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/141061
the Suzuki ran quite cool and even in full th rottle fifth gear o peration, didn ' t protest . It ce rtainly was pl easant just dum ping gas in th e gas tank and oil in the oil tan k. Compar ed to o the r J ap an ese 125 's th e Su zuk i is lik e being on a larger motorcy cle . In the sty le of European sm all bore mounts, it 's a fai rly large bike. Even for a tes t er who is ex cess of six fe e t tall, the T M 125 is co mfort ab le. Vision is not ob scu red by one's kn ees, and all t he co ntro l layouts (incl ud ing th e bar s) work well for stan d ing o r sit ting . Sh if t and b ra ke leve rs fa ll rig ht wh ere they sho uld be. Nary a th o ugh t was necessary to find eithe r. T he seat-tank pro file is very n arr o w, allo wing one to work back an d fo rth on the bike withou t getting bl ue knees. T he seat is better th an m ost bu t still n o t the best. Hit a good one sitting d own, and it " ill ge t right th ro ugh to the kid neys. T he se at ex te n ds backwards a lon g ways , allo wing padding for th ose graceful .m aneuvers. In tight motocro ss work every bit of th e fro n t o f th e seat will be used and m aybe a bit more. Fortuna tel y, the ta n k b lends right in wi th th e seat and th e t ransition is not to o shocking. T hose wh o d on 't take th e proper precau tions ge t what th ey aske d for. The 125 started o n the first kick and after two to three minutes of warm up ac tu ally id d led. During wa rmup it would oc casi o nall y stall b ut would alway s restart o n th e fi rs t kick. During th e time we had the S uz uki it never req uired more tha n two pro ds. T han ks here go t o th e electronic igniti on and accurate Mikuni ca rb u re ti on , Unless th e bik e is poi nted d ownhill , the firs t thing y o u 'll get to d o o n the 125 is st all it. A peak y mot or an d fairly tall first gear do no t a trials bike make. Give it so me gas and use th e clutch an d away you go. Give it a little throttle and le t it work its way u p the RPM b an d. It 's an instant lesson in the way things are with the Su z o o k . In first gear it h as no troub le mo ving away smartly from lo w revs, b ut as tbey rise you will all of a su dden take a large leap fo rw ard. Revs climb very qu ickly . It 's h ard to sh if t in tim e from first to second. Th at ac tually works o u t well as th e first -sec ond ch ange is th e only on e th at isn ' t per fectly spaced. Bu zz it a bi t in firs t, and it's instan t go , afte r the shif t. T he eng ine has very little flywh eel an d loves t o b reak th e rear wh eel lo ose. Lik e th e b ike th at it resembles so much, th e Honda Elsi nore, it re qu ires sub tle use o f w ei ght tran sfer to make use o f SUZUKI T Float ing t he front w heel over w hoo ps was easy and comfo rtabl e. by Dave Schoon make r Pho to s b y Art Friedman & Sch oonmak er T he firs t time I eve r saw a 125 Su zuki MX it was blasting aro und the International Motocros s course at Carl sb ad ab o ut a half a lap in fr ont o f everything. I th ought to my self, "Ei the r so me one has gotten some sne aky decals an d put th em on a TM 25 0 , or that's one real tri ck Duster. " Then I thought, " Co uld thi s be th e fab led 125 Suzuki MX ?" Su re enough , th a t' s wh at it was. So, 1 ran back t o wo rk, pic ked up my phone and started d ialin g. Got to have one of them. F in all y, as fortune would h ave it, someone else here got ahold of Eth ely n atSuzu ki, In a we ek we would ge t one. Mu ch celebra ti o n insued, and we all went down toJoe-Joe's fo r a beer and an egg. In th e end I was the lucky dude who got to pick it up. Lu ck y, because wh en one goes to Suzuki, o ne ge ts to see Ethelyn. Take John Ulric h 's and my word ; it's a rar e privilege. Be fore w e received th e 12 5 Su zook we heard th e mo st glo wing praise fo r its character. It has been ca using n early as mu ch st ir as th e Honda Elsinore. You name it, the T M 125 can blow it off. Hear in g th at so rt o f praise: produce s two reac tion s in us ; First, we fear em b ar rassment - Wh at happens if we don ' t b low every on e o ff? T he sec o nd is also th e co nseq uen t react ion: "Bet I can find so me things wron g with i t." In sh o rt , we tend to be kind of wary about n ew 'wonder' machin