Another vote for the Ar-Cee Lighter (even though they're both heavy) Bulletproof It's won AMA and world championships, the TLR flopped when Yosh tried to race it
Any chances of leftover RC's on a floor somewhere? I seem to recall someone posting Honda continued selling them just not in the USA.
Rare chance finding a leftover. The last one I heard was about 2 years ago. I did recently saw an 04 Nicky model with 800 miles for sale....$6500, and individual has it.
RC51 is great for trackdays; not so much for racing (heavy, underpowered, requires a lot of $$$ to get in the game))
It's a spectacular streetbike. The cool part is when a squid rolls up next to you and say "never heard of an RC51, looks cool".
Or the look on people's faces in their yards, etc. when you ride by. They're looking like, "That doesn't sound like a crotch rocket?"
Would you consider a new Buell? EBR sells what they call their trackday version for $9500. It's a new 1125 with no street equipment, ram air side panels (10 pounds lighter and 20 degrees cooler), suspension upgrades and as I remember it, race exhaust and ecm. I was at their shop last month and saw it. Nice looking bike. There's also the DSB version. Same as Eslick's bike last year for around $15,000.
False... The issue at the time was Suzuki designed the bike to go after the 916. This meant that their superbike program had two seperate teams running at the same time which took entirely too much money. If you talk to Pegram and Crevier they will both tell you the whole project was an underfunded and the biggest issue with the bike was that they kept the rotary rear shock, as the front had great feel for the time. I raced one for years and never had an issue with the bike.,I talked to Tray, Chris Junge (RIP), Scott Brown, etc... They all enjoyed the bikes and made good money in the TL cup. And for the record, I never saw an RC beat one of Chris Junge's TL motors on a straightaway. The RC 51 was a far more developed and successful racebike because it was Honda's flagship. In order to get that thing to go fast, you had to throw a boatload of money at it, but no more or less so than any other superbike. The difference was, Honda didn't have another superbike class contender in it's stable.
+1 The TL has a totally different feel once you put a penske on the back of it. And you don't have those pesky overheating issues that the rc does.
Yep well said.... Having a couple TLR's I will always have a place for them... Nothing against RC-51-s I just was always a TLR fan... I bought Hyperdynes old one a few years back and regret letting her go It was a Blast on every track in the SE.. Putnam as well..
Nothing all that interesting. To hear it from Papa, Miss Piggy handled like a 78 KZ1000, stopped like an old Bonneville, and rode like a Hardtail. Basically the devil-bike incarnate, but less fun. All this after liberal applications of cash.
Not to mention that unless you knew a radiator guy, or paid stupid money for the HRC radiator, a small tipover or tumble meant you weekend was over due to the side mounted radiators.