$61,915.00 for a 1992 Honda???

Yes... Honda's 1992 NR750... the most desirable and most technically complex
production motorcycle ever produced with its oval pistons... eight
valves per cylinder and two con rods per piston... not to mention at
$61,915.00 the most expensive Honda ever... it's milestone appearance
inspired the great designers of our times... most noticeably Massimo
Tamburini... after he saw the NR750 in 92... he tore up his design for
the Ducati 916 and copied all the Honda's main styling cues...
enjoy...

http://www.reeky.org/gallery/NR750
http://www.fox302.com/userdata/netters2/files/ShopPics/NR750LarryBubbaGumps.JPG

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
1952 De Havilland Chipmunk...
Yank and bank your brains loose...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/
http://home.comcast.net/~netters2/
http://www.fox302.com/index.pl?s=vg&user=netters2
http://www.reeky.org/gallery/xlax

 

NOSPAM*@yahoo.com wrote in:

We know Spagthorpe did.

 

Desirable by whom? I suppose I'd prefer a NR750 to genitial herpes but
compared to other motorcycles? Nope.

 

oooh! oval piston vee four! <drool> if there's one thing Honda ever did
right, it's packaged in a v4 engine.

now if they'd just make a v4 sportbike that *i* could afford...


--
-kelly
'01 Aprilia Falco
'03 Guzzi California Ti (outbound)
'05 Triumph Speed Triple (incoming)
'70 Honda CT 70

 

they did. it's the ST1100 seen used for $3000

 

no, i said *sport* bike. ;-)


-kelly

 

Right. Even the "Interceptor" is heavy and slow.

 

the Spaghthorpe pistons were actually egg shaped. the narrower end of
the Spagthorpe piston was pointed forward for less wind resistance,
unlike the less aerodynamic Honda ovals which were merely poor Japanese
imitations of the original design by Spagthorpe.

 

Take the fairings off.

--


Bobbie the Triple Killer


[Bob@S01060050046f293e Desktop]$ emacs signature

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The ideal engineer is a composite ... He is not a scientist,
he is not a mathematician, he is not a sociologist or a writer;
but he may use the knowledge and techniques of any or all of
these disciplines in solving engineering problems.
N. W. Dougherty, 1955

 

Hiya Kelly...
You're right about the V4 and I keep pushing Honda to come out with a RVF600
V4... because it's about time they stop making them stinky inline 4s with their
peaky power bands...

You know you're one of the riders on my list to sample Mr.RC45... let's make it
happen one day...

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
1952 De Havilland Chipmunk...
Yank and bank your brains loose...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/
http://home.comcast.net/~netters2/
http://www.fox302.com/index.pl?s=vg&user=netters2
http://www.reeky.org/gallery/xlax

 

Collectors... the NR750 appreciates every year... can't say that about any other
1992 production motorcycle on the planet...

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
1952 De Havilland Chipmunk...
Yank and bank your brains loose...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/
http://home.comcast.net/~netters2/
http://www.fox302.com/index.pl?s=vg&user=netters2
http://www.reeky.org/gallery/xlax

 

Yes, I can, almost any 1992 Harley-Davidson has appreciated year by year.

 

Some HD models do hold their value like the Moo Glide but thanks to Ebay you can
find a lot of 92 HDs that show deprecation...

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
1952 De Havilland Chipmunk...
Yank and bank your brains loose...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/
http://home.comcast.net/~netters2/
http://www.fox302.com/index.pl?s=vg&user=netters2
http://www.reeky.org/gallery/xlax

 

Why would an I4 have a different power band than a V4? Is it differences in bore
and stroke, or differences in the piston layout?[/QUOTE]

Exactly. Larry's not very technically astute when it comes to these
sorts of evaluations. It's more the bore and stroke ratio, valve gear
and so on. The 90 degreeV2 & 4's have the advantage in terms of lower
vibration levels but that's about all. Hell, even in racing, Rossi's
Yamaha team has proven that with adjustments in the crank and firing
order, you can make an I4 act like a V4 in terms of tire wear (big
bang designs).

