The Suzuki RG500 is without doubt a classic bike. So why do people still cut them up for their engines? Launched alongside the Suzuki GSX-R 750 in 1985, I have no idea exactly how many bikes Suzuki sold, but it can’t have been many. Aside from the fact the fact production only ran for 3 years, until 1987, it’s also rumoured that they lost money on every machine they made. Small numbers meant it was a classic almost from the start, and a good example in showroom condition will set you back around £10,000 these days. Still cheaper than a new superbike, though.
But the craze to shove the square four motor into Suzuki RGV250 and Aprilia RS250 chassis continues to grow, meaning that bikes with the potential to be restored are often being broken for engines and running gear, with supply and demand dictating price. A complete rare engine is a rare thing on the open market, so pricing one is tricky.
But components appear far more regularly. In the last month or so I’ve watched various parts sold on eBay, with two barrels making over £500, despite the fact you’ll eventually realise you need four of them. There’s a set of crankcases with a Buy It Now listing of £1250, whilst another set in Germany have already reached more than £500 on auction as I write this. Disc valves and covers often appear to hit around £200 before they disappear, suggesting that a better offer might have been made elsewhere.
The question is how many original Suzuki RG500 examples will be left in decent or restorable condition before their scarcity drives prices up and means that they’re worth more than their parts?
As much as every article in the 1980s motorcycle press referred to ‘the closest thing to a GP bike for the road’, and now mentions the on/off powerband from 6,000 rpm, it’s as much a sign of what could have been if four strokes hadn’t dominated racing and road sportsbikes for decades. Just as we try to stop people hunting endangered species just for their horns etc, maybe it’s time to save the remaining Suzuki RG500s left in the wild being gutted for their motors?
Suzuki RG500 facts:
The Suzuki RG500 was introduced in 1985 and phased out in 1987. Also know as the Suzuki RG500 Gamma, is was inspired by the 1984 Suzuki RG500 Gamma Grand Prix bike, which had enjoyed consecutive titles in the GP class.
Power comes from a 498cc square four two-stroke motor with a 56.0 x 50.6mm bore and stroke, and 4x28mm Mikuni carbs. Claimed power was optimistically 95bhp@9,500rpm, with a claimed dry weight of 154kg and a top speed of 140mph. Twin front discs and a single rear provided the stropping power, while it also had a 1425mm wheelbase and 110/90V16 front and 120/90V17 rears.
There were also two models, not many of the first were ever made! I happen to have one mind! 🙂
Great article, I never realized just how rare these were becoming. It would be great if you could come up with a article on one of these still on the road.
I have a 1986 RG500 that I have owned since 2009. It’s been registered for the road since then and I Drive it 3 to 4 times a week.
Here are the exact numbers Suzuki made, who knows how many have been scraped or wrecked or just thrown away (they actually do that in Japan) RG500 9284 made, almost all in 1985, RG400 6213 almost all in 1985, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suzuki_RG500 All my gammas are all stock parts, except for the air filters and carb jets. But I still have all the stock parts.
I’ve got an original rg 400 which has been storage for 12 years it has some fairing damage after being dropped at about 5 my. (Gutted !) I’m considering parting with it as long as it stays in one piece ! Has any body got any idea what they are worth now ?
If you need one for an article, I know of 4 in Jersey at least, with one being mint and less than 6k on the clock.
de mijne zal ik nooit afbreken voor de onderdelen maar echt zo origineel mogelijk houden ik heb al met heel veel motoren gereden maar de sensatie van de rg 500 is met niets te vergelijken
About 20 years ago I bought a Terry Shepherd Stage 3 tuned RG500 from a girl I used to race against.The bike was a complete mess with no fairing,JMC swing arm & a lurid pink paint job.My mates wern’t laughing for long though as it could keep up with a lazily ridden slab-side GSXR 1100 ! I put it on a dyno in North London where it produced 100 bhp at the rear wheel! Side note: Having owned many 2 strokes before I checked the main jet size-standard.I phoned Terry & he assured me this was correct.
I have 2 Rg 500 gammas that I’ve been restoring. I’ve owned these bikes for 17 years and have only riden 1 of them for a few months and they been stood still in my shed for 16 years where they have been detiorating getting rusty. I paid £2000 for my c reg Rg and I paid £500 for my d reg Rg 500. The main bearings were gone and someone had stripped the engine to the crank on it. I paid £560 to a local bike mechanic in the 90’s to rebuild the crank for me and i didn’t know until recently that he did them wrong . I started restoring both at the same time about 5 months ago. They r both almost done. All I have left to do now is the brakes which I’m in the process of stripping the calipers so I can get them powder coated and renew the seals. The radiators don’t leak but look tatty with paint peeling so I need to get them reconditioned and sprayed. I need to get 1 pair of wheels powder coated 2 sets of exhausts sandblasted and sprayed. I’ve got 3 sets of exhausts 2 standard sets and some kind of frescos or allspeeds. I’ve already done 1 set of exhausts which look mint. I’m also waiting for a spare front forks that are with TW SUSPENSION where he is servicing,rechroming the stantions and powdercoating the legs. His work is amazing I can’t recommend him highly enough as he has already done 1 set of forks for me and the 2 rear which he also stripped,serviced and powdercoated the springs. The reason he never done both forks was because I was going to stick a GSXR front end on 1 of them so I could have upside down forks and 6 pot calipers but I changed my mind because of not being able to match a back wheel with it. I’m missing 2 key items for 1 of my bikes. I need a gear linkage for the gear stick and the arm that attaches to the spline I have the gearstick. I’m missing the bottom cowling to the fairing which I had purchased on eBay from Canada but had problems after buying it with delivery. So I need to source another. I’ve done so much work on these bikes I’ve not spared any expense. I stripped them both down to the bare frame. I’ve stripped anything and everything that had rust on it and hammerited it back to black,back of clocks the individual covers and the frame the clocks sit on plus the frame the clocks and headlight bolt to. Footpeg rests exhaust cradles,rear brake hose brackets. Stan stephens stripped both engines down, had them beadblasted and powdercoated and replaced anything that needed replacing and there were a lot of things that did. Both engines have had new Pistons, rebores. The disk valves covers that have that special lining on both sets have been changed because they had disintergrated and hit the crank and top ends and caused damage. 1 of set of disk valve covers are originals but have been stripped of the lining and have had a process done to them which I can’t remember so they should never ever go again. Stan told me he had never ever seen a set so bad that he wanted to include them in his colum in a motorcycle magazine he also tuned both engines 1 has a stage 1 tune and the other has a stage 3 tune. I’ve replaced all the bearings on the frame and wheels. I hope to get them both finished in the next 2 months for the summer. I’m having a problem trying to insure them as I don’t know how to value them. I’ve seen them going on ebay from £10000 to £18000 and 1 that was £25000. When I told carol Nash insurance this after asking the value of the bikes they came back with a value of £8000 and quote of £10000 a year to insure them both?
