In May of 2017, American race icon Nicky Hayden tragically lost his life several days after being struck by a car while riding his bicycle in Italy. Hayden had an illustrious 13-year career in MotoGP — that included a premier class world championship title — before jumping to the WSBK championship in 2016 where raced for Ten Kate aboard a Honda CBR1000RR SP2.
Aboard the RR, Hayden achieved one race win and three additional podiums, earning him 5th overall — an impressive feat considering the competition. In 2017 Hayden remained with the Dutch racing squad, where he competed in the first ten races of the series until his life was sadly taken. Almost two years later, Ten Kate has ended its partnership with Honda (they are supposedly eyeing Suzuki) and announced the sale of a myriad of parts and equipment. Today however, Ten Kate has announced the sale of one very important bike: Nicky Hayden’s 2017 WSBK CBR1KRR Fireblade SP2 racer.
As far as cutting edge production-based racers go, this RR is already pretty long in the tooth (hell, it wasn’t too sharp in 2017), however compared to your average CBR1K, this thing’s a beast. Having said that, six-figures is enough to buy several wildly competent track weapons. The real value here is it being Nicky’s last race mount, making it somewhat historically significant. I’d be far more interested in owning his 2006 RC211V or one of his Ducati MotoGP mounts, though I believe they’re already very spoken for.
Hayden’s SP2 features a TKR WSBK-spec engine with full Cosworth kit (and aluminum braced chassis) complemented by an electronics system developed in-house in collaboration with Cosworth that includes a TKR fly-by-wire system. Unsurprisingly, the suspenders are top-shelf Öhlins WSBK-spec, brakes are Nissin WSBK units with blue anodized Yutaka discs, wheels are Marchesini units, and there’s a full WSBK-spec Akrapovic exhaust.
Then there’s the full carbon bodywork, racing engine protection, carbon intake tunnels, heat-shield, full Redbull TKR livery adorned in Hayden’s #69 logos, and one of my favorite touches: custom Bonamici rearsets built to Hayden’s exact spec, including little grooved “ledges” for Hayden’s (outside) toes. Everything on this machine is exactly to Hayden’s specification, including the custom built swing-arm that employs the Kentucky Kid’s design (in collaboration with TKR).
According to Ten Kate, this is the exact bike the Kentucky Kid rode in 2017, and is setup precisely as Hayden had when he last competed at the Imola round (his final race). Ten Kate also describes the ex-Hayden example as being in an “absolute showroom state” and fully ready to be ridden or displayed. The six-figure sale also includes a bevy of WSBK-grade parts, spares, and a certificate of authenticity from Ten Kate.
Ten Kate is also currently offering Leon Camier and Jack Gagne’s 2018 Fireblade racers for $96,000 — only $11,300 less than Hayden’s 2017 ride — making the price of Hayden’s SP2 look increasingly reasonable (we actually featured Camier’s WSBK F4 RC a while back too).
You can find this ex Nicky Hayden 2017 Honda CBR1000RR Fireblade SP2 for sale at Ten Kate Racing for $107,300 (or €95,0000). Interested parties can contact Ten Kate Racing’s Director; Kervin Bos at k.bos@tenkateracing dot com.