Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

appa rently Lor is Capirossi has h is Du c ati set up even more extreme; I o n ly rode th e Ba yl is s b ik e , with its wid e-spann ed handleb ar s. And all the contro ls of th e Rep sol RC2 1 I V seem so refined and ca refully set up - typi ca l Hond a. Snick bottom gea r on the one -u p rac e-pattern shifte r, and while resp ect ing th e revised dry clutch , wh ich is still on l y g ood for a handful of st a nd ing sta rts, I tr ickled off do wn Pit Lane to the accompan ime nt of a much more stride nt and glo rious- sounding version of the ul tradistinct ive V5 exha ust note tha n th at of a yea r ago, refl ecting the n ew tripl e- exit m eg aph o ne ex haust sys te m Kanaumi £, Co . developed for th is se aso n, wh i ch was in tro d u c ed after t he mi d seas on Catal u ny a GP. Th e result is still a la zy, alb eit louder, growl overlaid with a high -pitched , off beat lil t that yo u' re aware of all th e time you're riding the bi ke , espe cially if yo u don't wear earplugs so as to rel ish the sound of V5 music at full vo lume - I g uess it sort of sounds like 2 1/2 SP2/RC51 Superbikes, o r I 1/4 RC45 V4s1 There's a sweet gear change, which is less notchy in selecting the bottom two gea rs than it was a year ago, with a crisper though still positive engagement. Nice - same as the faultless powersh ifter , which even makes smooth work of shifting through neut ral from first to second gea r and is perfection in the higher ratios, thanks to Honda 's trademark method, which it was the first to dream up back on th e RC45 Superbike, of cutting the fuel supply as well as the ignition, each by a va riab le amount depending on th e gear ch osen , and th e revs. Intelligent electron ics .. . A c celeration is impress ive , d efi nitely sharper low down than a year ago, thanks t o a combination of the new exhaust system and rev ised e ngine mapping , as Kana umi-san tol d m e later. T here 's also a far n ice r pickup from a c losed throttle , espe cially wi th the softest of the choice of three different engine m aps normally ac c essible o n th e bi ke vi a a sw itch on the left -hand c1ip on , wh ich had been removed for th e press t est - we got the one for the end of a ra ce , when the tire is wo rn , wi th no options! But now I can imagin e how riding t he Honda o n a wet tra ck wo u ld be less intimidating than last year's bike, and th is friendl ier power deliver y also mad e i t less d aunt in g to f ir e th e Honda out of a slower corner tha n th e other three bikes I'd rid den two days ear lier , a ll of w hi c h we re wheelie hounds that were ha rd to h and le at wide -throttle o pe n ing s in t he lower gea rs, in turn com promising acceleratio n o u t of t h e tu rn . Okay , the RC2 1 I V st ill li ft ed th e fr ont w heel a little exiting th e sec ond-gear swee pe r o nto th e Cat aluny a fro nt strai gh t, and the 'ba rs waved lazily in m y hand s as th e dashboard shifter lights fla sh ed in m y ey es a ro u n d 14 ,500 rpm t o rem ind m e t o h it third b efore th e 15 , OOO- r p m r ev -limiter c u t in tho ugh t h at ' s set a li ttle h igh er f or Valen tino £, Co . In rea l -world riding , it's interesti ng that in spite of having more cy linders tha n anything else on th e grid , the V5 Ho nd a revs the low est! Hitting fourth gea r on the sweet, wide-o pen powers hifter lifted the whee l aga in - but it all fel t control lab le as well as th rilling , and the same was true exiting the right-han- der in the stadium, where the Honda 's longer 57 .6-inch wheelbase, the id eal r id ing positi on , a n d the intell igent elect ro nic s all meant I co ul d have fun powersliding the World Champion out of there w ithout worrying about the front wheel making fri ends wi th th e s ky, l ike two days ear lier on it s Yamaha rival. This means you don 't h av e t o worry as much about controlling the wheelie o