Cycle News - Archive Issues - 2000's

1975 Suzuki XR14 'I,w enty -five years ago, the Suzuki RG50 0 brough t up the curtain on the modern era of 500cc Grand Prix racing, making factory level Japanese four-cylinder performance available to pr ivateers for the first time. Before the first 25 -bike batch of Mark 1 RG500s went on sale for the 1976 season , the pa ddocks of th e Continental Circus had been packed with a stopgap selection of arcane bikes - whether that be four -stroke m ultis li k e the Ital ian twins and factory fours, diehard British sing les , or the prototypes of the soon -to -be -supreme Japanese two-strokes, headed by nominally over -bored 350 Yamahas and the first-generation of air -cooled cus tomer 500s , like the TR500 Suzuki twins and Kawasaki H 1 R triples . Against this transitional Heinz 57 cocktail, works four-cylinder hardware l i k e the MV Agusta and Yamaha YZR500 had an easy time of it. But th e RG5 0 0 changed all that. ' Though it's become someth ing of a cliche to stamp the Suzuki as the Manx Norton of the two-stroke Grand Prix era, that's exactly what it was. For a full decade from 1976 -86 , the rotary-valve square -four packed GP grids aro und the world, whether in the form of full -on factory entries , most often run by British importer Heron Suzuki, or else as the racer of choice for the ded icated privateer. To underline the immediate suc cess enjoyed by the eager customers awaiting the bike's debut, take a look at the 1976 World Championship the first year the production RG500 was available for purchase. No less than the first 12 riders in the f inal 5 0 0 c c po ints table were Suzuk i m oun ted , including such ill ustr io us n a m e s as Agostini , Read and Lucchinelli. One man who didn 't have to dig into his pockets even a little to buy an RG was the nam e at the top of that l ist , newly-c rowned 1976 500 c c Wor ld Champion Ba rry Sheene. By winning the first of his two bac k -t o back wo rld titles, Sheene also under - 30 n The bike that heralded the modern era of GPradng By ALAN CATHCART P HOTOS BY K YOI CHI NAKAMURA MAY 31 ,2000' 0 U c • e e "" - s - lined how dominant his works Texaco Heron Suzuk i square -four had become , by winning five of the six GPs he rode in that year, and finishing runner- up to teammate John Williams in the ot her one. In the days when only a rider's best six resu lts counte d towards the final points table, it was as near a perfect score as it 's possible to get, confirming Sheene 's unique status as a househo ld name - the ma n who popula rize d motorcycle raci ng in the eyes of Joe Public as no body had before him. BUT IN SPITE OF SHOWING TRACK OFFICIALS A MEOICAL RELEASE, AND DEMONSTRATING HIS ABILITY TO BUMP-START THE B IKE ON THE GRID, HE WASN'T ALLOWED TO START THE RACE. But if 1976 was Sheene's benchmark GP season , the year before had seen sp o r ti n g success mixed with horror and hurt for Brita in 's best. For in March of 1975, Sheene suffered his horrific 170 mph Daytona crash while t ire testing for the 200 -miler on his F750 works Suz uki , s ustaining i nj u ri es that for most other riders There are few ri ders who, so long after the end of their racing careers, are stili as popular as Barry Sheene. The Suzuki XR14 was the motorcycle that Sheene rode to his first of 24 Grand Prix victori es at the Dutch GP in Aasen, Holland, In 1975. He went on to w in the 1976 and '77 World Grand PrIx Championships. would have been as career threaten ing as they were traumatic . Those inj uries inc luded a broken fem ur, wrist, arm , collarbone and six ribs, two cracked vertebrae, and much else . Yet such was Sheene 's resilience that a mere eight weeks lat er he hobbled aboard the works' XR 14 Suzuki 500 square-four, and qualified sixth for the A ustrian GP. But in spite of showing track officials a medical release, and demonstrating" his ability to bump-start the bik e on the grid, he wasn 't allowed to start the race. One week later, in Hooken he im, he was - and t hat' s when the c o u n t d o w n to the Cockney kid's' debut 500cc Grand Prix victory - and Suzuki's first, too - really began. After countless World titl es in the 50cc and 125cc tidd ler classes a decade 'p reviously , Suzuki had made? it s entry to the bl ue -ri band 500 cc ca t·r. egory in 1974 , with the 'p ro t o t y p e

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