Honda RC211V @ BIKE CHAT

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beansbaxter

Needs a life
Posts: 5911

posted December 12, 2005 03:33 PM

Honda RC211V

240 horsepower in a compact and tidy workspace. Very nice, HRC.

While HRC is among the most secretive of the MotoGP teams, and pictures of their bike, sans bodywork, are rare, they did allow the press to shoot it at the recent MotoGP test.

Fairly standard stuff on the right clip-on. Note the clip-on does have a part number--and is welded instead of machined--and the brake uses the now standard Suzuka-style pivoting lever. And yes, both clip-ons feature kill buttons.

It's almost quite amazing that the RC211 does not offer an adjustable swing-arm pivot. There's probably a story and maybe a design theorem behind just this one detail.

Note the small glass oil level inspection tube on the lower right hand side of the engine.

The RC211's radiator has been growing over the last two years (probably) meaning that there's more compression and more power inside the cases--necessitating more cooling power.

Large triangular opening in upper frame spar is intake port to airbox. (This ain't your kid's run-of-the-mill Playstation 2.)

The rod behind the black fork tube (probably not carbon) is linnear potentiometer--it measures fork travel and is an important tool for a GP team.

Nick's office includes a nice tacho' and an arrow to remind him the opposite of up.

Ah, yes, the 'mode' button. This (probably) allows the rider to switch between two fuel maps. Possible different sets would be: dry/wet, qualifying/practice or perhaps one to use with a fresh tire versus one when the tire is shagged.

Note that the RC211 uses just two-bolt lower triple clamps to grasp the fork tubes. Several 500s used six-bolt clamps but, presumably, HRC has found they want some flex in the chassis.

Pretty standard stuff: billet aluminum parts held together with titanium nuts and bolts. Don't forget the pressure transducer in back of the shifting rod. The system senses pressure from the rider's foot initiating a shift and kills the engine for a nano-second while he grabs a gear.

Megaphone exhaust, just like the one that guy down the street has on his 750 Honda chopper.

That deep sump keeps the oil away from the crankshaft. In a world-class high-performance engine like the RC211 you want the weight low and excess oil kept away from the crank. Note battery location.

Again, non-adjustable swing-arm pivot.

Note the small bracket below the countershaft sprocket (or chain-wheels to you Brits). That protects the water pump and transmission sensor if the chain ever fails.

A carbon fiber airbox butts up against the aluminum fuel tank, of which you can see about 40% of here; the rest of the fuel tank is down inside the frame.

Almost so pretty you'd cry if it were crashed. Note the small black knob beneath the hole in the frame. While it looks like an important piece of the data acquisition system, it's simply a sano piece of engineering to bolt the bodywork on to.