I don't! It's an overly complex design, particularly in a production
engine. There are simpler choices that actually run smoother and have
flatter torque curves. Triples of course! I3's that are smoother
running than either V4's or I4's and with less moving parts; simpler &
cheaper to build. Finally, if someone were to design a good five-valve
triple, they could compete; head on, in terms of HP per liter with the
Japanese fours.

[...]

Bob Nixon, Chandler AZ
01 Sprint ST "RED" 45K miles

 

It was the Corgi, but the engine only made it to prototype testing. The
results astonished even the test team and the R&D department revealed a
concurrent developement that went along with the egg shaped pistons and
barrels; there were no spark plugs! Rather, the engineers had decided
that to get a proper flame front for maximum power, they would stretch
multiple thin wires between the cylinder block and the heads,
positioning the wires at Top Dead Center. Current normally applied to
the spark plug was applied to the wires providing the heat all across
the head to ignite the fuel mixture rather than just the single point of
a spark plug. This brilliant feat of engineering proved to work far
better than the engineers expected.

The Corgi was so named for the diminuitive displacement of the engine,
approximately 276 cc for the twin and 133cc for the single; the inline 4
was bench tested and blew a hole in the roof of the engineering
department; the original 4 cylinder prototype head was never found and
blueprints hadn't been completed so further testing by the shaken
engineers was abandoned on the 4.

Anyway, the Corgi developed so much power that there were problems
keeping heads on the engine, it would literally blow them off, pulling
the studs right out of the blocks. Spagthorpe R&D worked furiously to
solve the problem, working day and night for weeks, even to the point of
bringing food in to keep the engineers on site. Unfortunately,
metallurgy of the day wasn't up to the task of controlling the enormous
Corgi egg power but the development was not in vain. One of the
caterers noticed the design spec of the Corgi motor and was intrigued.
After long discussion with the engineers and the business and legal
departments, Spagthorpe licenced the egg piston/cylinder shaped design
patents and the wire igniter patents to the catering company. The
catering company went on to produce specialized food processing
equipment for home and commercial applications, with the wire grid over
an egg shape becoming a standard in kitchens around the world.

The Corgi, ground breaking as it was, never saw the light of day, even
though it's innovative egg piston design was later copied by a small
Japanese manufacturer who never had an original idea of their own. The
Japanese, unable to license the original egg shape, merely used oval
shaped bores to get around the legal issues of the still active
Spagthorpe patents, but they never achieved the enormous power of the
Corgi either.

 

i can't explain it technically, but my seat of the pants test tells me that
V4s pull harder from the bottom up than I4s. they're smoother feeling too.
ride one. that's pretty much my theory on bikes in general. who cares
about numbers, stats, mechanics, and physics. ride is. if you love it?
keep it.


--
-kelly
'01 Aprilia Falco
'03 Guzzi California Ti (outbound)
'05 Triumph Speed Triple (incoming)
'70 Honda CT 70

 

That's my experience, too.

Same difference between an inline twin like an EX500 and a V-twin like
an SV650.

 

How many miles did you say were on that NR750?

 

Mine three!!! and no amount of text can explain the difference... believe me
I've tried... getting all technical doesn't help... a rider has to experience
the difference in order to get it... that's why I say (360 degree crank) V4 are
music to the seat of my pants... to me inlines feel anemic after riding V4s
since 84...

Larry L
94 RC45 #2
Have a wheelie NICE day...
Lean & Mean it in every corner of your life...
If it wasn't for us the fast lane would rust...
V4'S are music to the seat of my pants...
1952 De Havilland Chipmunk...
Yank and bank your brains loose...
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/-xlax-/
http://home.comcast.net/~netters2/
http://www.fox302.com/index.pl?s=vg&user=netters2
http://www.reeky.org/gallery/xlax

 

That's wunderful. People should ride what they like.

I kinda like my new Mac Mini. I know it's inferior to PCs in certain
areas, but it suits my needs in others like no PC ever did.

But let's not pretend that the mystical look and feel trumps the cold
hard numbers.