story behind the hrc cam

[honda729]

whats the story behind the hrc cam and why is it so rare and expensive? I think it was hondas racing cam but im not sure thats why im asking. Is it really that good?

[GPracer2500]

It's an XR400R cam. Honda made an HRC kit for that bike similar to the 450r HRC kit that so many of us are familiar with. The XR400R kit came with a piston, cam, some clutch parts, gearing parts, jetting, and odds n' ends.

AFAIK, those HRC parts where only manufactured in the bikes inaugural model year of 1996. I doubt many were made and imagine all of Honda's stock was bought up years ago.

The Honda part number is 14000-NKK-000. You're welcome to try and order one but I don't think you'll have any luck.

XR's Only makes (or at least made) a copy-cat grind. Or, there are maybe a dozen+ other XR/EX cams out there and at least a couple are sorta close to the HRC grind.

Ignoring the rarity aspect, other than being manufactured by Honda I'm not aware of anything particularly special about the XR HRC cam (much the same way that there is nothing all that special about a 450r HRC cam). I imagine it's a supremely reliable part that does a fine job of boosting performance. It's not the only game in town though and is certainly not the most radical cam available.

$0.02