1990 Honda RC30 For Sale on eBay!
After 2 days of mental Tug-O-War- here it is. I say “here it is” because I know some of you have been reckless eyeballing it on eBay and likely saying “Why haven’t those slugs over at RSBFS.com presented this?”
Well, rest assured, I’ve been pouring over the pictures and researching a few things because lets face it- some of you are RC30 Guru’s and would call me out for getting it wrong 😉
We all know they’re rare, expensive, have fiberglass bodywork, came stock with funky wheels sizes, aluminum tanks and a sexy Elf/Honda single sided swing arm. Nothing really new there so, lets dive in.
What I like:
-Low Mileage
-It’s a RC30 (duh!)
-The sweet Termi exhaust
-HRC 17″ x 6″ rear wheel- The Holy Grail of RC30 parts
-Seller has the stock exhaust
-Seller has the original 18″ wheel
Honda rc30
This bike has only 2000 miles. I’m the second owner. I Purchased this bike in 1991 and I kept the bike in my living room For all these years. It’s in excellent shape except the body has some damage from storage- it can be easily fixed because the faring is made of fiberglass from the factory. The bike was never raced or abused.
The paint has some bubbles. Mechanically the bike runs great. Currently, the bike has a termignoni carbon fiber exhaust and a 17×6 HRC rear wheel. I will include the original 18×5.5 original wheel, the original exhaust, the race stand, manual and tools. I will not ship the bike- local pickup only
What I’m not so sure about:
-The seller states “It’s in excellent shape”
-The paint is a mess
-The lower fairings and tail section are less than desirable condition
-Aftermarket front turn signals
-The HRC sticker on the upper fairing
-What’s behind the Michelin Man sticker and 3 layers of white duct tape
-An aftermarket rear sprocket on a bike with so few miles
-A $45,000 motorcycle being presented without being detailed
History tells us that RC30’s did have an issue with the lower header coming in contact with the lower right side fairing. We know it caused some discoloration and in some extreme cases even distorting the fiberglass. The Michelin Man sticker seems to be in that location.
The very nice HRC Honda sticker on the tail section is obviously covering some damage, but I’m curious as to how there is (what appears to be) red vinyl over the sticker? Perhaps the tail section has damage over a larger area than what the HRC sticker is covering?
I’m in no way a paint & body expert, but one has to believe it wouldn’t be a cheap process to bring the body panels back to museum quality. I know the factory fiberglass wasn’t super smooth and the finish wasn’t the best, but that’s part of the RC30 nostalgia- right?
For me, this one is stuck in a “grey” area- It’s priced too high not to be near perfect, but it does have the extremely desirable HRC 17″ x 6″ rear wheel, Termi, low miles and the OEM spares. If you put the money into repairing the body work, you’d have an extremely expensive well equipped RC30 with repaired body work.
Would you pay $45,000, call it a 15 footer and ride it or does the low mileage warrant a full blown resto?
Let’s discuss the current RC30 market and figure it out- Keeping it civil of course 🙂
Check out this low mileage RC30 here!
Cheers!
dd
When I got to the bubbled paint pics made me sad, was that a common problem with RC30’s stock paint, I don’t think I’ve seen pics of one with that many bubbles, could it have been repainted? I agree a lot to love about this bike and low miles, but the bodywork will need some love and from them on not be oem paint, so for that reason I think it’s priced quite high. :/
Words matter. Confused as to why a 2000 mile collectors bike that’s been in a guys “living room” for 30 years, got damaged in storage? If you purchased it this way and you knew it was special… why wouldn’t you replace the fairings and turn signals, back when parts were still available and return this to pristine condition… especially when you’re asking a pristine price? Rear wheel and muffler look especially minty considering the overall condition, but the pics are horrible. Too scared…
Those stickers are hiding even more damage I fear. I am dubious of the mileage claim given the damage to the motorcycle. I cannot wait to sell my absolutely pristine ZX10R in 30 years because no matter how many miles are on it, I can promise you it will be spotless… for real!
