Features

It looks nice and warm at Spa Francorchamps as the grid lines up for round seven of the 1977 500cc world championship. Suzuki could only dream of this sort of pole publicity now…

A box of engine parts arrives in Rod Gibson’s workshop masquerading as a 1973 Triumph triple engine. Rod is told that everything is there but inevitably he’ll have to go in search of some parts

Rod Gibson finishes his rebuild of the complicated three cylinder engine with work on the transmission. A hugely satisfying job – but Japanese bikes are easier to work on he says

The motor’s rebuilt and all the parts are refinished. All that remains before the final assembly is to patch up the exhaust. Rod Gibson breaks out the welder

Poor old Suzuki. It’s not often that a bike that is technically advanced and a good performer gets sidelined very quickly, especially after it’s had a very positive reception from the press. However, it happened to the Suzuki GSX550…

Suzuki was influential in moulding the tralbike concept and this TS125, launched in 1971 and following on from the Trail Cat, continued the theme

The R90/S was ground breaking when launched. Better equipped than the Japanese equivalents – albeit more expensive – and fast and exciting to ride

This Brough Superior may look like any other 1926 SS100, but its vee twin engine outpaced Sir Henry Segrave’s two-litre supercharged Sunbeam racing car. Peter Watson tells the tale…

Every once in a while the Japanese produce a motorcycle that takes your eyeballs, stretches them, and then pops them back in their sockets. The sensational styling of the Suzuki Katana made it a motorcyling classic even when it was still on sale…