Honda RC51

Back in the late 1990's Honda Racing was tired of getting whipped by a bunch of Ducati riders in World Superbike Racing.  Ducati's V-Twin was pretty much unbeatable as it had a nice broad power delivery band which made it smoother to ride.  Plus twins were allowed to be up to 1000cc displacement while inline fours were allowed up to 750cc.

So what did Honda Racing do?

Honda introduced its own V-Twin powered motorcycle the VTR1000 SPW in 2000. The result was clear right away as Colin Edwards won the championship in the bike's first year of competition.

The street version of the bike for sale to the public was the RC51.

I found one for sale in North Toronto and bought it.  It has quite a few Km's on it but was fairly clean.  I will maybe do some work on it next spring but for right now it's ok.

It's a 2003 Honda RC51 SP2.

It has side mounted radiators which is pretty unique.  The SP2 model also has a better rear swingarm than the SP1.

I think it would be cool to get it to look like Colin Edward's ride from Laguna Seca below:

I'm on the lookout for a second gas tank to repaint.