The Suzuki Apache: : A potted history!
The TS400 arrived in 1972 the year after Suzuki began selling the Moto-x TM400 Cyclone and someone, somewhere, obviously thought it’d be a good idea to take the TM and make a road bike out of it.
Therefore the engine was detuned, the frame revised and strengthened, road-going kit tacked on, etc. The first, J, model seems to have been made in something of a rush with the super low profile headlight robbed from the likes of the T125/T250 et al; the tank runs a filler cap from the some of the late 1960s models; and the forks look like they’ve been robbed of a road bike. The TS400J and K models seem to have garnered something of reputation. The suggestion (quite possibly urban myth) is that they’re fearsome creatures to ride, rising up on the throttle almost without warning and potentially violent criminal types. Perhaps they were scary back in the day, but I’m willing to bet it’s as much hype as anything else and something akin to all the flim-flam talked about Kawasaki triples, i.e., the legend is greater than the reality.
The M model was Suzuki’s attempt at making the bike more dirt friendly via the aforementioned 21” front wheel and revised frame. Barrel and head received extra finning and the compression ratio supposedly hiked was upped 6.8:1 to 7.3:1, although this figure seems to vary depending on brochure and country. That Suzuki was stung into action regarding the supposed shortcomings of the J and K models isn’t in doubt, but the resultant changes don’t seem to have
impressed journos of the day. Cycle magazine had this to report…
‘Suzuki calls the TS400L an enduro bike but it falls short of those requirements except for the engine’s tremendous torque. It’s less at home in the dirt than the XL350 Honda, 360 Yamaha Enduro, or even the Kawasaki 350 F-G Bighorn. Where the old Apache could really give any bike a hard time on tight secondary roads the new TS400L is a follower, not leader. Suzuki changed the Apache because marketing research and buyers surveys told Suzuki that enduro bikes spend most of their life on the street, not the trail. Consequently they responded by attempting to make the Apache enduro more street-able while retaining appealing off-road handling, comfort and performance; their effort missed. Had Suzuki made the Apache more dirt-able by using just a dash of their world championship motocross experience they would have had a tremendous big bore enduro bike. But they went in the other direction and made the TS400L a mediocre street machine as well as an unacceptable dirt bike. In the process we lost an old friend.’
Based on such period observations I’m really leaning towards a J or K model… if I can fine one that is!