Nicer things have fallen put of my ass than his chain. It’s sad when people buy these unique bikes and neglect them to death.
Im sorry but this price is just way out of wack. Seller wants top level money for a bike this not in top level condition.
Compared to recent sales on sites like iconicmotorbikes, this is about 7k too much
https://iconicmotorbikeauctions.com/sold/?_sft_pa_motorbike-make=honda&_sft_pa_motorbike-model=rc30
Those bubbles in the paint are a real pain to correct. You have to take the fiberglass down to the gelcoat to fix. Very expensive even if you can someone who can do it and has the correct paint and decals. The tank doesn’t have the original decals on it, so it’s been repainted.
I own 2 of these bad boys, one with HRC front and rear rims and this one is over priced given it’s condition. I would put this is in the $35k – $40k range and only because it has the HRC rear rim, lower without it. Iconic, is a good reference for pricing as they have sold so many.
Maybe I’m missing something but you can clearly see the knurled end of a steering dampener in the 3rd picture with the speedometer, but not in any of the pictures from the left side. ????
I thought the US received red Honda wing and Euro received yellow Honda wing?
Good eye Matt! I also noticed the photos are showing two different rear tires.
Doesn’t that give someone the opportunity to discover and rescue the bike? That can be a fun and rewarding process.
The 17 inch wheel looks to be an off white old three spoke dymag. The tail section looks very damaged from something hitting it above and below with the big HRC sticker covering much of the crack and some red tape aft covering more. These sort of cack handed fixes start the alarm bells ringing aside from the crazy paint bubbles. Hard to believe anything the seller states about mileage as it’s been tracked (my assumption) with the speedo cable disconnected. I’d believe some expensive engine work would be in order too.
I think you’re spot on Trooper! The picture with that three spoke rear wheel also has different rear sets without the rubber foot pegs. Seller is being less than transparent about the history!
Wow you guys are super bike detectives. New to the whole rare and vintage super bike scene. Think all these comments are fair. Maybe I don’t appreciate how rare the bike is but $45,000 for a project bike sounds crazy. Also agree the sellers story doesn’t make sense.
Tim and Trooper have it spot on IMO!!!
The only part with 2k miles is the instrument cluster LOL.
There are better examples out there (even with higher miles shown) than this mess.
If it’s been in his living room since 1991, that first year must have been a blast!
All I can say is, buyers beware!!! Worst example of an RC30 I have ever seen……..
An Ebay listing without punctuation, and capital letters in the wrong places. Also selling some used shoes. Uh huh.
I went and asked the seller via ebay about different pegs, different rear tire, steering damper and damage. No definitive answer on any. Just generalizations about HRC parts and mixed up pictures. I did a really dumb thing in 1991. Honda dealer in Reno had an RC30 in the window. Would sell it for $11,495. I bought a VFR750F for $7200 instead, because it had a passenger seat and I was married. I know… dumb. Got divorced 10 years later and lost the toys anyway… so kinda feel better about it.
Having been at Jim Granger’s shop many times, ( RC30 specialist) Jim mentioned that at least 40% of all USA designated RC30 will bubble and have to be re-painted, , around the 3rd year run of the machine it seemed someone at Honda decided to skit a step in the paint shop and the bikes went straight from the mold directly to paint which after a decade the paint starts to fail. This is a known and common problem, Also , I don’t want to say how, but it’s very easy to roll back the miles,
I’ve heard many great things about Jim.
Great intel!
Poor decision in 1991- LOL!
Truth!
Not a chance he’ll get $45K. You’ll have north of $10K to get this bike right. Then you have a bike that’s no longer original.
I think high $20’s is the number on this one.
wow, $45k? even with the market and even for an RC30…Any more than $10k for the bike with at least north of $10k for work I think is generous. This one looks like it would be a challenge even for the boys at Iconic to make right.