With prices of Suzuki’s RG500Γ “Gamma” through the roof right now, fans of 80s two-stroke exotica have had to look elsewhere for their smoky thrills, and today’s Featured Listing RG400Γ might be just the ticket for collectors seeking two-stroke performance on a less extravagant budget. Certainly, values of the Japanese-market RG400Γ have been below those of…
Update 2.17.2017: Last posted in August of last year, this bike reached $34,101 reserve not met. Back on eBay and closes on Sunday. Links updated. -dc Prior to the RG500, two-strokes were found only in the smaller racing classes, and Suzuki was breaking new ground with this bike: no one had ever really built a…
Rarity is a curious question of locality. For US riders, the RG250 Gamma was always forbidden fruit (those residing in California were prohibited from even looking at pictures of these exotic machines). However in the home markets where small bikes rule, RG250s – as well as a host of other “exotic” small-bore rockets – are…
One of the most desirable sportbikes of the 1980s, the Suzuki RG500Γ was in a class of basically two with the Yamaha RZ500. Powered by a two-stroke square four it shared with no other bike in Suzuki’s lineup, the Gamma was intended to evoke their Grand Prix racebikes, which led to an interesting dilemma: two-strokes…
The parallel-twin precursor to the well-known RGV250, the Suzuki RG250Γ “Gamma” was built between 1983 and 1987. Dry weight was a claimed 286lbs, helped by the aluminum frame, so the bike’s 45hp can still move the bike down the road smartly. The little Gamma was styled to match the RG500, and was packed with technology…
“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…
Look, just to be clear: if you’re in California, you’re not getting this bike. The seller is most emphatic on that point. See below. It’s not that it’s completely impossible to find or to title a grey-market import Suzuki RGV250Γ in California, it’s just that you’re not getting this particular bike: apparently the seller tried but didn’t…
Many of the weird and wonderful bikes we like to feature on this site appear in time-capsule condition, as if Doc Brown put them in a trailer behind his time-traveling DeLorean and towed them from the distant year 1985 into… The future! Others are patched-up wrecks described as having “patina” with “90% tread left on…