Jim, you’ve lost a lot of friends over the years, many competitors, people like Jim Clark, Graham Hill, how do you feel about death, how do you see death, given that you’ve lost so many of those very close friends. For the records I was the first to win 3 GPs in a day in 1964, then Mike Hailwood did it in 1967 and that is no one can do it now it because now you can only ride 1 Grand Prix in a day. Bloody health and Safety rubbish again I suppose The diminutive Ulsterman won four grands prix on the RC148 during 1966, after winning the 1965 50cc world title aboard the 13-horsepower RC115, which used bicycle-style stirrup-brakes to reduce brake drag. Bryans, a technical illustrator at shipbuilder Harland and Wolff, got to learn more about the 125 five and 250 six than most Westerners. When Honda quit GPs at the end of 1967 the company loaned him one of each to ride in non-world championship events. And it was up to him to service the bikes. Remarkably, these engines, and Honda’s first Formula 1 engine, the RA270, were mostly designed by one man, the brilliant Shoichiro Irimajiri, who was only 24 in 1964.

With Honda it was always the same – the engine parts just kept getting smaller,” he added. “Looking after the 250 six was a piece of cake compared to the 125 five. The small size of the parts and the tiny clearances made things so difficult. I had to use tweezers on the valve collets. Without question the single most important motorcycle of any kind to appear on the open market in recent years, this Honda RC164 is offered for sale by multiple World Championship winner Jim Redman, to whom it was given by a grateful factory at the end of the 1964 Grand Prix season.

Photo Gallery

Apart from Jim riding it in various classic events, the Honda has had very little use since the restoration and was last ridden in 2018 at Pyynikki, Finland, a circuit at which Jim had won the 125cc World Championship race in 1962. The number on the fairing previously was '28' (the vendor's competitor number) but he has since changed this to '1' for Jim. (There is only one fairing.) Redman remembers his first race on the ‘Six’ vividly: “I made a big mistake at Monza, I didn't push it hard enough and then on race day it overheated because it was a scorching day. It faded at the end but I was winning it easily but sadly I finished third. It was going but only on five cylinders and it was very hard to not keep trying for more. But in the end Mike Duff (now Michelle Duff) caught me.”

He was the first to ride the Honda Six and his success with the bike made the combination of the two unanimous as an unstoppable force in motorcycle racing. He still holds the world record for the most World Championships for Honda. Yes, except the last two years because I moved down actually in 1964, when Jimmy had to go to school. Marlene stayed at home and I commuted and then in 1966 I crashed and then I did the immigration then, I think and that was only because already there was Mugabe on the radar. He wasn’t in, but he was looking the best bet and Smith been on the train with Wilson and all that stuff you know, and I was not getting my MBE because of it and I was hiding in the corner in South Africa. So yes, I lived in South Africa, I bought into Charlie Young, and I lived in South Africa. So we got to the airport,” says Redman, “but the staff couldn’t guarantee that the bike would be on our plane so after a fight we paid for three seats and took the seats out. I put the bike in the cabin and arrived at Monza with my carry-on luggage pushing it down the steps 'bump, bump. bump.” Born in London, England, he emigrated to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 1952, where he began his racing career. He met with John Love who was changing from motorcycle racing to single-seat cars. Redman enthusiastically helped Love prepare and maintain his Cooper F3 with a Manx Norton 500cc engine. In recognition for Redman's assistance, Love allowed Redman to ride his Triumph Grand Prix including use of his riding gear for his first racing experiences. [3]

Between 1958 and 1960 the British born Rhodesian competed on the Island mainly on Norton machinery gaining a best 7th placing the Formula One 350cc race in his debut year. When he turned 18, Redman was called to join the military. He was able to suspend service for two years, focusing on his role as the new head of the family. With no possibility of extending his leave from the army further, it appeared as though his twin siblings would be forced to leave the family for an orphanage. The only possibility was to leave the country, thus Redman chose to immigrate to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as he had a friend there. His absolute determination to succeed resulted in his recruitment to the ‘mighty’ Honda factory after the 1960 TT.

Honda had conquered every category it had entered. But the big prize remained – the 500cc premier class, where the mighty four-cylinder MV Agustas reigned supreme. and 1963 saw he win both the 250cc and 350cc world championships, retaining the 350cc championship in ’64 and ’65 giving him a total of six world titles to add to his six victories on the Island. Jim was awarded the MBE in recognition of his achievements. But Honda was determined and had invested fortunes of its income into research and development with dozens of engineers competing to improve the marque’s 250cc, four-cylinder machine. It needed to compete against the increasing prowess of the two stroke machines that were starting to dominate the podiums of European GP rounds. For Honda, failure was not an option and so Sochiro Honda’s development team threw everything into creating one of the most exotic machines in motorsport history.It was a very wonderful experience and it set me on my way as a factory rider in the world championships. And what an amazing start to my professional career! “ I was talking to Kenton ( Fine – our host) earlier on because he likes the way I’m doing things and he says myself and Tom Jones, who he went to see and Tom Jones is still belting them out at 70-something, you know he’s only a kid really, but he’s still going and he said, he decided he’s not going to retire from his business because if we haven’t retired from our business, and I said, “You’re right. It doesn’t matter how little or not you do, but do it, you know it’s what you do” and when I got that ride, that was a one-off ride and all of a sudden everybody’s inviting me and paying my expenses and giving me money and all that, so I thought, “Yeah, well I just lost my champion racehorse who won, never before or since has anyone been Champion Sire, which is how much more babies win, he won it 11 out of 12. In 1966, Jim Redman published a book about his racing career, Wheels of Fortune. In 2013, he published his book, Jim Redman: Six Times World Motorcycle Champion – The Autobiography. He said: “Jim and I are - sadly - the only survivors of the original team in period and we still have wonderful memories.” Unfortunately, Sochiro Honda didn’t share Redman’s enthusiasm. “He said 'no, we're not going to do it. The bike's not right, Jim's not right, he's not happy with it and he's going to hurt himself so we're not going to go to Monza." But I pleaded with him and said: ‘It’s only five corners, I can walk around the corners and blast this thing down the straights and still win.’

I’m here in the British countryside with Jim Redman, World Champion Motorcyclist six times. Jim, what impressed me most about your life story was how tough a life you had to begin with. You lost both of your parents when you were young after being forcefully separated from them during World War Two. What got you through – many would go into a hole after those kinds of experiences?To further confuse things, Honda started referring to the ‘Six’ as the RC165 - thus maintaining the mystery - and no doubt baffling its staff.