This is the second installment of "The Unrideables" about the legendary monsters that were 500cc Grand Prix motorcycles. In this second video, a couple of significant things take place, just as in volume one. Wayne Rainey from the United States, wins the first 500cc race using carbon brake discs on his Team Roberts Yamaha YZR500. Then, in 1992, Honda turned 500 Grand Prix racing on it's ear, introducing the awesome NSR 500.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSR500
The NSR 500 had what was known as the "big bang engine". The big bang engine, in motorcycle parlance, means a certain firing order of the cylinders.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_bang_engine
The very next year, in 1993, Japanese rider Shinichi Itoh, riding one of these monstrous NSR 500 Honda's breaks the 200 mile per hour barrier at the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. After switching to unleaded fuel in 1998, the 500cc bikes were steadily phased out, and now, of course, the equally awesome MotoGP machines are the standard bearers. Both volumes of this documentary, show just how amazing the 500cc era really was.
Sadly, the second installment of "The Unrideables", also does not exist. What a shame, because this was great insight on the ground pounding 500cc Grand Prix motorcycles of the 1980s and '90s.
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