10 Of The Most Incredible MotoGP Bikes Ever Made

There's been some pretty wild thinking in Grand Prix racing

Manufacturers enter racing to win: it's as simple as that. 'Win on Sunday, Sell on Monday' is the old mantra, and it has proven to work in the past. But also, racing is a cauldron of innovative thinking that, if the ideas work, can give a manufacturer the ‘unfair advantage’ and the technology might also drip down to production machinery.

For every good idea, however, there are dozens of misguided ideas that have not merely been dead-ends but have often been completely screwball. Then there are the ideas that have been so successful (or so expensive) that they have forced the governing bodies of motorsport to re-write the rule books and place restrictions on what is allowed and what isn't. Here's our pick of the ten most incredible, most innovative ideas in motorcycle Grand Prix racing, even if, in the final reckoning, some of them were not quite as successful as their creators might have wished.

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In the 1960s, Honda was on some sort of engineering crusade, aiming - and succeeding - to win in every class of Grand Prix racing class it entered, which in those days comprised 50cc, 125cc, 250cc, 350cc and 500cc Grand Prix categories. For the 50cc Ultra Lightweight class, Honda produced a marvel of miniature engineering: a parallel twin cylinder engine which produced around 16 horsepower at 22,500 rpm, driving through a nine-speed transmission!

The crankshaft/connecting rod/piston assembly fitted easily into the palm of a hand. Just as incredible was Honda's decision to fit bicycle-type rim brakes, acting on the aluminum rim flanges, in order to save weight of a conventional brake hub. With a top speed of well over 100 mph but little torque, and therefore, dire acceleration, maybe the idea was to not brake at all?

Again, the mid-1960s demonstrated the win-or-bust attitude of Honda. Coming under increasing pressure from Yamaha and Suzuki, who were running two-stroke engines in the smaller Grand Prix classes, Honda reckoned that the only way to match the two-strokes on power with their four-stroke engines was to increase the number of cylinders.

Thus was born the incredible RC166, with a 250cc six-cylinder inline engine, producing 60 horsepower at 18,000 rpm. With this, Mike Hailwood won the 1966 250cc world championship and then, in 1967, won the 250cc title again, and riding a 297cc version, with 65 horsepower, he won the 350cc title as well. The F.I.M., the governing body of motorcycle sport, seriously alarmed at the sheer cost of developing such engines and realizing that not many other companies could match it, put regulations in place limiting the number of cylinders a given engine capacity could have and Honda's reign was over: figuring they had won everything, they pulled out of racing at the end of the 1967 season.

If the concept of an oval-pistoned, four combustion chambered ‘V8’ 500cc racing engine, with 32 valves, eight connecting rods and revving to 20,000 rpm wasn't bold enough for its return to top-level motorcycle racing, Honda also demonstrated its ability to throw money at a project by equipping the NR500 with monocoque construction, side-mounted radiators flush with the bodywork and a thin, clear vertical lip for a windshield.

Honda was determined to demonstrate that four-stroke engines were the way forward which, of course, they eventually would be, but in the late 70s/early 80s, the two-stroke was still king in Grand Prix racing and Honda had to relent and join the gang, with typically devastating success, it has to be said.

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While monocoque construction has been common in cars - both road and racing - for many decades, it is not a concept that has ever gained much traction in motorcycling. With the strength and lightness of carbon fiber and the manner of construction, the concept is starting to become more popular these days for racing machinery, but in the 80s, aluminum was still the material of choice.

Kawasaki created a monocoque of sorts in the early 80s, where the gas tank formed the main structure of the chassis, with the steering head and swing arm pivot welded directly to it. The fact that it didn't really work is evidenced by later versions which had an aluminum backbone chassis with a separate gas tank.

Same name, completely different bike. By 1983, Honda had given in and entered its first two-stroke, winning the title in the hands of Freddie Spencer - the company's first since the 60s. But Honda hadn't completely given up on four-stroke technology and the amazing oval-pistoned engine remained in this prototype, by now constructed largely of titanium and magnesium.

The chassis, however, demonstrated even more of that win-at-any-cost thinking that defined Honda. Virtually every chassis element - frame, swing arm, fork tubes, wheels and the brake discs - were constructed from carbon fiber. That it didn't work was evidenced by the fact that Honda didn't race it, but what a lot of money to throw at a concept.

