We reveal Honda’s 30-year secret

For nearly 30 years, Honda have been secretly buying up classic bikes. Now MCN can reveal probably the most important bike collection on the planet.

Hidden under dustsheets in a disused sports hall are hundreds of machines, and none are Hondas. The collection includes Triumph Bonnevilles, Ariels, MV Agustas and Brough Superiors. There are also race bikes including Manx Nortons, Matchless G50s and a dustbin faired NSU Rennmax. It even includes an RG500 Suzuki wearing a No7, in the familiar Barry Sheene colours.

Eventually all of these bikes will join the Honda Collection Hall at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit, but the hall will need to be doubled in size. Until then, this could be the only glimpse you’ll ever get of these classic bikes.

The Honda Collection Hall:

The Honda Collection hall is already the best bike museum in the world. It has 3 floors, 8638 metres of floor space, and every important road bike, car, generator or racer. 80 per cent of the 450 exhibits can be topped up with oil, fuel and fluids, fired up and run round the specially-built test track at the back of the museum. This means you could see Doohan’s 1995 NSR500 being tested or Hailwood’s six being fired up.

You’d be hard pressed to find an important Honda which isn’t represented. Bikes include factory RVF750s and NSR500s of every type, to an original 1993 Blade with 4000 miles on the clock. There’s also classic racers, like the first ever Honda TT bike, the RC143.

In total there are close to 300 bikes on show, including GP competitors like a Kenny Roberts V4. Plus you get to buy some memorabilia from the shop, and maybe even look around the restoration room.

Kawasaki’s own legend:

Kawasaki has a much smaller, private collection of around 50 bikes. It includes the 1963 Red tank, or more specifically, the 125B8M. Then there’s the 1969 KR-2 123cc two-stroke which took Kawasaki’s first ever GP victory, endurance-spec ZX-7RRs, the AV50 monkey bike and even a new ZX-12R. There’s even a Z900 with 0.3miles on it.

The big interest is at the end of the museum though. Behind two locked grey doors there is rumoured to be a collection of prototype machines that Kawasaki never put into production. When MCN asked, staff claimed it was just for storage, and couldn’t find a key.

In Japan, where everything has to be accounted for, in the Kawasaki private museum, and the key goes missing when MCN arrive? How curious…

What legendary bikes would you hope to see in the Honda collection? If you’re dreaming of a trip to Motegi, or think your bike deserves a place in a bike collection, post your comments on the News board by following the link on the right.

And if you want to find out more about the Japanese biking world, grab a copy of Motor Cycle News, January 15, for our Japan Special Edition.