Honda VFR RC30 | Out Of The Crate Race Bike…Or Not?
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- čas přidán 13. 06. 2024
- Welcome to our latest 'Special Bikes' episode! Get the kettle on, it's a big-un!!
It’s 1987, you have just bought a Honda RC30 and want to take it racing. Could you have just taped up lights, stick some tyres on it and go win or would you need to sell your organs to fund a raft of exotic HRC parts?
We find out in the episode and take as we take a look at a low miles RC30 and an endurance racer. Both legends, both expensive, both simply beautiful.
We're paying tribute to the Honda VFR RC30, the OG of Superbikes.
Big thanks to A J LEE Classics & Ian Martin from Team Bike Honda, for letting us film at their workshops.
If you're a big fan of the endurance racing scene, or specifically the Bol'Dor - then look out for our Howard Lees Racing/ Team Bike video, which will be out soon!
Links to other channels and merch store - bit.ly/m/Race-Retro
Archive footage belongs to Duke Motorsport
#v4honda #classicbikes #classicbike #racebike #honda #vfr #wsbk #rc30
0:00 - The beginning of WSBK
01:26 - The Road Trim RC30
08:40 - Team Bike Endurance RC30 - Auta a dopravní prostředky
This bike is still the standard for COOL!
Good work there lads, i remember seeing a new Rc30 in cusworths bike shop in doncaster i think it was priced at £12/15k when new, i could be wrong, i witnessed david jeffries on a race one at a donnington pk track day i was on, lee pullan was there to, both out as traveling marshals but david jeffries was wheelying along the whole length of the start finish straight, also witnessed steve hislop trouncing everyone on an Rc30 at a race meeting at donnington pk again, .Happy days,....
Sounds like some fantastic memories chief. We have an episode about Howard Lees Racing due out soon that we hope you will enjoy. That was a mint story. 👍
People's knowledge astounds me and what we must lose with people naturally aging 🇬🇧
Honestly, it was a pleasure chatting to Ian, a very interesting guy with so much knowledge.
I so so enjoyed that.. I ride my old V.F.R. 750 now with pride and pretend its one of those beasts very informative so thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still one of the best if not THE best bike ever made !!
Thank you very much for a lovely comment!! Keep an eye out next week for a follow up all about a Team Bike. Stay safe on your VFR chief 🙏👍
2:50 Even as amateurs, we could pit in, change wheels and add 24 litres of fuel, and pit exit in 60 seconds at Donnington when endurance racing the RC30!
Owo1 comparison would be great
Fantastic to see Ian in his workshop,seen those RC30s racing at the Bol D'or many times.
We did record another discussion with Ian! All about Howard Lees Racing/Team Bike, which will hopefully be out soon!
@raceandretro Wow, I can't wait to see that,I first saw HLR /Team Bike at Donington 1000km in 1981 with Dave Chisman and Howard riding the Honda 900
The best honda ever made lovely 😊
Difficult to argue. Just something about them isn’t there. Bloody lovely. Cheers for the comment 👍
Born from the rvf750 f1 racer
It certainly was, that was something else we learnt from Ian. 👍
A truly timeless design, still floats my boat after all these years. I only had the NC30, which was a jewel of a bike, but could only dream of owning the RC30. Deserved place in the fantasy garage of any race fan/collector.
Absolutely spot on. We would certainly love one. Maybe one of the NLOB spec versions if we are talking fantasy garage! Cheers for the comment 👍👍
Thanks guys, appreciate your time to show us
Super glad you enjoyed it. Appreciate the comment 😂
In NZ a brand new 1988 GSXR750J was $10k and change. The RC30 was just shy of $17k!! It was out of reach of most people. I’d never seen a Japanese bike as expensive ever before. I used to drool over the thing. Finally got to buy one in ‘99…it had a noisy top end so I got it cheap. I had an idea as to what was wrong which turned out to be the cam key being installed incorrectly by the owner who tried to do his own service. Took it a guy who used to race them back in the day who sorted it. Mine wasn’t stock. It had a 17” Marchesini rear wheel, shock riser, NC 30 front wheel (3.5” wide vs stock 3.0”) which gave better tyre options, PVM cast iron disks and a Kerker pipe. It was awesome to ride and the sound was unreal. I wish I never sold it, but hindsight is a wonderful thing lol!
Indeed, hindsight would be worth millions! Great story though and sounds like you had one with a good pedigree. Thanks for getting in touch chief 👍
Excellent to see these fellas into bikes . Probably to young to see them and lust after them at the time. Subd. Quote I've seen his mum. 😂😂😂😂 proper banter
Keith is plenty old enough at 74 but the rest of us are young enough to be his grandchildren. (and possibly could be) Really appreciate the comment and glad your enjoying the content. Plenty more to come so hope you stick around 👍👍
I got my ticket August 1986. Figured out road bikes and saw the Honda's as two wheeled cars with their glove boxes, time clock on dash, lack luster performance. I remember when the rc30 came out at the dealers. Me and a mate went for a good ride to go see it in the show room. Even got to sit on it. It was like a statement of a new start for Honda. We were impressed and wanted one. Of course we weren't cashed up to that level, but it's the thought that counts, yeah?
