My Suzuki 250X7, 1977 era. Memories.

Motorcycling
1

I found this old picture of my X7, back in the days when RD250"s, X7’s, KH250’s, LC 250"s ruled the world.

What a bike, good for 110mph on the clocks, with a tail wind.

Rear sets, clip on’s, K&N’s, tuned, larger carb jets, Micron bean cans, Hand painted wheels, the colours changed every couple of months, red, red and silver, silver, gold, any combo of red,silver,gold I had it, Full race fairing given to me by the Suzuki HQ near Croydon, this was a proper race fairing destined for one of the Suzuki works bikes, special fairing brackets built by my father, Zues fastners to hold it onto the brackets, paint job done by my father over several months during his lunch breaks, colours based on the Randy Mamola, Mick Grant era, CIBI headlight all topped off with some yoshi stickers.

I also had full suzuki race leathers, made to measure Frank Thomas boots in red,gold and white to match the leathers, matching gloves and a Bell crash helmet with go faster red,yellowand black stripes on the side.

I felt like Bazza Sheene everytime I ventured out, sadly a Mini pulled out on me whilst I was doing 90mph, end of bike, nearly end of me, have you ever tried running along the road at 90mph after doing a 360 somersault over the handlebars.

2

Lovely pic :cool:

That looks well serious with the fairing on :wink:

3

That brings back memories:)

You have to laugh at the tyres of that era :smiley:

Dunlop TT100’s or Avon RoadRunners were the kiddies:D

You would throw Bridgestones in the skip as they were dog sh!t in those days:D

I was an RD boy meself:cool:

4

Is that fairing from a 70’s salon hair drier :w00t::stuck_out_tongue:

I’ll get my coat . . . . :frowning:

5

0k i know the suzi gt 250 was slower [and older] but it did have the ‘ram air’ system, very technical bit of kit that was:P;) having graduated from an a100 it was massive !. about six bikes later and directly after an xs 250 got the LC 250. wow… as you said chunks…memories .

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Chunky monkey you know your stuff, I had avon roadrunners, even though they were skinny buggers I still got my knee down without slidding off.

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Rumour has it you could live under that fairing perspex, enough room for a family of eight, and you could get your hair permed.

Joking aside that bubble used to shield me from the rain on those long runs up to the British GP at Silverstone, bloody aircooled two strokes, twice I popped a hole in my pistons both on runs back from the GP and both trying to race my mates LC 250.

The good news was I left him in the weeds, the bad news was ten mile down the road when i holed my piston and had to ride back to London at thirty mph on one cylinder with a bottom end full of bits of piston bits.

New piston, rings and an oil change and I was back on the road only to do the same thing a few weeks later.:D:D:D:D:D

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thats two strokes for ya…even the slightest change in mixture caused by expansion pipes could do that…you needed to jet up with the spannies on or it would run lean at high revs and bang hole in piston time…done it on my kh250 and on the 500 twice…bloody two strokes…great arent they…my friend had an x7 had it for a week before he had an off, bad accident…

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I wonder if in 20 years time i’ll be posting pics of my old Aprilia RS125, toasting to the good ol days. :smiley:

Hehehe

Sorry didnt mean to cheapen the moment…

you lot carry on now :stuck_out_tongue:

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I was only saying the other day that i remember following a mate on an aircooled RD350 at night and you could see sparks flying from his spannies. I had tiny lumps of melted piston embedded in my visor…lol

I’d progressed to a GS by the time Elsies came out:cool:I must get up in me mums loft and dig out my old pictures of when i had a waist and hair…lol:cool:

11

RS 125 is one of the most highly tuned 2 strokes ever to bless the roads…in full power trim they can get as high as 35bhp…that is simply stunning from a 125…dont knock them put four of those together and you would have a 500 producing 140 bhp…stunning…I would be happy with 120 BHP out of my newly acquired H2’s and they are 750’s… Yep the spannies just about fooked every two stroke out there if they were just bolted on without some jetting being done,…dynos were not possible in those dayd thats for sure…trial and error for sure with it being mostly error…

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gotta love a 2 stroke…

i really want an RD350LC, my old man had one, red and white ypvs…oh the smell!:smiley:

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Happy??? It’d be a fookin miracle…lol;):smiley:

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hey some of the 750 triples are getting well into the 155 rear wheel; horse power…now, go check out the http://www.ebos.se/triples.asp web site…I hope to get 110 that will do me…will take it to a dyno as soon as I can and see how it goes…but I may try to build a special with this high power in a modern frame…got me some work to do I think…

15

Without a doubt you can get an H2 pro stocker or methanol burner to produce numbers like that but it won’t last five minutes on the road and would be totally unridable. have you ever ridden an H2? They have a gorgeous power delivery as standard and with a frame hinged in the middle is powerful enough to get anyone in trouble…lol

Can i have a go when you get one on the road pretty please?;):smiley:

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Hye chunks apparently the new modded motors are pulling much flatter torque curves and much higher power still at just 8,500 rpm…155 is a nutter engine but 130 bhp is workable as a street bike with 80 plus lb force torque…that is impressive…

The large bore spannies help and a much better breathing carb helps…

If someone could build one with a fuel mapping system and fuel injection then i bet we could see easily much better and more reliable high performance out of one of these engines…and yes the frames were not the best…but the H1 was the worst of which I have had one since 1977…and its not as bad as people say…

But with a new swing arm and shock you can solve most of the chassis issues…

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You need to brace and triangulate the down tubes and rear pivot of the frame too mate:)

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yes think you may be right if i really get the power up…but think for the biggy i am going to fit it into a 7 or 6 r frame if I can get one…

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I’ve got a couple of spare FZR4001WG frames with V50’s if you wanna try one (basically the same as an FZR6)

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You old gits… during the war… Just kidding, lovely suzi.

I was 2 when this bike came off the line. :smiley: