Yes, MCN have praised the Fireblade in a shock article, in their 08 June 2016 edition. The Fireblade, previously discribed by them as "bulbous" and dated, has come in for shock praise ! The Fireblade's was described as "outstanding" and "..a lovely bike to ride at speed." Both the GSX-R1000 and the Fireblade were ridden at the Isle of Man as a "Last Hurrah" to the "..electronics free legends that will be replaced next year." (written in s Sun/Viz stylee !)
yes its a dated bike - but it still hauls a$$. It still shows well every year at the TT. Even beat the RCV213-S Haydn took it to victory in WSBK in dodgy conditions (when handling counts the most). Who really needs 200BHP on the road??
Sticking to low tech as long as I can, on the roads my 11 year old blade still keeps up with the "best of them".
Sometime earlier this year MCN wrote an article slagging the Blade, in a road test against the Ducati 959. The 959 was hailed as modern and fantastic and the Blade rubbished for being dated. It was a horrible article against the Blade really - I was quite upset at the time. That is why this latest article from them, praising the Fireblade comes as a shock to me. I suppose the press need a constant stream of new bikes, so that they can sell copy reviewing them. Honda not releasing a new Blade probably costs the motorcycle press money. So keep slagging Honda off to force them to make something new !! Honda reveal they will make a new Fireblade, everyone in the press is happy again (for a year or two !)