We think we would have done the same!! Thanks for commenting and sharing your memories of this bike. We really enjoy reading them 👍
Just love it. I would love for you to meet teams racing ZXR’s and OW01s also.
Thanks 🙏 we do know a man that has an OWO1! Thanks again for the continued support chief 🙏👍
Very very interesting conversation with Ian Martin. Very enjoyable program.
Thanks very much. Ian was a gent and super knowledgable. Glad you enjoyed it. 👍
@@raceandretroindeed. This sort of people are pure love and passion.
See if you can cover the nc30 race bikes next
Really enjoyed that, I had a choice in 1988, a GSXR750J or a RC30, the RC was just over 8K trade and I got my GSXR for less than 5, of course that was a mistake but I couldn't afford to change. First meeting at Knockhill that year there were loads of GSXR's, second meeting the RC30's were common as muck (but fast) I remember them overheating on the grid. That year at the NW200 in the production class B, I was 20mph slower on the straight! I persevered for 2 years on that bike but at the end of the day we struggled. Great days though and great memories, thanks for rekindling that!
Great memories and thanks for sharing. Really appreciate you taking the time to get in touch 👌
This is one of the better collector motorcycle videos. Not just stating what everyone knows. The details that make the bike special are shared. Sure Ian has more info on the engine, I.e. issues experienced and special bits about it. Please do similar for RC45/RC51 / NC35...infact all the youngtimers😅😅😅
Really appreciate the comment! Ian was a very clever chap as well as being super interesting to chat too. Cheers for the requests, great shout.
That was definitely worth the time to watch.
❤
Thanks for the nice feedback 👏🏻👍
Great vid , great to see ian and the endrance bikes , makes a nice change than all the vids on stock 30s , the late brian capper use to build all the engines for team bike , he build an engine for mine 👍
Thanks! Ian was amazing. We have a video about Team Bike coming in early Jan. Nice to have a trick motor in yours!
Fantastic, thanks for sharing. I watched Joey race on the island on one, which claimed was one of the best handling bikes he ever rode. He later raced the Sp1 but I think had more affinity for the race winning RC30.
Always wanted one but hard to get hold of and prohibitively expensive by early Noughties. Rode the SP1 but wasn’t overly enamoured as it probably made a better race than a road bike, and ended up being one of the lucky ones who had one of only 40 Edwards Replica RSVR Mille’s imported into the UK.
Whilst the Mille SP was the homologation special, the Edwards was still pretty trick and many ended up being raced. With a little tuning it could make 130 bhp at the rear wheel and was sublime on road.
Always wanted an RC30 though but prices now are through the roof! Some great details and rare insights on the video, really enjoyed that👍
Amazing comments and some great insight. The Edwards rep was a lovely bike. Thank you very much for taking time to share some of your bike history. Glad you like the video 🙏👍
Brilliant video. I prefer the Swiss market RC30 with the small square headlamp, it's weirdly aesthetic.
Thanks for the nice comment! We have never seen a square headlamp RC30! Seen a few pictures of ZXR400's and NSR125's with Swiss spec square headlamps.
@@raceandretro Nice! A link to a pic if it works:
iconicmotorbikeauctions.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Honda-RC30-Swiss-Front-Left-Featured.jpg
Love the AF1 you guys are working on, good to see such a rare bike getting some air time. All the best.
As I recall, the early examples had an issue with oil return. You could use them for brisk road riding, you could use them for a slow or mid group at a track day, but if you took one racing (completely stock) it would fill the top end up with oil and then run out of oil pressure, because all the oil was up in the cam covers.....
Top teams figured this out and fixed it fairly quickly, mid-fielders took a little longer, tail-enders who'd bought one thinking this would guarantee their sudden rise to the winners' circle, they were in for a rude shock. I forget now what the best solution was but I know everybody had trouble with this at the beginning, and a measure of how good and how competent the team was, was how long it took to get the oil return under control on their RC-30. There were several different approaches which could be made to work ... Just over-filling the cases, that wasn't one of them.
Fantastic insight! We are loving everyone's stories about these bikes. Thanks for taking the time to comment, very interesting! Cheers R&R
Scusa se ti rispondo in italiano ma il mio inglese non è buono.il problema dello svuotamento della coppa dell'olio lo risolse Carlo Facetti ,motorista del team Rumi ,creando una nuova guarnizione della coppa dell'olio che risolse il problema della distruzione del motore quando Fred Merkel andava in mono ruota 😂😂😂.... Se non ricordo male ,i tecnici hrc scoprirono casualmente la modifica apportata dal team Rumi ,ma una volta scoperta la resero disponibile per tutti..... ho saputo che il grande oscar Rumi sta scrivendo le sue memorie sportive, sicuramente saranno ricche di queste storie meravigliose riguardanti RC30 ed RC45....
