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/127863
,..., '- ~Y1Q -~~ RIDING IMPRESSION 1 998Suzuki RM125W Suzuki made a number of changes to the RM125's motor and the net result is more power across the board. The meat of the powerband is in the middle. By Kit Palmer fi B 81 ~ r-, 0\ 0\ ,...... 0' ('oJ ..... (J) .0 o .... u o 24 W o u ca n pre tt y mu ch a lwa y s co u n t on Su zuki build ing a firs t-ra te 125cc MXer . Loo king back in th e record book s, Suzu ki ha s more 125cc Su percross titles than any o the r manu facture r, w ith 10 nu m be rone p lates to its credit, and all of those ch am p ionsh ip s have come spread out fairly eve nly throughou t the series' 12year spa n in both the Ea st and Wes t series. O n the National ci rcuit, Suzuki has five titles to brag about, which isn' t as good as Honda's 11, but, hey, fiv e ain 't bad . Suzuki's mus t recent success wit h the RM125 came at the hands of Tim Ferry, who, along wit h his tu ner , Lee McC ollum, won th e 1997 Eastern Regiona l 125cc Supe rcross Championship. Okay, so Ferry d id n't win a single race, but he cou ld always be found m ixing it up at the front of the pack and, more importantly, finishing there - more so than any oth er rid er . Of course, Fe r ry ' s a n d the o the r cha m pions h ip-w inn ing RMs are fa r from s tock, bu t they all began lif e as prod u ct ion -ba sed mod e ls, a n d a ny tuner /rider team wi ll tell you tha t it' s eas ier to win titles if you start off with a machin e that's good in the first place like the RMI25. With th is in mind , Team Su zu ki' s Mic ka e l Pi ch on a n d Rya n Hu ffman sho ul d hav e a pro mising 1998 racing se ason. From what we ca n tell so far after spinning a few hard laps on the '98 p rodu cti on RM125 , th e co mpany has cer tain ly prod uced for it> riders ano ther so lid fou nda tion from which to build its works bikes. But it wasn't that big of an accomplishment, really, because Suzuki al rea dy had a so lid performe r o n it s hands with its 1997 RM125 Suzuki coul d have made only a few minor changes to the '98 RMI25 and gotte n aw ay wit h it, bu t it chos e no t to. For sta rters, the '98 RM125 has an all-new e ngi ne . It still retains its case- ree d induction system and bore-and-stroke di men- s io ns, but the cra nkcas e has been redesigned to fa cili tat e an in terna lly mounted water pump; also, the doubleoval A ETC exhaus t-va lve system, new to the '97 RM, has again been redesigned to a two-piece, straight-type valve system. And last year's PWK36 Keihin carburetor has ~n rep laced by a PWM36 Keihin. Of course, the cylinde r has different port in g specifica tio ns as w ell as new exhaus t-pipe dimensions . Most of these perfo rmance-m inded cha nges were made to boost the RM' s power outpu t from down low throu gh the midrange. To im p rove cl u tch a ctu ati on a nd du rabili tv , the 125 now fea tu res a p ushrod-style clu tch, simi lar to that of the RM25O's clu tch. Su zu ki ma intains its co nfidence in the non -inverted fork design. However, the 49mm conve nt io nal twin-chamber fork, mad e by Showa, is claimed to be lighter than last yea r's fork , wh ile featu ri ng re v ised s p r ing a n d d ampin g rates. In the back, the shoc k boasts a larger bod y and is mou nted to a new linkage