Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

By Jody Weisel A The RM100B uses the beefy triple damps with small d iameter fork legs. Black box mounts up front and ru b be r bands on the n umber plat e broke. er Pp aren tl y , Suzuki is not content to sit on its explosive d irt bike bonanza . As buyers flock into Suzy showrooms to take a look at the RM models in increasing droves the engineers back in Hammamatsu can 't be pulled away from their drawing tables. It seems that back in J ap an the production department and its co vey of engineers has been e ngaging in a frie ndly rivalry with the race depart ment and its engineers. For years the race depart ment built DeC ost er 's bikes, then smugly sat back and smiled inscrutib ly while the gang in productio n tried to st raighte n out the 1'1\1-40 0. Then a m in or re-o rg ani za tion a t the fac tory b ro ugh t so me fresh thought a nd new m on ey into th e sh owroom st ock thin k-tank. Bang! The struggle was o n , a nd it has be en conced ed th at the p ro d uct ion department has actually won man y o f the battles . Fo r exam p le in 1975 DiS tefa no an d Grossi were sh o cked to fin d stock RM 's faster than their exot ic R N's. T h ings have calm ed down in th e internal drawing board wa r , and th e result is a co-operative t ru ce that m eans trouble fo r every other m anufacturer. A case in p o in t - the Su zuki RMIOOB. Two mont hs ago Cy cle News t este d the RII,fJOOA and found it t o b e t h e best 10 0 cc m ach in e o n the m arke t. Now Suzuki has release d a totally new version an d neatly lab eled it the RM I OOB. . 10 0cc ra cers have always b een toys ; small bikes, small engin es and small horsepower. T he re are only three seri ou s toy manufa cturers; Suzu ki, Yam ah a and Hodak a , The early five-sp ee d RIll I OOA was a m at ch for th e Ya m m ie and Ho di e , an d the RIIIl OOB bl o ws the lid off of t h e toy industry . T his ai n't n o t oy . The RI\IIOO B share s the sa me fra me, tank, sid epan els , seat , fenders, a nd sw ingarm as t he ne w RII11 25. The news is in the fea t u res it does n 't share , and those are u nfo rtunately the shocks an d forks. Suz uki opted to us e up the re maining production ru n of Showa rear shocks, instead o f using the 1 25 's Kayaba units. The proble ms are not with the shoc k itself, as Showas seem to work on a par with the available Kayabas, but the length is too short. The Showa gas shocks support th e long re ctangular t u bi n g sw in garm in a position ho rizo ntal t o the gro und. Whe n the ri de r m ou nts the mach ine the swin garm is actually drawn up ab o ve the sprocket /axle centerline. This is not the best geometric arrangment fo r p roper handli ng or shock dynamics. Perhaps Suzuki ......s attempting to m a ke the machine sit lower fo r th e in tended you th market, but its eff ect o n overall pe rfo rm ance with a n ad u lt rider is negative . The lo nger Kay aba shocks from the Rl\1l25 bo lt right on , but do not attempt t hat mo d ificat io n u n less you p lan o n changing the front end also. When we t est ed th e RlI1100A a co u ple months ago we said th at the forks were go o d , bu t not ex cellen t. The ex act same forks , with o ne inch added to the tu bes, are used on th e B m o d el. Th e II model is 2 V:z inches longe r t han its A predecessor, w ith much of t h e we igh t shifted fo rward {be ca use of the lon ger sw inga rrn). The lon ge r wh eelb ase, in creased w eigh t t ra n sfe ral an d magnified force lo adings d estroy m o st o f t h e good feel fr om the fo rks. The forks work adequately, but not with t he type of dam ping or . flex free action t hat we have co me to expe ct . Su zuki RM 125 fo rks bolt di n:ct ly. on, and wh en used in conju nct ion w ith Ka yaba shocks th e y give you the best ride a t a price {by turning t he R!