The Honda RC213V-S was supposed to break cover last week, and it did – sort of. It appeared at a Japanese hillclimb event, where someone took a video of the bike and put it on YouTube.
The RC213V-S has long been fodder for the rumour mill; for years, people have known Honda had plans for a street-legal version of its MotoGP bike. After months of speculation, that bike, the RC213V-S, is just about to unveiled. Supposedly, Honda will reveal the bike’s full details to the Western media at the Barcelona circuit on Tuesday.
However, it seems Honda has already debuted the bike at the Asama Hill Climb event in Japan, with factory test rider Hiroshi Aoyama aboard. Below, you can see two videos shot at that event. The first gives us our best look at the bike and its components (Brembo brakes, Öhlins fork, livery, etc.), as well as a good idea what the bike sounds like.
The second video only gives us a brief flyby of the bike towards the end of the clip, but you can still hear that 1000 cc V4 spinning.
While the Asama Hill Climb might seem like an odd event to use to display a hot new motorcycle, Honda Racing Corporation seems to have an interest in the event – they had a MotoGP bike in attendance last yea for a demonstration performance.
Now, if the bike really does get its final unveil this week (Editor ‘Arris photographed it at EICMA, but details were slim when it appeared there in prototpype form), there is still one big question mark remaining: How can someone afford the machine? While no MSRP has been announced yet, it’s speculated the machine would cost over $200,000 CAD. That buys a lot of R1Ms, or H2Rs.
Cool bike. Horrible paint scheme.