Engine Punk

If you ride a white bike, people will mistake you for a highway cop - unless it's an X7 I have often wondered why I should like the Suzuki X7 as much as I do. It defies logic. There are better bikes. There are more sophisticated bikes that are also more reliable. At 1.87m tall, I sit rather tall in the saddle for an X7. In fact, I look ridiculous on one. It doesn't take me much thought to justify my enthusiasm. In 1979, when I was 16,  the Suzuki GT250X7, to give it its proper title, was the fastest of the learner legal 250s. It was the first ton-up Suzy 250 when it was introduced in 1978. It wailed beautifully and spawned a host of desirable after market goodies such as clip-ons, rear sets and spanshions. Part of the X7s reputation was established in the motorcycling press. There were all manner of tuning articles and the most famous were the 250 shoot out series in Motorcycle Mechanics and the development of Brian Crichton's bike in The Biker. The X7 didn't reign for...

Greater than the sum of its parts I would say While looking for a photograph of something else the other day, I came across an old smudge of this. Continuing the search for whatever it was - whatever that was escapes me now as it escaped me then - I found another photograph of this motorcycle, which intrigued me sufficiently in the good old/bad old days of 135mm films and SLR cameras to expend four whole frames on it. Horizontally inclined (as opposed to horizontally opposed) cylinders make a lot of sense to me. I am surprised there aren't more of them. I can't remember where or when I came across this machine but think it might have been at the Blackwater traction engine rally in the early 90s. The engine consists of two 125 Moto Rumi two-stroke twin engines. The result is a two stroke in line four with horizontal cylinders. As UJMs (Universal Japanese Motorcycles) go, across the frame fours are almost unremarkable but no Japanese manufacturer ever made a two-st...