Gadgetory

Mickey Hayden is one of the world's fastest men on two wheels wearing the number 69 the Kentucky kid is won championships at nearly every level on the way up including the pinnacle of the sport MotoGP this year he's moving on to World Superbike where he's going to be racing a production-based Honda cbr1000rr atern to the beginning of his career where he was racing real bikes real fast to take a look at some of the iconic motorcycles that have defined his career American Honda's opened the door to their private collection we've booked a little track time with mr Hayden himself all right we've got Nicky Hayden on the pit wall and a couple of pretty good-looking bikes back there behind us now you're telling me earlier that's the hunt RC 45 you were riding that in high school is that right yeah first ever super bike I ever ridden I remember riding that for the first time at Willow Springs remember rolling out onto the track and just feeling the power and how smooth it went through the gear so a few few things have changed since then but that was a great experience for me this is a 1994 Honda RC 45 also known as the rvf 750 750 is the displacement of the engine a 750 cc V for this bike was meant to go racing and indeed Honda only ever sold 200 of the things just enough to qualify for production-based Superbike competitions only 50 RC 45s came to the US and this is one of them a bike that spends most of his time locked away in the American Honda Museum a bike like this would make for Niki Hayden's first entry into professional Superbike racing yeah was a good period for me it was my first year with Honda and that was a good opportunity one American the 600 Super Sport title that year on 600 and was the beginning of something special for me as sue looks fantastic I love the twin headlights I think that is such an iconic look I kind of miss it to be honest with you within the domestic AMA series it's not unusual for riders to race in both the Superbike and the slightly slower super sports series meaning multiple races per weekend on a CBR 600 Nicky Hayden won his first AMA championship in 1999 and this is the bike he rode in 2000 which still bears his number 1 championship winning plate Nicky would continue racing in AMA through the new millennium and this would be his new Superbike this is a production version of Nicky's RC 51 a 999 CC v-twin bigger and more powerful than RC 45 it replaced on a bike very much like this one he would win the 2002 AMA Superbike Championship and be propelled onto the international stage with a MotoGP ride starting in 2003 Nikki would spend most of his MotoGP career riding some variation of this bike a honda rc211v a prototype machine is custom-built for racing from the ground up and is powered by 990 CC v5 the bike weighs just 326 pounds that's 100 less and a road-going Superbike it makes somewhere around 250 horsepower it's quite a ride a ride that would carry Niki to his MotoGP championship in 2006 yeah did 13 years in MotoGP you know got the title I really wanted and had a lot of obstacles every buddy wants yeah some good days very thankful for the opportunity was an amazing experience to ride those bikes on those tracks in front of those crowds and you know I got now an opportunity to move to World Superbike I'm 34 now and I'm very happy to keep racing and get this opportunity and yeah it's you know after a while I think a change is good and to be back with this team and everything I got I got a good fresh start so looking forward to try to have some fun I always have been a fan of super bikes ultimate goal would be to try to win the World Superbike Championship with Honda as well and be the first rider to ever have both grounds as Niki moves on to World Superbike racing he'll be riding a machine much like this it's a box fresh cbr1000rr showing two decades worth of advancement over that earlier RC 45 despite only having a 250 cc advantage over that older bike who makes around 175 horsepower that's nearly twice as much as an early 90s super low but it also adds modern suspension and lots of other niceties you didn't get back in the 90s but you can't deny the RC 45 had a better paint job and those twin headlights are nothing short of iconic so we got 20 years worth of Superbike progress sitting behind us obviously a lot of change between the two v4 versus an inline 4 a lot more horsepower to move back I think silly 500 horsepower something like that how did won't tell us for sure but I think it's something like that what do you think is a big change other than the engine between these two suspension is a setup well I mean just sitting on it you already feel the position is more racy a little bit more like full race bike where that one kind of feels like a street bike where that one feel I mean the ride position is very similar to my CBR on the new book yeah on the new one I would say that and the weight you know is a big thing and how narrow it is but it's cool to see I mean you know you can just sit there and step back and see how far the technologies came and all the little refinements climbing on the back of a bike like this especially after watching some nici flying around the track you really appreciate just how good these guys are it's a bike that wants to throw its front wheel in the sky with every twist of the throttle and spin the rear tire up coming out of every turn getting the most out of the bike like this takes incredible skill and competence what's the difference between that guy and the bike that you're gonna be racing on the season well I mean my bike that's the base you know they as you say they take a production bike and a lot of the rules have to stay the same obviously with the frames and different things but they can modify obviously the suspension can be modified but you know you can't change a lot of stuff yeah the engine can be hopped up with different nothing believe it's Pistons and different things and electronics you know we can work a lot with those and adjustment but the bike must be as you say production and any part we use paint the prototype you have to be able to PI buy it and there's even a price cap on it so keeps it fair for some of the teams that they can't go out and buy it you know $200,000 suspension setting that you know nobody else in the paddock can afford so I kind of like that part of it you know in MotoGP in the last year's the difference between the factories and the supportive teams got so big that was took a little fun out of it so in Superbike they're closing that gap well they keep a great privilege hanging out with you the track I wish you the best of luck this year I hope you have a lot of great success and I hope you have a lot of fun out there other tracks all right well thanks for having me out here and yeah I'm looking forward to a new season you know like I say very fortunately to keep going on right now you know still like racing I still have a lot of support especially here in America and yeah let's go have some fun in a lot of ways World Superbikes is a pure form of motorsport it's certainly a lot closer the bikes that you and I can buy anyway and if Nikki plays his cards right this season he could become the first man to win both the MotoGP and the World Superbike championships I for one wouldn't bet against him you