...this Friday (Sept 23rd), according to MCN today. Simultaneous launch at Le Mans 24-hour and WSB at Misano. Also says details are sketchy but "said to include Showa Big Piston suspension front and rear, engine mapping to improve torque in low and mid-ranges, plus some weight loss". I'm off to the Milan bike show in November so I expect to see a range of them there to sit on and make engine revving sounds on. :-D
MCN's main story is about the 2012 R1 which has little in the way of shiny, new things apart from LED lights, new rearsets and *drum roll* Traction Control! If the 2012 Blade is revealed as sans-TC, it will be an interesting move by both manufacturers. One believing TC is what sportsbike riders want, the other looking at other avenues.
I spoke to a dealer recently who confirmed it's the real deal. Either way, we haven't got long to wait
Yeah thats old news now pal.. Honda will not confirm that it is the 2012 bike so untill friday we will not know
Honestly...... It's ok, not great just ok. To be fair from what you'd lose in a trade in your much better off sticking with a 2008-2011 model and buying ohlins front n rear and wait for a knock off LCD dash to be launched. The styling is ok but I think I prefer mine and I'd also be concerned this is a stop gap bike, I don't think Honda will run this 20th anniversary for 3-4 years as the competition will be miles ahead if they do. Just my 2peneth
I thought that Honda might have changed the looks of the bike a little bit more as i does look like the same bike and we change our bikes because we like the look of something newer than our own ....now Honda might get some more new owners because all in all they do build a bike that is superb and good looking and priced better than the competition because who does need traction control when the bike now costs over £13000 i would rather see it without it and costing under £11000 .....were Honda might lose out is in people who have the 2008 onwards bike, yes the bike may not go up in price but the price of our bike has gone down..... now going into a dealer to trade in an 09 repsol blade they are trying to give you between £5000 and £6000 pounds that means the bike has lost half its value in 2 years and would cost another £5000 or £6000 to change now you have to look at yourself and think is it worth the change and at this moment and in this financial climate the answer may not be a resounding yes ..... now Honda and the rest of the manufactures have to look at the book price that you getting for a 2 year old bike with 5500 mls and your be offered less than half price imagine if this was the brand new house that you had just bought and you were going to buy a new one to be told that the house you bought is now worth half of what you paid for it ...my dealer told me that my bike has book mileage now if i had done 2 trips abroad and done 3000 miles on each trip i would have been over book mileage how can that be, now if that was a car i would have been allowed at least 18000 miles and more and they say bikes are the way forward not unless you are carrying the dame thing ...... manufactures and dealers are going to have too realize that they have got to change there ways or they are going to be the losers as we will just be keeping what we have
