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Suzuki RG MK, luxury tester

Suzuki RG MK, luxury tester

The caterpillar does the work, but the butterfly takes all the publicity. (George Carlin)

Today we will tell the story of the worker bees of motorcycling, of those motorcycles without which many successes would never have been obtained.

Life in the shadow of those companions of suffering, endless turns and creative and courageous trials. Those tireless caterpillars that have allowed the butterflies in livery to finally make a good show on podiums all over the world.

Speaking of this Suzuki, here's a story from a long time ago.

The Suzuki RG XR, equivalent to the official bikes (those assigned to a select few such as Lucchinelli and Uncini and assisted directly by the manufacturer due to their technical content), were flanked by the RG MKs, which were assigned to the teams so that realistic tests could be carried out without putting at risk the racing bikes, too precious to compromise their safety.

These are bikes recognized as official in all respects but born with a different and already marked destiny.

The particular numbers that characterize them (MK3 in the case of this bike assigned to Team Gallina), are precisely due to the need to allow the manufacturers to precisely identify their characteristics at any time, in order to log their work.

The result is the recognition as officially included as an endowment to the racing activity of the respective teams, with the only limit of being relegated behind the scenes from birth, as workers destined to serve the queen.

These "luxury testers", equipped with technological innovations, sometimes even more advanced and daring than the motorcycles lined up on the track, were often even more performing than their more noble sisters punched for racing.

It is the almost touching paradox, for us who see a soul in these machines, of test bikes sometimes more particular than racing bikes, protagonists of the backstage at the limit of the mythological, with triple-digit laps, stress tests that only Japanese of that time could imagine, and all the exclusive resilience of the most tireless workers who suffer every technical punishment to minimize the unexpected events of the world championship weekends.

The Suzuki RG MKs were real life companions of riders and test riders, who spent much more time with them than with the factory bikes.


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