Team Gallina Suzuki XR70RV
With Phil Aynsley
Suzuki’s RG500 square-four was first raced in 1974 and went on to win seven manufacturers’ GP championships in a row, in a lead-up to the model you see here.
The final version was the 1986 XR70RV and the ‘RV’ denotes the switch to reed-valve induction.
The bike I photographed is the only known surviving XR70RV still with the factory frame (Team Heron used a Ciba-Geigy carbon/alloy honeycomb chassis).
The bike is actually a composite of the the two bikes campaigned by Team Gallina in 1986, ridden by Dave Peterson and Frankie Chilli.
Both riders were involved in practice crashes at Silverstone which resulted in only one bike being available for the remaining two races of the season – which used the Peterson frame and the Chilli motor.
Chilli finished the season in 10th position with three top ten places and Peterson in 16th with two ninth places.
The bike was bought by the Italian Team Greco for the ’87 season then stored until bought by the current owner in 2008.
Output was 145 hp and top speed 320 km/h.
