The Queen...My New to Me Race Bike

This is a story about buying a vintage road racing bike. Our story begins with a message left on my phone from Woody. Woody is David Percival and owner of Woody’s Cycle in Perth, Ontario. Woody and I road raced Honda GP two stroke race bikes in the R.A.C.E. series back in the 1990’s.

Woody was a fast and smooth racer and won the 1992 National 250 Grand Prix Amateur Championship. Woody purchased “the Queen” in 1993 to begin his Pro road racing season. The bike had belonged to Colin Snider who raced it as an amateur. Colin had won the R.A.C.E. 250 GP championship on the bike in 1991.

The bike they rode is a 1989 Honda RS250. The RS250s were made by HRC which is Honda’s motorcycle racing subsidiary. The RS250s were made from 1984 to 2009 and were road race only V-twin, two stroke race bikes. The RS250s are racing thoroughbreds that were THE bike many racers aspired to own in the era. Back in the 1990’s, Grand Prix 250 two strokes, with the right rider, could run with national level Superbikes. As purpose-built racers, the bikes were lighter, smaller and revved higher than 600 class bikes or Superbikes. They were sold in very small numbers (a few hundred each year for the whole world) and were hand built in Japan.

Back in the day, Honda Canada would not sell you one of their GP “customer bikes” or even supply parts for them. The bikes that came to Canada were privately imported by guys like Don Murfin, George Pedzinski and Ben Gartner. The bikes were most often a year or two old from one of the Japanese race teams who were moving up to a newer bike.

Who originally imported Woody’s 1989 RS250 has been lost in history. The bike was retired to Woody’s office after Woody and Colin had finished their road racing careers. Woody continued to compete on dirt bikes. Colin passed away after an unfortunate dirt bike accident.

The bike became “the Queen” in a shop full of off road KTM’s and off road motorcycle equipment. A piece of Woody’s personal history.

Four years ago, the VRRA (the vintage road racing club in eastern Canada) decided to create a class for now obsolete Grand Prix two stroke race bikes. If you were still in possession of a retired GP bike, you were invited to bring it back out and ride it with the club.

In 2013, Woody rebuilt the Queen and joined the VRRA. Rebuilding a 24 year old world class limited production grand prix racing machine is not like rebuilding a mass produced street bike. First of all, GP race bikes were not made to last. They were expected to have a short life span and be replaced. Woody found that many of the parts for a 20+ year old limited production race bike were now “no longer available”. If you had not stocked up on new spare parts when they were available, you were out of luck. The world wide web has helped keep the owners of these exotics connected. Parts are shared to keep machines running. That doesn’t mean everything is available but it helps as a source to look worldwide for parts needed.

The 1989 RS250 with Woody on board was successful. Woody and the Queen were awarded the VRRA’s number 1 plate at the end of 2015. 2016 saw refreshed body work and professional paint to go with the number 1 on the number plates.

The Queen wasn’t as reliable for Woody in 2016. The frustration of dealing with a temperamental Queen, a busy business and a desire to do more off roading resulted in a decision to retire from road racing again. It is hard to fault anyone retiring with the number one plate on his bike.

Back to the present. The Queen was for sale. To Woody’s credit, he disclosed that the Queen would need a significant infusion of “unobtainium” parts to be put back on the track. Parts that might not be available anywhere at any price. The repairs could be extensive enough that the engine would have to come apart down to the last nut and bolt. The price was reasonable and the Queen has a new home.

Attached to the article are some photos of the Queen and its owner David “Woody” Percival.