Grazie per aver commentato! Adoriamo conoscere questi dettagli extra! Ero un fan di Simon Crafar sulla Rumi Racing RC45!@@TheKennyblake
Very interesting Guys, great job!
Thanks, Dad! 😂👍
Great & interesting video. I’d love to see a feature of the early Yamaha TZ race bikes where a bloke off the street could buy one and be very competitive even against some of the factory bikes of the era.
Thanks very much for the nice comments! Definitely a good shout on the TZ's
Amazing to see you guys down at GT, they're in the next town over from me and it's always fun popping down there to have a wander through all their honda race bikes.
It would be great to go and see those guys! I’m not sure we would ever get Ant home afterwards though. He would just become their shop cat and would never be seen again 🐈
It's hard not to stare for hours at the NSR's they have down there.@@raceandretro
Just watching about the engine breather set up on the bike. I recall,in the early 90s, carls bike on the nw200 having an empty silkolene bottle attached to the back cowl of his bike to catch oil. He had been spraying anyone behind him with oil in first race and the silkolene bottle was the cure that day
Great memory, cheers for sharing. All sorts of ways of getting round issues on a race day. The HRC set up looked trick though. Appreciate the comments 🙏👍
epic once again ! :) keep em coming.
Cheers chief! Hope you are well buddy. Interesting follow up on the RC30 endurance race team up soon. Thanks for sticking around 🙏👍
I bought one new and raced it here in NZ, competed at the WSB events here a couple of times...out of the crate race bike…or not? NOT!
HRC race kit cost as much as the bike...Front wheel only 3" wide, rear was 18", had to be replaced to get decent tyres.NZ$3k Radiators too small, needed kit radiators as they liked to run at 80C otherwise lost power NZ$3K...carbs are 34mm CVs Kit carbs 35mm CVs NZ$3K, flatslides not available,HRC or Termignoni 4:1 NZ$3K, power was modest.
Other than that it was pretty sweet, suspension was excellent for the day and handled and braked better than anything else made until then.
That’s a great comment, thanks chief. We were taken by surprise by how much was needed to make a road bike go well. However, you can’t help but love them can you! Really appreciate you taking the time to share 👍👍
You could also save a lot of money by taking it to Tony Scott and have him blueprint the motor and give it a tweek. Mine made 120 hp but had plenty of torque, thats what you need for the Island. Loads of people talk bollox about them but very few can ride them how there were designed to be ridden.
Excellent content, mega bike. 👍👍👍👍
Ace! Glad you liked it. What a bike though eh! Cheers for the nice comment 👍
@@raceandretro Your welcome, keep up the great work. 👍👍👍
Makes me wonna buy another nc30 cheers
We have a nice one in the making! 😂😂👍
Slow as standard but you then had to buy the factory race kit which changed the bike completely. IIRC
You are spot on. We honestly didn’t realise how far off the road bike was! Cheers for the comment 🙏
The only difficulty with this bike? Carburetors. The next version RC45 has fuel injection…
Did Ron Haslam not race a vfr 750 straight out of the box and came second or third hence saving Honda which at that time were on the back foot ????????????
That may have been the line Honda or Ron gave but from what we have learnt they were very uncompetitive as standard. Be some feat if he did though 👍
Well if my memory serves me well Mr Sheen on the day said how disgusting it was of Honda to give such a talent a shit bike to ride you make of that what you will but I am old enough to have been there and seen it ?? @@raceandretro
Yes I'm better at uno crazy video😮
😂😂
"track and race ready" just put 90% of it in the skip and replace with mega money exotic components. I'm not convinced the "track ready" statement has ever been true for any motorcycle or car.
Do you believe in marketing speak?
Now that you have started to poke this horets nest, you owe it to us all to go all the way! You have to do a deep dive into the story of the OW01, followed by the YZF -and we all know how Yamaha cheated by running 1000cc cylinders and cranks in their "750s", so it is time to tell the world straight up..
And you can not talk about UK superbikeracing without mentioning the Norton / Craighton Wankels, you Brits have SO much raacing history, and so many people have so many memories -I did not know I'd still be triggered by this, but my heart was always with the OW01, never liked the RC30, I feel I am back to 1990, and I can't wait to follow your work on this, thia was the piacle of motorcycle racing -time to relive it.. Bring it on..
Firstly, we can’t thank you enough for the support. You are absolutely bang on with those comments and we are certainly going to take these ideas forward. We know a chap with a very nice OWO1 that we can chat. He has immense pedigree in the British Yamaha scene of the 90’s. He owns the factory Boost bike which also deserves a revisit from us to include in any upcoming Yamaha content. We have a great story about the Howard Lees Racing team due out soon although that is also based on RC30’s. Maybe you we like them more after that. Thanks again for a great comment and welcome 👍🙏
I will be waiting.. :-) Merry Christmas, then..@@raceandretro
Should’ve filmed the OW01 first and built up to the pinnacle… 😉