Source: Bike Bound
Like Shaving with a Chainsaw: David Howard Racing builds a 500cc Grand Prix bike…for the road.
In the modern era of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, nothing can compare to the dominance of the Honda NSR500, which won ten 500cc World Championships between 1984 and 2002. The mighty two-stroke V4 racer would be the weapon of legendary champions such as Freddie Spencer, Eddie Lawson, Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan, and Valentino Rossi:
“The NSR won seven of the last eight two-stroke championships, bringing Honda’s total to 12 in 20 years, along with 12 constructor titles. Honda two-strokes won 146 GPs, all but 14 of them with the fin de siècle V4.” —Goodwood
However, like most 500cc GP bikes of the era, the NSR was nigh unrideable, giving the rider almost zero margin for error. Max Wakefield, owner of the street-legal NSR replica you see here, puts it this way:
“In the ‘90s, 500cc GP bikes were like shaving with a chainsaw. This generation of GP bike evoked the same danger and glamour of ‘60s F1 cars…. Since this period in racing, the machines are safety razors, sharper and more efficient but not as chaotic.”
Though his racing days are largely behind him, Max still has a penchant for street-legal race bikes:
“I still want racing machines like a cavalry officer wants to give his warhorse a loving retirement and take him for a ride once in a while. It follows, I need race machines with road registration so I can use them on high days and holidays.”
Hence the road-legal NSR you see here, which features a one-off chassis from Britain’s FTR Moto, builders of the Moto2, Moto3, and even MotoGP frames from 2009-2012. Max procured the bike as an unfinished project and handed it over to two-stroke race replica maestro David Howard of David Howard Racing.
The work is dizzying, including genuine NSR carbon kevlar bodywork, carbon wheels, SP1 forks with magnesium yokes, an RG500 engine with titanium valves and Nova Racing gearbox, full digital dash with quickshifter, and much more. The iconic Rothman’s livery is the work of Pete Taylor at Padded Cell Paint, replicating Mick Doohan’s race bike.
Max estimates the bike produces 120 bhp and weighs 130 kg (287 lbs), which makes this street-legal 500cc GP bike quite an exciting ride…to say the least:
“It’s like cable-tying 4 x 125cc two-stroke motocross engines in a single frame and expecting it to be easy to ride. I grew up on two-strokes and enjoy the docile power low down and then at the critical moment, probably as you’re teetering on the edge somewhere near the apex, the rhino wakes up and charges without hindrance. It’s back to that shaving with a chainsaw problem.”
Below, we talk to Max for the full build story on this road-legal NSR500.
Honda NSR500: Owner Interview
• Please tell us a bit about yourself, your history with motorcycles, and your workshop.
I’ve ridden bikes for almost as long as I have walked. I raced them for decades: motocross, speedway, circuit and so forth. I fell off in my youth and now I limp. I’ve offered myself to the gods of riding and on the odd occasion they’ve spared me.
• What’s the make, model, and year of the donor bike?
This is built from a one off chassis produced by FTR Moto, the fabricators of Moto 2 Grand Prix between 2009 and 2012. The chassis on the NSR has all the technology available at the time of manufacture. In this sense, it is even more advanced than the decade older Honda NSR chassis. For example, it has adjustable swingarm and headstock.
I suspect the original owner needed to finish the project within the budget he set himself at the start. Not that I know the bloke or what constraints he faced but there are bits and pieces I’d have done differently. That said, I’m a great fan of anyone who makes an NSR GP bike for the road. The bike then went to a lottery winner who was realising a dream. But he realised he’d bitten off more than he wanted to chew.
To cut a long story short, David started this year of 2022 with a bag of bits and those bits were in smaller bits and lots of those smaller bits were in need of replacing. And when he put it all together, he discovered holes where parts had made themselves absent.
Radiator based on Foggy FP1 highly modified
Forks are heavily modified SP1 with magnesium bottoms.
Magnesium top and bottom yolks with lower 6 bolt fittings.
Tank is heavily modified RC30.
Bodywork is genuine NSR Carbon Kevlar factory items
The seat unit is self-supporting carbon kevlar.
Full digital dash with quickshifter arming switches and shift lights.
Stan Stevens tuned RG500 with NOVA gearbox.
Kevlar clutch plates
Disc valves are 116mm diameter titanium nitride
Cranks have been re-built with RM125 con rods and RG500 mk12
• Why was this bike built?
I used to like hanging out in pit lanes and either on or off the circuit trying to dominate the competition. That is largely behind me but I still want racing machines like a cavalry officer wants to give his warhorse a loving retirement and take him for a ride once in a while. It follows, I need race machines with road registration so I can use them on high days and holidays.
• What was the design concept and what influenced the build?
In the ‘90s, 500cc GP bikes were as like shaving with a chainsaw. This generation of GP bike evoked the same danger and glamour of ‘60s F1 cars. 500cc two-stroke Grand Prix was so dangerous, that on the start line the bikes trembled nervously and smoked twenty at a time. By the mid ‘80s, they’d cut out the middleman and even looked like packs of fags.
Pit girls were tanned and willowy and wore almost nothing but umbrellas and the sheen of Hawaiian Tropic suntan oil. The blokes that rode the machines hoped to survive the day unbroken and often fell short on their ambition. Amongst these are names carved in stone: Mamola, Rainey, Shwantz and Doohan. Neither tattoos, nor barbour cut hair, nor social media. These racers were too busy living or rather trying to. They laughed at danger and it often bitten them.
This was a time of blokes and women. Of danger and sex. Since this period in racing the machines are safety razors, sharper and more efficient but not as chaotic.
• What custom work was done to the bike?
The bodywork is genuine NSR500, carbon fibre and in need of some attention.
The wheels are carbon, and that’s pretty trick by anyone’s standards.
The tank is aluminium, and who doesn’t love that.
• Any idea of horsepower, weight, and/or performance numbers?
I’m not too interested in a two-stroke with more than 120bhp. They’re too fickle for use on the public road. 120bhp and 130KG. We need a rider to get a proper idea of power to weight but using the industry standard, it is over a 1000bhp per ton.
• Can you tell us what it’s like to ride this bike?
It’s like cable-tying 4 x 125cc two-stroke motocross engines in a single frame and expecting it to be easy to ride. I grew up on two-strokes and enjoy the docile power low down and then at the critical moment, probably as you’re teetering on the edge somewhere near the apex, the rhino wakes up and charges without hindrance. It’s back to that shaving with a chainsaw problem.
• Was there anything done during this build that you are particularly proud of?
Everything chimes with everything. It’s a bike that likes to be looked at. I’m not sure I’m particularly proud of any one aspect. If pushed to answer that, we took a decision not to keep it in the black/white/red West livery. This iteration of the bike was well known and never ran particularly well. It was hard to turn my back on Loris Caparossi’s signature on the fairing. But the dream was always to recreate the Doohan machine. I think the Rothmans livery is amongst the greatest. It felt like a big decision but it rewarded us and really turned out well.
David Howard Racing is amongst the pantheon of the gods for building 2T race replicas. There are others but none that could produce the work in a timeframe I wanted. I’m mid fifties now, by the time I’m sixty, I don’t think I’ll be up for shaving with chainsaw. David has his game down, he knows what to farm out, what to do himself, who to ask and when to keep his own counsel.
Follow the Builder
Built by David Howard Racing: +44 7770 431254
Paint by Pete Taylor at Padded Cell Paint: 07773 343450
