Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

Up on the tank. stick the front end just where you want it and 9lIS it to bring the reer end out and around. The technique that worked best, ewen for first timers, was gas it into the corner, brake hard, lean it over squeezing the tank and gas it out again. 370 Suzuki RN By John Huetter Photos by Roger DeCoster and Huetter You've seen dozens of pictures of the machines ·with Roger, Sylvain and Joel in the saddle racking up Grand Prix wins and, usually, trouncing the oppOSitIOn in U.S. races. The bright yellow RN Suzuki has been more photographed, talked about and the 32 subject of more posters than any other motocross bike in modem times. Th e questions concerning them reflect the cloak of Oriental mystery that shrouds most Japanese R&D efforts. Are they really that light? Are they really thatfast? Did the RH-73 250 really handle as poorly as Robert claimed? Nobody really knew except the factory riders because nobody had ridden the bikes before. They looked Hght and it looked like the feather weight compromised the handling over rough terrain but this was all supposition. We recen tly had a chance to answer some of the questions about the yellow speedsters firsthand - by riding one. The bike tested was very close to the bike that Roger DeCoster rode to his third consecutive 500cc World Championship for Suzuki. It was an RN-72 works bike which means it embodied the technology of last year's GP machines. This year's bikes were changed very little, if at all, except for suspension which was tuned to individual rider's requirements. The bike we rode had up-do-date long travel forks and shocks mounted forward on the aluminum swingarm with KONI internals and Suzuki proprietary externals and springs. The 370 (actually, at 367cc, the smallest GP bike in the 500 class) never had trouble making the 209 pound FIM minimum and actually weighs in at less than 220 with some gas in it. The front end aviates very easily with a twist of the throttle to allow the rear wheel to get the power to the ground and do the dancing over the ruts. You'll often see Roger carry the fron t wheel in the air for the lengrh of the start straight if the ground is cobby. Even a squid can perform this feat fairly successfully to keep the front end Hght and avoid fork rebound. Like most of the GP bikes, for some Roger DeCoster doing his hornewQl"k on the RN Suzuki. reason the seating position seems tall in terms of trying to touch the ground but once underway (again, like the other bikes) the tall feeling goes away. This feel is probably due to the fact that the seat fits flush with the top of the gas tank so there is no hang-up to moving directly forward. The fast guys spend a lot of time up on the tank in the comers. Handling is very, very precise. You stick the front end into a corner and it goes exactly where you point it. If you screw up and point it where you don't want to go, too bad. The RN Suzuki responds exactly to the directions you give it, good or bad, with a high degree of refinement. It is not skittery or wobbly through the turns bu t does have a very light feeling. Being used to stock motocrossers which are,

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