What's Up With Honda?

WHAT'S UP WITH HONDA?

HAVE A LOOK AT THESE photographs, which purport to show a shocking new Honda. It has two obviously four-stroke cylinders at the front of the vee, but a single twostroke cylinder (with expansion chamber) at the rear. What? Is this a three-stroke, single-crank hybrid, with the off-the-bottom smoothness of a four-stroke and the acceleration of a two-stroke?

Or is it a tabloid two-headed baby, made in photoshop by a computer artist? Here’s my 2 cents: The four-stroke needs to rev to 15,000 rpm to make power, while a GP two-stroke cylinder signs off at 13,000 rpm. And look at that rear “cylinder.” It’s sitting on top of what would otherwise be the head deck of the rear four-stroke cylinder pair. To reach the two-stroke piston, the con-rod vi/nnlrl ViíWf» tr» be 8

inches

long! Nope, it’s a fake, a composite of two images.

Seriously, though, we’ve been crowding around the CW seismograph, studying the tremors being emitted from the Japanese archipelago. For those who expect (nay, pine) for a VFive production bike, the signals say Honda is actually closer to market with a radical new inline-Four “of greater than 600cc capacity.” This is code for a CBR954RR replacement. Honda engineers are so pleased with the concept of engine mass centralization-derived from their experience with the new four-stroke RC211 V-that they decided to see what could be done for the otherwise wide and ponderous traditional inline. Rumor has it that heavy parts such as primary and cam drives, plus accessories, will be moved to the center of the engine. With central drive, the crank, cases and cams could be made significantly lighter at the outer ends-possibly even by deleting outer bearings. The goal of this construction, so goes the argument, is a much more “flickable” motorcycle, one that responds instantly to steering inputs.

Not so strange to say, this is just how Soichiro Irimajiri designed Mike Hailwood’s fabled 250cc six-cylinder GP bike of the late 1960s. Its engine was extremely narrow, primary and cam drives were central, and it carried its large ignition generator behind the cylinder. Even its crankpins had stepped diameters-the outer ones being the smallest, the inners the largest. Might history repeat itself?

Kevin Cameron