[Closed] Weird Downhill Prototype Thing

Old Honda DH rig, thats their 'amazing' gearbox. Only ran it for a couple of seasons.

its a gearbox,

and i think thats an old pic as they have stopped racing DH and i dont think they have started again.

Honda RN01 DH bike originally introduced in 2004 (!) - never available to buy

[img] [/img]

I remember the 'secrecy' surrounding the gearbox, but didn't it just turn out to be an enclosed cassette kinda set up???

The basic principle was a casette in a box (not such a bad idea), but there was so much to it with it's trick Showa forks and rear shock etc. Awesome bike! Rumour is they scrapped them all when Honda Racing was no more.

Im sure i saw one for sale somewhere for about 15k, cant remember where tho. You just wouldn't would you tho, you'd have to make your own spares!

A stolen one turned up on eBay a while back...

I do like the mirror look of it.. But that gearbox, it actually looks like you could put an engine in there. I think youd end up explaining to everyone what it actually is (and that its not a really quiet engine)

I've had a bounce on that bike, gearbox just felt like gears but the Showa forks were so nice!

I'm surprised showa didn't carry on into general mtb fork making, or are they a subsidiary of honda??? I'm also waiting for Brembo to get into mtb brakes!!

Brembo did make mtb discs, they were about £500 an end

So they stopped?? Mind you 500 a corner i bet they didnt sell in buckets!

Dunno, saw one review of them and never saw a pair in real life.

[img] [/img]

http://www.brembo.com/ENG/Racing-Brakes/Mountain+Bikes/

[img] [/img]

http://www.descent-world.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=523&Itemid=82

*Fully floating, 203mm diameter rotors
*2mm thick tempered stainless steel rotors
* Double 24mm tianium pistons
*CNC machined caliper
*Forged lever body
*Adustable lever reach
*Limited edition of 250 brake sets per year, worldwide.

£395 (per brake)

http://www.skillbikes.co.uk/

The Honda's were pretty much scrapped, even team riders couldnt keep a copy. They pulled the plug all of a sudden, so it was almost like they came in, proved they could hire amazing riders, put them on a bike that rides very well and is unique whilst kicking ass then once they had some victories under their belt pull the plug, just because they can.

They dont look nearly as nice as Hope, but i'd suggest they may brake better! For 395 tho i'd want ABS too.

One rumour I heard bandied about was that the DH race bike/team was an experiment to develop lightweight componentry for MX bikes and to push the envelope in terms of casting, again to filter down to their MX bikes.

For 4 or 5k I reckon you could build something better.

For 4 or 5k I reckon you could build something better.

i suspect the likes of spesh and giant know more about bikes and have bigger development budgets than 4-5k!

I never believed they were in it to develop their motorcycles, if so, why not build lighter motorcycles and test those? I recon it was purely a training excercise for their engineers/mechanics.

By all accounts the shock was good at absorbing the bumps, but was an absolute dog to pedal, they were running a lockout at one point!

Minnaar still has his apparently.

[img] ?v=0[/img]

I recon the Honda tech's were just playing with all you DHMXwannabes. 😉

If you look back to some of the out there stuff Honda has tried out on their propper bikes you'd see this is just a little bet to keep them amused. 😆

thisisnotaspoon

i suspect the likes of spesh and giant know more about bikes and have bigger development budgets than 4-5k!

Er, yeah. What I meant was you could [i][b]buy[/b][/i] a pretty customised dh bike that would be better than the honda in many ways.

Awesome bikes and I love the fact that they just did it as a technical excercise, added a bit of pantomine to the DH circuit to. Whatever people may think of them they proved quite sucsessful.

so will Ross Braun start a DH team next year with the modified Honda design and clean up?

rOcKeTdOg - Member
so will Ross Braun start a DH team next year with the modified Honda design and clean up?

Only if Branson can chat up the leading rider's girlfriend.