’re serious about riding a street fighter the way it’s supposed to be ridden.
Coming to the looks department, there were some remarks about a Ducati and a Honda meeting up for a few drinks after work, but we did like the looks of the CB1000 SP, even if the single colour option of Matte Grey is a little bland. The seat height of 809 mm is a plus point for a lot of Malaysian riders, accommodating a wide range of rider heights, and, it is clear Honda intended the CB1000 SP to be a motorcycle anyone can ride, something we would hesitate to say about, perhaps, the Super Duke R.
All day seat comfort is perhaps a little on the harsh side but for spirited rides up the mountain or taking the twisties, it’s fit for purpose. We did not get a chance to put a pillion on the back, and more’s the shame for it for if it could be filled with, maybe, an American red head, we might have found out if the CB1000 SP would still provide the same level of performance.
But that is neither here nor there. Because the reason the CB1000 SP exists is to showcase that Honda four-cylinder mill, and at the same time allow a wide spectrum of riders to access its performance.
So, who needs a CB1000 SP, considering the wide variety of choices in the street fighter market in Malaysia. For one the CB1000 SP gives litre bike performance at the price of a European middleweight, and for the other, its performance and handling are approachable, regardless of skill level.
If you’re a rider wanting to step up to a litre bike, or perhaps, a bike that will do everything without insane tyre and maintenance bills, take a look at the CB1000 SP. After all, you meet the nicest people on a Honda.
