The 50cc Motorcycle with a top speed of 118 mph in the 1960s

if there's one thing known about 50cc motorcycles by everyone and anyone that's ever ridden one it's that they're not fast the reason is simple you have one single 50cc piston say from something like honda's z50 or maybe a little two-stroke and that piston is about the size of a pill bottle and we're expecting that little pill bottle to carry our weight and the motorcycle's weight around not exactly the formula for speed and power or is it the 50cc honda rc-116 was no ordinary bike especially not for its day and to understand how exactly this little motorcycle could reach speeds of over 100 miles per hour from such a small platform so long ago we need to go back even further at the end of the 1950s honda was itching to have success on the main stage in racing so they assigned two young engineers tadashi kumei and kimio shimura to go design a racing motorcycle engine for honda the goal was a higher revving platform than anything in competition at the time and the result of that work was the rc-141 first in 1959 a twin cylinder engine producing up to 18 horsepower at 14 000 rpm better than anything honda had made up to that point but still lacking in comparison to the european competition the next machine also built in 1959 was the 250cc four-cylinder rc-160 and this really was a remarkable platform now that small displacement four-cylinder platform is a topic for another video spawning multiple multi-cylinder up to six-cylinder race bikes and then on the production side motorcycles like the four-cylinder platforms of the cb750 and cb354 now this first small displacement high revving engine was important groundwork for the bike we're looking at today because it was a bike that basically followed their model smaller but more pistons and more revs that was the blueprint for success at least in honda's eyes to win races honda's first attempt at the isle of man was not what they hoped for these bikes couldn't compete with the likes of european and italian competition think companies like envy augusta for example and ducati and benelli and also their riders weren't ready for this level of speed and aggression on the track going into the 1960s motorcycle grand prix racing was very different than it is today there was the premier 500cc class that was comparable to what we know of now as maybe motogp and then you've got multiple smaller classes ranging from 125 250 350 and even sidecar class in 1961 honda won their first grand prix race in barcelona for the 125 cc class it certainly didn't hurt that all the major italian companies had withdrawn from this race but hey honda was improving with every iteration of their twins and fours this was shown even more on the four-cylinder platform when honda was determined to win the championship and they did just that that year with mike halewood now this really was the beginning of honda's dominance making high revving four-stroke engines as opposed to the powerful two-stroke platforms of virtually every other manufacturer these were incredibly complex but powerful machines but in 1962 honda decided to build a new machine for a new class that's right a 50cc class now you might wonder hearing this why would anyone want to watch a 50cc motorcycle race isn't it more fun to watch the fastest biggest craziest machines but it's actually often the contrary it seems like smaller motorcycles are actually more fun to watch take the current grand prix classes today there's motogp moto 2 and moto 3 and also moda e with moto 3 technically being the smallest at 250 ccs and i can confirm as a fan who watches all of these races moto 3 is probably the most entertaining now that's partially because the riders are younger and often a bit crazier but with these smaller motorcycles it seems to really level the playing field in terms of the actual bikes so there rarely ends up being one or two riders just way ahead last year's moto 3 championship was unbelievably close every race there would often be like 10 or 15 bikes just abreast going into the corners off of the straight it's insane the smaller classes are crazy and it's no different with this 50cc class it's less about who has the fastest bike that can just pull away on the straights or coming out of the corners it's more about the rider's ability to make things happen and to take big risks so you end up with lots of overtakes i mean moto 3 usually has i don't know three times the amount of passes as moto gp and as a fan i find it more fun to watch even though they're not hitting you know 250 miles per hour in the straights honda's first 50cc motorbike for the 1962 season was the rc-111 now this was essentially the rc-145 twin but basically cut in half and then shrunk down to fit the 50cc class this engine utilized double overhead camshafts four valves and it produced a solid 9.5 horsepower i mean if you compare this to say a new honda grom it's very similar in terms of power and the grom is a 125 cc single so pretty impressive when you consider that this is like 60 years ago and only 50 cc for whatever reason the key to this class was having as many gears in the transmission as possible so first this bike had a 6-speed transmission but the honda 50 could not hang with the 8-speed 50cc two-stroke from suzuki so by the isle of man that year honda had gotten the little bike up to a nine speed gearbox but they still struggled to hang with the two strokes despite coming in second and third at the isle of man on the little rc-111 now honda only managed