2025 Honda CBR1000RR Review: At This Price, You Won't Miss The Third R

In Honda sportbike parlance, the more R's a model has, the more dedicated it is to speed and performance. Basic naked sport bikes (which Honda calls standard) have a single R: bikes like the CB300R and the CB650R. Move up a level and you've got bikes like the CBR300R and CBR650R. See how they snuck that extra R in there? Now, the next level. Throw another R in the mix and you've got Supersport bikes like the CBR600RR. And, at the peak of Honda Sportbike performance, is the Fireblade, also known as the CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP or the Triple-R. It has Tony-the-Tiger levels of R's.

Nestled in there, just below the Fireblade, is the CBR1000RR. Thankfully, despite its gobs of power and its track-ready performance, the CBR1000RR is not the kind of bike that makes you feel like you're living life on the razor's edge all the time. It's about as approachable as any liter bike can be. It's a properly fast supersport with big power, a competitive set of features for the class, and stats to match the toughest competitors, but it also has an impressively civil approach to daily riding. And just enough R's to make it one of the most dangerous track-and-street weapons you can buy.

The 2025 CBR1000RR is a bike that could be used for track duty or daily riding — or both. It's agile enough that the tightest and windiest of local canyon roads present it with no difficulty, but it's also comfortable enough that 100 miles in the saddle presents little in the way of comfort concerns. The stock seat is a bit stiff and the suspension is relatively firm, but neither is bad enough to be a deal breaker. The standard riding mode keeps things calm enough for puttering around in traffic, but if you want to unleash a more frightening version of the CBR, just press a few buttons and you'll invite an entirely new experience.

In the most aggressive riding mode, you get a bike with sharpened responses and more sensitive inputs. It's also possible to turn all the dials up to their most aggressive settings (power, torque, wheelie control, and engine braking), but on the street, I never found the need. In Mode 1 (the most aggressive pre-set) the front wheel will come off the ground without so much as blinking at the clutch lever. Need to pass a slow-moving vehicle? Roll onto the power in sixth gear and the 1000RR is quickly doing triple digits, regardless of your mode selection. It may feel calm and collected at idle, but make no mistake that this thing is a rocket with a fuse just waiting to be lit. 

During my time with the 1000RR, I didn't make it to the racetrack but I did spend plenty of time on local California canyon roads and several days using the bike as a commuter. Out and about in the mountains it was extremely easy to stay within the limits but still ride quickly. The brakes never faded or disappointed and the pressure from the brake lever was predictable. Grab the front brake lever a bit too hard and the rear wheel easily rises off the ground — just as you'd expect from such a sporty bike — but it isn't so sensitive that an endo happens on accident.

The 1000RR's titanium fuel tank has a reasonable capacity of 4.3 gallons of fuel – not exactly an endurance fuel cell but enough for most riding scenarios. Fill it up and take it easy on the throttle and you'll go over 100 miles, no problem. Enthusiastic canyon riding mixed in with some city traffic led to an average of 33 miles per gallon on one tank, while a more relaxed pace led to a fill-up that averaged 40 miles per gallon. Unfortunately, there's no fuel gauge, just a low-fuel light to let you know of your impending distance to empty (more on that in a bit).  

The CBR's seat height of 32.8 inches meant that I could ever-so-barely flat-foot it at stop lights while wearing boots (I'm 5-foot-9) and swinging a leg over to get on or off the bike was relatively easy. The foot pegs were a little high for my liking, but not unbearable. Taller riders will likely find difficulty fitting on the CBR thanks to a relatively cramped riding position, but it fit me well enough that I wasn't contemplating rear-seat replacement anytime soon. For daily riding, it makes sense that a few small compromises like foot placement should be made, mostly because when the road gets curvy or the semi-frequent track day comes up, that foot placement is more ideal.

Another stumbling block for the CBR is the placement of the hand controls: things like the mode selection, headlight controls, and turn signals. Multiple times during my time with the bike, I pressed the horn when I was trying to cancel out the turn signal, or vice versa. The controls are better placed for your hands when you're in full-tuck mode, with your elbows squeezed against the CBR's tank, but then that's not really when I plan on using my turn signals. 

This is the view I get in both rearview mirrors when riding the 1000RR. When I'm in a normal, upright and relatively comfortable riding position, my arms are in a position that blocks about half of the rearview mirror. And there's no fixing it. The CBR's mirrors have a small range of adjustment and they're relatively small, covering a limited area. The only way around this is to drop my chest down, wrap my arms around the sides of the tank and pretend like I'm going for minimum wind resistance at MotoGP. In that position, my elbows dissapear and I can see the full view behind me clearly. Seems like the CBR is designed with maximum speed in mind. 

