Pata Honda Riders tests the 2014 CBR1000RR (Fireblade) SP on Losail Circuit

World superbike racing team Pata Honda's riders Leon Haslam and Jonathan Rea has tested the new 2014 version of Honda's most popular super sport bike CBR1000RR SP. The new Fireblade SP was unveiled at the 2013 EICMA in Milan, Italy. Haslam and Rea play on the bike at the Losail circuit in Qatar, where the bike was launched.

The lastest and sharpest version of the bike that Haslam and Rea race for the Pata Honda team in the World Superbike championship was being presented by Honda Motor Europe to motorcycle journalists from all over the world. It is a pure track focused machine which gets minor updates including uprated cylinder head, pistons and exhaust ports, PGM-DSFI settings have been revised to boost top-end power and mid-range torque. The new factory blueprinted engine can rev upto 13,000rpm, and produces a maximum power of 178bhp and 115.24Nm of peak torque.

Boasting front and rear adjustable Öhlins suspension and Brembo monoblock brakes, the new Fireblade SP also features Honda’s electronic combined ABS system and a single seat unit to offer owners even greater focus on trackday action.

For Haslam and Rea the launch also offered an opportunity to re-acquaint themselves with the Losail circuit which returns to the World Superbike championship calendar in 2014 for the first time since 2009.

“What a week!”, said Haslam after returning from Qatar. “It was the best fun ever to ride around Losail with all the journalists on the Fireblade SP. It’s an awesome machine and the circuit lets you have a lot of fun, so I ended up doing about 300 laps, I think!”

Rea, who flew in from Australia, where he is spending the winter, also enjoyed himself, saying: “It was like ‘a-smile-a-mile’ and I had great fun with Leon, his dad Ron and my TT legend mate, John McGuinness. Sometimes I just think to myself: ‘I have the best job in the world!’”