...According to the editors at Motorcyclist magazine, who are now awarding their 2008 Motorcycle of the Year awards.  Earning top honors for the revered sportbike category is the Honda CBR1000RR, perhaps the fiercest superbike to ever come out of Japan.  The top-of-the-line CBR has been a magazine favorite for its combination of durability, affordability, agility, and criminal speed.  Here's what the editors said about the CBR in its awards section:

Faster than the proverbial bullet. Lighter than most 600s. Able to leap other bikes' dyno curves in a single bound. Honda's all-new CBR1000RR is its most superlative superbike yet. Not only did the Alpha-RR dominate the performance portion of our "Class of '08" sportbike shootout (posting the quickest quarter-mile time, the fastest lap at the Streets of Willow and amazing dyno numbers in the middle revs), but it also ruled on more subjective aspects of the test. Its effortless handling and overall ease-of-use are absolutely contrary to a machine with such devastating speed. How did Big Red do it? Relentless weight reduction (even the instrument glass was scrutinized), fanatical attention to mass centralization and plenty of good old-fashioned internal-combustion hot-rodding result in a giant step forward in literbike performance--and 2008's Sportbike of the Year.

Here's some basic background info about the 1000RR: it has a liquid-cooled 999 cc dual-cam inline-four engine with DFSi (dual-stage fuel-injection), a quick-shift six-speed tranny, 320 mm discs upfront and 220 out back, and a curb weight under 390 lbs.  Honda's been stripping more and more pounds every few years to keep it ahead, all the while giving big bumps to horsepower--now at 178.  This'll let you hit sixty in just under three seconds.  All this for less than $12K.

Here's Motorcyclist magazine's 2004 road test online:

http://www.motorcyclistonline.com/roadtests/2004_honda_cbr1000rr/index.h...