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RG Racers: Randy Norian
Always a Bridesmaid... but a sexy one!
Here’s my experience with racing the RG500. It’s actually the first bike I ever rode on a racetrack. My 500 has been on and off the racetrack as both a racebike and a trackbike nearly the whole time I’ve owned it.
My memory is a bit fuzzy on some of this stuff, but this is the basic gist of it!
I bought my 500 used, around 1989. I moved up from a hot-rodded RD350.
With a few buddies, I drove out to the east coast from Iowa to get the Gamma. I rode it on the street for a year or two, but most of my friends here had big 4-strokes and while the RG was quick, it was an uphill job dealing with FZR1000s and GSXRs. Especially any time you were caught with the revs down.
I had dreamed of going roadracing for years, and finally a bunch of us bit the bullet and signed up for “Rick and Dave’s Excellent Roadrace Adventure” at Blackhawk Farms. We showed up, took their class on Saturday and that was my first time on a racetrack. By this time I had already repainted the bike pearl black, and had upgraded the brakes with Gold valves, FZR calipers and GSXR1100 rotors, and intake and exhaust mods.
OH MY GOD
After all that time sucking up exhaust fumes from literbikes, the RG neatly turned the tables on every single one of them and took to the track like a cat on a shag carpet. It was an absolute revelation.
At the end of the day they held a mock race, I survived intact and got my CCS license that day. I signed up for my first race the following day, likely MWSS or MWSB.
Frankly, I hardly remember the race. I did do a pretty good stoppie headed into turn one on one lap, as I had it in my head that late braking was The Thing To Do and the light, short RG stood right on its nose at a pretty good speed. That was a new one for me! The bike worked fine and we all survived to race another day. I think I was 14th or so out of a decent pack of bikes, I got stuck behind some guy who was close to my pace and didn’t quite trust my skill set to squeeze past him.
So that was it. I was officially a racer and the RG was “My First”.
First CCS track school
still pretty stock!
We survived!
Early days- pristine leathers!
The day I picked up my RG500!