Nicky Hayden catches first glimpse of 2008 Honda

Nicky Hayden has caught a first glimpse of the new 2008 Honda RC212V 800 that he will debut in Valencia tomorrow (Tuesday).

The former world champion spotted the new bike in the Repsol Honda garage this morning while his mechanics prepped it for a day-and-a-half of testing that kicks off at 2pm local time tomorrow afternoon.

He revealed the new V4 features a pneumatic valve system, with Honda ditching conventional spring valves to get more revs and horsepower out of the revised motor.

Hayden, who scored only three podiums in a nightmare defence of his world title, said: “I saw it this morning. I’ve met a lot of good-looking girls, but it’s when you get to know them that you really find out about them. But it looks like a nice piece.”

Hayden had a tough season on board the first RC212V, with Honda struggling to match the performance of Italian rivals Ducati for much of the early part of the campaign.

American Hayden said: “The bike looks more finished than the prototype we had last year. I looked at it without the fairing on but it looks more opened up. The exhaust is back out of the middle like last year’s bike and it has pneumatic valves. I didn’t see the rev counter but I’ve heard it goes a little bit higher. Our bike now doesn’t rev that any higher than last year’s bike. We’ll see when we sit on it but it definitely looks pretty neat. The chassis and swingarm looks a lot different. The exhaust system is a lot different. It looks a lot more normal and should be better. I heard them talking a bit about the pneumatic valves and that’s going to be pretty different for the team.”

One of Hayden’s big complaints about the 2007 RC212V was its compact size, which he found difficult to cope with in the early races.

He has yet to try the new bike for size yet but added: “I didn’t get to sit on it because the tank wasn’t on it. It’s certainly going to be interesting.”