Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
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train-like pull from down low in the rev range - only more. The RCSl seems equally capable of lugging or screaming, depending upon your tastes. Either way, it always feels like there is more thrust available with just a twist of the wrist or a light tap on the shifter. If you were looking for a Iightswitch powerband, you've definitely come to the wrong place. In fact, the thing is deceptively fast, partly due to the fact that you cannot hear the engine revving, and reading the LCD bar graph tachometer is a royal pain in the ass. So you give it more stick, and the power comes on gently and, before you know it, you're wailing into a corner at a high rate of speed. Can you say "panic time"? Truth is, there is really no need to panic. Just lean the RC in and it will turn willingly - no way this train's gonna leave the rails. We wouldn't Associate editor Scott Rousseau (center) runs the RC51 through Its paces at Willow Springs while Erion Racing's Kurtis Roberts Petti probably giggling In his helmet· prepares to blow right on by. The RC51 intro coincided with a Team Honda test session, giving the Journalists a chance to watch the heroes in action. call the initial turn-in anywhere near 600-like - the RC doesn't snap to attention - but instead it is rather linear as it heels over and gets to the business of trucking through the corner. It sounds like the RCS] could be the perfect-handling motorcycle, but we'd qualify that statement by adding that it is - if you're the right type of rider. Of our test group, some of the riders who tended to lean forward as well as hanging off when sliding their pucks felt that the RCS] was pure magic in the corners. Others - myself included - who tend to ride more in between the front wheels felt that the front-end feeling was not quite as telegraphic as the previous RCS]. This is not to suggest in any way that the front end is wishy-washy - that the bike continues to rail through the corners and is willing enough to change lines is pleasing and unnerving all at the same time. Those in the second group just wished for a little more of a weighty feeling on the front end. One tester even requested that the RC's forks be raised in the clamps to see if it would make a difference. Honda politely declined the request. I found t~at cranking more preload into the shock and dialing out a little bit of compression damping in the forks tended to get the RC more to my liking, though the overt neutral feeling never did go away completely. Making the switch to the Dunlop At speed or in comers, the RC51 Is the image of the word stabil/f)'. The chassis was revised significantly for more neutral handling. We think we like the old one better, though the new one works just as well. cue I • D • _ S • MARCH 13,2002 25