Virgil Elings on an ex-Mike Hailwood Honda RC181

Virgil Elings shares the roar of his ex-Mike Hailwood Honda RC181 at the 2015 Moto Corsa Classica at Willow Springs.
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[@joepkortekaas8813]

Lovely to see you actually ride the bike, Virgil!

[@erinngierinngi]

デカイドラムブレーキって素敵！

[@EletroBoyTV]

those breaks are the good ones

[@eskertoo]

As far as I know this is the one that Mike kept in his house after he left Honda.A few years after Mike died his wife Pauline sold it to Virgil Elings.The Honda 4 that Dave Hailwood takes to his shows is a replica.The only other genuine RC181 I know of is in the Honda Museum at Motegi.If anybody knows any different please reply.

[@joepkortekaas8813]

You're 100% right!

[@paulshelley4754]

I think honda have the only 3 originals mike's race bike had straight cut ends on the end of exhaust how do I know? I looked up the end of them everytime he come round the gooseneck and fired it up the hill

[@peterg2yt]

@@joepkortekaas8813 Hi, Mr Kortekaas, I am a bit puzzled by this bike... I understand that it was sold by the late Pauline Hailwood to Mr Elings, and that it is clearly mostly an original Honda bike, but there are some significant differences between the bike in the video and the photos of the RC181 in your (excellent) book 'Honda's 4-stroke Race History 1954 - 1981' and the bike in the Motegi museum. In particular, the frame on this bike is nothing like the frame on the RC181 that you show on page 85. The seat hump is cut-off unlike any other racing Honda from the era that I have seen, I can see that there is no clutch cover fitted to this bike (no big deal) but the carburettors on this bike have much longer bell-mouths than the Honda museum bikes, or any that I have seen in photos or in the flesh before. Is this one of the RC181's that Mike Hailwood had developed privately by Colin Lester or Ken Sprayson?

[@joepkortekaas8813]

@@paulshelley4754 The straight cut megaphones were installed on the second version of the RC181. The first version had counter cones on the megas.

[@joepkortekaas8813]

@@peterg2yt The bike sold to Virgil Elings, was indeed the bike with the Reynolds frame developed by Ken Sprayson. That bike had the megaphones with the counter cones of the first RC181 version. The bike in this video is a so-called "replica", and has nothing to do with the Honda factory. The "replicas" I've seen so far use either Honda CB500 or Yamaha engines. As you can see in the video, the openings for the oil coolers don't contain coolers.

[@xvdd1]

Looks like it is overdue for a rebuild, I remember reading somewhere that when this bike was stripped it was in poor shape internally but I do not know if that was before or after this video.

[@gregoryholliday3806]

I have one of these 500/4 replica's..it should not smoke..? its a tad worn i fear..(Breaks are something taken during the working day..Brakes are fitted to cars and motorcycle's.)DOH..

[@johnbunker6554]

I don't think it's a replica

[@Coop-Greavesie]

@@johnbunker6554 You're correct. I believe it's the Ken Sprayson framed bike that was in the Donington Park museum until the mid 1990s.

[@Ultra80s]

Jingle bells. X-Mas comes early this year.

[@godofwinetits3826]

Is this a 2 stroke engine?

[@subbiejon6325]

+aris oreta 2 stroke???? how dare you......lol. this is one of the greatest FOUR stroke engines ever built. I don't think Honda did a 2 stroke until the cr125 elsinore motocrosser

[@zedman442]

Sammy Miller