The Honda RC51 - A Brief History

[@paulramirez2453]

I have a 2006 RC-51 the last year Honda made the bike and I was blessed to have Colin Edwards and Nicky Hayden both autograph my RC-51 at Laguna seca raceway in 2010. I absolutely love this bike and would never get rid of it! (RUSH🙈🙊🙉)

[@fullthrottle5293]

Awesome, definitely a keeper then.

[@flow_922]

You're lucky man .. when I win the lottery I'll give you a million dollars for it:-) and then would you sell it? LOL

[@MrGixxer1Thousand]

Absolutely LOVE my 01 SP1. Only have about 27,000 miles on it, and because I don't ride it much, the idea of selling it creeps in...but then I take it out, hit a few turns, and quickly come to my senses.

[@fullthrottle5293]

Yeah i unfortunatly sold mine and I do regret it, didnt really have a choice as I was loosing the storage I had at the time.

[@davidlariviere7784]

I began racing with WERA at age 53 and my ride choice was the RC51. An awesome machine.

[@eric62backstrom]

I enjoy listening to things like this while working on my bike

[@Oilyhands749]

Enjoyed every second of this 😊

[@gixerags750]

Absolutely brilliant analogy, would love to own a white SP2 , Have had a lot of bikes since my RD250/350 LC , FZ750 , Fireplaces etc , GSXRs, but my favourite was my 1999 EFI GSXR750SRAD with power commander, Arkipovic titanium and Ohlins extras, 135bhp at the rear wheel ..that thing was an absolute WEAPON.

[@Team-fabulous]

RIP Nikki.... Fantastic pilot

[@rosettedsouza7265]

Absolute scalpel of a bike, quick with superb handling and brakes, would leave most vehicles for dead on IOM type roads. Still felt quick after getting off my tuned Blackbird but the SP-1 would kill that through the twisties. Excellent video, excellent machine, thank you for this video.

[@chrisevans4228]

Brilliant video, I have a Ducati but absolutely love the RC51, very few Honda road bikes carry an HRC sticker from the factory. I think it's time someone wrote an in-depth book about this legend of a bike. One very small note, I think it was Vale who crashed at Suzuka on his first visit, after the wise Edwards had told him it was an endurance not a sprint.

[@vermillionhugh]

Fantastic video 👍. The last bike I had was the SP2. With the restrictions removed and bypassed…she flew. I reckon that speed ticket was accurate 😊.

[@banej2249]

The Best Bike Ever ! (:

[@pauloporsche6090]

Very informative video. I have a SP1, Had it for 18 years.. I thought I knew everything about them but.. I didn't know that about the speeding ticket 😄

[@elyknowles5474]

I still have my '02 RC51. 34k miles on it. Still runs like a champ.

[@gerdhermann752]

I bought my very first motorcycle at the age of 33....a Honda VTR SP1 RC51, Ohlins front and rear, Ohlins steering damper, full Yoshimura exhaust system, power commander, hugger, tail tidy....to me it was the ultimate stress reliever....how I wish I could find another one in good nick....

[@barrymoore7043]

My '04 RC51 is completely amazing. People told me it would be uncomfortable and not enjoyable... but i find it to be very fast and easy to ride. Steering and suspension are fantastic.

[@MisterKnobb]

Great video of a supreme bike...

[@fullthrottle5293]

Thanks! 👍

[@karimsaadoun6526]

Keep up the great work and keep posting new content brother, you got it!

[@fullthrottle5293]

I will, life kinda got in the way and then I had a hard to trace PC issue that was making it unstable to really do anything on which i eventually sorted, so its been one thing after another tbh, glad you enjoyed the video.

[@tk900rr]

Remember what the great Miguel said when after all the years on the RC-45 then going to the RC-51.... Miguel said "damn, I was just getting used to the RC-45"...

[@StorytimeIST]

Was very interesting up until the point where you said that Troy Corser beat Colin to the championship.... Uh .. It was Troy Bayliss not Corser 👏

[@jordangarrick703]

I briefly had a 2000 RC 51. I can honestly say it's the only sport bike that I did not enjoy owning. In fact, there was almost nothing that I liked about the bike. It was slow, cold blooded, coarse and crude. Maybe I bought a lemon - everyone else seems to love 'em - but I purchased it from a reputable dealer in Texas. Wound up trading it in for a ZX-10R and was glad to see her gone. I just don't understand the appeal of twins, but to each their own....

[@MOUNTKENNEDY]

Great video dude

[@fullthrottle5293]

Cheers man 👍

[@user-gl2eq2ly4g]

Love it

[@davidnelson6893]

Yes those are cool wow

[@johnshatzko4153]

I love my 03 RC51!!

[@paulcavacuiti4176]

I’ve had one SP1 and two SP2’s (one of which I still have) and they are a great bike but starting to get expensive.

[@Cj-xl3jv]

Parts wise? I’m looking at picking up an SP2 with 17k miles.

