My current fleet of Kyosho R/C bikes
From left: Ayrton's RGV (HOR), my own new RGV (HOR), my half-model NSR (HOR), Pepsi-Suzuki RGV (Mk1), Yamaha YZR500 (Mk1), Honda NSR 500 (Mk1).
In chronological order here are my current bikes:
The very first bike I ever bought and built. You can read a full article that I wrote for Greek "Moto" magazine in their issue 40, dated 1989, here! After being raced a thousand times, the bike was so much scratched that I removed every sticker, painted it just red, put on a Moto magazine sticker, and that's it. (Oh, did you notice the missing windshield? I found it, and I will glue it on, for the full look!).
The bike refreshed!
Next, I bought the Yamaha YZR500, after seeing the then current Kyosho catalog, showing the Yamaha in Marlboro liverie. I thought they would also sell it with these stickers, but of course you cannot sell tobacco advertising products to children (these are considered toys, anyway!). So the Yamaha was built, ran ONCE, then the electronics were removed. I only had one set for the two bikes AND a single Tamtech 1/24 car, which meant that I had to dismantle completely a model to transfer the electronics to the next model! This was still in the 1990-1991. Actually this bike was so dull-looking that it was run once as I said, then it was relegated to the back of the lower shelf, till recently! It doesn't even have ball bearings...
The next one was my most loved bike in the pre-HOR era. I was a huge fan of Kevin Schwantz then (I am still watching him racing the American Supermoto series nowadays). This bike was equipped with the (then) best: Kyosho option parts oil filled front forks and rear shock, full ball bearings and the DMC-BB fast Kyosho motor. Unfortunately, due to over-use it has a cracked fairing and the rider loses a hand now and then, which I lovingly glue back on!
This bike prompted me to start my R/C bike site. First I had it at my local internet provider. As pics and files were gathering, I moved it to members.xoom.com. Then I even built a site under Geocities, which was also proving short on space. So, it finally found its place under my "corporate" family-name site "steliosh.net". The HOR NSR500 was a bike I lovingly built, and ran a few times very carefully. Then it sat in the TOP shelf and at the front for some long time. I was still with one set of electronics, so at one time I dismantled it, I put everything into the original kit box and left it there. The problem came recently, when I bought my current new star, the Lucky-Strike Suzuki HOR, and opened the NSR kit box only to find that a lot of parts were missing... Further investigation and interrogation of family members revealed that my son, Jason, now 7 y.o., a few years ago discovered the kit box, opened it and took a few items out of it. These items were lost into his thousands of baby toys and eventually it is believed they will probably have been thrown away. Just like that! What's missing from the NSR? The rider's left leg, his chest and the bike's complete fairing, but also its most vital part: the CHAIN!!!!!!!!! I ordered a rider rebuild kit on ebay, so the rider will be refurbished soon. As for the rest of the bike, I'm waiting for the miracle! (more on this, some time real soon!)
Rebuild time! Remember about the miracle I said above?! Read what happened!
My friend Ayrton is a known quantity... After building his own RGV (HOR) a few years ago (I think it was a wedding gift from his pals, then!) he also dismantled the bike to remove the electronics in favor of his own Tamiya 1/24 Tamtech! See how it came to my hands to rebuild. Thankfully not a single spacer was missing, so it was really a piece of cake to rebuild it. It has a few scratches here and there, but it is a well used bike. Options include only a full set of ball bearings. All else is stock.
The most recent running report is here
No words on this bike. Its full history is revealed in other pages. It still has not been ran, but it's a matter of days to do. It was to be today, but the sunny and warm weather was too inviting for an enduro ride to ignore!
Updated December 20, 2003: The RGV changes numbers and is being tricked yet a little more! Read on!
(Clicking on each thumbnail will show a pic 800x600 large).