The French petroleum giant, Elf, poured huge amounts of money into French driver and rider development in the 70s, not without success - remember a driver called Alain Prost? He was an Elf graduate. On two wheels, Elf funded one of the most technologically ambitious programs in 500cc Grand Prix racing, attempting to perfect hub-center steering as an alternative to telescopic forks.

British rider Ron Haslam was tasked with developing the bikes, which used Honda engines in radical chassis of Elf's own design and manufacture. Not only was the technology radical, but also the looks of the bikes. Ultimate success eluded the team but not before untold millions of Francs had been spent and tens of thousands of testing miles completed. Nothing since has attempted to challenge the established way of doing things with quite so much determination.

If the 2002 RS Cube (see below) showed that Aprilia wasn't afraid to think outside the box, then that trait was also evident in the preceding two-stroke era. Again, minimum weight rules played a part, with twin-cylinder motorcycles running in the 500cc class being allowed to weigh a huge 25 kg (55 pounds) less than four-cylinder engined models. Also, it had been shown that qualifying times for 250cc-class motorcycles were faster than the 500cc-class bikes, largely due to their superior cornering speeds.

Thus, Aprilia bored out their 250cc engine to 410cc and entered 500cc races. The only problem was that the four-cylinder 500cc engines were too fast in a straight line, meaning they disappeared into the distance on the straights and prevented the twin-cylinder bikes from using their superior cornering speed by simply blocking them. Brave thinking on Aprilia's part, but this time, David couldn't beat Goliath.

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By the time four-strokes returned to Grand Prix racing in 2002, everyone, from the governing body (the FIM) to all its rivals knew that Honda would stick at nothing and try anything to maintain its winning ways. That is why the rules were very carefully written, trying to envisage what Honda might get up to based on what it had tried before.

That Honda entered the new era with a V5 engine is well known, but what is more remarkable is that, even today, details of what was going on inside the engine are scarce and open to conjecture. Some rumors had the two rear cylinders having a different bore and stroke to the front three cylinders, while others claimed an unusual firing order but what is certain is that the RC211V (the name comes from the bike being the first model of the 21st century) was immediately successful and carried Valentino Rossi to three consecutive MotoGP titles.

When MotoGP went four-stroke from 2002-onwards, Honda showed that using an odd number of cylinders - five, in this case - could work. Aprilia took notice and decided that three cylinders would be a good move, allowing it to run 10 kg (22 pounds) less, the same as a twin-cylinder engined motorcycle.

With around 240 horsepower, believed to be the most powerful on the grid, Aprilia knew it would have to rely on advanced electronics, such as ride-by-wire throttle and traction control, to tame it. The only problem was that 2002-era electronics weren't very good and the Aprilia was, by all accounts, a beast to ride. The project was quietly dropped in 2004, and it is ironic that such electronic sophistication is now commonplace on even the most mundane road motorcycles.

You have to get up early and enjoy a large budget to beat the likes of Honda and Yamaha factory teams. But Kenny Roberts was nothing if not one to do things his own way and punch way above his small team's weight. When MotoGP went to 990cc four-stroke engines in 2002, teams were still allowed to run 500cc two-strokes as an interim measure. This is what Roberts did, enabling him to see which of the new 990cc concepts was working best. This turned out to be Honda's V5, so Roberts set about creating his own V5 engine - brave or foolish, you decide! Suffice to say, it didn't work, and the team went first to a KTM V4 and then, ironically, Roberts bought Honda V5 engines, with which the team scored its final podiums.

Harry has been writing and talking about motorcycles for 15 years, although he's been riding them for 45 years! After a long career in music, he turned his hand to writing and television work, concentrating on his passion for all things petrol-powered. Harry has written for all major publications in South Africa, both print and digital and produced and presented his own TV show called, imaginatively, The Bike Show, for seven years. He held the position of editor of South Africa's largest circulation motorcycling magazine before devoting his time to freelance writing on motoring and motorcycling. Born and raised in England, he has lived in South Africa with his family since 2002. Harry has owned examples of Triumph, Norton, BSA, MV Agusta, Honda, BMW, Ducati, Harley Davidson, Kawasaki and Moto Morini motorcycles. He regrets selling all of them.