FIRST PIC: Valvoline Padgetts RCV arrives on Isle of Man

The Valvoline Padgett’s Honda RCV213 that Bruce Anstey is set to ride in the Superbike and Senior TT races has arrived on the Isle of Man ahead of this evening’s opening practice session.

Final preparations are being carried out on the most talked about machine to line up on the Glencrutchery Road start line in 2016 at a secret location on the island.

“We still have a lot of work to do but we are here!” team boss Clive Padgett smiled.

“We arrived on the ferry at 6.30am on Saturday morning after running the bike in on the dyno on Friday.”

Turning the exotic £138,000 V4 road bike into a race bike capable of challenging McGuinness and Co is no easy task and the Yorkshire based squad have thrown everything into the mammoth task.

“We have had to have radiator guards, fairings, seats, screens, fuel tanks, rear hugger, silencers, wheels and lots more all specially made for the TT.” Padgett explained.

“Even the nuts we needed for the rear sprocket had to specially sourced. A carbon fibre rear subframe has had to be constructed to accommodate the 24 litre fuel tank that we need to run at the TT.”

None of this has daunted Padgett who says both him and Anstey are “absolutely peaking” about the venture.

“This has really captured the imagination of people all around the world and that is what racing at the TT is all about” he says.

“We have had hundreds of thousands of hits on the website and social media about the bike. It is a race against time to get it ready and then we will have to wait and see if it works but it is worth every minute of it.”  

It had been planned that 10 times TT winner would have his first TT lap on the RCV by leading the Newcomers around in this evening’s opening practice but with so much work still to complete on the new bike that now looks unlikely.