2024 Honda CBR1000RR-R Updates Rumored

Rumors from Japan prompted AutoBy Magazine to mock up what it believes the next CBR1000RR-R will look like.

Honda fans, reason to rejoice!
A couple of decades ago it was the norm for Japan’s top superbikes to be revised every other year as they fought for supremacy in both the showroom and on the track. That trend has tailed off as the liter sportbike market has shrunk and customers have switched to other styles of motorcycles, but Honda appears to have revived the idea with its latest CBR1000RR as the latest Japanese rumors say there’s a revamped model coming for 2024.

The current shape CBR arrived for the 2020 model year along with the addition of an extra “R” in its name, becoming the CBR1000RR-R to set it aside from the previous model, which currently remains on the market alongside its replacement. Despite being a clean-sheet design, with a 214 hp engine, new chassis, and winglet-equipped aerodynamics, the 2020 model didn’t meet Honda’s expectations. Far from leapfrogging its rivals to the front of the WSBK grid, it struggled, even with Álvaro Bautista as lead rider in its first year. For 2022, Honda introduced substantial under-the-skin updates to the production model including revisions to the compression ratio, airbox, intake funnels, and ports in an effort to turn those fortunes around.

The late Nicky Hayden was the last Honda rider to take a victory in World Superbike back in 2016.

The race results in WSBK haven’t improved though. It’s hard to believe, but Honda hasn’t won a single race in the series since 2016, when the late Nicky Hayden took his last career victory in a wet Race 2 in the Malaysian World Superbike round at the Sepang International circuit. During the current decade, Ducati, Kawasaki, Yamaha, and BMW have all had bikes on the top step of the podium, but Honda has rarely even managed to get onto the lowest one. With Honda suffering a similarly uncharacteristic slump in MotoGP it’s easy to imagine how keen the company is to return to the winning ways that it’s grown used to over the last few decades, and in doing so encourage a few more customers to opt for the big CBR instead of its rivals.

Aftermarket company Puig Hi-Tech Parts (available at V1 MOTO) produces bolt-on winglets for the current CBR1000RR.

Power doesn’t appear to be Honda’s problem, and the latest Japanese rumors have the focus of the 2024 updates being visual and aerodynamic, with substantially larger front winglets for both the streetbikes and their racing counterparts. The current CBR1000RR-R’s multilayered side winglets, with a trio of stubby wing profiles inside enclosed channels on either side of the fairing, haven’t been copied by many rivals, and this year’s Ducati domination of the World Superbike series suggests the Italian firm’s solution—the much wider, biplane-style winglets of the Panigale V4 R—are the direction to take.

In Japan, AutoBy magazine has mocked up how it believes the next-gen CBR1000RR-R will look, with larger wings, revised tail bodywork, and a new exhaust.

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