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obmprofile - Vic just loves his wee Suzi

“Much of his spare time was spent hunting around in rubbish dumps to find dilapidated bits of pushbikes to rebuild and sell”

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Victor covers plenty of miles on the TC200.

Some people don’t get on with two-strokes, with their buzzy motors, clouds of smoke and the ear piercing screams that accompany the quest for speed. Even Victor, owner of this little Suzuki admitted that he’s not overly fond of them. It begs the question then, why did he buy it?

“I was at this chap’s house, looking for some BSA bits when I saw it. I like ‘different’ bikes, so I just bought it.”

Although his dad was more involved in cars, as a youngster, Vic had early ambitions to get into the world of two wheels, and stopped at nothing to get his wish. Much of his spare time was spent hunting around in rubbish dumps to find dilapidated bits of pushbikes to rebuild and sell – as he says there were no grumpy jobs-worth attendants to chase you off in those days.

“When I was sixteen I managed to buy a Raleigh moped and screamed around the streets on it at midnight on my birthday. I quickly progressed to a Bantam, but it always breaking down, so if you want to learn how to fix bikes buy a Bantam.”

Copycat
Vic believes that this little bike is a 1969 TC200, although it is possible that it might just be a standard T200 with a few copycat alterations, the most obvious being the beautiful high-level exhaust system. On closer inspection, and to my untrained eye, it all looks legitimate.

In the quest to determine the bike’s provenance, Vic wrote to a Japanese specialist several years ago but received a rather vague and disappointing response.

More successfully he also contacted one of the previous owners to find out if the bike was the same when he had it, or if any changes had taken place with the intervening owners. The gentleman reassured Vic that all was as it should be.

The original T200 – also known as the Invader – was the little brother of the 250cc Super Six (or the T20). It kept many of the Six’s characteristics; the twin cylinders, the chunky engine style and much the same length and height. One of the main changes took place in the gearbox department, with the baby bike losing a gear. In the US it was referred to as the X5, while big brother T20 was of course the X6. Directly in line with losing 50cc, the forks and wheels were slimmed down to shed some weight.

If you think all that is confusing, wait until you meet cousin Stingray, the TC200. This was concocted as a street scrambles version, and cast yet more bulk, weighing in at 276lb dry. The ’bars were changed as was the tank, which took on more of a rounded shape, minus the fancy chrome panels.

Vic backed the little bike out of the garage and had a quick check of the high tech fuel gauge – a length of clear plastic tubing connected to the side of the tank. I asked him if it had any special dietary needs, his reply; “not really, it will run on any kind of petrol, I think I’ve got some in that can.” With that, he topped up the tank, switched the ignition on, and gave it a bit of choke. After a couple of short jabs on the kick-start, it burst into life.

I followed the trail of two-stroke smoke as Vic took off to find a suitable testing venue. Dashing through town traffic it looked to handle well, being nippy and easily manoeuvrable. Living in MacDuff, a small fishing town right on the edge of the north-east coast, the weather can be variable, to say the least. A summer’s day can quickly turn to grey and so it was on the day of the test. With bright spells to take advantage of, I decided to get some practice during the cloudy interludes, and do the action shots when the sun popped out.

Cheery
I felt quite at home with the left hand kick-start, and with a relatively low seat height of only 30.7in, balancing on one leg while I fired it up was no problem. Under the watchful eye of the owner, I snicked the lever down into first gear, let the clutch out, slowly, and stalled. Into neutral and try again. This is why the full face helmet was invented, to spare a lady’s blushes. After a few attempts I gave it plenty of revs, and managed to get off the line, and as I sped away, Vic shouted that the brakes were probably a bit softer than I’m used to…

With this cheery thought echoing in my head, I approached a steep descent followed by a sharp right hand bend, with a smattering of gravel strewn down the middle for good measure. Backing off the throttle was a good plan, although it had little effect on engine speed, and both anchors were applied with a suitable amount of force. The combined result was adequate to slow me down to suitable cornering speeds. Gravel negotiated, a longer straight stretch opened up, and with a slip of the wrist the power kicked in propelling the little bike with impressive turn of speed. 50-60mph is a comfortable pace, with something like 6000rpm showing on the easily readable all in one rev counter.

All the gears engaged smoothly, and I was soon flicking up and down through the ’box, and pulling off tight turning circles at the end of the dead end track, with the high pipes, making it feel like a true off-roader. The addition of a steering damper might lead you to think that this is a bit of a stroppy motorcycle, but I had no problems, on either the rougher or smooth road surfaces.

Back at the Greig household, I quizzed Vic about little Suzi. Since getting it in 1994, it’s proved to be a minimum fuss motorcycle, the only serious hitch was a faulty petrol tap that allowed fuel to leak into the crankcase, causing a hydraulic lock and bent con rod. He does most of the work himself, but apart from a few cosmetics, a lick of paint and the occasional stripping of the carbs, there has been little else to do. Parts wise, the NGK B-77HC spark plug was difficult to obtain, so Vic fired off an email to NGK, and coincidentally, the chap at the other end, owned a T200. No further problems acquiring plugs after that.

Raking through old folders and files, he showed me some of the rather comical advertising propaganda with pictures of ye olde motorcyclist pulling up at ye olde filling station, with a rather bemused attendant unable to compute that the little Japanese machine no longer needed his services. Suzuki’s Posi-Force lubrication system, doing away with the need to pre-mix, was one of the manufacturer's main selling points. In among the memorabilia relating to the TC is the June 1988 issue of Motorcycle Enthusiast, with Don Leeson’s report on the standard T200 Invader, most of which was favourable, and an original owner’s manual that was sourced through the VMCC, for the princely sum of £30, but worth it for the collection.

In 1995, this was the first Japanese bike to be entered in the Scottish National Assembly, even achieving a mention in the Evening Telegraph, a clipping of which was sent to Vic by a couple who’d seen him at the show. The Suzi also won a prize at Doon Motor Museum, for the bike the judges would most like to take home. Not bad for a little old Japanese two-stroke that’s travelled the length and breadth of Scotland in VMCC Inter Section Relay Rallies, and many other classic gatherings. So, overall, a practical wee machine, just as capable of fun and frolics, as it is of high mileage touring.

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