The 32-year-old motorcycle with just TWO ‘push miles’ on the clock: Rare Suzuki road bike that’s never been ridden is tipped to sell for £35,000
- The Suzuki RG500 Gamma is an ultra-rare two-stroke road bike from the 1980s
- It’s based on the factory 500cc Grand Prix racers of the era that won two titles
- This example has never been ridden with its two recorded miles accrued while being manoeuvred during storage
- Bonhams will sell it at auction this weekend with an estimate of £30k to £35k
A 1989 Suzuki RG500 motorcycle is set to go under the hammer this weekend with an astonishingly low number of miles clocked in its 32 years – and none of them came from it being driven.
The two-stroke road-going replica of the factory Grand Prix race machines of the era is already a hugely collectible motorbike today – but this particular example stands out for having just two miles on the clock.
Bonhams, which is offering the bike at its 9 October sale at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in Stafford, says these are ‘push miles’ only, accrued by owners moving the bike around by hand – meaning it’s never actually been ridden.
The collectible sportsbike with two ‘push miles’ on the clock: This 1989 Suzuki RG500 Gamma has never been ridden – or even registered – during its 32 year life. It will be offered at auction this month
The auction house has estimated that the motorcycle could sell for between £30,000 and £35,000 – though its like-new condition and lack of use could see it easily eclipse that valuation when bidding commences on Saturday.
Bonhams says it represents ‘a possibly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire an unused and unregistered example of this iconic Suzuki model’.
The RG500 ‘Gamma’ was only produced by the Japanese motorcycle brand for two years between 1985 and 1987 and was heavily based on the racing machine used by its factory team.
And it was a title-winning package, with Italians Marco Lucchinelli and Franco Uncini taking the riders’ world championship in back-to-back years in 1981 and 1982.
Suzuki’s advertisement for the motorcycle at launch said: ‘No one has ever built a road machine so close in technical basis to a current GP winner. Quite frankly we do not expect that any one else ever will.’
This example was first delivered to GS Motorcycles on 7 February 1989, which is confirmed by documents that are sold with the machine – as well as copies of the owner registration card, warranty card, dealer record, and new vehicle licence application.
However, it was never actually registered, with the bike instead being retained in storage and never ridden on the road.
Bonhams has placed an estimate of £30,000 to £35,000 on the bike at the 9 October auction at the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show in Stafford
That means the liquid-cooled, four-cylinder, two-stroke 498cc engine has never had its full 95bhp of power exploited at 9,500rpm.
The engine used the same square-four engine layout, geared-together crankshafts, and disc-valve induction, as the racer, while the aluminum frame, rear suspension and triple disc brakes were also taken from the GP machines.
Performance was mighty for the era, with a 130mph-plus top speed, 11.5-second quarter-mile time and incredibly agile handling and brakes.
But the peaky two-stroke engine could easily punish riders who were unable to exploit the narrow power band it provided, with surges of acceleration being developed when the revs peaked.
It was – at the time – the closest thing to a road-going Grand Prix racer. Suzuki’s advertisement for the motorcycle at launch said: ‘No one has ever built a road machine so close in technical basis to a current GP winner. Quite frankly we do not expect that any one else ever will’
‘Today this legendary model is highly sought after by collectors of modern Japanese classics,’ says Bonhams.
And it won’t be the first time this specific model goes to the block, with it last changing hands at the same Stafford Sale held in October 2017, where it sold for £31,050.
‘The machine has not been used/run since acquisition and has been kept dry stored in the garage,’ the lot description explains.
‘Accordingly, it will need to be fully re-commissioned to a greater or lesser extent before use,’ it adds.
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