OWNING SUZUKI RGV250
B O X I N G
C L E V E R
They say good things come in small packages and, for owner Nathan Horsfield, fate delivered this incredible Suzuki RGV250 GP replica in a box By Benjamin Lindley Photography Adam Duckworth
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JANUARY 2013 | PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK
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OWNING SUZUKI RGV250
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ot many people rely on the fickle finger of fate to point out a prospective project, but for PB reader Nathan Horsfield, destiny has dished out a real ace card. Not only does he now own this super sweet 250GP replica, he’s also been shortlisted for the final of the Carole Nash Built in Britain competition. ‘I’ve always liked two-strokes,’ explains Nathan from Selby in Yorkshire. ‘I sold my R6 race bike and that made enough room in my shed for a new project. It was a toss-up between an Aprilia RS250 and an RGV250. I put a wanted advert on a forum and someone offered me this bike. That would’ve been November 2009.’ Talk about leaving it up to fate. And from looking at the pictures you’d be forgiven for thinking this RGV250 show-stopper was the product of years of scheming, developing and prior projects, but the reality is a little different. This judge-pleasing stroker is only Nathan’s second big build. He spent his formative years powdercoating the frame of a Ducati 748, adding an Ohlins rear shock here, a five-spoke rear wheel there, before turning it into a full 2001 Ben Bostrom replica. Nathan’s RGV should be counting its lucky stars because nearly every single modification and replacement part is top notch. And it’s wearing a shedload of them: Ohlins forks, Brembo calipers, Tyga exhaust, custom-built rearsets. Nathan has to think hard about what’s still original. ‘The frame, the swingarm, the tank, the airbox, carbs, engine, subframe and crankcases are standard. Everything else has been replaced.’ ‘It was only 20% complete when I collected it. The frame, swingarm and engine were in place. The previous owner put the forks in it so I could take it away. The rest was in cardboard boxes. I bought the RGV because it came as a full package. Even though there was a hell of a lot of work to do, nearly everything I needed was in those boxes. The fairing had already been painted, the Ohlins forks were in place, as were the brakes.’ The RGV has Brembo calipers front and back, with full floating front discs. These are complemented by the Brembo 19 x 20 GP master cylinder from Nathan’s old race bike and HEL braided brake lines throughout. The parts list reads like a lotterywinning custom builder’s dream shopping trolley, overflowing with trick components. It’s difficult to pin 72
RELOCATED ECU Nathan down about how much the build has cost him overall. ‘I paid four grand for the bike in 2009. Since then I’ve probably spent... an extra three.’ We’re not sure he wants to think about it too much. The first job was to strip the already modded engine right down, replace all bearings and gaskets, and rebuild it. He explains why the 21-year-old casings look so smart: ‘I’m a bit of a clean freak. The bike was absolutely mint apart from the crankcases. That bugged the hell out of me, so I sent them off to be vapour blasted. They came back looking like new!’ ‘I didn’t want indicators or the switchgear on the finished bike. I wanted it to look like it had just been wheeled off the grid. The engine kill and start are still in place, but press the electric start and it sounds the horn. I’ve had a few laughs with that bit of rewiring.’ He also relocated the ECU from its original underseat position to the front of the bike, GP-style. It took him a solid week to rebuild the wiring loom.
Transferred from the original underseat position to the front of the bike, just like a GP bike.
BREMBO PARTY Nathan’s old race master cylinder completes the Brembo package.