n the th rottl e or position in g you r bod y w eight as far fo rwa r d as po ssible by standing on th e footrest s. Just go for it , and the Honda will go with y ou, without being so eag er to pick up the front wheel if you pi le on the powe r just as th e torque c u r ve pe aks, as on last year's b ike if you short-shifted arou n d 1 1, 5 0 0 to 12 ,000 rpm . A nd at th e othe r end o f t h e stra i g ht, w he re back i n J un e Rossi himsel f was timed at 200 mph on t his very bike , t here was an incredible sense of spee d, bec au se of d ling and works with th e 17 -i n c h M ich elin fron t t ire t he t eam a lwa y s us es to ma x im iz e fr ont - end grip . T here' s not ne arly as mu ch weight t ransfer under hea vy braking on the Honda as on th e Ka wasaki , for exam ple , a reflection of it s longer, lower architecture , and the ride r 's lower seating position . However, it's important to remember to pick u p the RCV as much as possi ble on the exit of a turn by lea ning inward off it in order to u se the fat part of the 16.5-inch rea r Mich elin fo r the drive ou t of a bend . It'll run as lo w as 8 000 rp m in the turn s, wh ile yo u marvel at th e V5 engi ne's tractability and forgiv able power delivery as you ba ck off and on the t hrottle again , and it holds a line well under power. The Honda was superb ly stable through the lo ng, fast sweeper climbing the hill away from the ch ic ane at Catalunya on the power, plus it steers int o bends really well o n the brakes and is very controllable tra il -braking into the apex . In spite of the lack of a count er balancer i n th e 75 .5 -de gr e e V5 m ot or, there are no undue tingl es at any rpm: It runs ve ry sm oothly , and there aren 't the extra steps in that so impressive power de livery that there w ere last year. N ow, t h e 2 40-bhpp lus e ngine output delive rs vivid m id range acceleration as that lovely, po werfu l -sound ing gro wl b l a st s i n you r ea r , ma t c h e d by t he b r o ad sprea d of po wer and linear deli very from as lo w as 80 00 rpm up to the 15,OOO -rpm rev -limit er. This makes it a bike on wh ich yo u must force yo urse lf t o c ut down th e g ea rc h anging, which I'll admit that, after m y experience at Suzuka last year , w h e n I almost got sucked into outbraking m ys elf by the Honda 's unbeli evab le ter mi n a l v elo ci t y , I m ade su re to leave an extra I 65 -foot safety margin to stop for the botto m -g ea r chicane at the end of the pit straight! But stopping ha rd from high speed on the RC211 V underlined another of its key advantages. The Brembo carbon br a k e s th at stop the bike so improbably fast from su ch high speed s have a su rprising amount of feel - they're m uch less fierce in lever response than I remember from the t w o - s tro k e days (though may be that's a deliberate feature) , and they are certa inly more controllable - and, yes, I did have t h e m heated up eno ug h to make 'em work properly! These combine with the quite consid erable engine braking still delivered by the Honda's revised slipper cl ut ch (s o it' s not li ke the Yamaha, which practically freewheels int o the turn) to make the bike stop so hard , so well , in such a poised and stab le manner. No rear-wheel chatter, no weaving about unless yo u use a 101 o f ba ck brake, no lifting th e back wh eel off the ground and p ivoting around th e steering head as you desperately tr y to cram off enough spe ed t o m ak e the turn ; the Honda j ust stops, turns and goes - only very quick ly. It's pretty good at turnin g from side to side, if m a y b e not as good as th e f a st er-h a ndlin g Yam ah a , p erh ap s b e c au s e o f t he e x t ra ine r t ia a n d weight of th e V5 engine, bu t wh at felt l i k e pr e tt y co n se r v a t i ve stee ri ng geome t r y d el i ve r s that sta b le h an cue I e n e _ s • J A N U A RY 7 ,2004 57

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