Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

.. - .. ·R C RTE r Aaron Slight's Honda RC45 AE S Sligh t's works racer with Showa suspen sion and Dunlop ti res (w h ich had a clean-re vving engine tha t lacked acceleration, and a big question m ar k ove the hand ling), I was looking forward to making an updated com parison wit Aaron's latest works Team Castrol racer. But when the chance finally came afte the en d of the season, it was on a rainy - November da y in Britain, on a Donin gton track wh o se we t-weather grip is notoriously unpredictable. So no real chance to explore the handling improvements that Aaron had been enth using to me abou t over breakfast at Phillip Island a couple of weeks beforehand. But the engine - well, that' s a dif ferent matter: It's vastly imp roved. Honda' s in tens ive d evelopment on the RC45 motor las t winter was aimed at two goals: improving top speed, and increasing accel eration ou t o f turn s. Thanks to th e clean pi ckup from the PGM-F1 fuel-injection system and the Vfour motor' s traditional flat torque curve, low-down punch wasn't a problem, as I discovered for myself last year in side-by-sid e roll-ons with the works Kawasa ki s ou t of th e Su zuka chi ca ne an d Sp oon Curv e. Where the U S-spec" works '94 Honda lagged behind was in th ird - and fo u rth- gear acc elera ti on , which the 6-spec engine that ap peared fo r Slight and th en-t eamm ate Do ug Polen to test at Eastern Creek in Jan uary addressed. . The '95 engine was totally revam ped, fitted with titanium-this and unobtainiurn-that, wi th a host of detail changes including a new airbox design, as well as new igni tion, pistons (still tw o-ring, but wi t h an a lte red s hape to the (Left) Directiona l changes co me qu ic kly and eas ily with the latest version of the RC45 superb lke. (Below) After Ii host of chassis alte rat ions that Included a bored-out headstock, the Castrol Honda team eventuaily reve rted to the original RC45 specs . By Alan Cat hca rt Photos by Kyo ich i Na kamu ra and Kel Edge 14 fter a d ebut season in 1994 that could only be term ed disappointing, Honda's all-new fuel-injected RC45 Superbike made good in 1995. Following intense development over the winter, HRC d elivered a heavil y revamped motorcycle which not only repeated its only '94 successes by winning the Suzuka B-H our and the Au stralian Superbike title, but also clinched the American and Japanese Superbike crowns, as well as the . World End urance Championship. More to the point, the Castrol Honda team finally go t on th e pace at Worl d Su perb ike leve l, with Aaron Sli ght puttin g his RC45 on pol e for th e first time at Monza, then at last achieving the mod el's sought-after maiden victory in the next round at Albacete . Though just one more race win for the season (Sentul) wa s perhaps less than th e Britishba sed , Neil Tu xworth-managed team had hop ed for, a rep eat thi rd place in the World Sup erbike series at the end of the season promises much for 1996 especially with the unequal weight limits between twins and fours that Slight ha s been so critical of now eq ualized. Th is and the fact that his bit ter rival, reigning World Champion Carl Fogarty, lef t Ducati to join h im o n the team, becoming his, er, friendly teammate! It's taken longer than anyone expec ted, but th e Honda RC45 is now firmly on the pace - th e best of the current cro p of four-cylinde r Supe rbikes, and a serious threa t to Ducati's dominance. After riding the prototype RC45 racer two years ago at Suzu ka, th en in 1994 the Ru mi Honda custo me r bik e w ith Ohlins suspe nsio n an d Mich elin ti res (which handled fine, bu t had a who pp ing m id r a ng e flat spot), an d la ter crown ) and cams ha ft. These, combined with a new 4-2 tw in-pipe exhaust system (w hi ch had th e ad de d ben efit of p as sing th e n oi se test m o re easil y) imp roved top-en d powe,r to aro und 160 bhp, at peak revs of 14,350 rpm, as well as having fattene d up the midrange. The Honda was now king of the Superbike

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