to win one race this first season the little four stroke couldn't hang with the two strokes just in terms of power so honda took their blueprint for more cylinders and higher revs and they actually applied it to the little 50. and it took honda until 1964 to get their new twin 50cc platform back to the racetracks in europe with the rc-113 and rc-114 now the initial version produced 10 horsepower at 17500 rpm utilizing gear driven double overhead camshafts though not the final boss version of the little 50cc race bike from honda this motorcycle still managed to reach the elusive 200 horsepower per liter which is really incredible for this time this bike had a top speed of 84 miles per hour but it just had a significantly better power curve and at its debut it just whooped on the suzuki's two-stroke 50. honda was close to winning the 50cc title in 64 but it was lost in finland due to an engine failure the final iterations of this platform were found in 65 with the rc-115 and ultimately the rc-116 [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] under the leadership of honda's engineer soichiro irmajira that's the main guy who headed up the cbx's development as well i made a whole video on that if you're interested but yeah he was really an iconic figure in honda's history under irmajira's leadership the little 50cc twin grew in power he was able to bring the horsepower up to 12.8 at a whopping 21 000 rpms by utilizing honda's overall strategy for higher revving more powerful engines by basically making the pistons shorter then in 65 the little 50cc twin won the championship with ease beating out the two strokes and only failing to win a single race for the season under expert rider ralph bryan's now the final version of this platform was the iconic rc-116 a 50cc twin race bike with an even shorter stroke and larger bore producing a whopping 14 horsepower at 21 500 rpms though some report it actually produced more horsepower and could rev higher up to 16 horsepower at 22 500 rpm and if that figure is correct which it seems like it actually is 16 horsepower from 50 cc's that would be the highest brake horsepower per liter of any naturally aspirated four stroke ever even formula one cars can't get even close to this kind of power to capacity ratio even using like all sorts of crazy fuels this is without a doubt one of the craziest motorcycles ever the 66 championship for this baby class was all but one again for honda going into the final race but the location was changed giving suzuki home field advantage right at the end so honda boycotted that final event basically giving away the championship this was the final season for honda in the smallest class now the 50cc class would go on until 1983. interestingly enough the 72 season for the 50cc class was arguably the hardest fought championship in motor racing history it's calculated that the total season was won by a total of 21 and a half seconds over all the races that's how close the first and second place competitors were they were literally fighting neck and neck every single race this final iteration of honda's little 50cc race twin was so much more than just a little bike with big power and a lot of rpms i mean it can't be understated how powerful this machine was for being so tiny it truly is an incredible achievement of honda this is one of the most amazing race motorcycles honda has ever produced one writer actually calls it a tempest in a teacup just a manic mad little machine honda utilized some interesting tactics to get the bike's weight down one being that they used essentially disposable brakes going back to the first iteration of the little twin honda decided to go with cable actuated caliper rim brakes or more simply bicycle brakes i mean this was basically 1920s motorcycle technology on a race bike but because this motorcycle was so small and so lightweight and used such thin tires they were able to make it work at least for a race this made it so that they could basically do away with all of the heavy brake components found on conventional brake setups for motorcycles and though they burned through these systems pretty quick it was a cheap and easy setup they would just replace the entire system this also gave the bike better airflow in that region it's really interesting when you look at this motorcycle it doesn't really look like a motorcycle it looks like one of those bicycles that somebody just put a fairing on and decided they were going to pretend they were pedaling around a motorcycle the multi-cylinder engine is so tiny you have no idea that it's even hiding underneath that fairing honda's approach to just motorcycle manufacturing is really interesting in the 1960s it's similar in some ways to ducati's current approach a focus on building the most technologically advanced motorcycles in the world and letting all of that tech just trickle down to their production bikes one has to look no further than the current gp field to see this with ducati feels like 30 of the bikes out there are ducatis especially now that suzuki is leaving moto gp and that's what ducati likes to do they like to take what they're making at the highest level in racing and just slowly add it to their motorcycles now most of that focus is on the largest capacity sport bikes in the world and when ducati trickles that down to their sport and naked and even adventure bike platforms it's primarily for bigger bikes in honda's case though they were making the most advanced motorcycles and engines even for the smallest motorcycles