Human-Powered Honda

HUMAN-POWERED HONDA

Honda's racing arm, HRC, has successfully been campaigning this super-trick aluminumframed downhill mountain bike-dubbed the RN01-over the past season of the UCI World Cup Downhill race series. ______

While the alloy frame is trick and suspension custom Showa, the

centerpiece of the design is the internal gearbox mechanism located low in the frame that allows the bike to function sans front or rear dérailleurs. All shifting takes place inside the carbon-fiber-integrated aluminum housing.

What actually takes place is the most closely guarded secret of the $100,000-plus bike. In fact, the series sanctioning body demanded it be shown the internals to be certain the bike was actually human powered.

Says Honda Team Manager Martin Whiteley,

“This is strictly an R&D effort to provide trickle-up technology to our MotoGP and offroad motorcycle racing program. It’s my job to win races, but more importantly, we’re here to work with Honda on developing new technologies.”

Only time will tell if the combustion-powered world will benefit from 3/4-horsepower pedalpower.

Andrew Juskaitis