| HM
Plant Honda Fireblade
John McGuinness had a great year of racing
on the roads with the obvious highlight being his awesome
hat-trick and lap record breaking spree at the Isle
of Man TT Races. He also set the pole position time
at both the North West 200 and Ulster GP, taking two
podiums at the former and becoming the first man to
lap Dundrod at 130mph, albeit in practice. Whilst John
was clearly riding at the top of his game, a large part
of his success came from the bike that was beneath him
and he had significant input in the way it was developed.
For that reason, his HM Plant Honda Fireblade Superbike
machine is the 2006 RealRoadRacing.Com Bike of the Year.
Modern day terminology is obsessed with bhp figures
and whilst it’s undoubtedly a major factor, it’s
not the be all and end all and John was quick to realise
this. With all of his experience, he was more bothered
about a bike that was set-up correctly and handled well
and he was confident that if he got this right with
the machine, the lack of bhp wouldn’t matter.
His HM Plant Fireblade was probably giving away at least
10-15bhp compared to that of his rivals and whilst the
TAS Suzuki’s may have been going down the Sulby
Straight at 06mph, at the end of the lap they were a
long way adrift of the flying McGuinness.
Rather than riding one of the BSB machines used by
Kiyonari, Harris or Rea (whose bike Steve Plater used
at the NW200), John’s bike was built from scratch
and with Dunlop tyres developed specifically for him
as well, the whole package was the best on the grid
at the TT. Although still a beast to handle, it was
more manageable than others that lined up around him
and, prior to the North West, John spent considerable
time testing the Fireblade. So, who better to explain
the machine than the man himself.
“The Superbike was a real weapon from day
one but it was built in exactly the way I wanted it
to be built. Compared to the rest it was very practical
but it was brand new, which is what you want for the
roads, and we set it up quite similar to my British
Superstock bike in terms of geometry and the like. A
lot of work and preparation went into this year’s
TT and we spent hours at Bruntingthorpe going up and
down and got plenty of laps in at Castle Combe to try
and iron out as many problems as we could. You’ll
never arrive on the Island with a bike that is perfect
from the very first lap but on the first night of practice
we were in the ball park and knew exactly what changes
were needed.”
“The Dunlop tyres have also had plenty of
investment put into them and it was the ideal combination
for the TT. The testing also enabled us to sort out
things like the fuel mapping and the balance was good
from the very first session. When I left Castle Combe
I already felt like I could head off down Bray Hill.
All of the bikes were competitive but the Superbike
is always the one you have to spend the most time with,
as they’re such animals around the Island.”
“I had a great team behind me as well and
Jules, Leighton and myself were all up for it and it
couldn’t have turned out any better. Getting the
wins was what it was all about but lapping at 129.451mph
was the icing on the cake – I thought the lap
record would go but not by that much. The bike wasn’t
the fastest thing out there, by a long shot, but a lot
of thought, work, development and preparation went into
the Honda Fireblade and it never missed a beat.”
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