2025-on Honda CB1000 Hornet SP Review: Full SP…for less than £10k! Honda’s real-world super naked

Where the out-going CB1000R has a backbone frame running over the top of the engine, the new Hornet uses a twin-spar steel design, which has a couple of useful advantages. It has a lot more lateral stiffness (70%) for extra cornering stability and it allows the airbox to be placed on top of the engine, for a better downdraft effect into the throttle bodies.

The rear of the engine is rubber mounted. The wheelbase is short and the weight distribution is set for a forward-biased 51.2%/48.8% ratio thanks to the engine, rear shock, battery and airbox all being positioned towards the front of the machine.

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To ride the new CB1000 Hornet SP is every bit as simple as its smaller CB500 and CB750 siblings. Despite weighing a claimed 212kg, fully fuelled it’s manageable at low speed and never feels heavy. The seat is low, but the riding position is spacious and natural, the colour dash easy to read and the clutch lever nice and light.

When we first rode the new generation CB750 Hornet a few years ago one of the things that immediately stood out was how fast it steered and the CB1000 is just as agile. That’s down to its short wheelbase, front weight bias and the use of a narrow 180, rather than fatter 190-section rear tyre.

In fact, it’s so lithe to change direction and to get effortlessly to full lean you might assume there would a trade off in stability, but there isn’t. Even accelerating hard over bumps or using lots of handlebar pressure to flick from left to right, the Honda remains as solid as a rock.

Your uber-powerful, fancy-pants European super naked would no doubt have the legs on the Hornet on a track, but on the road its handling is so light, accurate and confidence-inspiring you’d hang with the best of them.

Steering is effortless and you never have to fight the front end for an apex, it just sweeps majestically in. Braking feel and power from the Brembo Stylemas and rear Nissin set up is superb. The Öhlins shock and Showa forks work beautifully together for perfect control and the settings are bang-on out of the crate.

There’s loads of ground clearance and grip for the road. Original equipment Bridgestone S22s are more than up to the job, but you’d endow the Hornet with an extra layer of plushness and reassurance with pukka, new-generation, replacement sports tyres.

The Hornet uses the tried and tested 1000cc inline four-cylinder motor from the 2017 Fireblade. It’s retuned, less for top-end whack and more for real-world grunt and acceleration, with new pistons, milder cams and shorter second to fifth gear ratios.

While the standard Hornet makes a claimed 150bhp and 77lb-ft of torque, an exhaust valve fitted in the SP’s can boosts those figures to 155bhp and 79lb-ft of torque. It also gets a slip and assist clutch for a lighter lever action and to reduce engine braking. Honda claims 48mpg, which gives a theoretical 178-mile range from its 17-litre tank.

It may be budget, but the CB1000 Hornet SP boasts a raft of rider aids. The SP comes standard with a three-way adjustable up/down quickshifter (a £195 add-on for the standard model), five riding modes, traction control with integrated anti-wheelie, engine brake control and ABS.

Before we get too carried away, it has to be said that compared to super naked royalty, like the KTM 1390 Super Duke R, Ducati Streetfighter V4 or Aprilia Tuono V4 Factory, the Honda lacks a tiny bit of refinement, luxury and pub-bragging power, but in terms of actual riding enjoyment and putting a dirty great grin on your face, the Honda is every bit as thrilling.

It’ll rail through a corner with complete poise and pull effortless, perfectly balanced wheelies with a flick of the clutch in third gear. There’s so much power on tap it’s impossible to max-out on the road and the soundtrack that serenades your ears is pure, race-bred, superbike rawness.

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Best of all you can have all this fun, drama and speed for a lot less than the price of a European super naked. Who needs MotoGP-inspired lean-sensitive electronics and needless-for-a-naked aero, anyway?

The retuned superbike motor is docile from the get-go and the power delivery is smooth and predictable, albeit slightly spikey from a closed throttle (but nothing to spoil your day) and the gearbox is slick, especially using the up/down shifter.

