There is no record of the route this machine took through life, but at some stage it
arrived as a pile of parts at the home of the late Barry Senn, who planned to rebuild
it. He scoured the world for genuine RN parts, which have become increasingly hard
to find. Barry was killed in a motocross accident in 2006, after which the boxes of bits
and pieces found their way to a Tauranga owner and then back to Russell Burling. In all
respects it was a homecoming, as the bike had originally been Burling’s responsibility
all those years ago.
The RN arrived in New Zealand to huge excitement because clearly, this was
something special. The sandcast engine cases and wheel hubs, the milled alloy forks,
the lightweight detailing like the exhaust pipe mounts, clutch actuator arm, gear
lever and triple clamps all contributed to the elegant simplicity of a machine
without a single unnecessary bolt or fitting.
Russell Burling was an apprentice working in the Colemans Suzuki workshop when
RNs arrived, and he could see they had received a genuine clone of the top European
equipment. They couldn’t wait to fire it up or get it onto the track in anger and when
they did, the fans also knew they were looking at the real thing.
“It caused a sensation,” says Russell. “We always had lots of people just standing and
staring at it.”
The RN400 weighed in at 90kg (198lbs) (17kg lighter than the production TM400) and
while the different Suzuki models looked the same at a casual glance, there was virtually
nothing from the RN that could be swapped to the TM. The performance difference
between the two bikes was equally incomparable.
28 KIWI RIDER