Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128145
RIIIIRB=t'f::J 2002 Honda RC51 EJ:11~ factory RC51, only to get smoked by fie much-improved, Testastrettapowe e· factory Ducati of Troy Bayliss this eason. Worse yet, Big Red has yet to earn its first AMA Superbike title with the RC51, despite having the talents of Nicky Hayde Miguel DuHamel and Kurtis Roberts at its disposal. Hayden came close in 2000, finishing six oints behind champio Mat Mladin in the title chase. A disastrous outing at Daytona last season put the oung Kentucky rider in the bole right off the bat at the start of 2002, but Hayden and the C51 showed fine form at the end of the season by...ripping to victory in he last four rounds of the season. With such JTlOmentum on its side, you might think that Honda would be willing to leave well enough a one. After all, it has proved to be a winner. "But like the rest of the company's racing proc:lucts, the RC51 was designed to dominate, and after our recent intro and test ride of the 2002 RC51 at Willow Springs International Raceway, we believe that the compay will stop at nothing until the RC does just that. The Willow Springs intro pro'1.ed to be a real treat, for not only did Honda provide us with several test sessions eez, is his V-twin superbike category ever a tough 0 e. I mean, we thought that the Honda RC51 was J?l!rfect alreadY,; We first sampled the much-anticipated follow-up to Hon a's worldcon uering RC45 V-four during its introduction at the Laguna Seca Raceway about two years ago. At the time, we praised the RC, citing the gentle-giant power delivery of its allnew 990cc, 90-degree V-twin; and marveling at its ability to carve corners like a paring knife, thanks mostly to a thick-sparre aluminum chassisand-swingarm pa ~age that was about as flexible as a girder. Bottom line: The RC51 was strong a a dose of coal oil and handled just as slick. We surmised that the bike would carryon Honda tradition by collecting Superbike gold at both the AMA and World Championship levels. The thing is, though, that the RC51 arguably has not reaped all the success that was projected for it in the past two seasons. Sure, Colin Edwards II bagged his first career World Superbike title in impressive fashion right out of the box on the I 24 MARCH 13, 2002' c:: Y c:: I e n e _ s on RC51s shod with OE street tires, and later with DOT racing rubber, but we also got the opportunity to see Honda's factory road race teams in action while they ran a few final tests before loading up and heading for Daytona. Team Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Miguel DuHamel, Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts, Mike Hale, Alex Gobert and Roger Lee Hayden, and Bruce Transportation Group's Jake Zemke were all on hand to eXReriment with their respective race macRines. Having one of them whiz by while we we~e shaking down the production RC51 was thrill, to say the least. Perhaps the coo est .move of the day came from Roberts, who shot by just before the entrance to tum three and then backed it in dirttrack-style with bis inside foot off the peg before getting a monster drive up the hill and into iIIow's famous Balcony section. But I digress, so back to the RC51. The first thing that you're likely to notice when climbing aboard the new RC51 is the same thing that you would have noticed with the old one. The bike has a sort of tallish feel at the saddle, although the seat-pegsbars relationship is quite comfortable nee you are under way. The engine New Shimmer: The 2002 Honda Re51 has undergone a multitude of changes designed to make It a more friendly street bike (left) and a more serious racing machine (right). Even with all the changes, this super Superbike retails for a mere $10,199. imparts the same sense of comfort at cruising speeds. Thanks to the twin muffler exhaust system, though, the timbre of the mighty V-twin is muted too much - not the five-one's most positive attribute. Even after we got the bike up to speed, it was difficult to hear the engine above the rush of wind that seepe into my earplugs. All that work put in to build a Duck killer, and then you can't even hear it snarl? What a shame. Thank goodness for the aftermarket pipe business. Honda claims two more horsepower for the RC51's revised engine. That's a number that might make some hard-cores yawn. But don't think for one minute, however, that the increase is insignificant. Honda worked the engine to produce a stronger spread of powe aod you can feel it as the bike pulls harder and cleaner when the hrottle is opened up. The deli ery is nothjng radical; rather it's the same freight-