Very well done. I just got my first Gamma and have begun the restoration. Has several Lance mods including brakes, air filters and rotary valves. Appears to have SV650 wheels based on measuring the bearings. Fox shock too. No documentation. Runs great after carb cleaning and usual maintenance. Striping down to the frame to clean and restore. I have an RZ500 and this is lighter and faster for sure. Thanks for sharing this video!
You are welcome, hopefully it gives you some inspiration for your resto. Glad you are retaining the Lance mods and preserving a piece of motorcycling history. Fully agree on the RZ500 comparison, but I love them both!
Beautiful job on the restoration. It looks like you kept all the good mods.The body work and paint look fantastic. Did you do this yourself? Like myself it looks like you have a few more "projects" in the queue. I sure wish I could add an RG to my collection but they've become out of reach. From a fellow 4 cylinder smoker!!!
Thanks for sharing that with the RG500 enthusiasts! Couple questions...noticed that the fairings at first indicated fresh primer than RG400 then Walter Wolf plus saw an the initial look at the instrument panel with a fuel gauge that is unique to the Japanese market models. Later no fuel gauge but with some Japanese characters near the right side turn indicator. My Canadian import says "SIDE STAND" where the Japanese characters reside. Was this an RG400 that you turned into an RG500? It looks like you married the main instruments from a Brit RG500 (mph vs kph for Japan and Canada) with the lower panel of a Japanese RG400. Maybe you got a MPH overlay from some folks in the UK. That's what I did. Pipes at first looked like Swarbricks but maybe something that Rick welded up. The 6 pot calipers are a bit later but work well. I use Nissin 4 pots from an 1990 GSX-R750, in fact the entire front end from a 1990 GSX-R750. I never met Rick Lance but did talk to him a couple of times before he passed away. Rick always loved to talk to fellow RG500 riders and he could talk!. He is missed.
Hi, this was a Canadian RG500, but I wanted mph clocks so got a set from the UK. The right side instrument was temp. Fitted new dial overlays, which were also from the UK. The panels were a complete mix and match of RG500 and RG400, they are the same. I got almost all of them from Japan Yahoo auctions, its a great source for popular JDM bikes. The pipes were early prototypes, and I believe they could have been Swarbricks. Rick did tell me the name but I cannot remember for sure now. Rick also told a great story that on the first test run with these pipes they melted through the OE oil tank, which led to them relocating the tank to the battery box. The running gear was 1990 GSXR-750, a popular upgrade of Rick's.
So you started with wanting to make a period correct bike that looks like it just left the factory, then one of the first things you do is polish the aftermarket swingarm to look more 90s.. Then used carbon end cans and kept the 17" wheels. That's a resto-mod, not a restoration
Yes, the bike was heavily modified in the early 90’s by Rick Lance in the US, who was famous for these specific types of resto-mods. The so called Lance Gamma bikes have a cult following so we wanted to retain those modifications exactly as they were done back in the day, which we did. We could have put the bike back to standard but that wasn’t our intention. Seems like this was a good decision based on the price this bike fetched just recently at Mecum auctions.
That was the conversation done by Rick Lance back in the nineties and we wanted to keep it period correct. They are definitely not the best feel in the world and can be a pain to maintain.
Very well done. I just got my first Gamma and have begun the restoration. Has several Lance mods including brakes, air filters and rotary valves. Appears to have SV650 wheels based on measuring the bearings. Fox shock too. No documentation. Runs great after carb cleaning and usual maintenance. Striping down to the frame to clean and restore. I have an RZ500 and this is lighter and faster for sure. Thanks for sharing this video!
You are welcome, hopefully it gives you some inspiration for your resto. Glad you are retaining the Lance mods and preserving a piece of motorcycling history. Fully agree on the RZ500 comparison, but I love them both!
The sound at the end when you revved it up!!!!!!!!!!! 😁
Such a nice results!! Very clean and fresh until to detail. 👌👌
Beautiful job on the restoration. It looks like you kept all the good mods.The body work and paint look fantastic. Did you do this yourself? Like myself it looks like you have a few more "projects" in the queue. I sure wish I could add an RG to my collection but they've become out of reach. From a fellow 4 cylinder smoker!!!
Brilliant
Best bike ever made 😍👍
The G.O.A.T.
Thanks for sharing that with the RG500 enthusiasts! Couple questions...noticed that the fairings at first indicated fresh primer than RG400 then Walter Wolf plus saw an the initial look at the instrument panel with a fuel gauge that is unique to the Japanese market models. Later no fuel gauge but with some Japanese characters near the right side turn indicator. My Canadian import says "SIDE STAND" where the Japanese characters reside. Was this an RG400 that you turned into an RG500? It looks like you married the main instruments from a Brit RG500 (mph vs kph for Japan and Canada) with the lower panel of a Japanese RG400. Maybe you got a MPH overlay from some folks in the UK. That's what I did. Pipes at first looked like Swarbricks but maybe something that Rick welded up. The 6 pot calipers are a bit later but work well. I use Nissin 4 pots from an 1990 GSX-R750, in fact the entire front end from a 1990 GSX-R750. I never met Rick Lance but did talk to him a couple of times before he passed away. Rick always loved to talk to fellow RG500 riders and he could talk!. He is missed.
Hi, this was a Canadian RG500, but I wanted mph clocks so got a set from the UK. The right side instrument was temp. Fitted new dial overlays, which were also from the UK. The panels were a complete mix and match of RG500 and RG400, they are the same. I got almost all of them from Japan Yahoo auctions, its a great source for popular JDM bikes. The pipes were early prototypes, and I believe they could have been Swarbricks. Rick did tell me the name but I cannot remember for sure now. Rick also told a great story that on the first test run with these pipes they melted through the OE oil tank, which led to them relocating the tank to the battery box. The running gear was 1990 GSXR-750, a popular upgrade of Rick's.
Great Job ! …how long did it Take you ? …that was A lot of Work😬…I restored an old Dirtbike once…Not to Exact but Close…I’m a 2 stroke Loyal Fan 😅
About 400 hours over a 2 year period.
nice
Sell?
Unfortunately had to let this one go a few years back to pay for other projects 🙁
So you started with wanting to make a period correct bike that looks like it just left the factory, then one of the first things you do is polish the aftermarket swingarm to look more 90s.. Then used carbon end cans and kept the 17" wheels. That's a resto-mod, not a restoration
Yes, the bike was heavily modified in the early 90’s by Rick Lance in the US, who was famous for these specific types of resto-mods. The so called Lance Gamma bikes have a cult following so we wanted to retain those modifications exactly as they were done back in the day, which we did. We could have put the bike back to standard but that wasn’t our intention. Seems like this was a good decision based on the price this bike fetched just recently at Mecum auctions.
Why dump the nissin 4 pots for shit tokico 6 pots ?
That was the conversation done by Rick Lance back in the nineties and we wanted to keep it period correct. They are definitely not the best feel in the world and can be a pain to maintain.
Nissins were made in the 80s so would be more period corect tokicos where 90s very nice build though