Part One - Retro Factory Bikes
January 24, 2008
Ask yourself “Self, what was the worst thing about being a factory rider in 1986?” You’re probably having a hard time coming up with something however without doubt the worst thing about being a factory rider in 1986 was the fact that ’86 was the first year they bought in the production rule.
Imagine the scenario if you will : you’ve spent years working hard, training like Rocky ( In Rocky 3 – extra hard training), putting in hours on the bike so that perhaps one day you might finally get to ride a motorcycle that has the power of reducing grown men to giddy school girls whenever they got near it. Finally the day comes, you sign your contract and fly to Japan to test out your knew piece of exotica. When you get to the factory they take you in to the “Top Secret R& D Department” and unveil your Factory weapon and…… it looks EXACTLY like the new ’86 bike your buddy who races in the AMCA just bought!
Well before that rule was put in to place works bikes were hand built pieces of rolling art. Without further ado please feast your eyes on the following motorcycling Van Gogh’s. Oh and if you did get a contract in ’86, congratulations and, sorry Dude that must have sucked, I’ve throw in some proddie based bikes just to cheer you up!
We’ll start with the fork which De Coster convinced Honda to buy the rights to. The man had tested one on his ’79 factory Suzuki when it was made of tubular chromyl and had a pair of Ohlin’s suspending it. It was originally called the “Ribi Quadrilateral”. This work of art is machined out of aluminum; presumably aircraft grade 6000 series, and as you can see runs a single shock unit at the triple clamps. I can count 18 pivot points on it which might explain why this design never went in to production! There are 4 adjustable bars that could be shortened or lengthened to adjust the rake and steering angle. Notice the bump stops to prevent metal to metal when bottoming out.
The next most striking thing is the rear brake set up. I believe that this design was used to try and eliminate any changes in the suspension characteristics under braking. The bike would pivot on that central rocker arm when the brake was used so the suspension was still able to use its full travel. When the suspension was compressed the short front arm would rotate downward and rearward and the longer arm attached to the brake drum would rotate up and forward.
This picture also shows the handmade swing arm and the monocoque sub frame / airbox setup. Also note the chain and kick start are on the “wrong” side.
Not only are there radiator shrouds on the outside of the bike but they also made a shroud which wrapped around the down tube and met the exterior shrouds to maximize airflow to the radiators. You might also notice several extra brackets and mounts welded to the frame; presumably Honda was testing a lot of other items on this bike that attached to these at some point.
This is Bob Hannah’s ’83 RC 250. So for ’83 they put the chain and kickstart on the “right” side but slipped the pipe on the “wrong” side. Also in this pic you can see the extra long radiator they used on the right side, the left had a much shorter one. The handmade bracket holding the CDI in place is clearly visible as well. Check out the seat which runs all the way up to the gas cap; this was especially useful in supercross ; the rider could slide all the way forward to help get the front end to “bite” in the super sharp turns.
The hand built tank has a scoop on each side to direct cool, fresh air in to the air box. Why? Cool, forced air = Horsepower.
This picture shows the electrically driven servo motor that was used to drive the power valves. You can see the electrical wires going to it just behind the transmission filler plug. The drive cable exits the servo and attaches to the power valve which can be seen at the bottom right of the picture. Also note the rough finish to the cases: these have been sand cast. Sand casting is a process using a mixture of silica sand with addition of clay, moisture and some other additives packed around an impression cavity (mould). This was a very popular method of making the side cases for the factory bikes.
Thats it for part one of our look at the factory bikes on display at Anahein II - check out next week for part two.
Images and words by Sean De Gruchy MOTO USA WEB CONTRIBUTOR
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