This bike started as a tatty roller that was payment from Snowy for delivering a bike from the Latrobe Valley in VIC to his abode in the South Central Highlands of NSW. Mark had picked the bike up as part of a deceased estate or something similar with some history that the bike was an ex Suzuki shop race bike where the engine had been removed along with its ancillary components. The No-Dive must have been fitted back in the day, I guess when they were quiet popular in the late seventies. The work performed to modify the parts was of a high standard. Of the very few No-Dives that I have seen fitted they usually hack the backing plate retaining lug from the fork tube with a hacksaw and maybe tidy it up with a file. This one had been machined down with a lathe and the mods to the backing plate were what you would expect ex factory.
As the bike had the system already fitted, and it is costly and difficult to convert back to a normal brake system, I have only known the bike with it fitted. Back to back between the 250C that I have there is a distinct difference in the way that the bike behaves under braking. Personally I find it o/k but there are other ways to improve the suspension performance without having to fit a No-Dive, e.g. PD Valves.
In an era before there were shim stacks to control the rate of fork compression under braking, the No-Dive had sound engineering principles and there is no doubt that some rider/bike combinations it worked well, I guess that Gally is such an example. On the other hand, I have spoken with Mike Landman and was never a fan of it, yet the bikes were basically the same. I no longer race the bike as the 84 125 has taken it’s place so it’s relegated to events like CD and BBB and if nothing else is a great conversation piece.
