How Much Power Does the Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP Make?

The long-awaited 2021 Honda CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP created big news in the supersport market as an all-new homologation special aimed at superbike competition. And a much-needed refresh of a legendary platform

Honda provided the Fireblade with an all-new—not revised—999cc inline-four engine with a lot of trickle-down tech from its MotoGP endeavors. Take the 81.0 x 48.5mm bore and stroke configuration for example, which matches the RCV prototype racer’s layout and is much different from the outgoing CBR’s 76.0 x 55.0mm bore and stroke. And that’s not all. There’s a lot of interesting technology used deep within the engine, which our Tech Editor Kevin Cameron covered extensively at the launch of the Fireblade.

We finally got our hands on a US-spec test unit and ran it on our in-house Dynojet 250i dyno, recording horsepower and torque measurements of the Honda. The Fireblade measured a respectable 165.42 hp at 12,000 rpm and 74.58 pound-feet of torque at 10,580 rpm, which is comparable to the 186 hp (at the crankshaft) that Honda claims for the US-spec model but significantly lower than the claimed 214 hp of the EU-spec machine. That’s also a roughly 10 percent improvement in peak horsepower over the outgoing CBR, which we last dyno tested in 2017 when it produced 149.63 hp at 10,540 rpm and 75.97 pound-feet of torque at 10,180 rpm.