Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

'" '" • Ii' Q. M .... '" The 185 Suzuki Adventurer rti 3- <{ ~ W Z Will a little motorcycle like Alice ever find happiness in the real world? W ...J U / >- U ONCE UFO A TIME there was a little motorcycle named Alice. No one (except perhaps the one who named her) knew why she was named Alice, especially since all her relatives were named Suzuki or Suzy for short. But that wasn't her problem. Her problem was that she couldn't make up her mind abou t wha t she was going to be. Was she going to be a ligh tweigb t and play with the kids or would she be Something More, a real motorcycle with power, comfort, aDd reliability eDough to be taken seriously? It was as if she was going through puberty. Here beginnings were obscure. Her first memories were the same as those of all her relatives: a man wi th a welding torch was carefully puttiDg her together. He got a little sloppy at titoes and left big blobs around her double cradle frame. Sbe remembered traveling, down an assembly line, collecting parts. An 18 inch whed here and another there. A two and a half galloD gas tank and a long dual seat. A bunch of electrital parts were stuck in, and then came the best: a 183cc eDgine. Or she wODdered, was it the worst? Was it too small. Could she really be a serious motorcycle? She thought about the engine. It was a twin with the same bore as ODe of her smaller relatives, Suzy Onebundred. Alice's eDgine measured 1.93 by 1.93 inches and had a compression ratio of 7:0 to one. Originally she had been told that it would be 6.7 to one, but something got changed. She inhaled through two 20 millimeter' Mikuni carburetors and exhaled through two long, sleek, megaphone style mufflers. They kept her demure even when sbe was sbrieking at the top of her powerband. Sbe also had a ban air cleaner that kept her voice down, but she wondered what would happen if someone let a little more air into it. She didn't think that she would be much louder if she got a little more air than the three tiny holes in the back of her air box would allow. She was also proud of her electric starter. It was a neat little gizmo, just a generator that the power dumped back through it to make it a starter. But she had to admit that she didn't really need it; even the most petit of riders could start her with just one kick on her primary kick starter. She was more troubled abou t her "Ram Air System" of cooling her cylinder heads. Did it do anything or was it jus t a bangle that had been tacked on to give her more visual appeal? She had to be practical, so she went and talked to her friends and relatives about' it. UN aw!" said an older, bigger sisted named Hustler, "Look at me. [ never had any of that garbage, and [ was fast: fast enough to play with the big boys." HOh, you were fast, alrigbt:~ scoffed Yonder side stand will be the obvious interferer when bike meets pavements. another, younger sister, who for some rea son was also named Hustler, although Alice new she wasn't too fast, "but how reliable were you? Bow quiet? How much did you smoke? You had a reputation for being fast, sure enough, but did anybody like you? "Now I've got Ram Air and [ like it alot. I recommend it." The older Hustler had a reputation for being fast but not too polite, Alice recalled, but the· younger Hustler had a reputation for being polite but slow. Neither would do. She decided and wen t to ask someone else. She found her three three-cylindered sisters. "Should 1 keep the Ram Air?" she asked. "Can't burt," said Suzy Threeayty "Keep a cool bead," said Suzy Sevenfifty, who was in to being cool. "Listen, little sister," said Suzy Five fifty , kindkly, "if it feels good,do it. Try it. It makes me stay cooler aDd thereby run more reliably and lose less horsepower when I warm up. That's something us two strokers got to watch, you know." "Try it, you'll like it," burbled Suzy threeayty from the back of the sbop. F or a momeDt, Alice though t that she was going to spit back through ber carb, but she managed to cODtrol herself aDd decided to follow Fivefifty's advice. Sure enough. She feflt cooler and found that sbe could keep her power up n.ear maximum for a longer time. They told her that she had a maximum of 21 borsepower, and sbe believed it. But her time- of innocence was coming to an end. One day she fel t a license plate being bolted on and she knew the time bad come. She was going ou t to be road tested. When she told her sisters that it was to be done by Cycle News, she heard tales that made her oil run cold. "Argh!" exclaimed Fivefifty, "One of those maniacs tried riding me on ice. He cracked my footpeg when he fell down and smashed two turn signals. It was terrible. " "You're in for it," said the younger Hustler. "They always wanted me to go fast. Fast, fast, fast. Tbat's all they cared about. They have no interest in the finer things." There were other sisters wbo had less severe things to say, but the horror stories stuck in her mind. They weren't helped any when they picked her up, either. The rider climbed on, warmed ber up, and then ran her down the street, revving the dickens out of her. He did some "{beelies and then turned on to the freeway. Even thougb he was speeding, Alice could bear him curse every time that he had to close the throttle. The rest of the time he just sat there, listening to ber scream, going as fast as 82 MPH on the level or slowing down on uphills. Sbe beard him mu ttering to himself

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