Hi Everyone, I’ve not been on in a long time as I was going to step away from biking and try and get my car license! BUT I hate cars and have just bought another Blade!! It’s a 2014 ABS (I’ve never had a blade with ABS before) This will be my 5th Blade!! Is there anything I should look out for with the 2014 Blade? thanks
Welcome back mate, hope you enjoy the bike. On another note, reading some of the threads bought back a lot of the issues, and being one of those most vocal about the failures and my involvement with VOSA at the time, it really makes me angry that our safety regulator is actually toothless in the face of an obstructive manufacturer. There are so many things I know about this case that I would love to be able to reveal but would most likely end up in court being sued. Although unlike some I wasn’t forced to sign anything, I’m not prepared to say anymore and get in deeper, sorry to dangle that carrot but it’s the way it is, but we weren’t all useless riders imagining things as was one of the approach’s taken at the time to discredit us. Best just to say this was a stain on Hondas reputation that will always be there for those of us involved at the time, and ultimately the final victory, albeit small was that they ditched the system eventually. Bizarrely, it was the fact that my new ABS Hondas inability to stop when I operated the brake lever made me search the web and find this forum, so maybe it was meant to be after all
The ABS thread saved me. I was buying new in Feb 2016 and Hunts were selling ABS bikes slightly cheaper than non ABS. That rang alarm bells and led me to do a search and came across the forum. 5 years on....Still the proud owner of a non-ABS
I have a 2013 ABS, the brakes are different from non ABS. Mine at times I have to pull more than once to get the feel, I am not riding on the edge so if it feels spongy just pump the brake. I can imagine sometime having to haul on the brakes and it going back to the bars and loosing vital braking distance. I am now that used to pumping the brake it comes as second nature, up to now it has never been to bad as to think it is not going to stop. I think they are all slightly different and you just have to see how yours works and then make your decision,
I know what you mean. All I'll add is that the C-ABS issue wasn't limited to the Fireblade, I had a 2014 CBR600RR C-ABS that exhibited the symptoms of the Fireblade - inconsistent front lever feel. For me 99% of the time it operated as expected, but there was the 1% when all of a sudden for no reason, perhaps after cruising down an A road for 10-15 mins without using the brake, that when I came to pull the front lever it dived almost to the handle bar. Honda's suggestion at the time was to move the lever position further out (allowing more lever travel - LOL). They also changed the brake master cylinder (under warranty) and a host of other time-consuming things, but it was never quite right. Didn't spoil the bike for me, just made me more cautious when riding. Oh and welcome back @Alfie. Don't know what the crowd was like when you were last here, but I can say there's a good bunch of helpful and friendly lads and ladies here from my experience over the past 3 or so years.
I was just about to buy a abs model and read this thread and started more searching and I now own a 16 non abs and love every moment Once went in a pub with my Honda tee shirt on and a bloke I know(admittedly pissed) went mental They tried to kill John mcguinness take it off No one would want to see that me with my shirt off Anyway is it the abs that done it
