Honda Rc45 Review

Used Buyer Review

Let's be straight with you: the RC45 is one of the most exotic and temperamental machines Honda ever built, and buying one used is genuinely not for the faint-hearted. This is a homologation special built to go WSB racing, not to be a sensible Sunday rider. The V4 is an absolute gem when it's properly sorted — that high-revving scream past 10,000rpm is genuinely spine-tingling — but 'properly sorted' is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. Find out when the cam chains were last done, because they will bite you, and parts availability ranges from expensive to nightmare-inducing. Authenticity is everything here. Clones and heavily modified examples exist, so document verification is non-negotiable before you hand over a penny. Service history should be thick and credible. Mileage matters less than provenance and maintenance quality. Budget realistically — even a tidy example will need £2,000-£3,000 spent just getting it fully confident. Treat it like the investment it is, not a usable sportsbike.