Motorcyclists are a well-read bunch. Despite the well-publicized travails of some mainstream magazine publishers, the niche market is booming. Every country with a reasonably large population seems to have an independent magazine devoted to custom or ?alt.moto? culture.
The latest entrant to this pleasingly busy market is Retro-RR from England. It?s a high-quality quarterly with 132 pages, celebrating bikes that were ridden or raced in the 80s and 90s.
We were so impressed with the launch edition, we asked if we could reproduce an abridged version of our favorite article?covering the mighty Honda RC30. Enjoy.

In an age of prosperity, huge tobacco sponsorship and an impending inaugural World Superbike championship, building a winner was the only thing that mattered to the mighty Honda Racing Corporation. In the late eighties the VFR750R?better known as the RC30?was a dream for engineers and designers. With all emphasis on creating a race-winning production machine with very little regard for the budget, the bike that spawned the term ?homologation special? was generously bestowed with magnesium and titanium.

Honda?s engineers already knew how to make a reliable V4 motor and, externally at least, the RC30 motor closely resembled the unit used in the road-going VFR750F. But now they had the opportunity to refine it further, make it lighter and increase the power ? to produce the ultimate four-stroke racing engine.
Based on the RVF endurance racer (not to be confused wi...