\1100 into an RM I 25}. . Han dl in g is o f co u rse affected by th e fork /shock select ion , b ut the fi est small bike frame on the m a rket n brings it back on. The Rl\11OOB handles like the Rl\1125 that it is based on. There is no washout and the bike can be stuffed into a berm or balanced on a rock hard o ff-camber. Being lo n ger than last year's m o del it isn 't as qu ic k in the co m ers, but the increased gy roscopic stability m or e than offset s this loss. 11,e spokes o n the fro nt hub caused us so me conce rn , as Su zuki is still u sing th e small, sm all R1\1100 hu b with light gauge sp okes. Car eful atten tion m ust be paid to keep th em tight and the faster 10 0 riders in SoCaI ha ve t hei r wheels re -laced wi t h stronger spokes . T he ai r slots cu t in t he sid epane ls are designed to allo w a co o ling flow t hrough to t he sho ck bodies. These slots m ake it close to im possib le t o get n u mbers t o stick to the sid e p la t es. If yo u d o get th e numbers to stic k they will b loc k the air flow {if yo ur legs don 't already }. The fro n t number p late on t he RMIOOB, a nd o n all the new 1977 Suzukis , is mou nted on two el ch ea p o rubber ba nds. Ours broke immediately . T he number p lat e an d m ount ing b racket ar e m oulded out of plast ic . We liked last y ea r's better. As a sideligh t th e RMIOO does not have cable guides on the n u m b er p lat e alt ho ugh it does have holes d rille d for the m . The a irbox u sed to b e metal , but no w it is pl astic and better. The gas tank used t o b o lt on , bu t now it is held o n b y quick release rubber stra p s. T he sh o cks used to hav e five wa y . adj u stable p re-load , but no w t hey don 't. The RIIIl 0 0 u sed to have a 3.50 rear tire a nd now it has a 4 . 10. The p ipe used to drag u nd er t he engine, b u t n o w it runs high an d d ry throu gh t he fra me. Unabashed ly, we loved th e e ngine. It was a cl ose rat io , six-speed, case- reeded, sq uare (50 m m x 5 0 m m ) designed screamer . The RM I OOB re p res ents the first m ajor leap in 10 0ce power since th e po rt in g too l first touch ed th e Hodaka cylin der te n years ago. The A mo d el w o u ld crest Saddleback's starti ng h ill in third gear and go off-so ng in fourt h with a 20 0 pounder aboard. It isn 't designed fo r heavy riders, b ut what b etter w ay to tes t powe r. The new B m o d el wo u ld clear the 'Back hill in fo urt h and easily grab fifth a nd sixth. _t}v9 areas - transmission and The difference lies in case reeds. The sixth gea r isn 't notic ed as being all that much wo rk than the five speed because a 100 is const antly being shifted. What's o ne gear m ore or less in a t ho usand shift s a da y ? The five sp eed bo gged slightly between each gear because th e stretch was too far. The new six-speed allows optim um tim e sp e n t on the torque and power cu rve, Fo rt unately th e B model also o ffers case reeds an d a' resultin g b road power band 10 feed the beautifu lly spaced box . The bot t orn line is simple. A Ho d a ka w on ' t t ou ch it in th e po wer depart men t , a Yamaha ca n ' t m atch it s handling a nd th e few European 100 cc bran d s co uld n ' t co m pare wi th the total packageat twice t he price (wh ich th e y are !). T hi s b ike is a t o y destro yer. Back at Ham rnam at su th e produ ct ion a nd ra ce de part m ents have so li ttle to do that th ey re-desi gned a bike tha t was already bes t-in -class . The other man u fa ctu rer s are ' hopin g th ey don' t go back to co mpeting against each other agai n. Everybody else hopes th e y do . • C'J :-. QJ .0 E QJ ;> o Z Spec'fcat ons Eng ine typetwo stroke cy linders bo re x st roke disp lace ment corn p, rati o tran sm ission igni t io n Chassis b ra kes front t ire rea r t ire t rai l one 50mmx 50mm 98cc 8: 1 six speed e lectro ni c intern a l ex pa ndi ng 3.0 0 - 21 .4.10 - 18 5 .3 inch es Dim en sio ns le ngth . , wid th heigh t whee lbase clearan ce weight Miscellaneo u s ai r c leane r ca rburetor starte r lub ric atio n : : ~ ... . 8 1 inc hes 33 inc hes 43 inches 54.5 inches 9.1 inches 190 1bs. fo am 3Omm Mikuni pri mary k ic k 2 0: 1 p re-mix 13

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