Sneak peek at the RC51
By Michael RossI had a chance to throw a leg over the RC51 recently, and it made a big impression on me.
I had seen the RC51 at the dealer show in New Orleans and, except for the price, I wasn't all that impressed. The styling is okay, but a bit conservative, and I had ridden VTR1000s before. They are nice bikes but they seem a little too refined for my tastes. I expected that the '51 would simply be a hotted-up VTR like the TL1000S compared to the TL1000R.
But after I had a chance to actually sit on the bike and start it, I have completely changed my mind.
The first thing you notice when you sit on the bike is the instrumentation. It has obviously been designed to look like it as lifted off a front line Superbike. When you turn on the key the LCD display goes through its self-diagnostic routine and after its finished you just gotta' turn the key off and on to see it one more time.
I thumbed the electric starter and what I heard was not the muted, refined, rumblings of any of Honda's other street bike engines, which have dozens of little touches to quiet mechanical noise. No, this thing sounded just like Miguel Duhamel's RC45. Real race bike engines don't have rubber dampers and helical cut gears in them to make them quiet and this RVT doesn't either. It sounds like a real race bike motor complete with the thrash of straight cut cam drive gears. This is auditory nirvana to any gear head.
Throttle response was immediate and impressive. Its hard to believe you can accelerate two 100mm pistons so quickly through their 63mm stroke, but this engine doesn't have the lazy throttle response of a street motor with CV carbs. This baby acts like she wants to rev and rev now. I have never thrown a leg over any Honda motorcycle that made such an instantaneous impression on me. This bike is practically brimming with personality or soul or whatever you want to call it; it makes you feel like you are sitting on a real race bike.
The seating position and ergos scream race bike as well. I sat on the CBR929RR before I checked out the '51 and the difference is notable. The CBR has a riding position that we have come to expect from Honda's long line of sportbikes, but the '51 sits you up front close to the front wheel where everything happens at speed. The ergos are all about steering and front end feed back. It may not be the best set-up for cruising to work, unless of course you live in turn one and work is down the hill in turn ten.
The first thing that came into my mind after sitting on the bike is this: how the heck Honda can sell this thing for $9999? If you look at the forks closely they look like they came off of a factory race bike, and although the rear shock looks a little less predatory, the swingarm is definitely built for business. There is barely enough room for the chain to find its way through the massive bridgework that braces the swingarm.
At the dealer show Honda representatives kept saying that the competition has been closing in and its time for Honda to pull away.
I guess they really mean it.
ENDS
