[2][3] Honda merchandised a Sports Kit upgrade package to allow owners to improve the specification for non-road use.

The widening of the angle from 75.5° to 90° made it possible to increase the displacement to 1000cc without raising the center of gravity and gave the engine better primary balance.

For the 2012 season, Honda fielded two factory RC213Vs, ridden by Repsol Honda teammates Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa; a third and fourth were used by Álvaro Bautista on the Gresini Racing team, and Stefan Bradl on the LCR Team.

[8][9] Jonathan Rea also competed in two Grands Prix as a replacement rider for Casey Stoner, following his crash at Indianapolis.

In 2013, the reigning Moto2 champion Marc Márquez replaced retired Casey Stoner on the Repsol Honda team, and won the riders championship on the RC213V.

For the 2019 Grand Prix Season, three specifications of the RC213V were tested by Marquez and the newly signed rider, Jorge Lorenzo.

[14] The chosen specifications were not revealed, but they must have been good ones, as Marquez and Honda won the 2019 riders' and constructors' championships.

When asked about the changes for 2022, project manager Takeo Yokoyama explained, “In the past two years, we had problems with the grip on the rear wheel...We decided to start from scratch with the engine.

[21] The RCV1000R lacks the seamless shift gearbox and the pneumatic operated valves of the RC213V and uses the official Dorna-issued ECU software.

For 2015 the new RC213V-RS replaced the RCV1000R, adopting the pneumatic operated valves but still lacking the seamless shift gearbox.