VOLUME ISSUE APRIL , P137
The new version of the Hustler
was made more docile through
several steps, one of which was
quite literally starvation. The
new carburetors on the bike may
have been 26mm on paper, but
they were made much smaller in
the real world. How so? Longer
carb slides were now fitted to the
units, so that, "in other words,"
wrote CN, "the throttle doesn't
open all the way. The 26-millime
-
ter Mikunis are effectively made
about 20mm Mikunis and the
engine performance goes away."
The 8000-rpm tach redline is
something of a white lie, as the
staff noted that the Suzuki won't
pull above 6800 rpm. "The en
-
gine has a governor and doesn't
put out the ponies that lurk
inside."
With its wild days behind it,
the Suzuki had also put on a little
extra weight, 20 pounds to be
exact. "It isn't that much," wrote
CN, "but combined with the loss
of horsepower, it has a way of
making itself felt."
Once the comparison to the
past subsided and the test crew
stopped whining about what the
Suzuki wasn't, they refocused
their lens on the bike as it was
today (1973). The GT 250 always
started on one kick. Thanks to Su
-
zuki's Posi-Force lubrication sys-
tem, it used very little oil, which
"puts the oil where it does the
most good." Handling and brakes
were all that and more and the
suspension was "a proper match
of comfort and control." It steered
well, and bumps in the road were
soaked up nicely. "The drawback
to the good handling," they wrote,
"is that you wished you had
more power." The fuel tank was a
"healthy" 3.9 gallons, and the GT-
250 would ring ding for nearly 140
miles before needing a fill-up.
The emasculation of the sport
-
ive motorcycle seemed to be a
trend in the early to mid-'70s.
"Everybody's doing it," CN wrote.
"Suddenly, performance doesn't
really matter, and most of the
bikes coming out of Japan are
down on performance and up in
pleasantness. Suzuki has gone
farther in this direction than
most anybody."
Testing the GT 250, while
waxing nostalgic about the old
X-6 Hustler, was much like reac
-
quainting with an old flame. They
come back into our lives less
fiery, a little heavier, not as fast,
and sporting a wider seat. The GT
would probably be a better part-
ner now than it would have been
in its earlier days. It was a good
machine and a pretty good value
at $810. It was proof that, to find
happiness, one doesn't always
have to walk on the wild side.
CN
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The X-6 Hustler was a flyweight,
fire-breathing 250cc two-stroke
that wowed onlookers and
made whoever was on it cool.
The GT 250 was a
good motorcycle, but
it was disappointing
compared to its
X-6 predecessor.
