At Valencia this afternoon, Honda took the wraps of the 2014 production racer that Scott Redding will race next year and revealed that in the hands of Casey Stoner, it was only 0.3s a lap slower than the pneumatic-valve RC213V at Motegi.
The RCV1000R, for that is its name, was tested back to back against the full works bike by the former world champion on the same day and the same compund tyres. When Stoner switched to the soft-compound Bridestone available to Open class bikes, the gap halved, which bodes well for Redding and Nicky Hayden, who will also ride one.
The main differences between the production bike and the RC213V are sprung, rather than pneumatic valves and a conventional, non-seamless gearbox. But manufacturers went to pneumatic valves to improve fuel consumption, not power. The production bike will still make more than 230bhp at 16,000rpm.
Both Redding and Hayden will test the bike at Valencia on Monday and we will have the full story and pictures.