Across The Pond: 1996 RGV250SP (VJ23)
When I say across the pond, I mean way across the pond. This one is hiding out in Singapore. I can’t beat around the bush with this one. This bike is seriously over priced for anyone in the US market. The seller is asking low mileage,mint and stock condition price. This bike just isn’t one of those bikes. On top of that you would probably have at least $1,500 worth of shipping to deal with. Now with that out of the way it does happen to have a couple of interesting features.
If there is one bike I know in and out, it is a VJ23. I spent a good 5 years rebuilding mine and tracking down info, parts and race kit accessories from Japan. One rumor I had heard was that they used to reprogram the restricted CDI’s and turn them into full power one’s. This bike’s CDI has apparently been brought up to Sugaya R2 specs, which is one of the most sought after full power CDI’s for street use (it will still run your lights and oil pump). The seller states that the bike has a pressurized gas tank. I’m not sure what good that would do without running the pressurized air box. The two are designed to work together and are race kit items from Autorimessa (sometimes known as Racin Function) who made the official race kit for the VJ23. A lot of people seem to think Sugaya made the kit parts for the 23; not so. Sugaya ran a successful race team and builds excellent pipes and CDI’s for the 23. On the subject of pipes, this 23 has the stock pipes but they are gutted to give the bike more power and work with the full power CDI. Nice but they weigh an absolute ton. They are excellent boat anchor material.
This 23 is also sporting a different front end than the one it rolled out the factory with. At this price, I consider that a big no, no. If the price was lower I would say no big deal. I’ve seen quite a few front end conversions done on the 23 lately. Lastly, this baby has seen some serious miles; 59,000 of them. I’m not sure what to think about that one, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a 23 with that many miles. In all fairness the bike does look like it has been taken care of but when the asking price is $15,000 you have to wonder. I would ask about the paint as well. Is it an orginal Lucky Strike? With that many miles I would assume it was a respray to look that nice and new.
Up for auction is a 1996 manufactured Suzuki (VJ23) RGV-R 250 SP in Lucky Strike colors.
Accident free and it just passed inspection in the strictest country in the world – Singapore!
Instrument cluster reads 95,000km but the engine has been recently rebuilt with new factory bearings, gaskets, seals, blocks, cranks, con-rods, pistons, rings, clutch pates and springs. Bike is still running in!
Changed all coolant, fuel and oil hoses too.
Recently installed new Discacciati slotted rotors, Goldfren HH pads, Hel SS brake hose, Bridgestone Battlax BT-003 street racing tires, Marchesini Expada rims, Tokico 4 pot radial with Nissin radial brake pump, Showa USD fork.
Pressurized fuel tank, kit rear set, throttle setup and carburetors. Reprogrammed CDI, same power output as the Auto Rimessa 9SS and Sugaya R2!
Will include an Auto Rimessa carbon pressurized air box, gutted factory chambers and tuned end cans.
Bike has been tuned, acceleration is phenomenal (front wheel lifts off when power valves opens) and tested top speed is around 240km/h and the bike is still pulling strong.
The suspension is currently tuned for an 80kg rider and mountain roads.
It might sound expensive, but given the extensive work done to it, it’s condition and taking into consideration that it is a really rare bike, it is really worth every penny
Just so you guys know, Autorimessa never made a kit carbon airbox, it was very then fiberglass. If it is carbon it must be a copy. I bet you are assuming I would say stay away from this bike. Well at this price I would wait and see for sure. If the bike hangs around then it might be worth talking with the seller and seeing what kind of deal could be worked out. They are rare bike’s (if I remember correctly, less than 3,500 were produced) and if you want one to ride and not as a musuem piece than maybe it would be worth a longer look. .
As always, if anyone has questions about 23’s feel free to ask. I know sometimes info on them can be hard to come by or confusing.
IK
The colors are not orginal lucky strike it should be more of that goldish color to it instead of the bright green, Just another lucky respray done not quite right.
Isn’t it funny how popular the Lucky Strike scheme is but how often it is done incorrectly.
Yep that one’s done wrong..
Yes, paint work is a respray. SPs never came in Lucky Strike colors.
There was an error on the pricing, should read SGD instead of USD 15K only realized the error when the advertisement expired.
It reads 59K miles because the original speedo was nicked while it was parked at a mall. A replacement was found and that was what it read. Actual should be around 10K.
For the pressurized fuel tank, what I did was to route excess air from the air box into the tank and engine. It does provide good response at high speeds with some down sides. Currently restored back to what the kit manual recommended.
This sheme is not wright and the front conversion is from a gsxr750 K7 with beringer disks and so on ,it has the kit airbox and bigger carbs and finaly this bike has been ripped off all electrics and complete fairing it was stollen for a while but the new owner found it back .
I know this all there I provided all the parts there these came from one off my project racers.
Wow, that looks awesome.