‘The parts list reads like a lottery winner’s shopping trolley’ ‘I worked nights through the week to get the bike sorted, most weekends too. I think it was Christmas 2009: I went into the shed and came out five hours later. The back garden was three inches thick in snow. I hadn’t even noticed it falling.’ Finally, after a final £350 peppering of titanium bolt buckshot, Nathan finished the bike in November 2010. A trip to the dyno revealed some tidy results. At 11,500rpm, the RGV was making 67.7bhp at the rear wheel, that’s over 5bhp more than a healthy stock engine can push out. ‘There’s enough power in the bike to do well over 130mph top speed. I geared it down a bit so I wouldn’t be screaming the nuts off it all the time. I know I would if I could.’ But the dyno only tells half the story. Nathan’s convinced he’s taken the stock bike’s 139kg dry weight down to a shade over 120kg. So how does this massive mash-up of quality performance parts and weight loss perform? ‘I had a good idea of what to expect, but nothing more. I knew it should handle well with the spec that was on it. After installing freshly resprung forks, I took the bike for a
PERFORMANCEBIKES.CO.UK | FEBRUARY 2013
OHLINS FORKS Set up to cope with serious braking power. Way too stiff at sane speeds on the road, but come into their own on track
SUZUKI RGV250 VJ22 1991
ENGINE water-cooled, two-stroke, 250cc, 90° V-twin. Close ratio gears fitted, TTW cylinder heads, TTW powervalves, Pace radiator, TYGA SS exhaust with carbon cans, Zeeltronics ECU CHASSIS Ohlins Road and Track forks, magnesium yokes, Woodcraft clip-ons, Nitron rear shock, Marchesini magnesium front wheel, Aprilia RS250 rear wheel and disc, Dunlop GPRA 10s 120/150, Brembo GP front brake calipers, Brembo full floating front discs, Brembo GP radial master cylinder 19x20, Brembo Goldline rear caliper, HEL braided lines EXTRAS: Sprint steering damper, Promach rearsets, Translogic LCD display, TYGA subframe, TYGA fairing, Lightech carbon fibre mirrors, clutch lever and fuel filler cap
APRILIA RS250 REAR WHEEL
CUSTOM REARSETS Promach Crescent BSB GSX–R with altered mounting plates. One of only two pairs ever made
The rear wheel’s sprocket carrier had to be machined to fit the swingarm
‘I’VE HAD IT ABSOLUTELY PINNED IN FIFTH’ Colin Skillcorn is based in Southport and used to race 250s nationally. He knows how to rebuild RS/RGV engines. After patching up Nathan’s RGV250, he took it for a ride: ‘A stock VJ22 is quite a bit heavier than the previous VJ21 model, but Nathan’s bike is astonishingly light. I own a few stripped-down VJ21s and
Nathan’s is as light, if not lighter, than all them. HIs RGV is an absolute featherweight. ‘The GP 250 front brakes are potent. Giving them one finger is really all you need. Although the action is fierce, you feel as if you have total control. ‘The fully programmable ECU allowed me to copy in one of my own custom ignition maps. The
bike is capable of giving decent power from 6000 to 13,000 revs. Compared to the original 8-11k power band, that’s an impressive increase. ‘Tall first and second gears mean the gaps between the lower gears are more evenly spaced than on stock models. I saw 135mph in fifth on the clocks, and there’s nowhere
round Southport where I could try flat out in sixth. I’d hazard a guess at an indicated 140mph plus top speed. ‘Usually, strapping lots of expensive parts to one bike doesn’t yield the best results: they don’t really gel together. But this RGV really does feel like it’s a modern day factory 250. It’s a fantastic bike.’
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OWNING SUZUKI RGV250
‘When I tip in for a corner it’s unbelievable. It’s super sharp’ ride. I initially thought that the result was too hard. It is a firm ride, but the feel I get from the front end when I tip in for a corner is unbelievable. It’s bloody powerful too, raising the front in first and second, and it’s super sharp in the corners. It works!’ Nathan hasn’t given the RGV a nickname. We think it’s because every time he looks at the bike his mind loses the power to formulate sentences. Glance at the super shiny finished product and the spicy chilli-red livery of Team Aspar and it smacks you square in the face. And with the gold Ohlins forks, a turquoise Nitron rear shock and a cheeky games controller on the tank, there’s enough to take in here to hold anyone’s gaze for an indecently long time. You’d be forgiven for thinking the bike’s number pays homage to Moto3 racer Jonas Folger. But Nathan’s ‘94’ has special significance: ‘I started doing trackdays when I was 27. I did
a few solo races and a few endurance races before I won the Hottrax endurance championship in 2009 as one half of team NR Racing. And 94 was my lucky number.’ On a ride back from the Yorkshire staple, Squires Cafe, only a few weeks after the dyno run, the inevitable happened: Nathan blew the engine. ‘I was going flat out, loving it and I blew it up. I melted a hole in the top piston – right in the middle. I took it to Colin Skillcorn in Southport who was able to rebuild it for me. He put in stupidly expensive racing plugs, changed one of the jets in the top carb for a Mikuni, and told me to run it on Optimax fuel. It hasn’t blown since.’ The RGV250 needs careful lookingafter to keep it in good fettle, but this doesn’t faze Nathan. ‘Any two-stroke requires regular maintenance, but I don’t see it as a chore, maintaining it is just part of the enjoyment.’ What’s the next project? ‘I haven’t had enough of two-strokes, and I love the Aprilia RS250’s Chesterfield colours. So I’ll be working on one of those soon. I can see the RGV and an RS standing either side of the living room fireplace, just as soon as I’ve done the house. Bikes first, house second. That’d be nice.’ Now there’s a man who has his priorities right.
Yes it is a red carbon fibre mirror, but it sort of works
31-year-old Nathan with the result of all his hard work
See Nathan’s RGV250 and all the other Carole Nash Built in Britain finalists at the London Motorcycle Show, February 15-17
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