So I'm always on the road racing forum and rarely head in here. I just added a very rare bike to my Honda collection (of two....... ) and wanted to show it off a bit. I bought it only yesterday, so you can understand my excitement!!!

I was looking for a while for some sort of rare Honda or Ducati, the two makes that got me in to motorcycles in the first place. Oddly enough, I was into bikes well before I ever thought about driving professionally! I first found a very rare 1996 Honda NSR250 MC28, probably one of the latest street legal (mostly) 2-stoke bikes riding around the US, let alone California. It was essentially a period correct MotoGP 250cc-class replica! I was basically forcing money into the seller's hand and he wouldn't take it. He said he was waiting to hear back from another prospective buyer that is driving a long distance... he did end up selling it to the other dude, so I lost that one!

I kept looking for something with a small-ish frame (since I'm 5'6") and something still very rare. I aimed at a couple CBR400RR's imported on the gray market into the US, as well as a few NC30 VFR400's. While speaking to my mechanic, he said that there was a VFR for sale on some forum. I called the guy and found out that he doesn't have a VFR, he has the later, better handling version, the RVF400. The bike was in far better condition than any other I had seen (read: near perfect) and I bought it on the spot. It is exceedingly rare. It was never sold outside Japan (as in NO general export models) until very late in the run, where it sold briefly in the UK only, but in the exact same trim as the Japanese bikes. There are currently only 7 others registered in the US so I'll not likely ever see another one on the road. I DID, however, see on in the Barber Motorcycle Museum just last weekend. Fate? I think so!

It really is a perfect bike for me. It is light, compact, and decently powerful. The bike looks great, rides amazingly, and has a sound that makes Viagra look like a breath mint!

Here are some photos from yesterday, the first day of ownership:







I even got some valuable spares! That NOS wheel is worth a very pretty penny!...




Here, so you have a crappy iPhone representation of what this thing sounds like, a video taken earlier today. Gotta love flat-cut cam gears and their whine!!!

 

Very nice! Ridden one of those for a little bit during a spirited ride, quite entertaining:

 

im jealous, you just bought one of my dreambikes...

how much did you pay if you dont mind me asking ?

 

this 1 looks pretty badass. is that all CF wrap?

 

No problem, it was $6500 with about $1000 of spares, including that original front wheel which is impossible to find now. Used ones go for about $300, all scratched up!!!

Looks like that RVF above is a track bike. Tyga sells a full-carbon body for them since they are such a popular race bike. They are actually fairly common on the track here since they are easy to get off a boat, but hard to register. Mine had to go through twice the process, first being imported through Vermont and THEN being re-certified and registered for California. This probably involved some bribery of DMV workers, which is 100% find by me.

 

was it a pain for you to get the title transfered and registered in your name?

 

Nope. I thought it might. The DMV questioned the extra number in the VIN but just passed it off anyway. My insurance also thought there was a mistake in the number, I told him that it is the real VIN, he believed me. So I can see how there COULD be issues, but I didn't have any.

I think the trick at the DMV was to go to a really ghetto one in Oakland. The lady was pretty used to loud people with awful arguments, so when I went in all polite and smiling, she pretty much made the process simple.

 

Awesome. Honda still use those turn signals on their new bikes. :p

The CF version is running Satos?

 

How about a video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0GVphrr5X8

I was trying to capture the flames that are always puffing away from the rear of this thing, but only maybe a little one at 0:20... too well lit in the garage, I guess!!!

 

Awesome bro, tks for sharing!

 

Looks and sounds great!

 

There is a local Honda motorcycle collector here in MD that brought one to one of our classic bike shows that my work (A honda motorcycle dealer) put on. Def a awesome bike, Congrats on the purchase!

 

Thanks for the kind words! ApOne, as I said, there's apparently between 7 and 20 of these in the country, pretty awesome you got to see one!

Just posted this in the photo section, but figure it works here too. Got both bikes back home finally, excited to have a riding menu!

 

that's a fair bit there OP... quite nice to share that with us

 

Nice NC35. Did you get it off BARF?

I had a NC30 and MC28. Miss those bikes and hope to get one later on down the road.

 

MC28 was the bike I was looking at before this. Yes, I did get it off BARF. The bike is in outstanding condition, I'm very pleased with my purchase!

