Honda CBR1100XX

The Honda CBR1100XX Super Blackbird is a Honda motorcycle, part of the CBR series made from 1996 to 2007. The bike was developed to challenge the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-11 as the world's fastest production motorcycle, and Honda succeeded with a top speed of 177 mph. Two years later the title passed to the Suzuki Hayabusa, which reached 193 mph. The Blackbird is named after the Lockheed SR-71, also a speed record holder.

It has the largest-displacement engine in Honda's CBR range of motorcycles.

Development
In the mid-1990s, Honda was determined to produce the world's fastest production motorcycle and to take over the associated bragging rights and marketing impact, at the time held by Kawasaki's Ninja ZX11. This led to the creation of the CBR1100XX Super Blackbird. The Blackbird name is a nod to the Lockheed SR-71 aircraft, the world's fastest production aircraft.

In the February 1997 issue of Sport Rider magazine, the CBR1100XX was tested at a top speed of 178.5 mph, compared with 175 mph for the ZX-11. Its supremacy over the ZX-11 was confirmed in April 2007 by Motorcycle Consumer News, although the speeds achieved were slightly lower and the margin was narrower.

In 1999, the Suzuki Hayabusa overtook the CBR1100XX. It was listed in the 2000 Millennium Edition of Guinness World Records as the world's fastest production bike with a top speed of 194 mph Hayabusa is the Japanese term for the Peregrine Falcon, a species of raptor which preys on blackbirds.