Home made RGV500

Here is the extraordinary story of Nigel Duff's home made RGV500 race bike. Thinking of men like John Britten, Kim Newcombe and Burt Munro it seems that New Zealanders are a special breed of people to make bikes like this!
All the information below comes from Nigel, many thanks for that!
"For about 4 years, from 1986 I raced the RG500 Gamma in Formula One in New Zealand. The final form was as follows, 17 inch Marvics, 5.5"rear 3.5" front, Koni rear shock out of an Indy car, Forcella Italia upside down forks, 36mm Mikuni's, Mercedes 190E radiator, Dyson close ratio gearbox, Mk9 RGB dry clutch, Honda RC30 body work, 138kg, not sure of horsepower but faster than an Mk8 RGB that was out here in 1990, ¼ mile in 10.9seconds 132mph in fourth gear still setup for roadracing managed to beat the then current NZ champion on a 1990 Suzuki GSXR1100.  Stopped racing for a while, basically because I got sick of tipping off the thing, plucking the carbs off and filling the engine up with dirt.
So I decided to build a V4 500 and put the carbs in the center of the Vee where they belong. That required a new frame swing arm etc. and so I built this thing. Frame and swingarm is made from 6061 aluminium bulkheaded and gusseted monocoque a copy of the 1998 Suzuki RGV500, frame is 2mm thick, swingarm is 2.5mm. Swingarm is heat treated to t6 but frame is not done yet as I still may have to weld coil mounts etc to it. I cast up a new crankcase to carry the 1990 YZ125 barrels in a 90 degree Vee with YZ heads and pistons (nice single thin ring pistons). I have made cranks from a TZ250H and have made the gears so that the cranks fit together as they used to and run on the RG500 layshaft. A late model RS 250 ignition sits on the layshaft. Gearbox is still the Dyson model. I had a heap of trouble with the standard Suzuki gearbox when I started racing and the Dyson unit was a lot of money at the time, but it was worth every penny. Never jumped out of gear in two seasons. I have replaced the two gears involved in second gear because it looked worn but it never gave any bother. New gear set has not been used. Dry clutch uses factory outer basket and fiber plates , I machined the standard inner basket and steel plates to fit. Never had a slipping clutch after full power launches. I knew a man who worked for Ohlins, so have a pair of 42mm customer 250GP forks fitted and a rear shock that once graced Doug Chandlers Cagiva. Front brakes are 320mm Brembo rotors with Goldline calipers. Rear is a small Brembo off a mates TZ250, both master cylinders are Brembo, carbs are 35mm oval bored flat slide Dellortos. The pipes I have made myself to patterns designed with the help of the software of Gordon Blair from the Queens University of Belfast (QUB) and I challenge you to find better pipes. One of the bottom pipes took me 32 hours. QUB software has this thing at 140 hp with a relatively conservative bmep."  
For more pics see
Suzuki RGV500

Suzuki RGV500 year by year

This time a nice overview of the Suzuki RGV500 over the years, not complete but it gives you some nice information of the different types.
For more pics see
Suzuki RGV500 year by year

Ciba Geigy Suzuki's

Received some great information from Bernard, he is the owner of one of the Skoal Bandit XR70 bikes. Bernard thanks for this!
When Suzuki retired from the 500 GPs at the end of 83, the old square four (created in 73) was no more competitive against the Honda and Yamaha V4's. Therefore they continued to provide support to Heron in UK and Gallina in Italy with works engines and Suzuki alloy frames. In the UK the Heron team decided to invest in a new frame to reduce the weight and ordered 2 prototypes from Nigel Leaper in Cambridge. The first prototypes were "white" with aluminium sheets on honeycomb material from Ciba Geigy. Six other bikes were build after the prototypes. In 84 they used XR40 engines, in 85 XR45 with exhausts valves and in 86 the last square four, the XR70 with reed valves instead of disc valves. In 84 and 85 they used alloy swing arms and Suzuki forks but in the middle ot 86 they changed for a carbon swing arm and a White Power fork. The weight of the 86 bike was around 110 kgs and the maximum power was 148 HP due to the UK development especially in exhausts, heads and air-boxes. The problem was that the factory was not interested in carbon (too far away from the production road bikes) so at the beginning they were not helpful with the UK team but the results were better than the Gallina bikes so in 85 Heron got better engines and support. The carbon frame was too stiff, it was the most important problem because the bike was so light. The first pilot in 84 was Rob McElnea, In 85 Paul Lewis came in the team and McElnea left to Yamaha. In 86 Paul Lewis was still in the team with Niall MacKenzie and in the middle of the season Kevin Schwantz also got a bike. For the last race (The GP of San Marino at Misano) MacKenzie was in the first row. Kevin Schwantz won his first point in the 500cc class in Spa Francorchamps. At the end of 86, Suzuki announced their return as official team with the new XR71 V4. A batch of carbon bikes was sold at the end of 86 to Gerhard Vogt in Germany and 2 bikes with the XR70RV engine to the Frankonia team in Switzerland with Wolfgang von Muralt as pilot. They used the bikes for 2 years and at the end of 88 these bikes went to Germany also.
For pics of these bikes see
Carbonfiber framed Suzuki RG & RGV500 racers  

RGV500, ex Kenny Roberts junior

Here a set of rare pics of the RGV500 (factory name XR89) as ridden by Kenny Roberts junior in the 500cc championship. With this bike he took his first 500cc GP win in 1999. The pics offer you an inside view as never seen before!
For more pics see
RGV500

RGV500 information

Found some great and useful information on the web about the Suzuki RGV500.
RGV500 information