The Honda Parts Book(s)
Bound paper or microfiche.
Rating *****
Parts
books (also know as microfiche depending on the medium) can be very
useful. When purchasing parts for an RC30, especially used ones, it is
important to know if it is actually what you are after. The RC30 is
fundamentally the same no matter when or where it was sold. Now at the
risk of contradicting myself there are a vast amount of differences
between countries and even within the country by year when you get to
looking at details. The best way to sort out what you need is to have a
parts book.
The parts books are also a
useful assembly reference. A good example is the washer that goes behind
the starter idler gear. The parts books show it correctly (behind the
gear). The shop manual tells you to put the dowel in, put the gear on,
and then the washer.
There are basically
three different parts books (of which all have different revisions over
the years). There is a JDM parts book, there is a USA parts book, and
there is the ROW parts book that has every other country in it. The ROW
and JDM parts books are very useful, but costly to purchase now. An
early revision parts book may suit your purposes better than a later one
if your goal is a restoration.
You can download a PDF of the ROW RC30 parts book (a.k.a. fiche) here.