Having ridden both, they are both capable bikes but get a grip man, the X-11 is fugly 
Just my opinion of course… Funnily enough I was reading a recent(ish) “bike” magazine on the can half hour ago and they said “What any of us could do if we took the fairing off a Blackbird. But we choose not to and neither should Honda”
Essentially the X-11 is a retuned naked Blackbird - loss of 23BHP and 6th gear. The blackbird is a far nicer machine all round, especially from a re-sale point of view, that said it does mean that X-11’s are bargainous.
I test rode a 2nd hand BB July last year and this is the edited version of my write up for another site… the CB1300 is now 3 years old with 37,000 on the clock rather than the 21,000 stated in the write up…
…
"Thought i’d while away the hours whilst my trusty steed was in for a service & test ride a Honda Blackbird.
The one i rode was a 40,000 miler, and i was expecting it to be soggy and basically shagged… but of course it’s a Honda
Pulling out of Dobles showroom i was suprised how light it was having heard many describe the bird as a lardy bus, mind you i think it had the usual test ride allocation of one egg up of juice in the tank.
Being used to more torque (possibly due to lower gearing on mine) I managed to stall it, doh!!! Filtering was a doddle through the road works on the A23, then came the first bit of dual carriageway 40 limit with a gatso at the end, my chance to test the pick up and also the effectiveness of the linked brake system that has been the subject of much slating from the bike press… onto the dual carriage way, throttle against the stop for what seemed like a second and i buzzed past a volvo, the Gatso approaching fast, time to check out these brakes, what can i say, awesome stopping power!!! in the meantime the volvo started flashing me alternate headlights madly… time to filter through the traffic, again with ease, making good my escape down onto the M23, the slip road at the start of the M23 is a series of sweeping bends, throttle pinned, 3rd, 4th, 5th… then my bottle ran out, the bike firmly planted unruffled by harsh accelleration.
Off the 23 onto the 25, then off onto one of my favourite pieces of road - the A22 Caterham bypass, timed the lights so i had a rolling start and was in third in time for the awesome left hander onto the A22, bike cranked right over, the 40,000 mile donkey not missing a beat. Clear run at the twisties after the Caterham lights proved this isn’t quite the lardy bus it has been billed as, you can really hustle it and boy does it handle!
Filtering through Whyteleafe with ease, then onto Purley Cross, squeeze my way to the front of the lights and nail it off the line on the green, up into 2nd, tip into the left hander onto the A23, no time to check the speedo, but again, unruffled and planted, combined brakes do their magic in time for the gatso, the reserve light is now flashing so time to return the bike.
Overall, a cracking bike, guess its a bike to ride in isolation as it’s not quite as mental as the ZX12R, which i’ve also ridden and vowed never to buy… Busa… well i have an inherent distrust of suzuki’s ability to weld frames which on ballistic bike is quite important!
Would i buy one? Well the quick answer is yes… But the long answer would have to be subject to a longer test ride. I have been offerred a longer ride on one, and this would give me the chance to see what it’s really like comfort wise having been spoilt by the CB1300.
Ridden gently it’s a pussy cat, dial in the revs beyond 6k and it’s a ground to ground missile, and therein lies the problem, far to easy to drift well beyond a ton, makes going fast very very easy indeed, as warp factor 9 feels like 70.
If I was to buy a new un, the CB13 would have to go, 2nd hand it can stay… riding mine back post service made me realise that i couldn’t part with it, the trade in value of a 21,000 mile 2 year old bike is insulting, the CB1300 is worth more to me than what the dealers “magic book” says."
