Suzuki RG500
1985
Been riding Kawasaki Z650s for a few years, with my tuned and over bored 716cc Yoshi being my favoured ride, but then it went bang!
Bit miffed off having spent so much time and money on the bike over the years and that now would need more to repair the damage, I went to the local dealerships to source another bike to use while I got the Z back on the road.
Two bikes stood out, the Yamaha FZ750 and the RG500 and both incredible for new bikes only around £3k on the road.
After a ride out on each there was no way I was leaving without the RG!
Deal done and a few days later I picked up the RG for the pricey sum of £2999 on the road!
As with a lot of my early motorcycles, not many were taken of my RG500 and the only ones I recall are these which were all taken soon after I picked it up.
The Suzuki RG500 was without doubt one of the maddest bikes I have ever owned and certainly one of the bikes I wish I'd never sold... This thing was amazing straight out of the box.
Wheel was off the ground so much, it was light and handled brilliantly.
Thirsty little bike, often getting only 20 to the gallon, but boy was it fun.
The engine and ancillary bits all squidged into a very small space behind the fairing. I'd been used to working on twin and triple 2-strokes and even my Z650s but this was something way more complex and at least at that time beyond my technical abilities.
A truly awesome bike for its time which 40 year on will set you back £20k+ for a good one.
After about a year I sold mine, getting almost the same money as I'd paid for it new, but in hindsight fairly silly reasons.
I'd been used to have an electric starter on my Z and wanted to get a bike with an electric starter again, plus there'd been a few warnings about the engines blowing on the RGs and costing a lot of money to repair.
Sold quickly at the time and hadn't found the right bike at the right price so got an RD350LC as a temporary measure until I found a new GSXR750 a little bit later. Nice bike the LC but very slow compared to the RG.
