Suzuki RG500

1985

Had been riding my Kawasaki Z650 (by then a 716cc Yoshi) and it blew the big ends!

Bit naffed off and the time and money needed to repair 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.

A ride on both and there was no way I was leaving with the RG!

A few days later I picked up the RG!

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 in someone's garden in 1985

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 which I wish I had kept, especially given the money these fetch nowadays.

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 RD350 as a temporary measure until I found a new GSXR750 a little bit later.