It was a great day for a ride. The sun was shining brightly and my 280-pound carcass was wrapped in full leathers, but unfortunately, I wasn't in the saddle. Instead I was standing on the side of the road, next to my very expensive Italian V-twin sportbike, which was parked in the exact spot where its electrical system decided to shut down several hours ago. Wasting perfect, sunny days waiting for a tow truck had become a common occurrence with my European steed, prompting me to start looking for a more reliable alternative.
No fan of buzzy, high-revving four-cylinder engines, I was determined to find a V-twin sportbike that had all the power, handling and style of my Italian stallion, only with a less demanding (and wallet-draining) maintenance schedule. "Duh-buy yourself a Honda RC51 and be done with it," my wife said one day. Smart woman, my wife-wonder what she's doing with me... In a matter of days, she'd located a crash-damaged 2000 RC51 at a local bike shop, and the owner was so scared by his recent high-speed dismount that he was willing to part with the machine for just $3500. Having spent almost that much on valve adjustments alone for my other V-twin, I quickly whipped out the paper and rolled away a repairable, 1000cc V-twin with just a paltry 3400 miles on the clock.
Peeling away the pavement-scarred bodywork, the RC51 revealed itself to be in fairly tight shape: a cracked clutch cover, a four-inch gash in the gas tank and a set of pipes more beat up than Roy Jones' sparring partner was all that stood in the way of getting her back on the road. But I wanted more than just a reliable road ride here-the plan was to build up a budget Super Streetbike, one that could fill several roles at once: a comfortable commuter, a high-performance mount for the occasional track day and a tight-looking mild custom that would turn heads down at the local bike night. Pipe dream, or supreme possibility? Read on and judge for yourself.