Cycle News Staff | August 19, 2016
Article courtesy of Honda Financial Services. Learn how to finance your next Honda powersports product HERE.
Today, it is hard to envision a Grand Prix grid filled with 50cc racing machines capable of exceeding 100 mph. But for decades, the 50cc GP class was one of the most fiercely contested, a class that inspired Honda to dream up some tasty technology indeed.
You can read it in Cycle News Digital Edition by clicking HERE.
In 1962, the 50cc class was granted World Championship status, and by the mid-1960s, the two-stroke competition in the class had become truly formidable. Some of the two-strokes resorted to 18-speed gearboxes, a necessity when achieving peak power resulted in a powerband only 50 rpm wide.
Honda had been racing in the 50cc class without a championship until 1965, when the company won the title on an RC115, the immediate predecessor of the RC116 seen here. Compared to the two-strokes, the four-stroke RC116 was considerably easier to ride, with so much power on tap that it needed “only” a nine-speed box. With two cylinders, it shared bore-and-stroke numbers with the five-cylinder RC149 but revved even higher, to an astronomical 22,500 rpm.
Look closely at the RC116 and you’ll see the front brake is not a disc, not even a drum, but a rim-friction bicycle-type caliper brake. And in like form, the tires look more like they belong on a bicycle than on a motorcycle. Just how did that front brake work? As one of the team technicians noted, “Those 50s didn’t need much brake. At the Spa circuit in Belgium, they only used their brakes twice per lap.” The key to going fast on a 50 was to never slow down.
With a weight of only 110 pounds, the RC116 was minimalism in motion, slim, light, aerodynamic, almost jewel-like in its execution, and capable of propelling a rider along at more than 109 mph.
Model: RC116
Year: 1966
Engine: DOHC four-stroke parallel-twin, four valves per cylinder
Bore and Stroke: 35.5 x 25.14mm
Displacement: 49.77cc
Output: 14 hp
Redline: 22,500
Compression Ratio: 12.0:1
Gearbox: Nine-speed
Dry Weight: 110.2 pounds
Top Speed: Over 109 mph
* From an interview for Honda Red Rider magazine in 2006.
