Been looking at RC 51s all day on flakes list !!! My favorite bike. !! I need to keep telling myself no I don't need one ! Lol I need to focus on my 54 conversion project!! I also want to turn my bike into a red and white 29 too!

 

One thing that helps is swiping your forehead with an empty wallet, works every time for me

If I could, I'd probly had one too... They're just ridiculosely expensive here, and my wrists probably couldn't hadle such a "racey" riding position for too long so I'd need another bike to ride for longer trips *wallet swipe*...

 

Lol yeah I'm going just be happy with what I have . My 29 has been awesome no problems! I plan on converting it to a 54. Then changing the wheels out & red and white farings . I need a red and white tank .

 

How much are sellers asking where you guys live? There's a '01 near me posted for $4500 w/ 32,000 kms on it.

 

you ever sat on one? or rode one?

when i was still on my f3 (but looking to get a bigger bike), the fort walton beach honda dealer actually had a 954 and an rc51 at the same time. right next to each other.


clearly, it's easy to see which route i chose...


the rc is rediculously fat. (twins should be skinny!) i know it's because of the radiators...but still.... and i hated how it felt like compared to the 954. the '54 just felt natural. the rc didn't feel like it was comfy. and maybe this is a nit-picky - but the fairing stay feels like it's in the way... and the gauges suck

i was a lot smaller then than i am now, so the rc51 may feel different to me now.









but i still want one.... i just can't justify the price.... if i could find a cheap one (and had the money), i'd pick it up in a second.
i still think the blades are better - but that doesn't mean that i wouldn't love to own an RC

 

After riding a 954, the RC51 is gonna feel slow. I went from an '01 R1 (pretty close in feeling to the '54) to an RC51 and I literally thought there was something wrong with the bike at first. Even though the bike isn't actually slow, you don't get that inline-4 rush up top. The stock suspension also sucks. It's better than most stock suspensions if you go with the '02+ SP2 models, but it's still not very good. It's also one of the most uncomfortable bikes I've ever ridden, but riser clip ons can fix that easily (or a dirt bike bar conversion like I did).

Now the good points. It sounds awesome, looks awesome, and typically has better "build quality" than your average CBR. It turns heads at bike nights (if you're into that sort of thing) and cops' ears don't perk up as much as they normally do for inline-4s. Back to that it feels slow thing. It only feels slow when you're getting off of an inline-4. They average around 70 ft/lbs which translates to just a steady climb in power.. i.e. freight train. I used mine as a track bike shortly before attempting a street fighter project and I gotta admit it was both scary to ride and fun as hell. If you ride it like a tame animal it's gonna kinda go wide, but if you hammer that throttle coming out of the apex, she rotates and fires off pretty well.

I like the gauges. Conrice sucks. :P

 

haha, it's funny i criticized the bar-tach because the gauges i put on the 980 are most likely going to have a bar-tach...


and hey, what do you mean attempted fighter project?

 

Yeah that nickey Haden edition is nice!! Oh well I need to just go on flakes list to find a oem red and white 29 fuel tank . No looking at RC 51s !

 

also check local forums. there was a guy on soflasportbikes who sold one for $3k 2 years ago... (not that i had the money... or do have the money...) the mileage was slightly high, but otherwise it was perfect.

you can find some deals!





get the tank though... (and check fireblades.org they have a ton of part out bikes)

 

Lol I don't have money eather . I actually need to buy bike stands and some extra tools ect. It would be irresponsible if I bought one . I dident look at them today lol