Suzuki RH250

[ajsstormer]

Looking for a production Suzuki RH250 or perhaps the 370 version if somebody knows of one. There were very few ever imported here to N.America.
thx, Mark

[Slakewell]

Not many RN 400 ever sold period, One did sell here a few months back for around 20K I think, but you need to ask Dave Tanner he is the RH man.

[Rusty]

Hi Mark

There were a very few RN72 & RN73 that made it down this way for importers teams.  Pretty sure they were all handed back by the dealers that ran them to the importers.  I know at least 2 were definitely destroyed and a couple were returned to Japan before the new model would be sent down.   As for the RH that is a different story - there were quite a few RH72 and RH73 used by Frank Boyles and Lawton & Boyles in Wellington.  One weekend when a meeting was rained off the guys came out to out farm for a play session and there were 4 RH72s and 1 RN72 so there were some around.  The problem is that most have either already made their way into collectors hands or have been scrapped.
Would love to be able to cruise through a few wreckers to see what I could find.

Really annoys me that I sold my RH75 in SoCal for $400 before I headed down here - that bike was a nicer bike to ride that anything i rode prior to retiring in '78.

[John Orchard]

Hi Mark

There were a very few RN72 & RN73 that made it down this way for importers teams.  Pretty sure they were all handed back by the dealers that ran them to the importers.  I know at least 2 were definitely destroyed and a couple were returned to Japan before the new model would be sent down.   As for the RH that is a different story - there were quite a few RH72 and RH73 used by Frank Boyles and Lawton & Boyles in Wellington.  One weekend when a meeting was rained off the guys came out to out farm for a play session and there were 4 RH72s and 1 RN72 so there were some around.  The problem is that most have either already made their way into collectors hands or have been scrapped.
Would love to be able to cruise through a few wreckers to see what I could find.

Really annoys me that I sold my RH75 in SoCal for $400 before I headed down here - that bike was a nicer bike to ride that anything i rode prior to retiring in '78.

What were you thinking selling it in the first place?!!!  My mate had a '74 RH250 back in the day, I loved it and knew what it was then, I would never have sold anything like that.  At least you've owned & ridden an RH75, something many of us will never experience, cherish those memories.

[Doc]

One of my most memorable experiences was being offered a ride on Commissioner Tanners' RN400. With much the same power as my RM400 but only the weight of a TM125 it was sheer bliss

[Rusty]

What were you thinking selling it in the first place?!!!  My mate had a '74 RH250 back in the day, I loved it and knew what it was then, I would never have sold anything like that.  At least you've owned & ridden an RH75, something many of us will never experience, cherish those memories.

I was 17 or 18, had a supply of bikes from my sponsors and didn't think much about anything except where I was going to ride the following day.  Oh how I would have approached things if i knew a year or so later my life would change so drastically.

[MauriceR]

Looks like your wish is granted if you have extremely deep pockets for the buy it now price and i mean extremely deep $250,000.00
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/SUZUKI-RH75-250-HISTORIC-VINTAGE-WORKS-FACTORY-MOTOCROSS-SERIES-MACHINE-ONE-5-/281044576129?pt=US_motorcycles&hash=item416f8fe781#v4-41

[krh428cj]

I was going to start a new thread but I figured you guys would have seen this one on Ebay already. Didn't Suzuki sell these as production models in Oz?

Thanks,
Kevin

[firko]

Yeah Kevin, they had a limited release but they were still considered hard, if not impossible for the average racer to get a hold of. Suzuki made sure they went to the fast guys before Norman Nobody had a chance of buying one. What changed things was the release of the RM-A range. When that model was released the Suzuki distributors found that they had a number of RH75's left over so they went on the market for drastically discounted prices. I well remember going to Burling and Simmons in downtown Sydney in 1975 with my mate who wanted to buy a new RM370. Lined up along one wall were five of six RH-75s and a couple of RN's...all new and discounted. There was also a number of used ex race team bikes including a couple of RH74 and RN74. That was one major dealer in one city, I'm sure similar RH sell offs happened in the other east coast capitals. Suzuki didn't want anything to get in the way of their big RM push. I tried hard to talk my mate Chris into buying an RH250 but he didn't even buy the RM370 he went in for. He ended up with a shiny new 440 Maico and a second hand 250.

[JohnnyO]

The RH75 was available over the counter but the RH74 was for Suzuki sponsored riders in much smaller  numbers and they came with a large spares kit to keep the bike running for the year.
The RN400 was only available in '74 in very limited numbers.

[krh428cj]

Thanks for the info, guys. As far as I know we didn't get them in the States. The first (and only) new motorcycle I ever owned was a '76 RM250. It was a fantastic bike, I loved it.

Do the forks and shocks on that RN75 Ebay bike look like 1977 RM's to you?

Kevin

[John Orchard]

That ebay bike looks like an RM250A with a TM 250 exhaust to me, even if it is a factory bike I wouldn't pay over $5K for it.

[JohnnyO]

It is a 75 RH250 with 76/77 RM front end, potentially a $15,000 bike in Aus with the right forks, tank etc.
The US didn't get the RH's, just Aus, NZ and Europe.

[09.0]

Makes ours worth double that one. Any one want a 500k rh? Unbelievable.

[KTMaico]

Does this mean we have to re-do  the insurance policies? Someone should tell him that his "one of only five in the world" is misleading. 3-4 in Brisbane, 1 in Darwin, 1 or more in Perth, a few in the UK, 1 in Sweden and I am sure NZ has a few as well. That's only what I know of. Interesting forks, triple clamps, tank and mufler. I will be very interested to see what he gets for it. His description is glowing and I can understand why, he wants to sell it for top dollar. It would be a good starting point if you had the triple clamps and forks that were genuine RH Kit. Like in the Castle, "Tell him he is dreaming!"

Kevin.