Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1980's

tank (the stock RM tank holds 2.2 gallons); it has a mechanical readout odometer; a working headlight and taillight; plastic ha nd guards; a q uick-change rear wheel assembly; a steel rear sprocket (instead of aluminum ) and to top things o££, an 0 ri ng drive chain. The RMX weighs nine pounds more than the RM at 225 pounds. ifn il in First of all, we rode th e R MX in both stock and modified conditions. Wh en we mean modified, we mean by removing all the restrictive devices, such as th e throttle stop, th e power-valve restrictor and the ai rbox cover. H ow ever, we don't " reco mm end remo vin g th ese pan s fo r end uros, or for non -closed-course even ts. In box stoc k form, th e R MX is extremely quiet. but a lot of horsepower is sacrificed because of this. With the RM X all "choked" up , it works fine for play riding, su ch as hopping over logs, j u mpi ng o ££ ledges, pl o win g th rough ber m s, bouncing ove r . roc ks, wheelie ing over ru ts, exp lori ng new trails and cli mbi ng hills. H owever, the re were some steep hills we tri ed climbing wh ere the RM X wo u ld j us t run ou t of breath a nd pass o ut before reac hin g the top. You can ride the stocke r pretty fast, bu t yo u have to keep it pegged a nd revved ou t most of the time. As long as it 's o n the pi pe and revving, it' ll do almost any thi ng yo u want it to, bu t on e mi sta ke and it's all over. If th e motor falls off the pipe, it usu all y ta kes a co ur le of quick downshifts and a lo t 0 clu tch work to get the rear wh eel spi n ni ng aga in and the R MX back up to speed. For closed-course ra cing, we tried the R MX wit hou t th e throttle stop, the power-valve restrictor a nd th e a ir box co ver, a nd we rep laced th e stock silencer wi th a stock R M silencer and the resu lts were immediately felt. In this condition , the RMX can breathe freely. It pulls hard through- The RMX's suspension is super plush and very stable . In stock form. the motor is a little down on horsepower but is still competitive. . o u t th e po werband and has sufficient low-end to carry you over gnarly terra in. T here's no sudden surge. or an overly exp losive rus h of po wer a nyw here in th e powerb an d, just a smooth, gradua l pull that gets you fro m o ne corner to the o ther qu ickly and carries you up any hill th at you dar e try. . We tried the R MX with a variety of silence rs: the stock silen cer, the new ultra quiet alu minum Cobra Hush Puppy spark ar rester/si lencer and a stock RM250K silencer with a Cobra Sparky bolt-o n spa r k . .arrester. The stock silencer is th e quietest of the three bu t is al so th e heaviest a n d mo st restricti ve. The Hush P uppy m uffler is slig h tly louder than th e stoc k silencer but is much lighter at two pounds , which is nearly five po unds less than the stock muffler. Our R MX ran a little rich with th e H ush P uppy and required some je tting modi fica tions. The stock R M m uffler wit h th e Sparky attached works the best of the th ree a nd is still remarkably qu iet, easi ly ca pa ble of passing AMA's 98 dbs. n o ise re quireme nts at AMAsan ctioned o££-road even ts. Witll the RM si lencer, the RMXis much more responsive and hard er h itting. The wide rat io transmission works in harmony with th e mo tor but we wo uldn 't hesitate to run a too th or two la rger sp rocket in the rear to give it a litt le more snap at lower rpm. The stoc k sprocke t has 49 teeth . Even with the stock sproc ket, th e gea r-ratios sui t th e R MX well . It has th e right ~eari ng for a wide variety o f sit ua tio ns a n d every gear is useab le, including fifth . G ear cha nging is smooth an d mi ssed sh ifts were uncommon. The clutch also worked well despite a lot of abuse. It has a ligh t, o ne-finger pull and the ac tio n is smooth and (Top left) The stock RMX comes w ith a sturdy plast ic front disc brake guard . (Top center) Bolt-on 'c ase guards are found on both sides of t he motorcycl e. (Top right) The odometer on our t est b ike d id not work because of t his sharp bend in t he ad o cable near t he drive uni t . (Left) A n aluminum alloy guard prot ect s th e rear disc brake . A lso note t he quick-ch ange rea r w heel assembly . (Right) The RM X has a m ech anical read -o ut odometer. predictable. We ga ve th e clutch pl enty of chances to overheat and fade, but it never did. We also pu t the clutch to th e test on many long hills, over and over again, but it didn' t show any signs of slippage or givi ng out. T he clutch lever bra cket , or stem, is a little too short letti ng th e lever hit yo ur kn uckles on the handlebar before it full y disengages th e clutch . As far as the suspension goes , th e R MX soaks up the bumps like a dream. Both front and rear suspensio ns deliver extremely cushy rid es wi thout givi ng anything away to th e hard landings over jumps and ledges . In typical Suzuki fash ion , the rear suspensio n perform s li ke magic over th e ro ughest grou nd. Very rarely does the back end do anyth ing tha t req uires the rider to bac k o££ th e throttle, and th e fro nt end wo rks j ust as good. Wh at rea lly impresses us is that the RMX has very littl e headshake when moving a t speed , especially in sa nd was hes. The fro nt end is very co ntrollable. The RMX is also very sta ble o ver the rocks, You can hold the th rottle open and hol d a co nsis tent speed over the rock s and the suspension soa ks up the bu mps and the Suzu ki maintains a straight bearing. Even th o ug h th e RMX weighs _slig h tly more than the R M, it still . feels very light, especially in th e front. This helps in flinging th e RMX through the tig ht and twisty tra ils. Slo wing it down for the turn s is no problem . Bo th front and rear di sc bra kes hau l in th e RMX quickl y and progressively. We did n 't have any problem s with locking th e back wh eel or havi ng th e motor sta ll. The RM X is a very comfor table mo torcycle to ride. It 's a littl e ta ll for an enduro bike, but the sea t! handlebar/footpeg rela tionsh ip is positioned well for those long days in the saddle. The grips are first -rat e and the levers are easy to reac h ..Plu s, th e plastic hand gua rds are sturdy (Continued to page / 9)

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