Honda might have only just revamped the CBR1000RR-R SP Fireblade for 2024 but the company has just published a new patent application that appears to show how the same bike might develop further – with a completely new fairing that’s intended to retain the downforce of winglets but without the drag they cause.
Redesigned wings are one of the few visible changes to the 2024 Blade, although there are a host of other tweaks under the skin including substantial alterations to the chassis and engine, but they’re still quite conventional – sticking out into the airflow on each side in pursuit of front-end downforce. That means there’s a trade-off, the winglets adding to the bike’s frontal area and increasing drag.
The new design hopes to maintain the benefits of the downforce but clean up the bike’s appearance and reduce its aerodynamic drag. It does this by moving the winglets inside the nose of the fairing.
Visually, there aren’t too many clues. The nose is unusually sharp on its leading edge, with a distinct undercut beneath it, and there are two clearly-visible air ducts, one on each side of the screen, plus louvres on the side extremities of the nose. What’s harder to see is that there are also intakes in that concave section underneath either side of the nose. Allied to the upper ducts they create a set of internal channels around an inverted wing profile, creating the same downforce that normally requires external winglets.
Because the wings are inside the nose, they don’t add to the bike’s frontal area, helping to reduce its overall aerodynamic drag. The patent application says the result will be improved top speed and acceleration. It looks like the louvred outlets on the very edges of the nose help to further bleed off air pressure underneath the internal winglets, increasing their effectiveness.
As well as reducing frontal area, the patent application says the internal winglets help direct airflow over and around the rider, giving an overall aerodynamic benefit, as illustrated in the flow lines shown in the drawings.
Ben Purvis