But despite its trademark Honda civility at normal speeds, it’s still a potent machine and brutally quick when you want it to be.

We’ve almost become sanitised to reading about huge power figures and the Hornet’s 155bhp doesn’t look like much on paper. But when you’re on a bike with this kind of oomph and hanging on by your fingernails with the scenery smearing past your retinas, those figures scream at you. 155bhp is just five shy of what an ’01 Suzuki GSX-R1000 K1 used to make and I think we can all agree that thing was a rocket ship. Put it this way, the Hornet’s wheelie control works hard for its money in the first three gears…and lets you play the fool with it switched off.

In terms of drama, the Honda has it in spades. Sure, it doesn’t rumble like a V-twin, rasp like a triple or growl like a V4, or crossplane-cranker, but when its exhaust valve opens at 5700rpm all sonic hell breaks loose and the world becomes a better place.

You’d think there would be corners cut to make the Honda affordable. Inevitably there must be under the surface, but they’re well hidden. Build quality is superb and the SP’s satin metallic back and gold paint job, which for those of a certain age will conjure images of JPS Formula One cars and three-litre Ford Capris, look superb.

Attention to detail is nerdier than you’d imagine, too. The Hornet may look like a simple roadster there’s more to it than meets the eye. Speaking to Project Leader Tomoki Nishijima during our morning coffee stop during its world launch in Spain, he proudly points to the holes drilled in the wheel spokes, the hollow front engine bolt and the way the engine hanger is made, all designed to give the front end just the right amount of flex and feel when the bike is leant over. Or the shape and size of the vents cut in the front of the airbox to create the perfect flow of air going into the engine. It’s a heart-warming touch to a simple machine.

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Being a new model it’s impossible to say how it will stand the test of time, but it uses the engine from the 2017-2019 Blade and according to MCN’s online Owners’ Reviews the inline four is completely reliable. That’s despite the superbike’s unfair reputation for gearbox problems when it was first released. Looking at the bike it replaces: the CB1000R, owners talk about bullet-proof reliability, but with some concerns of less than durable paintwork in places.

In short, the new £9999 CB1000 Hornet SP is a lot of sports naked for your hard-earned, especially when you consider its lavish chassis and electronic goodies, although it doesn’t have cruise control.

It’s way cheaper than its European super naked rivals (half the price in some instances) and its closest competition falls into two camps. Making similar-ish power is BMW’s 168bhp S1000R, which will set you back £13,760 for a bog-stock model, the 164bhp Yamaha MT-10 costs £14,316 (£16,616 for the SP) and Suzuki’s 150bhp GSX-S1000 is £11,999. Then are the Honda’s 900cc rivals: the Yamaha MT-09 costs £10,106 (£11,806 for the SP), but only makes 117bhp and Kawasaki’s new 124bhp Z900 is just £9199, rising to £11,349 for the Öhlins-clad SE.

Take out a PCP deal with a 25% deposit over three years and the Honda is just £112.58 a month.

The base CB1000 Hornet has combined traction and wheelie control, engine brake control, rider and power modes (all adjustable), ABS, a 5in colour dash with Bluetooth connectivity and fully adjustable Showa forks. The SP takes the equipment level up a notch, with a fully adjustable Öhlins rear shock, Brembo Stylema calipers, an up/down quickshifter and neat black and gold paintjob.

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Like the CB500 and CB750 Hornets the 1000’s bodywork is minimal with a low front and tall, pointy tail. The lines mimic the shape of an actual hornet from above.

Despite a passing resemblance to a certain Ducati, or Kawasaki Zed the CB’s nose features two LED projector headlights and ‘eyebrow’ daytime running lights.

A plethora of official Honda accessories are available and three packs: Style (Alcantara seat, anodised oil filler cap, billet handlebar clamps, Radiator grill, billet rider footpads, wheel stripes), Sport: Quickshifter for the base model, fly screen, bellypan, seat cowl, tank pad) and Comfort (heated grips, tank pack, tail pack).