Honda's Secret Museum | Hidden Legacy

The genesis of SuperMotard, or SuperMoto, was in a one-off made for TV race held each year at Southern California’s Carlsbad Raceway in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s called “The Superbikers.” The idea was to pit racers from all disciplines against one another on a circuit that combined pavement, dirt track and motocross. American Steve Wise, a Honda factory motocross star, was asked to give it a go and he returned the favor with consecutive titles. Honda brass were impressed enough to offer the Texas native a full factory superbike ride.

When the AMA marshals ushered Wayne Rainey’s VFR through tech inspection in 1987 they most likely had no idea the lasting worldwide impact the young Californian was going to have on the sport in the coming years. The thin layer of dust that has settled only serves to compliment this remembrance of brilliant things past.

Miguel Duhamel’s 2001 Daytona Supersport-winning CBR–emblazoned with his famous number 17–sits alongside a replica of Dick Mann’s 1970 Daytona winning “Race Type” CB750. Of special note: Mann’s famous Honda went missing shortly after the historical win, so Honda commissioned the replica. The actual bike was discovered a few years ago in the suburbs of France.

When the AMA marshals ushered Wayne Rainey’s VFR through tech inspection in 1987 they most likely had no idea the lasting worldwide impact the young Californian was going to have on the sport in the coming years. The thin layer of dust that has settled only serves to compliment this remembrance of brilliant things past.

Texas dirt-track hot shoe, Don Wayne “Bubba” Shobert, piloted Honda’s factory RS750 to three consecutive Grand National Titles (this is the 1986 machine). Honda built the bike with one goal; to break the near perfect stranglehold Harley-Davidson had held on American flat track since 1954. Honda fought fire with fire, building an air-cooled 750cc twin with the exact bore and stroke of the Harleys.

This is the kind of racing heritage that is anonymously tucked away here, draped in drop cloths: Neil Hodgson’s 2009 Corona superbike, his 2008 Daytona 200 CBR600RR FX bike, and one of Jake Zemke’s machines (rumored to be the Miller race-winning bike that broke the Spies/Mladin/Suzuki dominance of the 2006 AMA Superbike season.

One of the most striking Superbike paint schemes in the AMA paddock in 2009 was Neil Hodgson’s Corona Extra-backed Honda. The lime green on yellow colors were highlighted with palm trees and slices of lime with a beer cap number plate backing. The Corona Superbike shares a piece of warehouse floor with Wayne Rainey’s 1987 AMA Superbike Championship-winning VFR.

Perhaps the true birth of modern Superbikes: the original Honda Interceptor. The dynamic combination of Fred Merkel and the VF/VFR machinery took the AMA Superbike title in 1984, 1985 and 1986. This is the machine “Flying Fred” rode to the championship in 1985. Its beautiful aesthetics of muscled race-prep betrays the bike’s 27 years of age.

The warehouse is so full of machines from Miguel Duhamel’s illustrious tenure at Honda that a section could be created just for him. This includes his 1991 Smokin’ Joes’ Championship-winning CBR600F2, his 2005 Formula Xtreme Championship-winning bike, and numerous other 600cc and 1000cc machines, all fitted with the height of technical wizardry and factory parts of the day.

Shades of things to come: In 1999 Honda had an all-new, aluminum-framed CBR600F4. Erion Honda put a young Kentuckian by the name of Nicky Hayden on it and together they clinched the AMA Supersport title. sr