– Honda RTL305 Testimony

Words: Trials Guru & Mervyn Smith

Photos: Mervyn Smith; Barry Robinson (by permission of his estate); Andrew Moorhouse/Studio Six Creative; Morio, Japan; Jean Caillou; Rainer Heise; Iain Lawrie.

One of our avid Trials Guru readers is Mervyn Smith from Shropshire who has Honda connections, having worked for Honda UK. He unearthed an old photo of himself holding a very interesting and special motorcycle, here is the story of that photograph and the motorcycle.

Mervyn Smith: “The photo supplied is a young and serious looking me in 1984. I was working for Honda UK Motorcycles and had found this bike dumped unceremoniously against a dark wall in the soon to be closed race team workshop at Power Road, Chiswick. It was in a very sorry state. With the former Off-Road Coordinator, Trevor Kemp, having left the company, l was possibly the only person in Honda UK who actually knew what it was, being the RTL305, long stroke machine. One of the bikes that Rob Shepherd used to win the 1977 British Trials Championship and a forerunner of later models which were to give Honda their first World Trials title in 1982 under the control of Belgian, Eddy Lejeune. With regard to trials history therefore it was a very important bike, but this motorcycle, I was told, was going to be scrapped, crushed in fact, which is how many of the ex-works bikes ended up as manufacturers, like Honda, did not want any racing technology to fall into the hands of their competitors.”

“So, explaining the significance of the machine to the then General Manager (Motorcycles) Bob McMillan, I asked if l could rescue it for restoration and he agreed. I trailered the bike up to John Taylor Motorcycles, Fenton, Stoke on Trent, where John and his brother Jim, good friends, both keen trials riders and both sadly no longer with us, did most of the restoration work. It looked superb when finished and I was going to compete on it at least once, but was advised against it as apparently the magnesium cases on the bike were not robust having become very thin.”    

Smith continued: “Along with Graham Noyce’s 1979 Motocross World Championship winning CR500, the new race team manager, Neil Tuxworth, shipped the RTL305 back to Japan to be added to the Honda Collection at the Motegi museum and, over time, all knowledge of it just disappeared. Years later out of curiosity I was frustrated that my enquiries about it led to a series of dead-ends and wondered if, after all, it had been destroyed. The answer proved to be somewhat more interesting.”

“I enlisted the help of recently retired Koji Kawanami the former Honda USA boss, now residing back in Japan, who very kindly said he would make further inquiries for me. For many months I heard nothing and was resigned to the real possibility that the bike was lost. Then suddenly out of the blue a photograph was sent to me by Koji San of a trials bike which had been located in the Motegi Collection, but they, having no idea exactly what it was, had mothballed it. I recognised it immediately of course – the missing RTL305 had been found.”

“It seems there had been a fire at Honda Racing Corporation (HRC) and a lot of information had been destroyed, including record of this particular bike. The staff at Motegi, although knowing it was certainly some sort of Honda works trials bike, had no idea exactly what it was or indeed who had ridden it and were therefore unable to display it.”

“With the help of my good friend Jean Caillou, who is the expert in all things regarding the history of Honda trials, we were able to inform them of the exact provenance of the machine.”

Smith: “I am so pleased I made the effort to follow this up for two reasons. Firstly, an important bit of Honda off road history has been preserved and, secondly, as it is now on display in the museum from time to time, it is a fitting tribute to a brilliant trials rider, Rob Shepherd, and to the Taylor brothers who did so much work to restore it.”  

“My one regret in all this? I should have taken the risk and ridden it in at least one trial before it was shipped. Such is life.”

– Mervyn Smith, Bridgnorth, Shropshire.

‘The Missing Link – Honda RTL305 Testimony’ is copyright of Trials Guru & Mervyn Smith.

More on Honda Trials HERE

References:

Honda Collection Hall: Mobility Resort, Motegi, 120-1 Hiyama, Motegi, Haga District, Tochigi 321-3533, Japan.

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