.............. .:M_Q.n. :.u.. : .e_'P ~g;_Q'_i's A~p
. . . . . -.
......:O~g
_ _r_i1i_Q_R_S_W_2_5_0_Q_n_d_R_o_b_er_to
_R_o'~fo's_Hon _a_R
_ _ _d ---,S15 0R-W
Japanese bike, but is
frankly more fo rgiving
as w ell as more e njoyab le
to ride and certainly more effective to race - though I must say o ne thing
tha t put me off th e Honda was Ro lfo's
street-pattern shifting, which eve n with
the typically smooth HRC powershifter In
ope ration, made It hard to shift up a gear
cranked ove r to the left exit ing a turn. Still.
it's a real tribute to Robi Rolfo's ta le nts and
foc used co nsistency that he not only gave
HIlNDA R5251lR-W TE[HNI£AL:
Second-Place Spec
For the 1998season Hondaditchedits proven title-winning, single-erank 7S-degreeV-twin NSR2S0
works racer, the bikeon which Max Biagg; had retained the world title he won two yearsina row
before that for Aprilia rivals. It was replacedwithan all-new II O
-degree V-twin design withtwincontrarotatingcranksanda vertically split crankcase design.
The configuration changeallowed the swingarm to pivotin the engineina copyof the firm's thennew VTRloooV
-twinfour-stroke, andin the process. HRC'sengineersscored a rare and unwekame
result, going fromworld championsto also-rans in the spaceof a single season. That is not The Honda
Way- but that's what happened with the new bike, which was muchslower andacceleratedfar worse
than itsApriliarivals, whichdulyblitzed ~ for both the '98 and '99 world tides.
It's one thingfor Hondato get beaten by Aprilia,quiteanother by one of its Japanese rivals, so worse
was to come in 2000, whenYamaha's transformation of the'YZR250 into the finest a1I-rounderquarter-I~er
bikeof its generation resultedin a one-two dominance of theWorld Championship by its riders Olivier
JacqueandShinya Nakano, outpacing Honda's rising star Daiiro Kato on thethird evolution of the twinj
crank NSR250. But Hondanevergives up, andat last in 200I that persistence paidoff as Kato dominated a
,
series that Yamaha hadpulledout of, winning no fewer than II out of the 16races. But, whenDaijirosan movedup to the SOOcc dass for 2002. Honda got shipwrecked again with its 25
