SUZUKI RM80X

Jeff knew this rebuild would end up a pain in the backside…

Jeff Ware is back with the little crosser!

G’day! It was foolish of me to think that my restoration plan for this mighty RM80X was going to go smoothly.

Here I was content that such a simple bike was going to be a breeze to restore, meanwhile I’ve got an RZV500R in bits that is twice as easy to sort out. Who would have guessed it? My issue has been finding parts. It seems I’m not the only 44-year-old that had an RM80X and now wants to relive those glory days of surviving by chance and luck…

In my last update I had stripped the engine and typed out my parts wish list. I had also earlier painted the frame in readiness for assembly. You may recall I lined up a donor bike for parts, well, that fell through. A few weeks later I found another one and that also fell through – followed by a third one that just wasn’t feasible financially once freight was

included (more than the cost of the bike; damn this big land Down Under).

So, in the end I’ve thrown my spanners in the air and decided to use all new parts for my resto and keep the original bike as the base. It’s better that way anyhow… I had a glass of cold water (can’t afford beer now with the cost of these parts and the Aussie dollar), with a little bit of scotch in it to take the edge off, then I hit the online world to go nuts with my (wife’s) Paypal account.

As many of you know, finding and then ordering parts is very time consuming. I try to do it of an evening once the kids are asleep, but half the time I’m stuffed myself so it has taken a while to get where I am so far with spares. I ordered parts from all over the globe, including here. However, the bike is so popular in Australia there is almost nothing around as NOS stock has all been snapped up. The Vintage and Classic MX scene here is absolutely massive.

The end result is that despatch drivers have been dropping goodies off to my house for weeks – every day is like Christmas. I’m always smiling, Heather, on the other hand, is not so impressed. She says I’m always either ordering parts for my Tamiya Hornet radio control model car or my RM80, the two best things I had when I was 12-years-old!

I’ve found almost everything for the engine now aside from a reasonably priced selector shaft and gear lever, clutch hub, and a few other bits.

To keep things rolling, I’ve just been doing as much as possible with what I have to hand.

Using the wire wheel, sandpaper and lots of elbow grease I cleaned up the triple-clamps, which were heavily corroded, and re-painted those as well as fitted new steering-head bearings – replacing the Suzuki ball and race items with tapered roller bearings.

At the back I pressure cleaned the swingarm then hit that with the wire wheel and sandpaper, followed by half-a-dozen coats of paint. To my surprise the swingarm bearings, seals and bushes were good so I simply cleaned those, re-packed them and re-fitted the swingarm unit to the frame. I’ve stripped the rusty forks and the inner tubes are at the re-chroming shop. In the meantime, I will polish the lowers and get them prepared for reassembly once the inners come back all shiny and new. I can’t wait to see those…

With the rest of the chassis parts, it is

just a matter of buying parts as I can afford to – I’m having a hard time finding aftermarket plastics for the bike so any tips there from readers would be appreciated.

Just as luck would have it, Chappy (RZV500R owner) and Darren (TZR250 3MA owner) have been popping in from time to time to see their bikes or drop parts off and being good blokes, they always seem to have a box of that refreshing amber liquid I so dearly enjoy. So, to be honest the extra cash I’m blowing on new RM parts is being saved on beer money at the moment. Can’t complain about that can I? And neither of them can blame me if their bikes end up running backwards or falling apart. Not my fault! I didn’t buy the beer!

On a side note, I took the family to the recent Australian Motorcycle Expo, where I had to do a few interviews and so forth. I decided to make a family day of it and as we were all strolling through the crowd, one of my sons grabbed me and said:

“Dad look, an RM80 like ours!”

There it was, sitting proudly at the Shannon’s Insurance stand, surrounded by 40-something-year-old men with three chins and a beer gut. Looking around, I reckon they were all thinking the same thing as me – that the RM80X is the best-looking 80 ever and how the flip did I ever fit on that thing? Well, I sat on the immaculate example and it really did bring back memories. Heather and the kids were smiling and laughing as I stood up to hop off the bike. At first it was a really sweet moment. Then I realised what they were actually laughing at when I stood up straight and had to push the RM80X out of my bum crack and put it back on the ground. Call it a Suzuki Wedgie…

Next issue I have no idea what I will be presenting you, but I do know I will have a re-built crankshaft to show you and hopefully lots more! It’s one little aircooled adventure…

1/ After pricing up individual OEM gaskets I went for an aftermarket kit. 2/ I purchased this original exhaust on ebay. I will have it sand blasted, then paint it. I already had the link pipe and muffler. 3/ Lots of wire brushing, wire wheel work and sandpaper to get the swingarm ready for paint.

7/ The top triple tree came up a treat, four coats of gloss black then a clear coat did the trick in my high tech spray booth. 8/ I spent a lot of time cleaning up the steering stem nuts, and they came up mint. Then it was a matter of removing the original ball races and pressing on the tapered roller to the clamp, then fitting the races to the frame.

4/ The swingarm came up nicely with half-a-dozen coats and a clear at the end. 5/ Polishing up the swingarm pivot. The seals, bearings and bushes were ok so I cleaned and re-greased those with a waterproof grease. 6/ The lower triple-clamp paint was flaking off so it was quite a job to prep it for painting.

12/ The original top yolk nut is stainless steel and polished up well, so did the large washer. I also polished up the original pinch bolts. 13/ All I want for Christmas… a pile of shiny new OEM parts have arrived, including a new con-rod. I’m really excited about all of these new bits. 14/ I bought this used head from a local wreckers. It will clean up ok and was the right price and year model, not easy to find here.

9/ With the swingarm paint given a few days to dry I then fitted it up: happy days. The shocks are next, they will be a bigger job. 10/ My RM80X is finally starting to look like a bike again and I can see the end result now, which makes it easier to be motivated to work on it as often as possible. 11/ I cleaned up and kept the original chain guide/guard, came up ok. The chain-guide tension wheel needs a good clean and new bushing. That is next.