CNIIARCHIVES
P136
BY KENT TAYLOR
SUZUKI'S
GT 250
SISSY
SUCCESSOR
In 1973, the
Suzuki GT 250
replaced the
much-loved
X-6 Hustler.
I
t was called "the original
pistol" and "a 250cc weapon."
Cycle News staffers praised
it as a "flyweight fire breather, a
machine bred with performance
taking precedence over any
-
thing…no 350 could match it, and
even 500s lived in fear. It was the
X-6 Hustler, Suzuki's proof that
there was indeed a substitute for
cubic inches."
In the late 1960s, the Hustler
X-6 250 must've been something
of a rebel, at least in comparison
to the offering of the mellower
machines of the time. Think
original punk rocker, like The
Velvet Underground. Wind it up
and wheelie it high—wring it out
as if you are somehow living out,
in four dimensions, the distorted
and frenzied ending of "White
Light/White Heat," piano, pistons
and guitar playing different melo
-
dies, yet somehow all playing the
same song. In the 1960s, really
loud still wasn't loud enough.
But Cycle News wasn't test-
ing the 1966 X-6 Hustler in its
February 27, 1973, issue. This
story was about its successor,
the GT 250, a bike that appeared
to bear as much resemblance to
the original Hustler as Lou Reed
shares with Yanni.
The title page "Gosh If Mom
Could See Me Now" should've
been a whack-in-the-back-of-the-
head foreshadowing element.
The X-6 name was borrowed
from an experimental, nuclear-
powered jet, while the Hustler
moniker was original (preceding
the Larry Flynt skin magazine by
eight years), and it fit the spunky
little two-stroke twin nicely. But
by 1973, Suzuki had decided,
perhaps arbitrarily, that the
motorcycle-buying public neither
wanted nor needed a flyweight
fire-breathing 250cc two-stroke,
leaving the CN staff bitterly
disappointed. "Compared to its
progenitor," they wrote, "the GT-
250 is a sissy. No tire-smoking,
wheel-standing, hairy-chested
antics for this kid."
