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     The 1976 Type II was far ahead of its time. Look at any other bike made in 1976, then come back and look at this one..

                                      Up front the knurled fork tubes are held into very stout billet triple clamps. There is a steel X brace that ties the top and bottom clamps together. This was to reduce flex while turning the bike. The pinch bolts are hand machined steel. A very clever yet simple cable guide attached to the top clamp is made from aluminum. The entire front end is very rigid.

                                                                             The RC500 motor is actually about 400cc. The cases are sand-cast magnesium coated with a special coating to prevent corrosion( Honda was the only company to do this). The little cover below the counter shaft sprocket contains all the shift linkage that is normally behind the clutch basket. You can actually adjust the shift throw from inside that cover. Several aluminum motor mounts were available to move the motor location up to 15mm to the front or back for different weight distribution. Bolts are titanium. The carb is magnesium with a brass bore insert for the slide. This allowed for a reliable use of an aluminum slide to reduce rider fatigue. Ignition timing is adjusted externally.

                                     The clutch basket and large primary gear are one piece made from machined billet steel (see photo in works parts). This provided a very solid yet light weight clutch. The crank shaft is a very special unit that in 1976 dollars was around $10,000.00! (see photo in works parts). Kick start boss is titanium as are all the case screws. The gear lever still has the rubber safety wired to it from 1976.

                                     The rear hub is a conical design sand-cast magnesium unit that is very light and very strong. The ring at the outer spoke end is a machined piece of steel to keep the spokes tight. All the wheel spacers are titanium. That is the original 4.50 Metzler rear tire from 1976. The rim is an extra wide works 2.50 D.I.D. to allow more tire surface on the track. This concept was just starting and has been carried through to this day

                                      The rear swingarm is a very rigid hand formed aluminum piece that for the day looks like an overkill. Notice the flap on the side panel to keep the rear brake cable from getting caught in the shock spring. Rear backing plate is sand-cast magnesium.

                                    The front hub is a very trick full width sand-cast magnesium unit with an iron liner held in place with six rivets. You can see the massive cast ribs for strength. It is very light and strong, braking power was awesome.

                                 These are the very first cartridge front forks (production bikes did not see cartridge forks until 1981). They use very large external fork springs covered by the large fork boots. The idea was to have the springs on the outside so there would be less oil foaming inside the forks. This worked well, but the draw back was that the giant fork boots restricted air flow to the motor. This caused the motor to get too hot for mud races. The forks also featured a five way preload adjustment similar to those found on rear shocks (notice below the fork boots).

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