If you stop and think how serious Honda are about any type of racing they participate in, the  RC51 package is no less amazing, but not totally unexpected. At the Honda RC51 technical briefing I listened to Honda  state several interesting pieces of information: that the RC-51 was designed from conception as a Superbike racing platform, and is still  a "Race Bike at Heart" we're told, and that at the outset was perhaps designed for a much higher pricing structure. Then Honda tells of the marketing decision to, for the first time, build a affordable Superbike platform for privateers. Then they tell us there was also a level of level of collaboration between the HRC engineers and Honda streetbike engineers, unusual for a street production Honda motorcycle. This RC51 is getting more and more interesting.

So I do some visual poking around the display bikes. Taking a birds eye view down the throat of the 54mm throttle bodies, you can see Honda is discharging the fuel spray from the twin injectors downstream from the butterfly valves, somewhat typical and interesting, as Ducati is rumored to be trying a set-up that sprays the fuel from above the valve. A manual choke is fitted because in Honda's words, it's easier to remove for racing. Did they fit an anti-knock sensor?  Nope, just use spec Premium octane fuel.

The magnesium clutch cover is just that, a clutch cover and not a right side engine cover. If you need to access any clutch components, its short and sweet. Ditto the separate water pump cover.

On the front end, trick but simple separate brackets rather than integral castings are fitted to the fork lowers, facilitating changing to any variety of brake caliper manufacturer. Fitted on the forward portion of the fork lower is a removable housing and the compression adjustment knob sits on top. It was unclear talking to the Honda people just exactly how it functions, either by a needle that tensions the shim stack, or other means, but there is an increased level of external adjust ability beyond the normal click-knob, easily accessible by removing the housing rather than disassembling the fork internals.

By means of touch toggles and multi-screens, the instrument pod has all the bases covered. Most notable is what it doesn't do: which is display a clock function, that would be a sin on a RC-anything motorcycle, don't you agree?

And then we're told things like, although the new Honda 929 weighs 60 pounds less than the RC51 and has about 25 more horsepower, top speeds are about the same. Why? Major league attention paid to RC51 aerodynamics, resulting in the "second most aerodynamic streetbike ever produced by Honda", behind only the diminutive domestic Japan market NC30.

The distinctive trademark front and center air intake is the result of Honda finding up to a 10% increase in efficiency by taking the air straight through it, rather than a less direct routing.  And for a taste of Suzuka 8-hour flavor, the normal low beam lights up the left side headlight only.

And although the Honda spec sheets show various comparisons between the RC51 and the Superhawk VTR, as far as any real world similarity Honda's product guy and former World Endurance champion Doug Toland advised us, "Don't even go there."

NEXT:
 
 

evangelism