The other day, we covered the story of how Cosworth built a one-cylinder version of its V10 F1 engine in the late ’90s that could rev all the way up to 20,000 RPM. The conclusion of that story, though, was that an engine that revs that high wouldn’t be particularly useful on the road. That’s not quite true.
In the context of the piece, which was talking about using the single-cylinder engine to power an old Opel Kadett, sure, but when it comes to motorcycles 20,000 rpm isn’t completely unheard of.
That’s thanks to motorcycles like the Honda CBR250RR. A little motorcycle powered by a tiny engine with cylinders the size of shot glasses, it had a redline set at 19,000 and would bounce off the rev limiter at 20,000 RPM. And according to this video from Fortnine, it’s pretty fun on the road.
Read Also: In Order to Test Its 1999 Formula 1 V10, Cosworth Made A 1 Cylinder Version
Admittedly loud, the bike turns every trip to the store into a MotoGP race. As the host points out, the bike allows him to hit those ridiculous revs while going through a school zone or a drive-thru. It’s a bit silly but in a delightful way.
According to the video, the bike, along with its competitors, was born out of a street racing movement in Japan. At the time, 250cc motorcycles didn’t have to pass annual emissions and safety tests, something street racers couldn’t afford to do nor would they be capable of passing.
So manufacturers started throwing big development money into the bikes and adding the latest technology to them. That allowed this diminutive bike to outperform much bigger ones.
Better still, despite being the fastest-revving mass-produced motorcycle ever sold, it’s been known to run reliably for more than 130,000 miles. That amounts to hundreds of millions of reliable revolutions out of this Swiss-watch-like little engine. That’s pretty impressive stuff.