From the January 2008 issue of Cycle World Racebikes usually die one of two deaths. Cartwheeled into oblivion or ground up steadily into nothing. In either case they are dust in the wind or so much obsolete trash dispersed as parts and forgotten. This 1979 Suzuki 125cc roadrace bike dodged both outcomes. Its life started as a special build, a backdoor project sponsored by U.S. Suzuki. But after a short-lived official career, the hand-made lightweight was sold to a kid in his early 20s, run a few times, then stuffed into the back of said kid’s garage. That kid was Jeff Terry. Now in his 50s and running a transmission shop, he decided “it had been too long,” and mined the bike out of its resting place next to the lawn furniture and camping gear. The remarkable thing about this restoration is that it is really just more of a continuation. How so? Almost all the same SoCal tuners, fabricators and builders who worked on the original build were tracked down by Terry to redo their work nearly 30 years later. 
Back in the late Seventies, Carl Brown, a local tuner at the time for some kid named Eddie Lawson, was the original builder. Carl’s 14-year-old son Todd wanted to roadrace, so Dad was making it happen for the ambitious lad. That’s young Todd (inset) at Riverside in ’79. The special engine was built by R&D, in this case standing for Rudy and Dean Dickenson, a father/son team who were essentially Suzuki’s racing skunkworks. R&D got the motor as “spares,” taking the parts from three factory 125cc motocross bikes headed for the crusher. Tom Rightmyer did all the metalwork, from the 4130 chrome-moly frame to the aluminum tank and tailsection. “Tom was into land-speed-bike racing, so he builds things as light and as ‘free’ as possible,” says Terry, who then spins the rear wheel with his hand and it just keeps on spinning. “He was just so efficient; every bracket has two jobs and all the pieces are beautiful.” Paintwork first time around was executed by a fellow called “Little Louie,” and he did an even better job this time, says Terry. How did Terry get the bike in the first place? “My girlfriend at the time lived across the street from Brown,” he says. “I rode Yamaha RDs, I was 20, I saw the garage light on…so I ended up helping.” In 1980, Yamaha released a particularly potent TZ125 and the Suzuki was no longer competitive. Terry bought it to try his hand at local tracks. “But I had no talent, and you really can’t start a successful racing career at 23,” he says. That early retirement was the bike’s savior. Today, it positively glows. Positively goes, too: Terry got the bike back on the track with a racer friend in the saddle and it finished fourth at Willow Springs in a field of 20, after starting last. “It’s a racebike,” says Terry matter-of-factly. “That’s what it’s for.”Gadget Reviews: mamaktalk.com
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