Without traction control and down on power, can the 2012 Honda CBR1000RR still compete?

It’s easy to feel a bit sorry for liter bikes as 2011 slowly becomes 2012. They’ve reached some sort of pinnacle — without exception the entire class is now so impossibly fast that the bikes have become distinguished not by power or handling, but by the efficacy of electronic rider aids. Even while technology progresses exponentially, model cycles are stretching longer and longer and cash-strapped buyers are increasingly hanging on to perfectly good, five-year old motorcycles rather than upgrading every two years. Into that mess enters the 2012 Honda CBR1000RR, a minor facelift of a model originally introduced four years ago. A bike that’s not only down on power compared to every single one of its competitors, but lacking any sort of traction control, much less wheelie control, launch control or any other whizz-bang rider aid too.

Photos: Brian J Nelson

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