Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/126307
E • ~ t en I""""f Mark Barnett's achievements in the Florida Winter-AMA series aboard the RM-125C were impressive. Barnett won five of eight motos and was overall class victor in three of the four events to handily wrap up the 125cc title. _ c'dlig out the Florida Series Champ's new Suzuki Che " arnet t 's RM~125C bullet B By Jim Gianatsis N ow Mark Barnett can have a bike as good as ours , Kinda puts the boot on the other foot , doesn't it? A factory rider ge ts to r ace a bike just like us.big- time p rivateers are using. Hell , he didn't even have to claim itl Let him get it from Suzuki just lik There' h e US , • er~ ~ no way t ose factory , rid ers. are gonna sa y 1 28 we're keeping- th e best equi pm ent to ourselves , Xes, th e tim es su re have changed. Just a few yea rs ago when th e facto ry rider s used all th ose ex otic mega -b uck works bikes and wou ld n't let pr ivateer s a nywhe re nea r them . Boy, did some of us raise a ru ckus over that. So , Su zuk i was one of th e co m pan ies who star red p ro d uc ing p rod uct io n rn o u xrosscrs simi la r to their wo rks bik, ·s. They were-n ' t exa ct co pies. but th ey wer e close e nough to fool anyon e who had never weighed , measured or ridden a works Suzuki . Those production' RM Suzukis hav e go tten progressively better since th ey were first introduced in 1975 until now , where the 125cc in parti cul ar ca n probably be classifi ed as 't he best bik e in its cla ss without d eb at e . And if th e tru th be told by th ose of us who 've rid de n a works RA 125-77 a nd th e new RM ·1 25C pro d uc tio n bike , ,the stoc ke r woul d .win over your fickle hearts in th e tel evision b lindfold test. That's if the re was som e way you could rid e bo th bikes a ro u nd a m otocross course blin dfold ed . T he precedent had been set a little over a yea r ago by Yamaha's Bob Hannah as he became the first factory rider to win with production equipm en t. But h e was alread y an esta blished factory sta r riding a bike tha t hadn 't rea ch ed d e al er showrooms. Suzuki has done Yamaha one bet ter. They put newly signed and still slightly unknown 17-yea r-old Mark Barnett on their n ew RM -125C production bike that had already been ou t knocking down berms· for a couple of week s in ad van ce of Bar'nett 's and the bik e's official debut in the 1978 Flo rida Wintcr-AMA Seri es. Their com ing out party was specta cul ar with th e p a ir, t otall y , domi na ting th e 125cc Pro class. Cha nges on th e new RM ·1 25C from last yea r's RM -125B a re n' t major , bu t in Suzu ki's "T heory Of Evolution" the changes are significant enough to co m pletely improve th e already ex- cellen t RM of last season. What's new is eas ily visibl e , Mr. Robinson was right when he said the future was in " plastics:' but I wonder why it took Suzuki so lon g to grad u a te. The tric k aluminum works tanks have now been replaced with mu ch mor e stylish and d ing resistant plast ic fuel contain ers . Front and rear fenders are new ultra -wide shovel designs guaranteed to cu t Preston Petty's sal es right out of theSuzuki market. Even th e front number plate is a more flex ible plasti c that scr ews to th e fork triple clamps and has guards to kee p control ca bles from snagging on th e handlebar mounts. Suspen sion is a lso new and made to be , a b use d. ' Hi gh priority i.n t he pa ckage is a n aluminum swingarm · whi ch repl a ces t he flexibl e fly er p ipe drea m of yesteryea r. T his unit looks like it used ' a gi rder from th e, Br ook lyn Bridge as a bl ueprint , a long with massive welds to match . The accessory com pa nies a re going to be hu r-