For those of us who are missing our motorcycles right now, and particularly riding on the limit at track days, Marc Márquez and Honda have a special gift for us. They’ve posted a lovely 360-degree video of Márquez taking a brand-new CBR1000RR-R Fireblade SP around the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya for a lap.
It’s not the same as his MotoGP machine, but nevertheless, Márquez puts the CB-ARRRRRRRRRRRRR through its paces around a track he clearly knows well. The same can’t be said for the bike, which leads you to wonder how much time he had with it prior to shooting this video. Was this his first go on the bike? Probably not, but in any case, he definitely doesn’t seem as comfortable with it as he does on his race bike.
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Then again, it’s probably a moot point, since he’s clearly doing far better than most of us would ever do if suddenly thrown into that same situation. What’s clear is that this is a more than capable machine that will bring its riders many happy rides at tracks all around the globe. The 360-degree video makes it possible to switch your viewing angles and instantly answer any questions you have about shift points, throttle usage, or anything else regarding how he takes this lap.
The only minor complaint I might have is that I wish the exhaust was miced up a little better, because I will never not want to clearly hear a race bike being ridden in anger. What we have here isn’t bad, per se, but there’s a lot of wind noise that unfortunately distracts from that happy rumble.
Still, it’s a nice few minutes of escapism, and it doesn’t take much to picture ourselves out enjoying a hot lap. Hopefully it won’t be too long before we can do that exact thing, even if it isn’t on a Fireblade at Catalunya.
Source: YouTube