I bought a RC51 in craigslist a while ago from a guy who runs a Harley shop.

He was pretty clueless when it came to metrics, so I have no idea what he did to the bike, or what the previous owner, who clearly tracked it, did to it.

It was only after I bought it that I first noticed things were screwy. My Title and the VIN next to the triple tree match a CBR900RR, not an RC51.

From there it only gets weirder. My FI light was on all the time so I started to dig into that. Turns out the diagnostic 2-pole connector is plugged into where the BAS is supposed to be plugged. The bike has no BAS.

I was about to order the BAS when I realized that I needed to identify whether it's "really" a 2003, which would imply SP2, or where there's something else going on here.

I can't tell if this is an SP1 or a SP2. Or maybe an SP2 with an SP1 engine? I don't know if that's even possible.

To eliminate lots of confusion, I took a bunch of pictures to document my findings.

I had to host them on imgur due to this being my first post.

imgur. com/a/BRkLP

Here's the breakdown

"o" shaped exhaust ports - SP1
Engine Serial: 2105-8 69 - 2001 - SP1
Steering Damper bung - SP2
Subframe - SP2
ECU - SP2
Green Diag Port - SP2
Black Tipped Fork preload - SP2
Gold Right-Side engine cover - SP2
Vertical Left-Side oil cooler - SP2

Another altered vin. .

A rebuilt/heavily modified RC51 could be any iteration/combination of sp1 to sp2 parts based on what people can and have done.

Some of your assessment is incorrect.
1. You can't identify the exhaust port shape until you take the header off.
2. The engine side cover is the same for sp1 and sp2.

I don't know if your engine code evaluation is potentially accurate or not. Can't help here.

Much of your correct assessment points to sp2. There are frame differences between sp1 and sp2, including easily visible with side panels off. You can search to see what they are and compare to what the bike has.

Welcome. Sorry to hear of the VIN being incorrect. That sucks.

When you can (after you have 10 posts), put up some clear pics of the features you're describing and we can tell you.
Try to include pics of the CDI connection, throttle bodies, fan(s), fork bottoms, fork tops, wheels, swing arm, shock and anything else you think may help and we can confirm if you're looking at SP1 or SP2 parts.

Ok.....lets take it from the top. I call it as I see and anybody can correct me if I'm wrong.

1) Front cylinder: No view of the exhaust port. The exhaust header is SP2. It can fit on an SP1 exhaust port, it will have gas flowing issues in the long run, but it can fit. So this just proves SP2 exhaust header pipes. Nothing more.



2) Rear cylinder: same like the front. The exhaust header is SP2



3) This is NOT a steering damper mounting point. This is the hole that the lock pin slides in when you turn your key all the way counterclockwise pushing it downwards. Same on SP1 and SP2.



4) Same color on the clutch cover and the engine's RH crankcase cover indicates an SP2. The SP1 has crankcase covers bare aluminum colored. However they are identical in shape so it's easy to bolt an SP2 RH crankcase cover to an SP1 engine.



5) Oil cooler is SP2



6) Swingarm and wheel is SP2



7) Subframe is SP2



8) Front forks are SP2



From what I understand, unless you take off the cowls to check the engine mounts and take the tank off to check the throttle bodies AND take the exhaust header pipes off to check the exhaust ports themselves,
I truly believe you have a genuine 2003 RVT 1000R on your hands.

Don't worry about the VIN number which is mistaken for a CBR954. Honda was producing both models that year so the sequence of the VIN characters may apply on both occasionally.
You can only be sure with the VIN number if you run it with a Honda dealer in the Honda network database.

Thanks Makis, I guess he e-mailed you these pics. Looks a lot like an SP2 to me too. I think the screen brace is also SP2. If it's a U.S. model, with a Silver frame & swing arm, then surely it's originally a Nicky Hayden edition 2004?

Take a pic of the stamping of the frame number on the headstock if possible too?

No he didn't email me the pictures.

I noticed he included this in his original post

imgur. com/a/BRkLP

if you remove the space after the dot and add the www. in the front, voila!!!

Try it out yourself!

It does have a US paint scheme but it's not a NH edition according to the VIN number.

So I guess it's a euro model with China fairings perhaps?

Difficult to be sure & with only one post and no info on where the OP is from, I can only guess, but from the terminology and the content of his post - looks like mcavopol may be from the U.S.

As they only made silver SP2 frames in 2004 for NH editions, I'd say it's probably one. Just a guess...

The picture of the head stock is a bit suspect. It looks as if it's been spray painted at some point (You can see the mark from masking tape next to the aluminium welding too). They don't paint silver paint on these frames AFIK.... so I'd take some heat to it if I wanted to see if the number stamped on there is original or not, assuming the OP actually wants to know. It's not a reversible process though, could make quite a mess.

Any member here that has SC5013M can share some light to this