52 amcn.com.au
Nigel Everett and his company Racing Restorations
brought it back to trackworthy condition, and I was
then deputed to run it in for Chris at the Coupes
Moto Légende meeting at Montlhéry. Later on, Chris
and Nigel brought it to Snetterton for me to ride in
something approaching anger, only for it to run a
crank after just half a dozen laps. It was a case of third
time lucky at a sunny Misano, a track better suited
to such a long-legged bike, even if still overgeared
on the shortest ratios in the spares box, so I could
only grab a true fifth down the main straight in either
of my two 20-minute sessions on the Suzuki. Still,
plenty fast enough for me...
I once shared the track with Barry Sheene on his
XR23B at an open practice session on the Brands
Hatch short circuit before the 1979 Match Races, and
after he zapped past my P&M Kawasaki TT F1 exiting
Clearways setting off down the pit straight, I had a
close-up impression of unbelievable acceleration,
coupled with the ungainly-looking width of the
Suzuki’s rear end. By the time I exited Paddock
Bend, Barry was turning into Druids. That probably
says as much about our relative riding skills as
the performance of his bike, but it seemed pretty
impressive at the time – especially as I never saw him
wheelie the thing unduly, even when he passed me
again about 10 laps later!
Fast forward a few decades, and after some tips
from Barry himself, before his sad death, on how to
ride the monster (“Concentrate on the midrange,
which is what I used to do without using loads of
revs, and don’t ever gas it up hard in the gears,
because you haven’t got the ten-pound iron bar we
fitted to stop it pulling wheelies – just ride the torque
curve and short-shift to keep it cooking!”), I finally
discovered what it was like to twist the wrist of the
Suzuki-on-steroids.
First problem is the strange and ungainly ridingposition. Because of those fat pipes behind your
heels, you’re wedged in place and have to ride with
your insteps on the ’pegs. This means you can’t move
easily from side to side on the bike, and especially
can’t hang off it, because you can’t get your toes on
the rests. The throttle is surprisingly heavy, with the
twistgrip operating four separate cables, one for each
carb, while the steering damper strangely has only
three clicks, so not much choice in settings on a bike
like this which likes to reach for the stars!
To be fair, it mainly does this around 8000rpm,
where there’s a sudden hit of horsepower that will
have the front wheel eagerly waving around your
ears if you’re not careful – it’s a two-stroke wheelie-
hound with a phenomenal power to weight ratio,
and no rotary exhaust valve to smooth out the power
delivery. Then you’ll light up the rear tyre in a way
that seems cruel and abusive punishment for the
humble treaded Avon classic race tyre.SuzukiXR238B
Below right No traction
control button here...
Bottom right At first
this was believed to be
Barry Sheene’s racebike,
but research revealed it
was Pat Hennen’s 1978
XR23A, updated for
Hartog in 1979