They took billets of exotic material – aluminium, magnesium, titanium – added sandcast
components and literally hand-built the bikes. Levers, pedals, triple clamps and
other components were all milled to the absolute minimum thickness possible.
Every part was minutely studied to find any way to save fractions of grams in weight.
Of course Suzuki wanted to win, but for the engineers it was more than that – it was
an opportunity to unleash the free-thinking and creativity they had dreamed about
during their university days. Perhaps a clue to their psyche can be found in an interview
in 2012 with Masao Furusawa, the Japanese engineer who developed the Yamaha YZR-M1
MotoGP bike. He was one of many Japanese who wanted to work in the aerospace
industry, but with that activity banned in their country following World War 2 he, like his
peers, ended up in the motorcycle industry, where many of the principles were the same,
he said. Providing the outlet for this frustrated talent was one of the reasons why the
Japanese bike industry performed so strongly from the 1950s onwards.
Suzuki wanted motocrossers of unparalleled ability; light, stable at speed and over
bumps, able to turn, with plenty of traction and top speed. In short, they wanted the
best motocrossers ever built, and the engineers responded.
The RH250 was a full 16kg (35lbs) lighter than the competition bikes, and so dominant
were the Suzukis of Robert and DeCoster that European manufacturers cried foul and
complained to the UIM, the heavenly body of motorcycle racing. The UIM listened, and
introduced a minimum weight limit, ending the days of the ultra-light works Suzukis.
It was introduced right before the beginning of the 1973 season, forcing DeCoster to take
radical steps to increase the weight of his RN73, such as filling the front downtube and
crankcases with lead and replacing titanium fittings with steel. It ruined the bike’s
balance and handling and almost cost Roger the world title.
Meanwhile, in the United States, a promoter called Edison Dye was organising
professional motocross events as a way of selling Husqvarnas, the Swedish brand
24 KIWI RIDER