 

Update on my bike:

De-restricted about 99%. It's not a full RVF400RR (checked Honda's old parts list... not happening) but it has had a good treatment done to it. It now has some knockoff Chinese versions of the EXTREMELY expensive British racing radiators. They work really well-- cool much better than the stock steel pieces and are much lighter, if a pain in the *** to make them fit. Also installed the full Tyga exhaust kit with the carbon silencer I already had on the bike. Very nice product, VERY well made. I bought an Ignitech ignition driver that is adjustable, but just left it with the already-installed HRC tune. It fired up right away after installation. De-restricted the tiny airbox with a Tyga carbon piece and a replica replacement paper filter made by some English guy-- since NOS factory parts are impossible to find. Some photos:

















...after all that, I strapped her down and left for the dyno!



The dyno day didn't go as well as I'd liked. It actually started out quite well. It made about 4hp more than any other RVF MCE had seen-- all race bikes, mind you-- and without any swapping of main jets. The bike actually didn't make any power over 11,000rpm which is right where the power should increase all the way to 15,000rpm. He said most of the race bikes are just stripped production bikes, but he was still very impressed with the power on such a poor tune.

Despite all his experience, Kevin at MCE had a really hard time dealing with some of the old rubber parts that have turned plastic. We ended up spending the better part of the day just trying to get the carbs out of the bike neatly. Once we finally got the new jets and needles in, we only had about 10 minutes to dyno it before the sound ordinance ordered us to stop. Unfortunately, there was some sort of fueling issue (complex thing on this bike) that leaned it out immensely so we were forced to abort the effort. This means I had to leave the bike up there to try again later in the week. Oh well, I'm just excited to see what it'll do with the right AFR!

Here's a video of the first run, 61.5hp at 11,000rpm. Really excited about farting flames down the freeway!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TbVZjflBUw

 

One of the best bikes Honda ever built.
The American Honda boss that decided not to bring it here should be hung
by his *********.

 

I think your name says it all... I agree. The sound and performance out of this little 400 would have been enough to sell these things. Kevin at MCE used to race in World GP and was a backup rider for MotoGP around the time these NC/RC35's were racing. He used to race against them, in fact. He said they used to just dominate in everything they entered in and he even recalls some RVF400's winning 500cc races. It's a shame that these were never imported.

Good news: Honda is mulling over the idea of reviving the RVF name and creating a new one, a bike likely to see a US market! Buy one? Yes I will.

 

Too much carbon for one bike

 

It now has some knockoff Chinese versions of the EXTREMELY expensive
British racing radiators. They work really well-- cool much better than the stock


Looks great. I wish they made radiators like that for my 919 (another honda that
is marginal on cooling).

 

Hey, that's a very nice RVF you got yourself there! I saw that one up for sale months ago. Glad it went to somebody who will take care of the thing. You've added some nice mods and it's making some pretty decent power too. Do you have any more videos to share??

I have a couple of questions for you as well if you don't mind. Did you notice much of a difference with the ignitech ignition installed? Also, did you need to modify the jetting at all with the bigger volume airbox? I'm considering those same mods for my VFR400 track bike which already has a full exhaust.

 

Here's a longer video of Kevin tuning on the bike. It was still a bit rich on the top end. He was having a hard time getting it out while saving the bottom end-- the downside of using RVF carbs versus VFR carbs. I don't think you'll have this issue.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOrqU_rGgkE

I had to do a LOT of jet work between all the mods. I can't say for sure how much the ignition module did for me, but I can say that my poorly running bike made well more power than the piped and boxed models Kevin sees through MCE for track days. I think it's a combination thing. It seems the bike is very sensitive to ignition timing, and if you're changing around the air delivery a lot, you're likely going to extract some extra power by tweaking it. I'm running just the HRC tune on the box right now, plan on getting it tuned a bit better soon.

An update: Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the little intake snorkel things from the front of the tank to the fairing the day I dynoed the bike. I figured they didn't do that much. WRONG. Those things made the bike run so lean it wouldn't rev at all past 9000rpm. Starting over... Had some leaks at the carbs, took them apart, haven't had time to put them back together yet. I have a new set of jets in and a really accurate Lambda meter set up on the bike to see where it's at. Good ol' fashioned street tuning! My shop is right off the highway that is fairly deserted and offers a good couple redline runs through maybe fourth gear. The Lambda meter can log data so I figure I'll just tune to that once I've found some time.

 

Man, sounds like a lot of work. Good luck getting that thing tuned!