James’s NSR500 replica

You don’t see bikes like this every day. The fairing is a faithful copy of the factory bodywork on one of Mick Doohan’s NSR500 GP bikes. The frame, built by the wizard-like Barry Dawson of Blue Haze Engineering, is the closest copy possible. It was designed by Felix Hirzel of 2moto. Obviously Honda don’t make a two-stroke V4 production engine so the bike uses RG500 power, but other than that you would think it had escaped from Phillip Island in 1993.

I designed and built the loom when the bike was half finished. The frame was mostly complete, and Barry had already provided all the mounting points needed. Swing arm is Yamaha R6, suspension is Öhlins and wheels are carbon BST. The bodywork is carbon, made by Russel Lowe at Bike Styles UK. He rescued an original NSR set from a skip at the German GP. Tank is hand-beaten and wheeled by Neil Martin of CC Engineering in Hull.

The bike was featured in the August 2015 issue of Practical Sportsbikes magazine. Editor Jim Moore began his write-up thus: “Let’s cut to the chase. This is the best special I’ve ridden.”

The bike was destined for the US, where you can get away with bare minimum lights. That said, I saw it again at the 2017 Classic TT, at Creg ny Baa. It’s actually a wedding present from owner James’s new wife Julie, who showed him a pic of Doohan’s bike and said, “How about I get one of these built for you?” Owner James already has a YZR500 replica, so she knew he would like it.

Thanks to Practical Sportsbikes and photographer Dave Collister for the use of these smashing pictures.