| Single sided swingarm was originally developed on the Elf Honda endurance racer, which also used a radical single-sided front swingarm (later used successfully on the Bimota Tesi). |
Extruded Alloy Frame cut-away revealing inner stiffening. The frame is NOT a weak point on an RC30. Racers used to polish them, supposedly to eliminate potential cracking but most likely cos it looked awesome. | |
| Wheels are 17x3.0 front, 18x5.5 rear. The discs are Stainless Steel and can work-harden (very slippery), hence are usually replaced for racing. While a floating design, they're too tightly assembled but in some cases loosen up nicely. |
Two radiators are used, both are upgradable to HRC parts but only the larger upper radiator is really necessary. Water circulates through an oil cooler between the block and the oil filter, usually referred to as the 'oil heater' and discarded. | |
| Single-sided swingarm, this time not chopped up. The only downside I can see is the eccentric chain tensioner which changes wheelbase and ride height. |
Standard carbs are 38mm CVs, odd since the competition chose to fit flat-slides instead of CVs. Superbike rules required stock type carbs, but over a decade later it's time to ditch them. | |
| All R30s come from the factory with Titanium rods and single-compression ring pistons contributing to the incredible internal acceleration of these motors. NOTE. Titanium can't handle rubbing so the big ends are coated. I THINK the coating is just on the sides where two titanium rods can rub against each other, not behind the bearing shells as they look shiny unlike the sides but if you resize these rods please make SURE of that! Mine were resized and I'm yet to refit them so haven't figured that out for sure yet |
Cams are driven by overweight gear sets. Crank is flat 360 degree type, unlike other VFRs, for that unique sound. Cams have both needle and roller bearings which is amazing. | |
| The stock pipes are a stainless steel disaster. These are the 'good' pipes, mine had a long really flat bit much worse than this one - no wonder most of the extra power of the HRC kit comes from a pipe. |
Standard speedo in NZ is 300kph (Jap domestic 180kph shown) and driven off the countershaft sprocket. This means that it doesn't compensate for gearing and rear wheel size changes. | |
| This is the RC30 we know and love parked next to the geniune article RVF750 Formula 1 bike of the day |
Nice clean shot of a brand new RC30, this links to a very large image 1004 pixels wide. | |
| Side on and naked view of new RC30. |
Very well drawn cut-away of an RC30, links to an only slight larger image. | |
| The 1988 dealer propaganda poster. All of it true of course! Interesting to see Foggy enjoying success so many years ago, being World F1 Champion in '88 thanks to an RC30. |