There’s a proud tradition of independent motorcycle builders “sportifying” some very unlikely machines: CBXs converted into monoshock cafe-racers, heavily modified Swallower Moto Guzzis with chain drive and Hossack front ends, even venerable RZ500 engines stuffed into R6 frames. In the case of the HP2, BMW built their very own factory eclectic performance motorcycle by taking…
“It’s only new once” is pretty axiomatic in the collector car and bike worlds. Meaning that a slightly imperfect, but time-capsule machine with a bit of wear and tear is generally more desirable than a perfectly restored, better-than-new example to many collectors. Original machines have flaws: they’re often mass-produced, or have little cosmetic flaws from…
The road-going two-stroke fours from Suzuki and Yamaha normally tend to look a little awkward to my eye. The wheels and tires look too skinny, the brakes too small, the fairing bulbous and a little ungraceful. That all goes out the window with this 1988 Suzuki RG500Γ race bike, which seems better balanced all-around, and…
Update 6.1.2016: Sold in just one week! Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc If Honda’s history of brilliant technical innovation has a downside, it’s that it sometimes posits answers to questions no one actually asked. Some recent missteps like their sophisticated but overweight and expensive VFR sport-tourer suggest that they’ve just recently lost their way.…
Race-replicas are generally garish affairs: race bike paint is intended to offer up a striking rolling billboard that differentiates the machine on track and gets attention for sponsors. But the Suzuki RG500 Walter Wolf replica offers up subtle but effective style that’s very unusual among race-reps. Maybe that’s because Walter Wolf never actually sponsored racing…
2.19.2016: The seller has contacted us and the bike has been sold. Congratulations to buyer and seller! -dc These days, MotoGP machines are powered by four strokes, so anyone with Marc Marquez fantasies can buy a nice Repsol CBR1000 and pretend they’re getting a pretty authentic experience. But back in the 1980s, when two-strokes were…
Suzuki’s RG500Γ is a perennial favorite here at RSBFS, and this looks like a very clean example with some cool period brake upgrades. Built between 1985 and 1987, the Gamma was the race-rep to have, with 498cc of displacement and fierce power delivery. While its 94 or so horsepower seems unimpressive today, the bike’s dry…
Even by today’s standards, the numbers are impressive… a claimed 95hp to go with a dry weight of just 340lbs would have this little 500 hanging right with the best of the modern 600s. And they don’t sound nearly this cool! The RG500 or “Gamma” was a legitimate monster back in it’s day. Yamaha had…