Ten Kate Honda's Ryuichi Kiyonari wheeled his Fireblade out of the garage this morning with paintjob entirely different to his team-mates' and sporting HRC stickers.

The rumour mill has gone into overdrive that Kiyo is using a different-spec bike to the rest of the team, especially given that Honda pulled its factory team out of the Suzuka Eight-Hours this morning. The bike looks very similar to the colours he ran at the 2008 Eight-Hours, which he and Carlos Checa won.

When asked, team boss Ronald Ten Kate said that sponsors Hannspree wre only contracted to two Superbikes and two Supersport bikes, but the team and Honda wanted to run a three-man squad.

He also added that Kiyo's Blade is currently identical in specification to those of his team-mates. The key word there being currently. Honda will want their flagship sportsbike to win a four-stroke series this year. Is this how they will go about it?
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