Another gripe I had with the CBR in terms of functionality was the missing fuel gauge. With all the bike's digital controls, it's certainly possible for Honda to add a fuel gauge and it would make my riding much less anxious in remote areas. What's more, the low-fuel light gives you a distance until fuel is expected to run out. Why not just convert that functionality to display the fuel all the time? This isn't uncommon amongst supersport bikes, but it's still annoying. Otherwise, the CBR's display is bright enough to be seen even in direct sunlight and it's clear enough to see the important stats at a quick glance while you're riding.

Powering the CBR1000RR is Honda's 999cc inline four-cylinder engine, a known quantity amongst the Honda faithful. It boasts 10 additional horsepower compared to the previous generation bike, but Honda doesn't give the exact number, so we're left to use previously-quoted numbers near or below the Fireblade's quoted 188 horses. Spend any time going down the YouTube rabbit hole though, and you'll find plenty of owners tuning their CBR's to easily reach over 200 horsepower with some simple software changes. There's never a dearth of power — the 1000RR always feels ready to strike — but it isn't particularly evocative.

At idle, the CBR's dual overhead cam four-banger is smooth and quiet. Sitting next to cars at stop lights, no drivers or riders around you (aside from those in the know) will be aware of the tremendous acceleration it can provide with the twist of a wrist. At partial throttle and at wide-open throttle, the CBR1000RR's sounds liven up a bit, but I'd like more. It happily revs and you get a pretty satisfying engine note, but the exhaust tone is relatively sedate. Perhaps the titanium Akrapovič exhaust on the Fireblade would spice things up enough to keep me satisfied, or an aftermarket setup may do the trick.

Part of any riding experience for me, by default, is thinking about the modifications I'd do to a bike if it were my own. It's one of those "consider it a compliment" moments, and especially true if I like a bike, and I really like the CBR1000RR. On top of looking for an exhaust to liven up the sound, I'd also look for one that gave the CBR a more aggressive side-profile. Previous generations of the CBR have used under-seat "center-up" exhaust, which I'm a big fan of, but I understand the reasons to have side-exit exhaust too (pipe length/weight, an extremely warm seat in summer, etc). So, I'd probably go with something compact with a deeper tone for a personal CBR1000RR.

The rear fender is also primed for being eliminated. The CBR's tail section is pretty sleek without the big rear fender, and there are lots of aftermarket kits that could clean things up. I also like my sport bike riding to be a solo experience, so I'd remove the rear pegs and rear seat for a touch of weight reduction, and be thankful for the aesthetic improvement along the way. Pearl white is the only available color for 2025, so there's not much to change there unless you go with a wrap or a full-fairing swap, but powder coating the black wheels could help the CBR stand out a bit, though, and gold would be my color choice there.

The standard CBR1000RR without ABS has an MSRP of $16,999 (plus $775 destination) while the ABS model checks in at $17,299. Models like the Yamaha R1, the Suzuki GSX-R1000R, and the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-10R offer similar performance, but they're more expensive. The R1 checks in at $18,999 (plus $625 destination fee), while the ZX-10R offers a non-ABS version for $17,799 (plus $800 destination fee) and an ABS version for $18,799. The Suzuki GSX-R1000R (which comes standard with ABS) has a starting price of $18,649 (plus $530 destination fee). Honda clearly wins the pricing battle amongst these rivals.

Horsepower is widely similar across the segment. As mentioned, the CBR has somewhere in the neighborhood of 188 horsepower, with the ZX-10R offering 188 hp, the R1 offering 197 hp, and the GSX-R1000R checking in at around 200 hp. The CBR1000RR with ABS is also the lightest of the bunch at 434 pounds with a full tank of fuel and all the fluids required to run. The Kawasaki ZX-10R (also with ABS) is 456.4 lbs wet, while the Yamaha R1 and the Gixxer split the difference at 448 lbs wet and 445 lbs wet, respectively. In a battle for Japanese-liter-bike supremacy, it's hard to make a practical argument for anything but the Honda.

Riding the newest CBR1000RR was an interesting experience for me, not just because of its speed or its modern tech, but because I was partially judging it by the standards of my 2006 Honda CBR600RR. Like you'd expect from any 600cc motorcycle, my old CBR is way down on power (117 hp) compared to the new 1000RR – so there's no comparison there. My old 600 however, is much lighter and I expected it to be a much nimbler machine, but even riding them back to back there isn't a massive difference. 

The 06' CBR600RR was a svelte 361 pounds (dry weight) so I expected the added weight of the CBR1000RR (434 lbs wet) would give it a distinctly different cornering experience. They're different, no doubt, but the 1000RR still feels easy to control in turns and light on its feet.

I've owned my CBR for years, so I've grown pretty attached to it. I've modified the bike with different fairings, a bigger windscreen, a fender eliminator, adjustable levers, flush signals, a slip-on exhaust, and a few other small items. And I'd likely do all the same mods on a brand-new 1000RR — remember, that's a good thing. I can imagine living with one, loving the extra power, and having the looks grow on me. Don't get me wrong, I still love the look of my old 600, but I wouldn't be disappointed to see the new 1000RR in my parking spot every day either.