Cycle News

drawing and designing so many different entries and they wound up choosing my first submission!" Even though she was already the partial owner of a Trailhopper (one she was required to share with her brother), she now had her own motorcycle, which she would ride with the boys at Saddleback Park in Southern California. And if the lads couldn't comprehend a girl on a dirt bike, they received a quick education! While the Suzuki couldn't touch the Honda Mini Trail in sales numbers, once the bikes were off the showroom floor, it was a different story. "My brother and I could blow right past the boys on their Z-50s," she remembers. "The two-stroke was much quicker!" Even if you weren't lucky enough to win a Trailhopper, the reasonable retail price made it easier to convince Mom and Dad that the little 50 would be the perfect gift, be it December or March. "It was March 27, 1971, when my Dad surprised me with a Trailhopper," Peter Zack, of Deep River, Connecticut, says today. "I even still have the original sales receipt for $324.45 from Valley Motorcycle Center!" Both the seat and handlebars on the Trailhopper were some - what adjustable, so the bike could be shared by family mem- bers of all sizes. "My two sons also got to enjoy it when they were growing up," Zack adds. "I still own it and love taking it out for a ride once in a while." The MT50 didn't have a long run in the Suzuki lineup; appear - ing first in 1971, the Trailhop- per was absent from the 1974 model list. But as with many other under-appreciated motor- cycles of the past, the Trailhop- per has never really died. Kids who were once proud owners of them became adults who can't live without them, lead - ing to nationwide searches for bikes to replace the one that somehow got away. Owners claim most parts can be easily found, with the exception of the oft- missing right-side oil tank cover. "It was held on by a couple of knobbies and one dial bolt," Kimberley Wright says. "It never stood a chance being thrashed about as a two- stroke ripper!" The sidecovers have become like the Holy Grail for parts seekers. Trailhopper owner Joe Carino of Williamstown, New Jersey, finally found a NOS cover for his bike. "Let's just say I paid more for my oil tank cover than I did for the bike," he says, "and I got a smokin' deal on that cover!" Wright's own Suzuki sadly went away years ago. "The Trailhoppers had been sitting in the garage for few years," she says, "and my Dad offered us now 'teens' [brother and I] $250 each for the bikes, as his buddy wanted them. It seems dumb now, but at that age in the late '70s, $250 was a lot of money." Nearly 40 years later, she found another Trailhopper and then added one more as a parts bike. Between the two, she has built a replica of the Trailhopper she won as a 10-year-old. This time around, she isn't letting go of the little bike. "It won't," Wright says firmly, "be sold in my lifetime!" CN CNIIARCHIVES P124 Subscribe to nearly 50 years of Cycle News Archive issues: www.CycleNews.com/Archives that somehow got away. the exception of the oft- one dial bolt," Kimberley Wright says. "It never thrashed about as a two- Trailhopper owner Joe for my oil tank cover than The two-stroke Suzuki Trailhopper debuted in 1971.

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