Suzuki Rm370

Suzuki RM370

A man's man's bike at a wife's favorite price

I'M THE CHEAPEST GUY YOU KNOW. MY DAD TELLS ME I have my first nickel. And that penny you dropped at the gas station yesterday, too. So when my friend Chris the painter called and said, "Hey, do you want a free bike?" I replied, "Are you going to bring it to me?"

Two hours later, Chris dropped off a sweet, cobwebbed 1976 SuzukiRM370 that had been leaning against some guy's beach house for the better part of the '90s. He told Chris to take it or paint over it. Within 20 minutes of arriving at my pad, we had the carb cleaned and the Suzuki disturbing the peace in my usually quiet neighborhood.

From the beginning, I vowed not to spend a cent on my newfound piece of junk, and set out to prove it. The bike was missing its rear brake pedal, so I grabbed some scrap aluminum and fabbed up a slick replacement that would have made the guys from Webco proud. I put my creation on display with a few wheelies and brake slides behind the CW offices, only to attract the seasoned ear of Editorial Director Paul Dean. The echoing ping and rattle must have loosened some lost brain cell, because he informed me that he had “works” suspension for this very bike collecting dust in his garage.

And to my surprise, lying on the shop floor the next day was a set of KYB air shocks and forks, still dirty with mud from Saddleback or Indian Dunes or some such forgotten MX track.

With my trusty quick steel, I hand-machined the broken cases and replaced the rat’s nest inside the airbox with an old Kawasaki KDX200 air filter. Already equipped with a desert tank and spark arrestor, the RM was just a trannyfluid change away from prime roosting. Yet the bike sat for the better part of a year as other staffers attempted to qualify for “Dirt Cheap,” exceeding our agreed spending limit with no hope of coming close to the rusted (but not trusted) free Suzuki.

How’s she work? Well, with a good boot she always fires on the first kick. But idling isn’t in the cards; I think vibration has a way of shaking the carb function silly. But clank the 370 in gear, drop the clutch (slipping is not really an option) and welcome to the bike that physically illustrated the term “light-switch powerband.” I’d be safe in saying she has hit, punch and bark all at once. And as quick as she lights up, she signs off into a blasé overrev that just makes her vibrate even more. Lucky I had that big MS desert tank, ’cause all that power sucked a whole lot of gas. Environmentalists must have used this bike as a benchmark for “normal two-cycle emissions standards.”

The Suzuki brought out the hell-raiser in me, as I envisioned a day when things were much less complex and still mega-fun. And right in my price range, too! Whoever said you can’t get something for nothing?

Jimmy Lewis