’99 CBR900RR-X

STILL smarting from the devastating success of the R1, Honda kept its head down in 1999 as it searched for a way back into the limelight.

Would-be owners didn’t mind too much that the CBR wasn’t quite the top sports bike any more, though. As demand for R1s reached fever-pitch, shops began doing attractive deals on unsold Blades.

Along with the continued existence of parallels, that meant the new £8700 recommended price translated to high-6000s in reality – around £2000 less than an R1.

The official price had dropped in the face of parallel competition, but the parallel importers continued to fight hard – cutting profits to the bone. It was this year that some importers took to selling bikes, including Blades, in their crates, without fluids or a pre-delivery inspection check. Their profits, in some cases, dropped to just £100 per bike – a tiny return on £6800 of investment. You’ll pick one up today for £4300 private and £4900 trade.

The only difference between the ’98 and ’99 bikes is colours. New dark blue/white or turquoise/black/red paint was offered in 1999.

But big changes were on the way as Baba-san and his dedicated team put in tens of thousands of hours developing a new Blade for the coming year.

They had several working models, some with litre-plus engines, some with highly-tuned 918cc engines, others with more moderate 929cc ones.

Huge meetings took place behind closed doors. Should the Blade’s package of ” Total Control ” be sacrificed in an all-out horsepower war?