Editing Honda RC30 SBK

{{Infobox Motorcycle
|name             = Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK
|image            = [[File:Honda-RC30-01.jpg|frameless|Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK]]
|aka              = 
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|production       =
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|class            = [[Racing]]
|engine           =
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|compression      =
|top_speed        =
|power            =
|torque           =
|fuel_system      =
|ignition         =
|spark_plug       =
|battery          =
|transmission     = 
|frame            =
|suspension       =
|brakes           =
|front_tire       =
|rear_tire   	  =
|rake_trail       =
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|related          =
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}}


== Photos ==
[[File:Honda-RC30-01.jpg|600px|Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK]]
[[File:Honda-RC30-87.jpg|600px|Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK]]
[[File:Honda-RC30.jpg|600px|Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK]]
[[File:Honda-RC30-02.jpg|600px|Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK]]
[[File:Honda-RC30--1.jpg|600px|Racing Bikes Honda RC30 SBK]]

== Overview ==
Honda RC30 SBK










Few motorcycles have ever dominated their
chosen class of racing so completely as the various versions of the V4 Honda
four-stroke during the 1980s
Honda wanted its technology to be viewed as
markedly different
from the UJM (Universal Japanese Motorcycle) transverse, in-line, four-cylinder
designs of its competitors, and as such the watercooled, sixteen-valve,
90-degree V4 range has been the basis of the company's huge selection of street
bike models built and sold in the 1980s. Initial problems with self-destructing
engines cause by prematurely worn camshafts gave the V4 Hondas a bad name and
nearly brought the giant company to the brink of financial disaster.




But the problem was cured, and by the second
half of the decade the VFR750 was many people's favourite bike irrespective of
price or capacity
Nothing enabled the V4 engine to regain its reputation for reliability more than
its success in one world championship after another in the TT Formula 1 and
Endurance categories. In 1983, in the final year of the 1000 cc F1
class, the overbored 859 cc version of the recently introduced VF750 Sabre V4
engine swept up the World and British TT 1 titles, in spite of giving away up to
140 cc to the opposition, and then made the two crowns its own once the 750 cc
class was introduced in 1984. Irish ace Joey Dunlop won four  world titles
in a row on the Honda V4 (plus a fifth on the old in-line bike), before Bimota's
fast and sweet-handling YB4 and Virginio Ferrari took the crown away from him in
1987 - mostly because Honda decided enough was enough, and gave Dunlop an
ultra-modified street VFR to defend his title with, rather than the full-race
RVF750. But for three years in a row Honda never lost a major FI race, thanks to
the RVF's near-legendary reliability and speed.



Meanwhile the factory endurance team run by
Honda France was carving almost as firm a hold on the World Endurance title with
the long-distance version of the V4 racer, basically a slightly detuned RVF750
fitted with lights. A 'sprint' version of this bike, ridden by future world 500
cc champion Wayne Gardner, won no less than ten major races in a row at Honda's
home base of Suzuka, including two gruelling eight-hour races. Only a series of
accidents prevented Honda making it three in a row in the Suzuka eight-hours in
1987: instead the Yamaha Genesis finally won a race. In the World Endurance
championship Honda had decided to contest only the major twenty-four-hour races
at Le Mans and Paul Ricard: they won them both,
With a heritage like this, it's no wonder
that when the Honda RC30 street bike was announced at the end of 1987, it was
hailed as one of the great road bikes of the decade. Officially known as the
VFR750R by Honda but nobody else, the RC30 (the company's internal designation,
recalling the great RC-series GP bikes of the 1960s) wasn'tjusta road version of
the RVF race bike - it was the race bike. It came complete with competition
hardware like sophisticated 43 mm Showa forks, specially designed mag-alloy
wheels, twin-curved aluminium water radiators, massive 310 mm front floating
disc brakes with four-piston Nissin calipers and so on - much of it identical to
the eguipment fitted to the NSR500 two-stroke V4 race bike on which Gardner
hadjust regained the coveted World 500 cc title Apart from its race bike styling
and fetching two-tone blue and white colour scheme, the RC30's most immediately
distinctive feature was the ELF-inspired, single-sided swing-arm, dubbed the
Pro-Arm by Honda.


This had become standardized on the RVF race
bikes in 1986, enabling ultra-fast tyre changes to be made while refuelling,
since the wheel is released by unscrewing a single car-type nut, leaving the
chain and rear brake in place. You have to be careful how you jack the bike up,
though, as Yamaha discovered to its embarrassment when it copied the design on
the Genesis.... Honda claimed that the extruded alloy, twin-spar Diamond frame
was a direct copy, with the same geometry, as that of the RVF race bike, and
with a dry weight of only 185 kg with lights and all other street equipment,
this seemed likely: the Honda France endurance racer scaled under ten per cent
less in full race trim.

Yet if the chasssis specification of the RC30
was impressive, it was the engine technology that went into the bike that really
dazzled. Effectively Honda had taken the RVF engine, silenced it slightly,
detuned the engine a bit for use on the streets, and slotted it into the street
bike frame. The 180 degree crankshaft throw of the VFR roadster was transformed
into the 360-degree unit adopted by the race bikes to give better torque and
traction, fitted with gear drive up the centre of the engine to the four
overhead camshafts. Obviously the use of such exotic and expensive materials as
titanium and ceramics was rejected on grounds of cost in a bike that would sell
in the UK for around Â£8000. Apart from this the RC30 was mechanically a clone of
the RVF, yet improved in certain key areas.


The purpose of building this bike for sale
was two-fold. Honda wanted to capitalize on its half-decade of competition
success with the RVF by building a Bimota-level bike at half the Bimota price.
With only 5000 examples initially planned and swiftly snapped up by Hondaphiles
the world over, it was a smart marketing ploy. The second reason was even more
astute: with the inauguration of a World Superbike Championship in 1988 which
stipulated the use of production street bikes, albeit in highly modified form,
Honda figured the best way to be competitive was to make sure it could race with
a street-legal version of the bike that had
dominated the Fl/Endurance classes for so long.
Hence the RC30 - and hence too the 'Step-up
Parts Kit' officially announced at the model's launch, incorporating racing
carbs and camshafts, a six-speed gearbox and various other
components which increased power to an amazing 140 bhp -from a 750 four-stroke I
No wonder the RC30 seems destined to go down in motorcycle history as an instant
modern classic, one with power and pedigree.
Source of review: Dream Bikes Alan Cathcart

== Videos ==
{{#ev:youtube|https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zo3JfupOiw|600|center}}

[[Category:Racing motorcycles]]