The Honda CBR1100XX Blackbird was launched in summer of 1996 as the world's fastest production motorcycle by surpassing the legendary Kawasaki ZX-11. Two years later the title was taken from the Suzuki Hayabusa. Even without being the fastest bike on the market, the Blackbird has earned a solid reputation as a comfortable, fast and smooth powerful motorcycle. In the two years from its launch it was know also as a very reliable sport-touring motorcycle. Production of the Blackbird began in 1996 and halted in late 2007, but was still available at some dealers in 2008. One of the major changes to the Blackbird were introduced in 1999, when Honda switched from old carburators to PGM Fi fuel injection system. With this modification the Blackbird lost some horsepower as well some of the top speed, but on the other hand obtained more torque that was appreciated by the sport-touring riders.The second major change was introduced in 2001, when the Blackbirds analog instrument cluster was replaced by an LCD instrument cluster.