| Honda RVF750R RC45 |
|
|
|
| Written by Administrator | |
| Monday, 15 May 2006 | |
|
My second ever motorbike, the RC45 Designed by Honda with only one task in mind, to beat the 1 liter Ducati's in World and regional Superbike racing. Arguably the best bike ever made in Japan, they are extremely rare, and my one, with the full Superbike package is very special. I needed an upgrade to a bigger bike, and an Japanese Honda race bike seemed to be perfect answer to my thirst for more speed. Thanks to boxes of shiny new street bodywork from Honda, this is what the bike looked like after I got it through the Japanese MOT, and and later when it arrived in the UK Unfortunately the mixture of street and race parts didn't work very well, the narrow gauge street ram air system and air box strangled my poor engine which was still set up for the track. I was rescued by Honda again, they had given me a couple of huge boxes of race spares, including some worn race body work, and a peach of a hand made aluminum race tank. You can see the huge diameter of the race air ram system in the picture below, on the street it is liable to suck in small children and passing dogs!  As I left Japan soon after I got the bike, you can see I didn't really get the chance to put too many km on it - unlike my poor 250...
The magnesium right hand side engine cover traveled to the UK separate to the bike, replacing a scratched one.
However the leftside cover was looking the worse for wear after I first got caught in rain on the bike, and then I guess the salt air on the trip to the UK didn't do it much good either. The magnesium parts on the bike have a much higher magnesium content to parts sold commercially - for example on top end Ducati, and so are totally unsuitable for general use.  However, I found a company in Cambridge with a new system for treating Magnesium, used on F1 car parts. Though initially the process failed due to the insane amount of magnesium in the alloy, after they let their boffin's lose on it I ended up with a magnesium clutch cover that is rain proof. Sadly I've lost the original factory patina, but the component should now outlast me!  Oooh, Honda factory 5 spoke Marchesini!
Okumura custom Showa rear - sadly I received a brand new street set of forks instead of the original factory Showa superbike forks that were on the bike - but then they probably were worth more than a new R1:)  One of the two Race PGM  Another headache using the bike on the street, easy access to the PGM settings are great when racing, but a tempting target for people to fiddle with on a street bike.
|
|
| Last Updated ( Friday, 07 July 2006 ) |
| Next > |
|---|