SUZUKI X7
Steve Cooper’s buyer’s guide on the legendary learner!
Far too often in the world of motorcycles we hear the phrase game-changer. Those two words are supposed to imply the bike in question somehow radically alters the perceived status quo. However, many bikes ascribed such status are, in reality, little more than reworked models. Fortunately the bike in camera this month does truly warrant the sobriquet of game-changer; Suzuki’s seminal X7 represented the first serious challenge for years to the perceived order of things in the 250cc world. Here was a totally new motorcycle that had been designed from scratch and with just one specific aim: to become top dog in the vital learner bike sales league tables. In order to truly appreciate the bike’s significance we need to look at both its ancestors and the period competition. Suzuki rocked the world when it launched the T20 aka the Super Six, or the X6. This was a bike that redefined 250 two-stroke twins. With a moderate makeover in the late 60s the bike became the hugely successful T250 aka Hustler which lasted until 1972 when it was reinvented again as the GT250. Effectively a posh T250 with a disc brake and a Ram Air cowl, the bike swiftly became outpaced and outdated by Yamaha’s RD250. Kawasaki had offered the awesome A1 Samurai and then the S1/KH250 triples leaving Honda to do its own thing with four-strokes. Even if the GT250 was the best-selling learner bike of 1976 it made the grade on price not performance and techno babble. The RD250 was top dog and the Hamamatsu guys wanted a slice of the pie.
Going back to the drawing board the R&D team embarked on a massive weight reduction programme which would enable their new machine to become top dog. Depending on where you take your data from the X7 was some 18-20 kilos lighter than the GT250 which was no mean achievement. But the magic didn’t stop there. No newcomers to the black art of making two-strokes super-fast Suzuki borrowed the reed-valve concept from Yamaha and went a step further by burying these one-way devices as deeply into the engine as possible. This advanced thinking delivered power at the twist of a throttle. Additional thought went into maximising the porting of the barrels and the end result was breathtaking. When journalists began to report the bike was capable of almost breaching the magic ton the youth of the day were already working out how to finance their new, 250cc, bike. Truth be told the bikes supplied to the press had probably been ‘massaged’ a little to maximise performance but the fact remained that the new kid on the block was now vying for the old king’s crown. Within a few months the previously all pervasive coffin-tanked RD250 was dethroned and Suzuki’s heir apparent ascended the throne as the new king of learner bikes. Suzuki had craftily styled the bike such that it looked totally different to anything else and after years of candy or metallic paint the X7 came in flat red, white or blue. With a few simple decals to break up the panels and a unique satin gun metal grey engine case finish the aesthetics simply screamed less is more. The bike looked fresh and sounded fantastic thanks in no small part to a pair of exhausts purposely styled to look just a little like racing expansion chambers. For a few brief but glorious years the X7 ruled the roost; nothing could touch it or even come close but as is the way of these things another company was waiting in the wings. Yamaha wasn't going to sit back and allow the X7 to rob it of precious sales and was ready to up the ante big time. The arrival of the liquid-cooled LC250 unceremoniously dethroned the Suzuki to become once more the alpha male of the learner set. And yet it was suddenly all over in a flash. The accident rate among learners had become unacceptably high and this, allied to claims that kids were able to access 100mph machines with no training, saw the introduction of the 125cc learner laws. You might reasonably think that Suzuki had gone to a lot of hard work for little reward but no. Even if 250s were persona non grata in the UK, elsewhere the capacity was still a legitimate entity and Suzuki had a cunning plan. With little more than a water jacket and pump plus a radiator the X7 was transformed into the RG250 ready to take on Yamaha’s LC250 wherever it was sold. So why might you want an X7 today? It’s arguably the zenith of the genus that is the air-cooled two-stroke twin, nothing else topped it. Riding one is huge, huge fun; the ringing of the engine fins, the wail of the exhausts, the growl of air box… all combine to deliver a ride like very else. The slightly flighty handling and so-so brakes only add to the fun. Grab one before they escalate any further as the clever money is moving in. You will genuinely be hugely impressed!