Top speed

[flynrider]

At a drag strip I'd prefer the FZ 8..... On the curvy country roads I ride where torque is better than raw hp, the CB is a more satisfying ride.

Sold an FZ 1 which made 124 hp, but was rarely able to use all of it, to buy the CB.

In the rev range I ride ( below 6000 rpms) the CB may make more HP and torque than the FZ did and probably more than the FZ 8 does.
Heres an interesting speed question:

Would you rather shift at redline

Where the bike makes peak horsepower

Or where the bike makes peak torque?

Depends on what you want to accomplish. If you're at the dragstrip, you're going to want to be shifting when the the hp has peaked. On most bikes this is pretty close to redline, but according to the dyno charts I've seen, the CB peaks at around 7200.

The CB delivers about 90% of peak torque starting at around 2800 rpm and peaks shortly thereafter. I wouldn't want to be lugging the engine by shifting that low all of the time. Since the the torque curve stays relatvely flat from the 3000 rpm range and up, it really doesn't matter if you shift at the peak or sometime after that. The torque delivered will be about the same.

I think Honda did an excellent job tuning this engine. They knew that the target market was not going to buy based on hp numbers, so they traded off hp for usable power throughout the rpm range. The result is a very well balanced engine with a flat torque curve and the most linear power band I can recall seeing on a dyno chart.