and sure you never did end up getting to see a 50cc twin revving past 20k on a production honda but it's the lessons learned in racing that would lead to their great production bikes both small and large the 50cc racing platform was essentially a testing ground for honda just to see how far they could stretch the multi-cylinder high revving concept motorcycles like the iconic cb450 cb750 cb 354 the cbx all of these bikes came directly from the tech that was built in the 60s for their race bikes i think so many manufacturers today worry so much about profitability and really wanting to see a direct correlation between their r d and sales so for example manufacturers now will build a new platform take triumph's smaller triple platform for the trident and now tiger or aprilia's 660 platform showing itself in all sorts of new bikes yamaha's mt07 platform i mean i understand why manufacturers do this but it's such a different approach than what honda was doing in the 60s i don't think that honda knew that decades down the road that they would use the lessons learned from the technology built to make specific production bikes i mean you look at the six cylinder race bike from honda i think it's the rc 166 from the 60s literally from the 60s that bike was the precursor to the big honda cbx of the late 70s so we're talking more than a decade on they basically took a specific kind of motorcycle and made a very similar yet very different bike that wouldn't be possible without that first bike but i don't think that was planned i think is what i'm trying to say no other experiment really shows this more than the little high revving 50cc rc 115 and 116. there's no obvious reason in the 60s to produce something like this other than wanting to win and build the craziest best motorcycles in the world but honda wouldn't be the company that they are today without the 1960s many point to the 70s with the gray production bikes of the 70s like you know the cb750 these are bikes that took down entire industries in a way and made honda the motorcycle and ultimately car and lawn mower and weed eater and rototiller giant that they are well all of that goes back to the work done in the 60s building powerful reliable oil tight innovative engines that are virtually indestructible honda's first car was a ridiculously high revving little crazy machine as well and without that first car we wouldn't have all of honda's automobiles going forwards what i see in honda from this era that i just don't see in many motorcycle manufacturers today is a willingness to really try things even if the payout isn't clear so many companies not all of them but it feels like many of the motorcycle companies today are just overrun by bean counters and it's clear when you walk into a dealership it's just like all the soul is just gone you know it's like modern cars so many modern motorcycles feel like cars they don't feel like they were born from you know a mind of a great designer or engineer feels like they were just sort of made on a computer and when a company pulls out a bike from a platform from eight or ten years ago and just repurposes it i don't know it's hard to get excited about stuff like that now i personally don't care if my car is boring but don't make me a boring motorcycle the whole point of motorcycling is it's fun make me a motorcycle born out of passion one that might even take 10 years just to design you know the envy augusta f4 750 that envy a goose to basically relaunched their company with it took massimo tamborini like seven years just to design the motorcycle just to create the outline of what the bike was supposed to be motorcycles are already inherently senseless modes of transportation they don't really make sense so stop trying to make them make sense it's interesting the dealership here in beaverton has an incredible collection of classic motorcycles british japanese italian it's really unbelievable and all of the classics in the dealership sit up around the new bikes that are for sale and i can't help it every time i go into that dealership even if i'm not wanting to look at the old bikes i find myself distracted away from the new bikes to all these great old bikes i mean they're literally sitting above the new bikes i don't know if they're trying to say something there but it feels like they are maybe they're just saying don't touch them but it's hard not to see the difference sure there are modern motorcycles that really are beautiful and amazing all motorcycles are just inherently fun and cool in and of themselves just because they're on two wheels like there aren't really bad motorcycles but man those old ones they just have so much more soul and character maybe that's just me and yes it's a shame there wasn't ever a 50cc twin production bike revving to 20 000 rpms guess for now we'll all just have to settle for pocket bikes [Music] you

Channel: bart

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Keywords: bart, motorcycle, motorcycles, vintage, retro, classic, top 10, top, best, moto, bike, motorbike, the 50cc motorcycle with a top speed of 118 mph in the 1960s, 50cc, honda, honda rc, rc, rc116, honda rc116, rc115, rc166, rc142, honda racebike, race, motorcycle racing, racing history, history, most powerful, craziest motorcycles, motorcycle engines, greatest, greatest engines, fastest, top speed, suzuki, 2 stroke, gp, motogp, grand prix, 1960s, yamaha, ducati, italian, mv agusta, cb750, cb350, honda cb

Id: GfG9OIC5ywM

Length: 16min 44sec (1004 seconds)

Published: Sun May 22 2022