Though designed more for the road than the racetrack, the CBR900RR FireBlade had a long and winning competition history. This Oregon example was ridden initially, then displayed for many years, and is now ready for its next rider.
1993 Honda CBR900RR for sale on eBay
Design engineer Tadao Baba had a new kind of superbike in mind, and worked up a 750-sized chassis to fit a stroked engine displacing 893cc’s. With four 38mm Keihin carburetors and double overhead cams, the almost-liter-bike engine delivered 122 hp. Weight saving was always on page one, with an all alloy chassis and swingarm, and conventional Showa cartridge forks which were said to be lighter. The 16-inch front wheel was a bit easier on the scale and turn-in effort, and areas of the fairings are perforated to reduce drag and maybe a gram or two. The final tally was 454 lbs. ready to ride, startlingly close to the CBR600F2, and 65 or so lbs. lighter than the next lightest superbike.
Evidently coming out of a private or maybe dealer’s museum, this CBR is almost spotless and the “never down” claim is believable. Even in the alternate livery, the colors are bright and the lowers are so shiny the tarmac’s reflection looked like a defect for a moment. Just a few marks on the generator cover might touched up. The owner has a good video walkaround – here – and some comments from the eBay auction –
1993 Honda CBR-900-RR – 1st Year –
-Only 6 lbs. more than the CBR600RR of the same year
-This bike is in 9.9 out of 10 Excellent condition – never down/crashed etc.
-I am the 2nd owner. Delivered from the factory in the rarest of the two multi-color options
It was perfectly mothballed before going on museum display about 10 years ago. I’m out of floor space in the museum.
-All OEM Bodywork in excellent condition
-Comes with OEM tool kit & owners manual
It’s been pulled off the museum display floor, and over the last month, as time permitted I have had the following service items performed by my mechanic –
-New AGM battery installed
-New oil & filter change
-Front & rear calipers serviced – cleaned & brake fluid flushed from the long time on display
-New non-ethanol fuel installed
The CBR900RR wasn’t a WSBK or AMA SuperBike weapon, but Honda saw that “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” brought customers in, where the FireBlade could win them over. Winning ways in AMA Formula Extreme and GTO Endurance racing didn’t hurt. Honda nudged displacement up slowly through the -90’s, and kept weight under control. But the first year, when the bike was on everyone’s 10 best list, has an undeniable appeal. This CBR is already attracting a lot of attention, at least bid-wise, and it’ll be interesting to see how the bids compare to the reserve.
-donn
Very nice example but at this price point one can get an equally mint RC51 and still have enough $$ left over for a very decent track suit. Back in the days claim to top speed was a huge selling point. In 1993 this wasn’t the fastest production bike in the world, that title still belonged to Kawasaki. Wasn’t until 1996 that Honda was able to make that claim only to pass the torch to Suzuki.
I think the seller is a little delusional with bidding up to 10 grand and his reserve isn’t even met. Equally pristine examples sold for around 6-7k just a year ago.
Lots of speculation and complaints about shill bidding on Ebuy. I’m no expert, but there’s no question that Ebuy is in many ways biased in favor of sellers. I’m not accusing this seller, but the next to most recent bidder as I write this has a history of eleven bid retractions in the last thirty days. I personally have had mostly positive experience on the site, as a buyer, but my purchases have been for much smaller amounts.
The oil in a bike or car should be changed when it’s put into storage, not when it’s taken back out.
Alan, no doubt there are huge issues with shills on Ebay. It’s frustrating because I saw how great it was 20 years ago. I like the BaT format better but prices are insane there too! The real issue is our crazy economy and policy enabling the crazy inflation on toys right now. I’m bored during COVID just like everyone else but its hard to believe these prices wont come crashing back down when the down dust settles.
Glad to see you sharing this bike. As an owner of multiple 900RRs it’s gotten some buzz among owner groups. Good points on eBay bidding but I’ll leave that for another thread. Very true the economy and COVID have created a spike in pockets for certain vehicles. And as shown by BaT prices, the few remaining stock examples of models often customized when new bring solid money.
It was the 995-mile ‘93 Red White and Blue 900RR that sold last year on BaT for just over $20K that really marked the reset in first gen (93/94) pricing. That was a decent bike…a thorough restoration really…that was very well documented on YouTube. It wasn’t perfect but very well documented. I know the guy who bought it and frankly money wasn’t an object…he wanted the nicest one he could find for his collection.
As mentioned here this bike is also nice. Yes 5900 miles is low. But the description as a 9.9 is a little off. There are too many nicks and scrapes in my opinion to rate it that highly. The alternator cover blemishes, the nicks in the upper cowl decals, the scrapes on the exhaust, etc. Its longer term storage seems to add provenance to its collectibility and obviously helped keep mileage down. Net net it shows where the market has gone on these bikes that are fully stock, as cut fenders, dayglo windscreens and polished frames seemed to be the norm as they passed hands along the way. The price spike is no different than RC30s 3 years ago and RC51s and CB1100Fs now too. But again, they have to be all stock to command this kind of money. And RC51s like 900RRs got farkled fast.
The reality is many of these bikes will never be ridden regularly again and garages fill with all the vehicles folks wanted back in the day. And that trend doesn’t seem to be ending anytime soon.
Covid-induced hysteria is producing ridiculous prices, especially on BaT, what a gong show. But all these bored collectors seem to have very deep pockets, perhaps fuelled by the ludicrously high stock market. And fleabay is not a good source for ‘buying with confidence’.
Ooh la la. I had this same bike (different VIN) that I purchased second hand back in 1995. It was showroom stock with 1500 miles on the clock. Still fond memories of it and thus I retained all of its ephemera.
This is indeed a nice example of a bike that was soon modified after purchase
Vincent Can you please post a link to BaT Thanks
Wow. 13,150.
Tried to post pics of my literature but cannot attach. I have no remote host.
Jason, if you go to bringatrailer.com you’ll find dozens of new auctions posted daily, including quite a few bikes.
sold for 13150, yow