The
story isn't much, the piston was just passing through, on it's way to a new home.
Only stopped long enough to get photographed.
Not mine, not for sale, and certainly wouldn't leave my possession if it was free.
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Technically....
Piston too heavy and too wide for a single rod.
The crank/rods/pistons assembly shown in Derby's pic are from the NR500 GP race engine.
Pistons are significantly different, flat on the sides.
The production piston in my pics has sides that are significantly curved.
In either case, machining the bores, pistons and rings was quite an effort I'm sure.
Both motors were essentially V-8's, just the pistons and cylinders were a bit
different.
GP rules at the time (late 70's) didn't allow more than 4 cylinders, and all the bikes were 2-strokes.
Honda wanted to re-enter GP racing with a 4-stroke, but needed a V-8 to hope to be competitive with the 2-strokes.
Honda's solution was the NR.
IIRC, fundamentally all for naught; too heavy, thirsty, and maintenance intensive.
Honda caved and built 2-strokes.