I was standing next to the bloke who bought that bike as he bid for it over the phone whilst we were in the Ducati hospitality tent at the final round of the BSB. Also saw the meticulous service it got at Moto Rapido in Winchester. Certainly an unusual looking bike bike but if that is what you want, why not ? It shares a garage with several very stylish bikes including a Panigale SP. Andy
MCN comment from 2011 Uploaded on 20 Jul 2011 Only 300 road-going NR750s were built and at £38,000 it was the most expensive production bike of its day and can now change hands for six-figure sums. If that was correct and the new one isn't selling then their values are plummeting...
Not at all - it was an engineering marvel which unfortunately just didn't quite work - worse than a Fireblade of the day for all that extra money. Just putting it into some kind of context regarding it's ability. Fab bike to own as a collector if you bought at the right time.
It was a proving ground, who cares whether it worked or not? It was a showcase of what could be done at the time and proving a conceptual idea. I was speaking to a Honda power train engineer a couple of months ago, he had been involved in the dyno work on the engine. they'd got it up to nearly 300bhp before CF, and then brought it down till it qualified its duty cycle lifespan. When that bike came out, it looked wonderfully futuristic, and years ahead of its time. The same was said of the RC45, not as good as a blade, not as good as an RC30, but that wasn't its purpose, its purpose was to form the basis to homologate racing bikes, in the same way that the NR was built to showcase HRC's build ethic and technology. Yes now they look dated and maybe they are'shit', but by the same token people like harris, sponson and Bimota and Nicco Bakker built an industry around that suzuki you held up in your own thread or kawasaki's because 'it was shit' or could be improved on. Bikes like the NR don't come along very often. The desmosedici is one such bike, to now say for instance (and I don't know) that a superleggera or 1199 is a better handling / performing bike is missing the point entirely of why it was built. As an engineering marvel it did work, it did exactly what it set out to do, and that was to prove it could be done. No more no less. As for its ability in context - come on, you've got three regular production bikes lined up with zero miles, why should you care about ability, you of all people - a "collector" should 'get' what this bike was about surely?
a guy a few miles from me has one zero miles in a glass case in his bedroom.i think they are fantastic and a statement from Honda. didn't they use them as race bikes????
Had a look at one in a bike shop in Preston a year or so back. Was on a lift stand up against their front window. Seat unit was 4k, screen iridium coated. Engineer flies out from Japan to service it! Think one guy in UK Honda could sort them too.
If I recall the engine was developed by Honda to race in the 500 world championship on there return. Honda had always raced fourstrokes up to that point. It was raced by Ron Haslam for one. I remember watching from Woodcote he started and made it to copse before crashing out. They made the three cylinder 2 stroke and raced it alongside. Think they knew realy that 4 strokes had had there day
Honda understood better than anyone that two-strokes did not have a long-term future, and that the shift to two-strokes in motorbike racing would ultimately prove to be a blind alley. They tried their damnedest to find a way to keep four-strokes in the game, but it was just impossible under the rules as they existed at the time (1979-82). So even Honda had to give in and go over to two-strokes for the moment. Nowadays, of course, four-strokes rule and two-strokes are dead.
I sat on one once. It is very pretty, actually. I'd buy it for lols and collection in my living room if I ever win Lotto. Right next to my desmosedici, also bought if I win Lotto...
I know a guy who owns one, and uses it on the road. He buys stuff to ride, in fact Sev might have met him Saturday with his 1199SL. He also has a Jag XJ220, and uses that as well, he's a lucky guy!
