I never really used this bike on the road other than to run it in between engine rebuilds. I first bought it in August '91 to replace the Suzuki 250 Gamma Mk III I had been using in the Scottish Street bike Series. I actually managed to get a 3rd place finish on the Gamma at East Fortune Raceway, and was soon wishing I had kept a hold of it.

The SACU soon changed the class regulations and the RGV was only allowed to compete in the SS400 series in '92. This has to be one of the worst bikes I have ever owned for reliability.... It seemed that the engine was always in a state of rebuild rather than racing, but having said that, when she was performing, she was incredible. I had never come across handling like this before and it took a while to get used to the fact that I could now make minute changes to the geometry or suspension set-up of the bike and avoid the patter I would get when the do-or-die braking into the hairpin got a bit serious.

To be fair to the Suzuki, its reliability was probably down to my own fault. Calum Ramsey, now racing in the 250 cc Super cup Series, gave me some tips on getting a bit more out of the engine, but like a fool, I only carried out half of the modifications he told me to do, and I think this is what caused the problems.
The Suzuki is very receptive to engine tuning, but only if you do the whole lot. If you haven't got enough money to do it in one go, wait till you have...

One of the simplest modifications is to cut away the central web in the air box, then take a flexible pipe from the air duct on the left side of the fairing, and have it exit to the area just behind the air box intake. This will require up-jetting the carburetors as well, but I can't remember to what size.

Serious tuning of the engine wasn't really allowed within the rules of the series, but it is amazing what you can find out at a local meeting.

As I said, when the bike was running, it ran well and I had a few top 10 finishes on it, but its crowning glory was being in 4th place during one of Knockhill's biggest events, only to seize up solid crossing the start line at around 120-125 mph. Lots of smoke from the rear tyre and a lot of noise from my bottom!!!

Why is it that they always seize when you're going full chat?

Enough was enough. The RGV had cost me an arm and a leg up to now, so it was time to get rid of it and this meant that I was going to have to drop out of the racing scene for a while as well.

I took the bike back to its standard trim and settings and used it for a few months on the road, to make sure she was still running ok, but because I also had 2 FZ 750's in the garage at the time, it had to go to try and recoup some money. (both the FZ's went as well to make room for the YZF, shortly after)

The pictures below are of the bike I used to compete in the Scottish Super Sport 400 Championship 1991, '92, and this is it in its various different colour schemes. OK so the colours may not be to everybody's tastes, but at the end of the day, looks don't help you get to the finish line first.

Any-body out there who would like to sponsor me in another championship bid in the Super Sport 600 Series, or even in the Power bike Series, please feel free to E-Mail me.!

For a bigger image size, just click the thumbnail you want.