The XR’S value right now

For this motorcycle, at this level of rarity, the values are high (as you might imagine). It’s never a figure you can discuss with absolute accuracy, but if you’re in the market for one of these then bank on having to spend in excess of 100,000 Euros. We know of an owner in Holland reportedly turning down a recent offer of over 85,000 Euros. And Steve himself has a fan-based view on these particular 250s, he said: “I think that it’s a case of ‘what if Suzuki had pushed the development more?’ “That could possibly have happened had the motorcycles’ development and racingworld distribution been fuelled by Suzuki offering them commercially to other race teams or the public, the same business model as we saw with Yamaha , Honda, Aprilia etc. “But then, if that had happened, this motorcycle and the others in the range wouldn’t be so rare and special.” And he has a point. While Suzuki pulled the plug on the factory 250 class, forever to leave us all wondering ‘what if’, the decision to not fill the paddocks with factory-replica screamers at least left us with Swiss-watch style, hand-crafted factory beauty. Think about it, when did you ever see one being ridden in the past 18 years? Probably never. And while you’d be extremely lucky to get close to a Suzuki 250, finding other bikes from other factories in this class is easy. With perhaps the one exception of the near-myth

Kawasaki 250 project bikes (including a natty upside-down engined bike). Steve adds: “There are fewer of these running in the world than there are Honda 6s! It’s pretty unlikely that you’ll ever get two of these in the Classic TT paddock.” He makes more than a strong point, does Steve. And it’s worthy of drawing a parallel between the ‘ultimate’ tag of both the Honda 6 and the XR range of the 250cc Suzukis further. After all, if the Honda 6 is the true Holy Grail of classic Japanese race bikes (which Steve points out: “I believe it

is”) then perhaps it’s not out the realms of possibility that the factory RGV250S are the two-stroke equivalents? It’s an argument that stands up in terms of rarity. And you’d be hard pushed to find anywhere on either the 6 or this XR that tops the beauty of the other. Yes, they are very different in certain aspects, but in terms of what they were, and when they were made, these comparisons do stand up. There’s certainly no other small-capacity motorcycles that have quite the same effect on grown men when the dustsheets are whipped back...