Return of the Urban Tiger Fireblade

Honda Racing rocked up to Snetterton at the weekend with Julien Da Costa riding an Urban Tiger liveried Fireblade, enough to get any red-blooded Fireblade fan reminiscing about the second-generation ‘fox eye’ Blade that surfaced in 1994.

The resurrection of the 20 year-old paintjob isn’t confined to the track, either. Honda UK has hastily confirmed that it will be offered as a limited edition replica road bike, too. The news is so fresh that official images of the new edition don’t even exist yet.

This shot, grabbed on a workbench at Honda Racing in Louth, is the first glimpse of the road version – which will be available at selected Honda dealers from July onwards, at £13,299.

Based on the updated 2014 model Fireblade, the Urban Tiger replica also sports a limited edition Akrapovic exhaust as part of the package.

Honda UK’s Head of Motorcycles, Nick Campolucci, explains: “Honda is competing in four rounds of BSB with Julien Da Costa in order to continue development of the race bike and we saw this as the perfect opportunity to celebrate the colourful history of the Fireblade.

“We decided to take that one step further by offering customers the chance to own a modern version of this retro livery. The Urban Tiger is one of the most loved Fireblade paint schemes in the model’s 22-year history and it’s still as popular today as it was back in 1994.

“Now Fireblade fans can have the best of both worlds – the iconic design on the latest evolution of the machine.”