THE WEEKLY FEED: SUZUKI RMX250 GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN

A HISTORY LESSON

Dave Bertram (pictured) was part of Suzuki’s national Enduro and ISDE squad on a machine that struggled in stock form. It was a Green Sticker legal machine (it had to be quiet!) and therefore was mightily choked up at the muffler, cylinder head and porting. At the time all of the top racers basically plugged in RM suspension, an RM cylinder and RM pipe in order to get the performance into a competitive zone.

Suzuki dove back into the off-road arena with their RMX250 in 1989. It came off of the success of Randy Hawkins winning National Enduro titles on a modified RM250 in 1988 and before switching to the RMX the next year. Randy went on to win four more titles for Suzuki mounted on a modified RMX250. In the end slow sales forced Suzuki to yank the machine from their line, though they did hit off-road hard with a modified RM250.

Randy pocketed 7 National Enduro titles, six of them on Suzuki’s. and five of those were on the RMX250.

Steve Hatch was a Suzuki iron man and along with his hoards of trophies and ISDE medals, Mr. Hatch won a National Enduro title for Suzuki in 1994. Steve was always known for his fitness and has carried that into his after racer life with stevehatchracing.com

Rodney Smith really made waves in 1992 when he went to the Australian ISDE and came painfully close to winning the overall! This was his first year of serious off-road racing after dabbling special off-road events the previous year. He went on help cement Suzuki’s brand on off-road and in doing so became one of the winningest and most versatile racers ever out of the USA.

Rodney Smith dominated the GNCC series for almost six years with five titles from 1998-2004. This is 1997, one of the years that Suzuki switched to a conventional KYB fork. Mr. Smith took home a whopping 13 AMA-sanctioned National Championship Series, including five GNCC, along with three AMA National Hare Scramble titles, and five AMA National Reliability Enduro Championships, all racing for Suzuki.

LET’S DO IT!

GEAR BAG

2018 Bell Moto-9 Flex Helmet McGrath Monster Replica

Less Energy = More Protection

Introducing the Moto-9 Flex.
Bell is committed to providing purpose-built solutions that provide across-the-board head protection for the modern rider. So when it came to evolving the race proven Moto-9, we wanted to re-think fit and build on the helmet’s longstanding ability to manage energy. We’re pleased to report, we did. Leveraging the segmented liner from our Segment bike helmet, we sought to achieve a more personalized, adaptive fit, for a wide variety of head shapes. In creating a first-of-its-kind 3 layer impact liner, we utilized a revolutionary combination of polymer materials to provide a “progressive” energy management system that’s designed to absorb low, mid and high energy impacts. When it came to testing, our initial Flex samples outperformed any other motocross helmet we’ve tested to date. The result is no accident, the Moto-9 Flex is the most advanced helmet we’ve ever made and is quickly setting a new level for rider protection in motocross and off-road racing

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