Sat, 14 Aug 1999 16:10:51 +0500
- Message No. 6246
From: s.burlando@areacom.it (Beppe Bonardi Burlando)
Subject: Rallye Twins and other information
Marco wrote
>Sorry, but you are wrong. Honda never sold an engine-tuned rallye
>twin. There were only few NXR´s - factory bikes. Now these wonderful
>bikes can be seen in Honda´s Factory Museum in Japan.
>
>But they once sold a Paris-Dakar edition of the RD03, 50 bikes to be
>exact. They were for rallye purpose and distributed by Honda France.
>
>One or two years later, Honda decided to go another way and gave 12
>RD04 to the European distributors.
>
>All these Twins had only slight modifications concerning fuel
>capacity and suspension. Tuning was not allowed for the Marathon
>category.
My HIMO there is a mix-up about this matter :
1) There was the official NXR .
2) The 50 RD03 were prepared to race the 11th Paris-Dakar , Jan. 1989 , as
a promotional event (mainly supported by Honda France) to demonstrate 50
next-door-guys should be able to reach Dakar on a @ .
The bikes had only slight modifications but they had Honda assistance
during the race .
3) At the beginning of 1990 some special @ arrived in Europe , prepared
directly by HRC (although every RD03 had the HRC logo but they were built
by Honda corp.) .
I dont know how many bikes were produced , in Italy arrived less than 30
bikes : the cost was 23.500.000 lit. (23.500 DM. , at time more than the
double of normal RD03 cost) .
The model was called "Nxr marathon" .
The differences between it and a RD03 are :
-Forks guards (to allow quicker wheels change)
-lighter hubs with quick wheel mounting
-lighter axel
-lighter speedometr cable
-different rims and spokes
-43 mm. Showa fork as stock but with modified hydraulic and different springs
-analogical trip master on the left of control panel
-hand crafted alu tank of 42 L. with plastic screw-cap (like Honda moto-x bikes)
-two alu tanks behind the seat with 18 L. of capacity (total fuel capacity
60 L.) : inside three tanks there was a special foam to avoid excessive gas
shaking
-strongher fuel pump in a different position (to easier maintenance)
-hand-modified skid-plate with external water tank on the left and hardware
drawer on the right
-modified side-stand
-quick seat-release
-shorter seat with a tools-case on the rear , closed by zip
-new side-panels with an access to the filter cover
-bigger filter-box with foam filter inside
-shorter rear fender (usually not used in races)
-tougher chain roller
-rear red light (as requested by P.D. rules)
-special sprocket (53 tooth) and racing chain (o-ring)
-totally different Pro-link : modified linkage and tougher cams mounted on
tongue-bearings with greaser on every joint
-reinforced steering-head connection with the frame by a triangled steel rib
-different brake-pads
-Pirelli MT 17 and MT 71 (at least for the italian bikes)
-engine built by hand in HRC div.
-lover engine compression using a thicker head-gasket
-improved cooling sistem by bigger electric fans on each radiator
The silencer too appeared modified , but no Honda info about this matter .
I saw 2/3 years ago one of these beauties in a shop to be selled for 18.000
DM/9.000 Euros : I failed to acheived it just because my wife already had
her meat-knife in the hand .
That's life .
4) I have no info about the 12 RD04 .
That's all folks !
Ciao
BEPPE
ATic # 8
www@atic.org