It has four cylinders. It won ten world championships, claimed first in over a hundred races and still holds the world record for longest uninterrupted streak with twenty-two wins in a row. It's the Honda NSR500, and it might be the meanest, fastest two-wheeling machine of the 20th century.

But it really didn't start out like that. Turn back the clock to those first few years, and this modern legend looked more like a lame duck. The weight distribution was horrible, it took Freddy Spencer to the bloody edge and even famous 'wild man' Wayne Gardner could barely wrestle it under control.

But they won with it, and the bike kept getting better, turning itself into a world title machine. From Spencer to Gardner to Lawson to Doohan to Crivillé and, finally, to Valentino Rossi - all of them riding Honda's famous twostroke.

So, in the direct aftermath of Ducati's dashed hopes of breaking Honda's record, we take a look at the NSR500 and how it changed the landscape. And maybe we discover that the more things change, the more they stay the same...

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