The 6 Cylinder racebike that revved to 20k rpm in the 1960s

a while back I made a video about the 50cc high revving four-stroke Honda race bike from the 1960s known as the rc-116. [Music] [Applause] this was a tiny little 50cc twin that could speed past 100 miles per hour and as incredible as that little Powerhouse was the real Pinnacle of Honda's racing prowess in the 1960s comes in the form of this bike the RC 166. through the 1950s Japanese motorcycle manufacturers faced the same problem as the Japanese camera manufacturers prior to their Heyday they simply weren't trusted worldwide and the general public thought that they were unreliable unfortunately for Sony and Canon and Nikon there's no such thing as camera racing soichiro Honda saw a path forward for his Company Success would come if he could dominate on the biggest stage of motorcycle Grand Prix racing now this is a simple idea in theory but history would show for companies that it's really not that simple in practice creating a successful racing program has always been a bit of a Gamble and an expensive gamble as well but Mr Honda was convinced that this would be the path forward to massive growth for his company on March 24 1954 some five years after Honda's start as a Motorcycle company and in light of recent downturns in sales so Ichiro Honda made this declaration to his employees the time of opportunity has arrived I have reached the firm decision to enter the TT races next year never before has a Japanese entered this race with a motorcycle made in Japan it goes without saying that the winner of this race will be known across the globe but the same is also true for any vehicle that competes in the entire race safely let us bring together the full strength of Honda Motor Company to win through this glorious achievement the future of Honda Motor Company depends on this and the burden rests on your shoulders I want you to turn your surging enthusiasm to this task endure every trial and press through with all the minute demands of work and research making this your own chosen path the advances made by Honda motor company are the growth you achieve as human beings in your growth is what assures your Honda Motor Company its future now if you know anything about soichiro Honda you know that when he sets out to do something by freaking golly he does it but he quickly realized however that he may have spoken a bit quick whether it was Italians Envy Augusta or Great Britain's Norton the competition was stiff that same year Honda got to visit the Isle of Man and see just how impressive these race machines were and after seeing them he knew that he had no chance of being able to build the race bike that he wanted one that could actually compete and not be an embarrassment not only to his company but potentially his country on the world stage and he just had such a short amount of time to get these race bikes going the parts really just weren't available in Japan at this time as well he quickly returned to Europe and replaced most of his clothes that he brought with him with parts you know things like rev counters and carbs just so we could learn how these bikes worked now Honda did manage to scrounge up their first race prototype that same year but they were nowhere near ready to face the world in the Isle of Man and so Honda would not make it to the Isle of Man officially all the way until 1959 where they arrived with five Riders and five race bikes for the 125 CC class and this motorcycle was known as the rc-142 a double overhead cam four-stroke twin that really was quite impressive the bike weighed under 200 pounds it utilized the engine as a stressed member repped a six-speed gearbox initially the bikes being used for the Isle of Man had heads that only had two valves per cylinder but Honda quickly saw that this wasn't going to work so they flew in four valve heads already this motorcycle was worlds beyond anything Honda had dreamed of building up to this point but still far from really enough to compete though mz's Two Strokes were on the rise at this point and the Augusta was kind of the king of small high revving four strokes Honda's race bikes were reliable most of of them finished this year but they just weren't quite fast enough so it was back to the drawing board for the company Honda's first full-blown Venture Beyond two cylinders was found later in 1959 Honda announced at this time that they would be building a 250cc race bike basically the same version of their 125 also a four-stroke overhead cam with bevel drive but this would Mark a big move for the company because this bike designated the rc-160 would have two more cylinders so the early DNA of adding more cylinders to get more revs to ultimately get more power was there all the way back for the company in 1959. the problem with this early four-cylinder was that it didn't really rev any more than the twin they hadn't really figured out how to get things moving quicker the key features of Honda's race bikes leading up to the iconic bike that we're looking at today with a few exceptions Honda moved to making all of their race bikes have four valves per cylinder they all featured light alloy heads primary Gear Drive and then chain rear wheel drive now for 1960 individually none of the Honda Racers won but the company received third overall as a manufacturer which was quite impressive MV Agusta ruled the 250cc class with their high revving four strokes and MZ ruled the 125cc class with their little powerhouse