Randy de Puniet wasn’t the only rider testing a new machine last Thursday and Friday at Motegi, Yamaha and Honda test riders were also present, and Hond for first time put on track their production racer that will be sold to private MotoGP teams next season.
Less than a week ago HRC Executive Vice President Shuhei Nakamoto in an interview with the official motogp.
com website had said that the bike was slightly behind schedule and they were still testing the engine on the dyno and then put the bike on track, but apparently the machine’s development was much farther than he stated if it got its first shakedown test just a few days after the interview.
The bike will not be fitted with pneumatic valves, while gearboxes will be conventional type and not the seamless gearbox technology used by the Repsol Honda Team.
Fuel tank capacity will be 24 litres in comparison with 20 on the official bikes and 12 engines will be available per season.
The bike will feature Showa suspension (as Alvaro Bautista has on RC213V) and probabaly Nissin brakes like Stefan Bradl has on his RC213V“The test results showed more than what we had expected, in particular with its running performance,” said HRC’s Shuhei Nakamoto.
“We are very pleased at this stage and we will announce more in the not too distant future.
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