Hi Dan & Scott, had a ratty RG years ago (90s?) , bought it off a girl I used to race against , Sonya Parsons IIRC . Those of a nervous disposition should stop reading now..the bike was pink with flourescent yellow wheels & covered in a zillion multicoloured gamma symbols…However it was Terry Shepherd Stage 3 tuned , this meant 100 genuine bhp at the rear wheel…for comparison my mate’s jellymould CBR6 made 68 bhp before tuning & 85 bhp after 😉 Gotta love 2 strokes ❤️
Hi,
I bought a standard RG500 earlier this year (2015), but some time back I thought the Yamaha RD500 was the bike to get because the V4 looks gorgeous until I started reading the road tests and reviews and it dawned on me that the Suzuki was much truer to its racing heritage.
My first impressions are a comfortable compact light bike (154kg dry), on starting it up a fairly noisy engine, with more gears whirring than anything else, but then it is enclosed in a close fitting fairing.
The engine had been rebuilt, on putting it in gear it stalled, the first indication of one of the RG500 foibles, a dragging clutch.
First gear is quite tall, which personally I don’t mind it’s all part of the racer concept.
With the rev counter starting at 3k, the racing position and the noise it feels as though you are going faster than you actually are, it is a lot smoother than you expect.
You feel very special going through rural towns in a low gear, everyone looks around wondering what Ferrari or Lambourgini is coming down the road, it has not got the usual tinny 2 stroke sound.
The torque is certainly adequate when pottering around, but the idea of this bike is to wring it’s neck and I must admit it was not fully run in when I was first tempted by the 7k power band, it took another couple of hundred miles before I tried it again, then the power comes in with such a bang, it is exhilarating and very addictive, I have read that the power doubles in 2500 revs, after experiencing it, the main point of the bike is to experience it again and again like a drug.
But on that note, this is where I found it the first bike that is slightly disappointing because of that wonderful power band, let me explain.
A mate and I race around the country lanes in Surrey, Kent & Sussex, he knows the way so he always leads, on these so called 60 mph roads the fun is in the tight bends and the acceleration on the short straights, he is on a Honda NSR400 with expansion chambers and is a fine handling civilised bike. While he is flying around a bend on the limit and then accelerating out of it, for me all the torque I had when going slow has disappeared so I wind up the throttle and bang, here we go again into hyperspace, I catch him in no time he is traveling at say 80 mph I’m flying up behind him at over 100 mph accelerating hard, so on with the brakes and the RG500 then is getting a little skittish and all you need then is some myopic idiot in a 4×4 on the wrong side of the road overtaking a cyclist, so by the end of the day after 100 miles of fierce acceleration and hard braking, in the wrong places, the joy has gone out of the ride…..No, where this bike excels is long flowing bends on wide roads with some long straights where the revs can be kept up in the power band and the light weight keeps the bike on line, the NSR then becomes a speck in the mirrors, no contest, so after years of wanting a “racer for the road” I now realise it’s limitations.
Note: I can understand why some owners tune their RG500’s because they want more of the adrenalin rush and I’m tempted to do the same but I have read some Canadian guy at Bonneville has the 500cc class world record on a RG500 at over 148 mph average, with one run at 161mph on standard pipes and carbs!
Cheers,
Phil Anon.
Cheers Phil – great comment, and interesting to hear about your experiences!
Dan
I read somewhere that Suzuki made 9284 Rg 500’s and the the made 6000 and something Rg 400’s over 3 years. I’m lucky enough to own 2 which I’ve recently restored, but have owned for the last 20 years detiorating in my shed. Stan stephensons rebuilt both engines and tuned 1 at a stage 3 and 1 at a stage 1. Had to run both bikes in 1000 miles each. 500 miles up to 5000 rpm and 500 up to 7000 rpm. I would recommend getting your Rg tuned. Can’t keep the front wheel down if you go over 7000 rpm in 1st. These bikes sound awesome from 7000 onwards but do rattle at low revs.
Hi I have a RG gamma engine for sale no gear box hand start Runs perfect got a speedo and a couple of cdi control unit. Contact me if interested in south west Scotland
Ian, contact me cheers, 07807 732611 mike
Ian, do you still have that RG500 speedo? If so please ring me on 07522474022.
Phil.