es, especially Japanese ones. . As I loaded th e b ike into the van at Suzu ki, I began to get th e im p ression th a t th is bike mi gh t be a lot of the th in gs it was t outed to be. Akront rims laced to the fron t and b ack hubs were th e first things I noticed. (Afte r h e no ticed Eth elyn... Ed.) Now, you might not personally be gung-h o for Akronts , b ut the y-are bunches better th an most stoc k rim s. But the im porta n t part is th at Suzu ki actually we nt out an d bough t Akrorit rim s fo r their b ike; very impressive. A s I lashed a tie-d own to the swing arm I got a glance o f a re ally nice ch ain tensioner and guide. Hmm-m-rn. Ne x t it em: efficient looking footpegs. An d a go od looking motor. T h e en gin e doesn't bear mu ch resemblan ce to the 125 end uro. It lo oks lik e its bigger brothers , with narrow cases and th e clutch actuation on the front right. In most ways it's an imitation of th e bigger TMs , not a co nver ted enduro lik e so many 125 's o T he next day a couple of us took off to go for a rid e. Drivin g d o...vn 1-405 th e pressin g question crop pe d u p. "W onder what p re-mix it. ta kes ." " Di d you bring the spe c sheet?" HOf co urse not." \\'hen we arrived we fo und so meone else wit h a new Su zo ok . We ask ed wh at to d o. He t old us not t o run pre-mix, j ust keep the oil t an k to pp ed up. We we re a bit agh ast. A fir e-breathin g two-s troke without pr e-mi x ? It was with tr ep id ati on th at we headed off, depending up on th e lu b ricatio n of injec ted Castrol R and Enc o Premium. Apparently, our fe ars were unwarranted , as all th a t's th ere. No doub t abo ut it, th e T M 125 is fast. No, n ot fast, very fas t. Placed side by side with a modified S ac hs-d rive n sco o te r with a rid er 5 0 pounds he avier . th e Suzu ki ran head to head. A swi tch of riders would have brought a big surp rise . Suzuki claims maxim um output a t 10,0 00 RPM . A ctually , it would seem to be at ne ar ma ximum o ut p u t from abo u t 7,500 up to th at red lin e. At 4,000 RPM the eng ine o u tp ut wouldn't b low yo ur mind to o much. With th e peak in ess and the su d den power yo u ' re probabl y th inking the 125 is just like its bigger relat ives. Th ere may be a simi larity in applicatio n, bu t what d oe s o ne th ing fo r a 4 0 0 d oe s n ot have the same effec t on a 125. T he TM 125 is an immen sely co n tro llable motorcy cle . It fo rgives , and it forgives so me more. It's a fairly difficult motorcycle to fall off. We were going to say very difficult , but one of us finall y slid o ut on it... th ree time s, but the rear Dunl op was prett y worn. It takes so me time to becom e accu stom ed to the ex te nts at which t he Suzuki must be leaned fo r c o rn e rs . I t' s o ne o f th os e dro p-it-way -o ver m otorcy cles. It likes to be stuffed in , leaned over, and steered o u t wi th the throttle. T he Su zu ki woul d seemingly spen d its whole li fe seekin g o u t berms. It loves berms. Throw it into a berm faster than y ou think you should and twis t th at see m ingly st eel handle grip all the way. T h en it's weight transfer time . On ce you develop th e right co mb in at ion it 's unbelievable h ow little ti me is spe n t in a corn er. It's easy to st uff th e Suzoo k in to co m ers a lit tle too fast. In fac t, that is th e only soli d criticis m we co uld co me up with for th e bike . T he rear stopper has enough p ower an d is pleasan tly sens itive un til braking o n ripples. T he n on -fio at in g rear hub ge ts slightly co n fused in t hese situations. Because o f th e minimal flywheel, the engin e won 't help you mu ch ei ther . T he front brake requires a very hefty tu g to slow things in a hurry. It wou ld take prem editation and a lo t of effo rt to bring about lock-up in th e dirt. The front . hu b itself is full width and of ade q ua te size. Th e Engine . •. .. . .. . .... . .. .. . . .. .. 2-s troke single Bore/stroke _ 2.201'/1.97 " Disp _ 123cc Compo .... ... . . . .• .. . .. _. . _ _ 7.5 :1 Carbo _ 26mm Mikuni Ignition ' . .Pointless ele ctronic Trans I down, 4 up Fork travel . .. . . .. .. . . . .. .. ...• ..... . ... 5.1" Fuel capacity 1.3 gal. Oil capacity .......... . . .. .. .. . . . .. •. . 1.2 pts. Wh eelbase 52.6" Ground clearance 7.9" Sugg. Retail $605