Your Collection: 1984 Suzuki RM500E
Tuesday, October 16, 2012 | 1:50 PM
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PrintThis weeks collection comes to us from Victor Hergert in Washington.
This is my 1984 Suzuki RM500E. I raced amateur MX from the late 1970’s through the early 80’s in the Pacific Northwest of Washington state. The last bike I raced was a 1983 RM500D back then. I picked this up about 6 years ago as I really wanted a bike from my past. This bike is very mechanically sound as all suspension, the bottom and top ends have been gone through, new chain and sprockets and the jetting fine tuned. It runs great and I try to get it out at least once a year. Plastics are a bit worn, but wanted to keep it as original as possible. About the only aftermarket parts it has are the Answer silencer, clutch and brake levers, Gunnar Gasser throttle, and Scott grips.
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Beastly! I had a 1984 RM250. It was good, but the 1985 was much better.
A kick stand? Really? …… Really?
I had several mid 80's Suzuki mx bikes and they all had kick stands on them. 80 and 125 alike, 2 bolts and they were gone, bikes were not so hot then, but to have a clean air cooled 500 just for kicks would be good now. 84 was the last for Suzuki 500' s they threw in the towel before Yamaha and neither brand had a machine to compete with the liquid cooled kx and cr.
I have a awesome scar on my back from getting run over and the kick stand bracket ( mount ) dug in.
Chics dig scars!!!
I have a soft spot (probably on my head) for RM500's. I assume it's wishful thinking about what could've been. Maybe Brad Lackey's '82 campaign.........
Gee nice that you found that bike. I used to race against them. Then I do pride myself for the YZ 490's I built when I was racing the Open class. I could build some good Yammyhappies back then. I did ok on em. Far from stock though. As Tom White said a long time ago in "Dirt Rider" mag if you have never raced a 500cc 2 stroke you have to to make it one of the things on your list. Hey as we saw in the ppic the Mountain bike bit him pretty hard. Hey Tom just gas it!
When you weigh more than your bike, a 500 makes nice mellow power. That is why I met the guys at Service Honda and handed them the suitcase of money.
500cc's of two-stroke, with drum brakes. O..M..G!
500cc 2 strokes used to give me wood. Now it's 10cc of Viagra and a good ole nasty Harley Momma.
Back in 86 my 50 year old dad, who never rode a motorcycle in his life, wanted to ride around while I was practicing. My thrifty mother bought him a 1982 CR450 aircooled with foam grips. BEAST. I still remember him panicing and jumping a berm into a canal. Dad is gone now, but memories and bikes like this RM always make me smile. Miss you DAD!
The thing I remember most about the RM500 is that it went away and left the open class all to Honda and Kawasaki. I knew it was the end. I had been able to deny it when it was just the big bore YZ missing from the picture. Hats off to the mighty KX, the reigning 500cc champ for all time, for keeping the big bore beasts alive the longest!
What the...!?
RACER-X: Who's KHIBRAN #3 ???
I wrote that comment about the RM500 and kickstands...
And now it's gone...!
Recapping: Nice Ride Victor. I remember hacksawing and filing down kickstand mounts on several 70's/80's machines I raced back in the day. Someone should gag/photoshop a kickstand on to a current factory machines. Would set the moto-following Twitter world on fire with plenty of WTF comments....
Beauty , My clearest memorys of the open class was Jeff Stanton as a amatuer in Michigan pounding, rattling, tinging around the track on a rattle trap yz490
IMPRESSIVE BIKE.That was my last one, I miss the sound and the smell of the 500 2 strokes! I still have the feeling that the 500 2 strokes had more power and were harder to ride(no motor brake) that the 450 4 strokes of today.
The RM 500 was called ''THE ARMS EXTENDER''. I had the chance to try one on a track a few months ago;after 2 (bad) laps I was just washout! (I think that Brad Lackey found his last one in Holland and bought it!)
Really nice bike! I've ridden a lot of bikes over the years from prehistoric kidney shakers to the latest and greatest but some of my best memories have been from these Open class 2 strokes! Fun bikes, thanks for sharing! Oh and NitrousMark loved your post ...too cool!
This bike remember me the infamous Ross Peterson. Here in CANADA it was a show to watch Peterson on this 500cc.
I was racing on Honda (mainly 250) but by memory, the RMs had the best suspension of all. The handling was a pain versus CRs, but in the rough they was the best.
@2damold, I don't care what anyone says, that was the funniest thing I've heard in a while!!
Used to sneak my uncles yz490 put of the barn when I was around 13, the few times I got it started, it scared the hell out of me!!!!!!!!! Then my uncle scared the hell out of me when he came home from work early one day....
Love those pictures of old bikes.That RM500 brings back memories a friend of mine use to race one and one day i asked him if i could ride some laps on the track,that bike scared the sh&t out of me.Great post 2damold.
Funny story on kickstands. I recently sold my sons 2004 YZ250F to a 20-something guy who could not believe it did not have a built-in kick stand! He claimed to have owned a YZ250 before (obviously vintage) and it had a built in kick stand! As he wheeled his newly purchased ride in to the back of his truck, he said he would need some one to weld on a kick stand!!!
As owner of the above RM500, I recently raced it in a vintage MX race and it ran great! But I do appreciate how much easier it is to ride my newer YZF !!!