Expert and hospitable Stateside RG500 fettler goes for a plug chop in the sky. Words: Mark Graham & Chris Newbigging.
We were saddened to learn that Stateside 500Gamma specialist Rick Lance passed away last month aged 62.
Rick’s firm, Lance Gamma, was one of the first to pursue more speed and fixes for whatever ails the RG500: Rick himself bought an early example, and rather than simply chop in the disappointing square four, he commissioned the first airbox-delete filter kit, which unleashed the inner GP spirit, and it snowballed from there.
Namean improvement or fix for the Suzuki stroker, and it’s quite likely Rick had a hand in discovering or developing it over the quarter million miles he reckoned to have covered riding and developing his own bikes.
He was also a thoroughly decent human being: he extended every (undeserved) courtesy to Chris and photographer Weeble in 2014, when the roving imbeciles turned up at his North Carolina base and demanded some bikes. He obliged: their day trying out a series of fit RGs on mountain roads remains one of the best days out in the life and times of The PS. He was laid to rest by family and friends, with a dab of fully-synth on his coffin lid. Nice touch. Rest in peace, Rick.