two-strokes it's worth noting that at this point Honda's race bikes were revving to about 14 000 RPM now as Honda moved through the early 60s they began to dominate especially the smaller classes of Grand Prix racing taking both the individual titles in 125 and 250cc classes as well as the manufacturer's World title for 1961 and also going into the mid 60s Honda had moved their 125 250 and 350cc race platforms to all being four cylinders but at this point two-stroke racing technology was rapidly improving and Honda was beginning to focus on other Ventures as a company you know Formula One For example there were years where Honda would literally do nothing to update their bikes and they would still win the title in multiple classes but towards the end of the 1964 season it was becoming clear that Honda would not be able to take the 250 CC class so they decided to unveil a secret new race bike meant for the 65 season but you know it was ready a bit early so they used it for the last two races of 1964. this was the 3rc 164 and this was a six-cylinder race bike now right off the bat the six cylinder 250 was leading by quite a bit at Monza but the engine started to overheat leaving Honda with no choice but to slow the pace and ultimately leaving Yamaha to take their first title now this six-cylinder race bike was essentially the same configuration as Honda's current four-cylinder race bikes power was around 54 horsepower at 17 000 RPM and the bike itself was quite narrow for having six cylinders not really any wider than their four cylinders though Honda would dominate the 50cc class that year the 125 and 250cc classes would go the way of the two strokes at this point in 1965 the secret six cylinder 250 that had been unveiled at the end of the 64 season now known as the rc-165 it was slightly updated but still only made about 56 horsepower and revved again to 17 000 RPM as the shocking and wonderful Power Band of the little racing two-strokes continued to sort of move their way up the Grand Prix classes from the smallest and then obviously throughout history we would see two strokes dominate every class Honda knew that if they were going to fend off the two strokes they would need to do something drastic if they wanted to once again dominate those smaller classes so this brings us to 1966 arguably the standout year for Honda in its entire history or really any manufacturer's history at least in terms of overall results for all classes Honda managed to to take the manufacturer's title in every single class from the little 50cc screamers all the way up to the big 500cc basically you know the Moto GP of its time and they won three of those titles no other company since has dominated from the top to the bottom in any given season this year Mike Halewood would also jump over to Honda not only to the 350cc class but also to the 250cc class on board the all-new version of this ridiculous six-cylinder RC 165 which had now been designated the RC 166 massive improvements brought the six cylinder 250cc bike all the way up to 65 horsepower with a red line of 20 000 RPM sure Honda's little 50cc two-cylinder race bike was revving up almost to 22 000 RPM at this point but what's so insane is that Honda could do this with so much going on I mean six cylinders revving that high the sound is just magical [Music] oh foreign [Applause] little package was housed six just minute cylinders with four cams and 24 valves that you know were pretty much the size of like pencil erasers just minuscule oil passages as narrow as half a millimeter in diameter at certain points many of the internal components were so small and so thin that they could be bent by hand but they also could withstand 300 plus spins per second the engine itself could be blipped from a few thousand RPM up to 20 000 in a moment and if you did it wrong and you weren't careful you could just destroy the entire engine instantly this lightweight little six-cylinder race bike could power past 150 miles per hour and often did on the racetrack on board the all-new screaming six-cylinder four-stroke Mike Halewood would take 10 of the 11 races that year in the 250cc class and the only reason he didn't win that single race was because he'd already competed in two different classes that day and so he couldn't race halfway through the season the title was already his because he'd won everything Haywood would take the title in the 250 CC class again in 1967 again on board the six-cylinder RC 166 but this would Mark the final season for the high revving condos the company decided to leave racing after leaving their Mark the future would ultimately be in the hands of the two strokes really only to be taken down later as the rules changed as quickly as Honda had burst onto the Grand Prix racing scene they also left it but they had left their Mark and one has to wonder what the future could have been for Honda's high revving four strokes when Honda would return to racing they would take a completely different tactic that really didn't end up working and you wonder what another you know five years of developing these high revving race bikes could they have made motorcycle engines that revved even further but really Honda had shown that a company could with very little time and really no experience jump head first into this thing that we call Grand Prix racing and not only make massive strides but also just do things completely different than everybody else what really sets Honda apart is the amount of time it took