RM370 progress

[TM BILL]

I cant understand WTF you would want to jack the bike up so high  In Australia where you race on purpose built MX tracks i see the need for a reasonable amount of suspension travel, but here in NZ on the tracks we race on all that travel and height is a liability.
I am going to put a KX 250 A5 motor in my 75 KX 250 frame here to race in pre 81 , being lower to the ground on our tracks gives a huge advantage . I had a blue with a bloke a few years ago who got pissed off because i would ride under him in corners on my TM 125 he was on an 1985 RM 125 , they run away down the straights but might as well get off and push it round corners .
That original HL is a beautifull machine but these replicas seem to have morphed into too wheel stick insects  still each to his own.
Now wasn,t this thread about real bikes anyway 

[Marc.com]

being lower to the ground on our tracks gives a huge advantage .

what Bill ?, right height for the sheep 

The other option for the Honda is the C&J frame, uses the motor as a stressed member and doesn't require as much iron mongery to fit. One thing I like on the Curtis is it has the mother of all chain derailment protection.

[crabman]

Hi

I have just finished building a RM 370 from an absolute basket case. I am waiting for graphics. Initially I bought DC plastics- nothing wrong but not great, an acceptable set of plastics for racing. I managed to set a set of good plastics ex David at AMS Racing, looks like the NOS plastics.

Unfortunately for me and at the expense of building a period bike, I was forced to have a set of triple clamps/ trees machined, the bike has forks with a bigger outer diameter than the trees/ yokes/ triple clamps. The arse before me simply levered in a screwdriver to open up the trees. What a monumental fork up and costly to remedy. 



Crabman

[oldyzman]

Nice RM370 crabman, is it an a or b, Pipe looks hot
OLDYZMAN

[frostype400]

nice bike crabman does that front fender clear the pipe thanks Michael.

[crabman]

It is a RM 370 B, YES the mudguard  does clear the pipe. To be honest I don't intend to race the bike, I have ridden it but I won't race it. It is far to costly to get every bike up to a race spec. It is a queen that can start and will be ridden from time to time.

[Marc.com]

really nice 370, one of the better proportioned ones I have seen. I hear what you are saying, not wanting to trash it as soon as you have built it. Its been my justification for buying a few 'race bikes'.

better to race the ones with plastic tanks

[Marc.com]

Yeah I know what you are saying about plastics, I have Vintage Suzuki RM500 ones that suck. It is NOS  all the way on the 370 and 500 now.

[oldyzman]

Yep i know what you maen about not wanting to race it, I have a rm250a in same condition but mine only has the std expansion chamber. too nice to get all dirty, mine only gets  ridden around a dry paddock occaisionally.
ODLYZMAN

[Marc.com]

yeah I have 83 TT600 for anything ugly, reliable old nail with pretty endless supply of spares.

I am hoping ot have the Fox RM370 finished soon, it will be mint and original Fox spec of Thor swing arm, Simons forks, Fox shox.

[oldyzman]

You gunna race the fox?

[BAHNZY]

This is not a dig at the 370, in fact i think it looks fantastic. A guess that it has a CircleF system fitted.

When we was talking with Roger DeCoster late last year we talked specifically about the 370B and the 400C and why the 400C was perceived to be so bad at an international level (in standard form) and he more or less said that they took the 370, fitted longer suspension travel to it, called it a 400C and and completely screwed the geometry in the process. Whilst he diddnt come out and say as much, he tried to get the factory to lower the bike to get it to handle. In a weird way i kinda have to  agree as i have ridden the 370 and it corners well but the 400 needs a bit of coaxing. Interestingly just about every 370 that i have seen where extra suspension travel has been added the riders never seem to be happy about the handling.
Fact or Fiction i don't know but it made for an interesting discussion.

[Marc.com]

When we was talking with Roger DeCoster late last year we talked specifically about the 370B and the 400C and why the 400C was perceived to be so bad at an international level (in standard form)

yep but Roger was raised on short travel bikes. Seems to be a lot more 370s out there then 400Cs, maybe there is something in it, or maybe Suzuki offered almost the same bike once too often and lost a bit of ground.

[crabman]

Hi Gents
To anybody looking for original Suzuki oem parts try AMS Racing, I managed to get an original fuel tap, fuel cap and front number race board.
Really impressed with AMS racing after having a real shit experience with a local Californian dealer. Dave Boydstun has been great. He also got me a lot of good Honda spares.

[Marc.com]

cool, they have nice website and nice to hear some positive feedback. I bought some guards off DC plastics recently and they were really good as well.