AKIRA WATANABE: 1978 WORLD MX CHAMPION

In the history of the World Motocross Championship, riders representing upwards of 15 individual nations have claimed world titles. However, interestingly, amazingly and almost unbelievably, only one Japanese rider has won only one World Championship. His name is Akira Watanabe and in 1978 he won the 125cc World Motocross Championship. During the 39 years which have followed, no rider representing the nation of 127 million inhabitants has been able to win a World Championship.

Akira Watanabe was born in 1954 in Utsunomiya, Japan and first became intrigued by motocross by seeing 50cc race bike inside the store front window of a motorcycle dealership. He took to the bike quickly, and within two years was racing. Excelling in local and regional races around the nation, by the age of 17, Akira had caught the eye of the Suzuki Motor Corporation and was hired to test, research and develop the brand’s motocross bikes. In 1974, at age 19 and already a professional, he won the Japanese Championship in both the 125cc and 250cc classes. One year later, he fulfilled his boyhood dream of being sent to Europe to contest the 125cc World Championship Series. “Of course I remember Akira,” exclaims Roger DeCoster. “He was based in Belgium, actually, when he raced in Europe. That was during the Gaston Rahier days. He actually spent some time living with Gaston on the East Side of Belgium. He also rode with me. Akira raced the Trans-AMA Series, as well. He was a good rider – a very good rider. I mean you don’t win a World Championship without being a decent rider. Akira was very focused and he really wanted it bad. He came to Europe, which was not so easy for a Japanese rider.

Jaclyn Smith and her Suzuki

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Jaclyn Smith and her Suzuki in the series "Charlie's Angels." Even then the girls are sexy and adventurous.Via : www.puretrend.com

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Donny Schmit's 1990 Suzuki

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Via : www.americanmotorcyclist.com

Many of the bikes in the Motorcycle Hall of Fame Museum tell the story of technological progress and innovation. This bike tells the story of one very determined racer.

Donny Schmit carved out his own career path to motocross success. The Minnesota native got off to a good start by winning the 125cc West Region title in the 1986 AMA Supercross Series. But Schmit then struggled in the premier 250cc class, particularly on tighter Supercross circuits.

Recognizing that his skills translated better to outdoor motocross, Schmit dropped out of Supercross to focus on the 125 MX series, losing his Suzuki factory ride in the process. Focusing on a grueling training regimen, he was picked up in 1990 by Team Bieffe Suzuki to race the 125 Motocross World Championship. Schmit won four races on this motorcycle en route to the 125 Motocross World Championship... Read more


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The ‘CYCLONE’ TM400R

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Nicknamed the ‘CYCLONE’ the TM400R was the first Japanese production motocrosser to be mass-produced. The huge 82.5mm bore piston turned out 40 bhp at 6,500 rpm and along with the fan-finned cylinder head it had a compression ratio of 7.3 : 1.

The crankshaft halves were not full circle type as fitted to most two-stroke engines and made the engine rev more; one answer was to fit aftermarket flywheel weights made by Competition Dynamics in the USA. The clutch was based on the T500 road bike with seven fibre drive plates and seven metal driven plates it was operated by a rack and pinion type mechanism. A five-speed gearbox provided transmission. Carburation was provided by a Mikuni 34mm carburettor featuring a fuel trap around the main jet, developed to keep the float level more constant by keeping the fuel in the trap area. Air filtration was by a large capacity, dry paper element housed in an airbox under the seat.

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The Suzuki Motocross Story

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The World Motocross Championship season began in England where the big four-strokes were firing their last shots at supremacy against a tide of incoming two-stroke machines; spearheaded by the Czechoslovakian CZ and Swedish Husqvarna motorcycles with their lower weight and increasing reliability.

When the series moved to Scandinavia, Suzuki made their first-ever international appearance at the Hedemora circuit in Sweden, bringing along two machines. Japanese champion Kazuo Kubio as rider along with export manager Mansuri Hishi and Isle of Man TT road-racer Seuchi Suzuki to assist.

The Swedish bike magazines made some very interesting comments at the time: "Suzuki will come back, they have not made a prototype for nothing! Count on the fact that the Japanese will be back with more riders and more bikes! The Japanese will make the competition harder!" ... Read more


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Suzuki RH-125 Factory Replica Vintage MX

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Via : www.davemillerconcepts.com

Here it is, the latest, Dave Miller Concepts project made out of junk, dug out of a hole in Idaho. Originally got it for Marty Tripes series, 100cc, "Works Revenge" Vintage Race Series, that was going to be certain year/models. We were going to go have some fun with some old factory guys, race motocross on old stuff, not clear 80-foot triples, and drink beers after and laugh about it.


Unfortunately, Marty, who has three or four bikes, couldn't make the old junk air-cooled shit live, and had to keep going to later bikes, and later bikes, and then even later bikes, so I had a fleet of 74s and had to get rid of all of those. Now they're talking about using your fuel-injected 450YZ, pull the hoses off of it and sleeve it to 100 is legal, so it just didn't sound like fun anymore.








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1977 Suzuki RN400 De Coster

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In the late 1970s, Roger DeCoster was winding down one of the most successful careers in the history of motocross. And this full-on works RN400 is the bike that allowed him to go out in style.


It was 1977, and the racer still known as “The Man” was defending his championship in the Trans-AMA series, which pitted European stars against the Americans in the fall series on U.S. soil.
A Belgian, DeCoster represented the last of the old-school MXers, a five-time world champion going up against the rising stars of the Supercross generation—riders like Bob Hannah, Marty Smith and Brad Lackey.


To nail his fourth Trans-AMA title, he needed something special—a bike that took full advantage of the U.S. rules of the time that allowed one-off factory race machines.Everything about the motorcycle was designed to go fast. It had a billet aluminum fork and remote-reservoir works shocks. The swingarm and chrome-moly chassis were modified for additional strength and weight savings. Overall, the bike weighed a svelte 209 pounds.


It was the best equipment the Suzuki factory could design, which was certainly fitting treatment for the company’s star rider. And thanks in part to this bike, DeCoster was able to outshine the young guns and win the ’77 Trans-AMA title.


As it turned out, that championship would be the last of DeCoster’s storied career. A lingering practice injury in 1978 hampered his world championship effort, while in the U.S., a series-long duel with “Hurricane” Hannah in the Trans-AMA series wound up with Hannah on top.


DeCoster, of course, went on to become a successful team manager here in the states, overseeing the first title-winning U.S. Motocross of Nations team in 1981, and running Honda’s factory team and then Suzuki’s team, which he still leads today.



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Suzuki 500 Roca

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The TR500 found its origins in... Boulogne, France. Pierre Bonnet was the French Suzuki distributor and the works team indeed was based there for their first serious onslaught on the Grand Prix world in 1962. By 1967 Jacques Roca, a talented Spanish-French racer and technician had joined forces with Pierre Bonnet after being the distributor for Derbi. Shortly after the new T500 roadster was issued by the Japanese manufacturer, Roca built and raced a racing version that was so impressive that Suzuki, which had officially retired from world championship racing, built a full-race version of the new machine, as well as a 250cc version from the smaller parallel twin.








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