Suzuki RH-125 Factory Replica Vintage MX
Suzuki RH-125 Factory Replica built for Marty Tripes Vintage MX Race Series.
Our RH Tribute/RM Suzuki bike is a testament to it's effect on all those kids in the late 60's early 70's. Most notable - what set this bike apart was the tank color and badging that was exclusive to
Here it is, the latest, Dave Miller Concepts project made out of junk, dug out of a hole in Idaho. Originally got it for Marty Tripes series, 100cc, "Works Revenge" Vintage Race Series, that was going to be certain year/models. We were going to go have some fun with some old factory guys, race motocross on old stuff, not clear 80-foot triples, and drink beers after and laugh about it.
Some stuff in the engine area that is a little less production and more factory looking is the head shorter kick cranks. Pretty amazing they rode with these little pinner foot pegs.
Unfortunately, Marty, who has three or four bikes, couldn't make the old junk air-cooled shit live, and had to keep going to later bikes, and later bikes, and then even later bikes, so I had a fleet of 74s and had to get rid of all of those. Now they're talking about using your fuel-injected 450YZ, pull the hoses off of it and sleeve it to 100 is legal, so it just didn't sound like fun anymore.
The low upswept exhaust pipe that was legend to the RH models. The sound they made, the look they had, how they came up and tucked around - that's all really cool stuff.
So, I had this clean example of 1975 RM125, which was the first-year RM, a total standout piece. Some guys who got stung by it will remember Bob Hannah appeared on this thing as a test rider for Suzuki, and promptly won all the local big purse money and ruined everybody who had fast Elsinores at the time even with a five-speed, wide-ratio lower end. Fortunately, Suzuki had hooked this nine-port, thousand dollar list price cylinder, better pipe, better ignition to this thing and made the thing a runner. Put big forks on it, big wheels.
We used to look through the window at Joe Robert's world champ '72 bike, at U.S. Suzuki's offices when they were in Buena Park.
So I built this as a personal race bike which I was going to cannibalize into 100cc, and thank Goodness I didn't. I'll just go over some of the junk we did just to make it look like what we call RH Suzuki 250, which a little background on my deal...
The Suzuki "S" is just legendary in motorcycle racing. On all types of motorcycle racing that they are involved in.
I like to only get involved with stuff that really influenced me coming up as a kid, and early motocross. We had U.S. Suzuki right down the street from my mom's house in Buena Park, and they had Joel Robert's RH-250 sitting in the window, which got stolen out of there, and I'm pretty sure I know who has that, so that should pop up pretty soon. Maybe next time we'll be doing that.
The front wheels were pretty trick how they did it. This is just simulated, but the real works ones, which were aluminum and mag castings, actually had machined and pressed rings over the spoke plate
So we put it in this livery with the see-through fenders, the opaque fenders, this badging on the tank, you know, the RM's already had this beaten little big cylinder, small clutch motor, you know, shrunk the kick starter, the pipe we make, big screws, flatter seat. It's all RH styled stuff, which is to me, very appealing.
The color combination, the striping, the badging, certain standout stuff on Works Suzuki. They're the first Works bikes. Actually, they had trick Works stuff before they made their dirt models, so unlike all the other manufacturers, they really didn't have a modified street bike. They said, "Hey, we need this thing with light wheels, powerful motor, low center of gravity.”
They built that first, and then said, "Hey, we need to sell these to the public,” so that's where TMs and RMs came from. So if you're going to have something you have to look at, I certainly don't want to look at a 400CZ sitting in my office or any of that stuff. I don't care about that chiseled out of stone, old early stuff.
These are neat, example of the lightweight, spindly, really styled cockpit, skinny tank, fat forks, big brakes, early, early, early Works stuff that if you look at it, pretty much holds up today. Design shape and all that. We stuck pretty much with all the RM stuff. I just did little tricks on the thing.
The bike has all alloy bolts that are dished, and thinned down, like what a Works bike would have. A lot of aluminum fastener stuff, re-contoured some stock parts to give them a more spindly factory look. Shortened the kick starter. The bike has been 100 percent gone through. Engine's 100 percent race ready, wheels, forks, everything's rebuilt, seals, bearings, lapped, pressure tested, Dyno run.
I won't tell you what that Dyno number is, but I was pretty impressed by it for its age. Kinda cheated a little bit on the wheels. Gave them the magnesium color with the machined edges, which is, you know, like what the Works Suzuki's had. They actually took their wheels and because of the whoppin' six inches of suspension travel that Joel had, and as hard as he could ride that thing, it would rip the spokes from the flanges, so they would actually machine rings and press them on over the hubs. That's why the early Suzuki's had the silver edge. That was actually a secondary stiffener.
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