MARK ADAMS' SUZUKI RGV 250

Welcome to our project-themed paradise - a place where readers like you take a few snaps, tell a few tales, and get to show us what they've been grafting away at in their garages. This month, Mark Adams gives us an idea of his journey restoring his childhood RGV250.

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Why this bike?

Well, this goes back 36 years. The year 1989 was pivotal for me a lot of things all came together at once. I just finished my five-year electrical apprenticeship, passed my bike test, turned 21, got a new job that paid double what my apprenticeship paid, and I took a trip to America. I'd set myself a goal of buying a used TZR250 before going to the US. GPs were my inspiration, so I wanted the closest thing to a race replica at the time. I'd taken a couple of bike mags to read on the flight and on the back page of one was an advert for the new RGV250 in blue/white. I thought it was way out of my league before that flight, but I got chatting with the bloke next to me about bikes. Basically, he inspired me to aim higher (as Americans do), so in the space of those seven hours, I'd decided that I would be buying an RGV when I got back.

It was actually January 1990 when I eventually collected a blue/white RGV250K from White City Motorcycles in Manchester, paying a princely sum of £2999. I rode it home that first day. I was about five miles off when it started snowing - I don't think there's a scarier feeling in motorcycling than riding a brand-new bike on brand-new tyres in snow.

During 1990, I did a track day at Three Sisters in Wigan. Back then, people didn't really do track days as they weren't really well-known or advertised... I don't think they were even called track days then, more like track sessions or practice days for club racers. It was basically turn up, pay £20, and pretty much an open pit lane with no marshalling, so if you managed to total yourself into the scenery, no one was coming to help you. It was here where the RGV shone... I spent a whole afternoon getting my knee down for the first time ever, lap after lap. It was awesome, and it sort-of inspired me to go club racing on another RGV some years later.