[@paulcavacuiti4176]

@@Cj-xl3jv - some items for the SP2 are starting to get hard to find (and expensive as a result - bodywork is a typical example) due to being discontinued from Honda but overall they are still not too bad and there are also some good owners groups / forums on Facebook etc that can help in sourcing certain parts.

[@iamflukenuttapon5935]

legend

[@noorazhar2209]

Rip Nicky 69 Miss your smile..🥺

[@mmotorcycles9497]

Awesome video

[@fullthrottle5293]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@Baltimoreborn]

Badass

[@Team-fabulous]

Cracking video. I raced an SP1 for years, still have her, tuned she made just over 150bhp which isn't bad for a twin or twun as we call them. Oh by the way.. Now you're a Scott and you should know Joey is Northern Irish and not Irish. Nay surrender 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@davecaresforyou7606]

200 mph would be nuts

[@tk900rr]

Wasn't Nicky Hayden the first rider to break 200mph on the back staright at Daytona and on the RC-51???

[@Oldguy-k3t]

I read somewhere that the rc45 v-4 hit 227 mph.

[@ducati99999999ducati]

I have a SP1 track days plenty and in Spain everyone looks at the ol girl,

[@Nick-Emery]

I’m trying to find out differences in sp1 and sp2… I hope this video tells me

[@TheVaughan5]

There were a lot of modifications for the sp2, visually the swing arm being the most obvious. Having owned both models I can tell you that the actual riding experience on the road (haven’t been on the track for some time now) is very similar, I guess the sp1 suspension feels a bit more harsh, even after adjustments, but it’s no big deal. You can buy an sp1 for less money because Honda made more of them and the sp2 is just that bit more refined, however whichever you choose you won’t be disappointed riding one of the best bikes ever offered to the public 😁

[@NudaMan]

Colin edwards edition have black frames too btw

[@Nick-Emery]

Red SP1 is my dream bike, I’m hoping they’re still below the £10k mark in around 2 years when I could afford another big monthly payment 😂 Think it could be a sound investment 😌

[@sundboy]

I love mine and would never part with it.

[@TheVaughan5]

No need to. I’ve ridden more powerful, modern bikes but no way would I choose any of them over my rc51 😄

[@giuseppemaenza9255]

Sono ducatista ma amo la RC51

[@MrBrentles]

Charters Towers to Townsville in 45 minutes.

[@rzaultra165]

RC51 to test the direction of regulations, after knowing the results, after that H0nda was no longer serious about making superbike motorbikes for competition.

[@DersNoNem]

It was my dream bike but let's get real. It is too heavy for racing today. If it were 30KG lighter, it would be my all time dream motorcycle.

[@antcawdor]

Come on! Strip it down, drop some kilos from the rider and work on your skills and you're in the hunt !

[@fullthrottle5293]

Depends on what class your "racing" in i suppose, with it almost being a 20 year old bike i would probably imagine there's some "classic" classes it would now fit into, but yeah up against today's machinery its going to lap slower with equal riders...but, just cause your not on the cutting edge of tech doesn't mean it's "slow" in the real world though, its still a 1 litre homologated race bike, which is still more than enough for the road IMO. Also, like anything with bikes its 80% rider and 20% machine, i've seen guys that can afford to buy all the gear and mods on GSX-R1000's being passed at a track day by a very experienced track rider on an old Yamaha Diversion with only good tyre's on it.

[@antcawdor]

@@fullthrottle5293 Im still shocked these day when somone is informed, reasonable and able to clearly express their point, based on facts and experience ! Well said.

[@minimumwrist3546]

This bike can still race lighter wheels carbon fiber fuel tank. Full titanium exhast Other carbon bits and dyno tune and bam.

[@fullthrottle5293]

@@minimumwrist3546 sure, there was a guy a few years back developing a lot of carbon bits for an RC51 in Germany named Durbahn, they made a pretty lightweight RC51, relocated fuel tank lower in the frame, better velocity stacks, dummy tank cover etc etc, basically "re-engineered" the bike with a lot of carbon bits, knocked off somewhere in the region of 30kg off the bike. I'm not saying it "can't" be done, its just for 99% of the masses out there the amount of money required to do it gets to the point where the $$$$$'s spent you could have just bought a newer, faster bike like a Ducati Panigale V4 S (20k) in the first place than trying to re-engineer something from 20 years ago to try and beat it, I do like and understand the appeal of doing it, but like most folk i probably couldn't justify spending that kind of money on modifying a bike knowing you'd never really get much of a return on it later down the line, because lets all be honest, we all have to live within our budgets...maybe one day if i win the lottery, I'll buy another and spend a silly amount on building a track special ;)

[@user-gl2eq2ly4g]

'02 RC51 here ..... Will never part with her!

[@christophermartin1982]

Honda ruled the world with exciting cutting edge superbikes... Then its been just boring ever since. Sad...