for them to go from really having no clue how to make a Performance Machine you know they were pretty much making Cubs at this point in the late 50s and making all their money off just little utilitarian machines to then designing and building race bikes like the world had never seen at that point nothing like the high revving four strokes from Honda existed on the racetrack prior to them coming to it in a few years they went from having never built a race bike to ousting companies like Envy Augusta in the smaller classes companies that had so much more experience in racing because they really were because their bikes just simply were more advanced more sophisticated sure the growth of two-stroke racing Tech is also meteoric but that came mostly from West Germany in the technology that was stolen from there and from mzed and I've detailed you know that whole story of mz's development of racing two-strokes and of course it is impressive the way that they were able to get more power out of Two Strokes but Honda's high revving four strokes they really were the stuff of the future like you know 50 years into the future and again the fact that they got to this point so quick looking back at Honda in say 1958 just versus say 1962. I mean those four years of growth in racing technology are somewhat like looking back at Ed Sheeran singing at the age of 14 versus 18. I think that Honda's history as a motorcycle racing company and how they overcame the competition through the 1960s it's really helpful for understanding the company today because if you've watched Moto GP for the past few years you know that once again Honda finds itself against the ropes in Grand Prix racing and especially at the very top where there's just such a small margin of error it certainly doesn't help that their star seems better at yeeding himself than winning races until last year their rc213v had become quite outdated ducati's seemingly dominate The Grid with their patented L4 engine it seems no matter how good the rider is aboard the Honda the Ducatis are just faster everywhere but with how fast these motorcycles are and how consistently lap records are broken every single week it's hard to Fathom any manufacturer coming out with any bit of meaningful advancement over the next few years it also doesn't help that sport bike sales have been in Decline for well over a decade the goal of winning to grow in terms of development like we see in soichiro Honda's original speech to his employees you know being able to build your production sales worldwide through racing that route made sense in the 60s for Honda but it really doesn't seem to make sense today though still the dominant force in motorcycle production Honda faces the same question is racing the path forward Moto GP and of course Formula One are growing Sports in and of themselves but the line between wins on Sunday and sales on Monday is kind of more blurry than it's ever been in history you know people aren't really buying sport bikes and I'm certainly not going to just go buy a Grom because Mark Marquez you know somehow takes the title and it's interesting you know the similarities between a Moto GP bike and a production sport bike are much more obvious than for example a Formula One car and whatever Top End sports car that is available from you know Porsche or whatever manufacturer as a pure racing sport most who've watched both MotoGP and formula one will agree that Moto GP is I guess more competitive to watch and kind of more of a pure racing sport though Formula One cars are technically quite a bit faster I think that it is okay for companies to recognize that times do change in what you invest millions and millions of dollars in kind of does have to adapt just because making a big bet on growing and developing the absolute fastest most powerful most advanced motorcycles in the world just because that works at one point doesn't mean it'll work today you know one could argue that in today's market Honda might be better off investing just a few million in a bike that looks back you know versus spending a few hundred million on bikes that look forward you know a good retro bike maybe they're out to go instead of a sport bike for the track but you know Honda's Venture into racing did so much more for them through the 60s and then the 70s then you know just make high performance motorcycles Honda's ability to make the ultimate touring bikes in the CB750 and the Gold Wing comes in many ways from those high revving four strokes Honda's ability to make reliable engines definitely comes back from those reliable race bikes you know if you can make a race bike that can rev to 20 000 RPM reliably you definitely can handle one that revs to say seven thousand Honda's car business as well owes so much to those original race bikes I think that you don't always know how racing will impact your business and you know what else sometimes it's just fun to win

Channel: bart

Views: 365,151

Keywords: bart, motorcycle, motorcycles, vintage, retro, classic, triumph, top, best, moto, bike, motorbike, honda rc166, rc166, honda racebike, motogp, motogp history, the 6 cylinder racebike from the 1960s that revved to 20k rpm, 20k rpm, honda history, honda racebike history, honda rc, rc, grand prix, mike hailwood, history of honda, suzuki, 2 stroke, 4 stroke, greatest motorcycles, fastest motorcycles, greatest honda motorcycles, soichiro honda

Id: GXIxg8IsUPI

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Sat May 20 2023