I heard a rumor somewhere that this year or next year will be the last year for the RC51. Is this true? Say it ain't so!!!!

 

this year is the last!

 

yup it is a fact that the rc51 is in its last year. its all good though. u know they will have somethin better. it will probably be a production version of their 5 cylinder GP-1 bike.

 

right...

 

Yep they will...it's called the CBR 1000RR. Read an article on it. it's going to be the bike to keep up/beat the R1 and Gixxer 1K. Looks badass!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Shft@9GSR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Yep they will...it's called the CBR 1000RR. Read an article on it. it's going to be the bike to keep up/beat the R1 and Gixxer 1K. Looks badass!</TD></TR></TABLE>
You have a link to the article or anything?

 

Sorry I don't. But I believe it was a motorcylist mag. that had a small article on it. Towards the front of the magazine. I'll ask my friend... He's the service manager at a honda shop. He's usually pretty good about knowing info on new bikes.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by backlash &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I heard a rumor somewhere that this year or next year will be the last year for the RC51. Is this true? Say it ain't so!!!!</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have heard its the last in the press. Honda never wanted to build it anyway. I always thought that it was stretching it to label it an RC as it wasn't very exotic and wasn't the match of the Dukes.

Still they did in and won a Championship with the thing, just because they could..typical Honda

 

I think that Honda has always had this model of a 1000 ever since the CBR 1000 actually left the production line. And since all the recent rule changes in AMA for the Super bikes, Honda has pushed this project forward. The RC was great under the old rules and to this day holds in own in SB, but Honda is looking to maximize on the rule changes and jump on the 1000cc bandwagon. Liter bikes have made a big comeback, not only for stunting on but on professional levels. Wonder if VTEC will make it to the 1000? Don't know the exact ruling on cam specs for SB, but I know there is a lift spec, but no duration spec. Maybe they can work the VTEC into the production model. Wouldn't that be a nice twist!

 

The RC51 and the CBR1000 would be in different classes to begin with so no the 1000RR wont be replacing the 51. The 51 is a twin which traditionally competes with other twins and 740 I4s. The 1000RR is going to be an I4 to replace the 954RR. Since they discontinued the original CBR1000, it was repalced with the 900RR, 929RR and recently the 954RR. The new 600RR and the 1000RR have pieces of the GP V5 technology on them. I dont know if Honda will be making production version of the V5. If they discontiue the RC soon, I would expect it to be replaced with something comprobale. But the 1000RR will most definitly not be the replacment for the RC51.

VTEC will not make it into the production or race bikes. Its too violent of cross over on something as unstable as a bike. The Hyper-VTEC is already on a production Honda bike. Hyper-VTEC is nothing more than extra valves opening up at a certain RPM. No cam change or lift change, just 2 more valves to beath with.

 

Thanks for that bit of info on the currently used vtec. I was not sure if it was the same type as used on cars, or a similiar variation.

and as far as the RC replacement... if it's discontinued, along with the 954, wouldn't you think that would take out part of the liter bike market? I'm sure there are a few people who like the twin over the I4. You would think that Honda might hold on to the RC for at least another year to see how well it holds with the I4 1000. Not to mention...Doesn't Suzuki still produce the TL's? So that would give some competition to the Twin market.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Shft@9GSR &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Not to mention...Doesn't Suzuki still produce the TL's? So that would give some competition to the Twin market.

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I heard that the Tiller is going away tooo...........

 

And they're still making the Honda SuperHawk. That thing's been around awhile now.