Would you swap an RVF400 NC35 for an RVT1000 RC51??

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big stink
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Bike owned: 89 nc30 2001 sp1 2x 86 c90s
Re: Would you swap an RVF400 NC35 for an RVT1000 RC51??

Post by big stink » Tue Jun 19, 2012 5:39 pm

The sp is a far superior machine. Do it, you wont regret it!

BiKenG
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Re: Would you swap an RVF400 NC35 for an RVT1000 RC51??

Post by BiKenG » Sat Mar 09, 2019 7:16 pm

CMSMJ1 wrote:
Tue Jun 12, 2012 9:56 am
RC51 is an SP1 by any other name

RC52 was the SP2

Depends if you want a newer, bigger bike? I'd not swap my NC30 for one...but my bike is a very good friend and I could be without. I'd possibly swap my other bikes though...
Old thread but I can ignore such errors.

The first VTR1000 was the FireStorm. Then Honda produced another version for World SuperBike racing and which is basically completely different. The cam drive method and layout are different. In the US this was the RVT1000, which made huge sense, in the UK and many other places it was the VTR1000, which didn't. It had the SP moniker but really, why use the same model name in the first place. To make matters worse, in the US they wanted a name that tied it in to the RC30 and RC45 heritage and chose RC51. The problem with this is that RC30 and RC45 were the real model code names of those bikes, just like NC30 and NC35 etc. The 400 cc capacity requiring the 'N' and 750 cc capacity needing the 'R'. However, the new RVT was 1000cc and hence it had to be an 'S'. It's model name was actually SC45, so American Honda made up the RC51 name. It has NO significance whatsoever.

Since the RVT debuted in 2000, here it was actually the VTR1000SP-Y, the 'Y' being the year code. So in 2001 it became the SP-1. But Honda chose to name it the SP-1 which only coincided with it's real name for 2001. In 2002, they actually revised the model and called it the SP-2, which was the correct name for that year. However it remained known as the SP-2 even when it really became the SP-3, SP-4 and so one until they stopped production. I think the last ones were SP-7.

But that's not in the US where it was always the RVT1000 RC51, with no way to distinguish between what the rest of the world knew as SP-1 and SP-2.

So, all in all, complete mess.They really should have used the same names worldwide e.g. RVT1000SP- with the annual year designation on the end to be sure everyone knows which variant they mean, just like all the other models.

Oh, and there was NO RC52.


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