Unfortunately, there are several motorcycles that never made it to the United States. But here five bikes that are now old ...

“A sport bike should be controlled freely as to the rider’s wish.” That’s according to the father of the CBR900RR, former career Honda motorcycle engineer Tadao Baba. Baba-san, a real rider, was ...

Designed by the irrepressible Tadao Baba, this was a major step in the evolution of modern sportsbikes, the effects of which we’re still seeing today. Good examples of the first model are thin on the ...

If only Tadao Baba, the motorcycle’s Japanese designer, had not devised such a light but powerful machine, banned in his own country but perfectly legal in France. If only Claude had listened to ...

Designed by Tadao Baba, the Fireblade featured an 893cc inline-four engine capable of producing 122 horsepower. Its reduced weight and aerodynamic improvements made it one of the most agile ...

Created by genius Tadao Baba who, after testing and being disappointed by heavyweight GSXRs, FZRs and even the CBRF, pursued lightness and compactness above power, the original Blade may have only had ...

The story behind the legendary name is as intriguing as the name itself. Used first on the bike developed by Tadao Baba in 1992 the name was born out of a mistranslation from Japanese to English.

Spearheaded by Tadao Baba, the first-generation CBR900RR introduced an 893cc inline-four engine, setting a new standard for lightweight in the superbike class. Based on Honda's internal "CBR750RR ...

Tadao Baba joined Honda in 1962, worked as a machinist then test rider before moving into product development. Then, in 1987, he took over the new sportsbike project, a key sector dominated by ...

Luckily, help was at hand and as the new millennium approached, thankfully someone within the hierarchy green-lighted the Blade’s R&D team (still headed by the father of the FireBlade, Tadao Baba) to ...

The R1 also saw the death of the ’90s litre-class hyperbike (an over-exaggerated term common at the time for any sportbike bigger than a superbike), which arguably began when Tadao Baba released ...

The very first Honda Fireblade hit the streets and the racetracks back in 1992. A project of Tadao Baba, a former racer turned Honda’s engineer, the Fireblade was designed to be lighter ...