Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone

[Arby]

I know you guys are mostly road riders, but did anyone, besides me, own this infamous bike.

My racing buddy and I both had one in the early '70s'.

I saw an ad for flywheel weights for late model dirt bikes the other day. The weights ranged from 4 oz to 8 oz.
For those who don't know, this smooths out the power and makes the bike easier to ride. For example, if you want to trail ride with an m/x bike.

On those TM 400s' the power was so brutal, the flywheel weights came in different lbs, not ozs'. I had a 2.5 pound flywheel weight, my buddy ran a four pound weight on his.

We loved those bikes, we were too dumb to know better ,I guess.

Now it just blows my mind to think that , #1) That it needed 3 or 4 POUNDS of extra flywheel weight to be rideable, but#2) that the crank and cases were strong enough to take the extra abuse.

I never knew how bad they were till I started riding CZ, Bultaco, & Montesa. (Altough, I had one of the first 250 yzs', and it was quite good.)

But, look where most of the Europeans are now, and where Suzuki and the other J models are.

And of course, the older I get, the faster I was on that TM 400.

Bob

[DarthRider]

Ah yes, a nice little stroll down Dirtbike Lane...those were all very cool bikes in their day and in their way. Don't forget Huskys & Pentons.
And Rokons, and Rickmans, and Ossas, and Maicos, and Monarchs, and Jawas, and Van Techs, and Greeves, and AJS, and BSAs, and Cottons, and DKWs, and, and, and...
I was there...where is my damn Ibuprophen?

Dave

[Dallara]

Ah, yes...

The truly infamous and dreaded Suzuki TM-400 Cyclone! For those of you unfamiliar with these denizens of doom here's a pic of a 1974 model...


http://www.suzukicycles.org/photos/1974/1974_TM400L_yellow_500.jpg


Looks innocent and benign enough, right?

Well, folks... Nothing could be further from the truth!

These bikes were perhaps the most evil and malevolent assemblages of metal and plastic ever conceived by man. They more resembled a loco horse that couldn't be broken than a competitive moto-cross bike.

Yet Suzuki biated and teased the buying public with ads like this:

http://www.suzukicycles.org/photos/TM/TM-series/1972_TM250-400_sales1_450.jpg

(and BTW, John DeSoto was a really neat guy. He's on the right in the ad above. One day I need to tell you guys about the first time I met John DeSoto...)

And this ad:

http://www.ozebook.com/compendium/suzi/mags/72tm400.jpg


Only thing was... Suzuki themselves wouldn't race a TM-400 "Cyclops". Not that they didn't try, giving Desoto and Rich Thorwaldson heavily modified TM-400's to try and race against everybody else, but that didn't last long and like to have killed Desoto and Thorwaldson both...

Funny, too... Because Suzuki's overseas pilots - like Roger DeCoster and Joel Robert - got the real Suzuki "works" bikes, like the RN71:


http://www.suzukicycles.org/photos/RH-RN-series/RN-series/RN71/1971_RN71_yellow_422.jpg



And RH71:


http://www.suzukicycles.org/photos/RH-RN-series/RH-series/RH71/1971_RH71_yellow_422.jpg


Oh sure, the TM-400 LOOKS a lot like the RH and RN "works" racers, but then a photograph of the Mona Lisa looks a lot like the real Mona Lisa. That's about as close as the TM-400 got to the RH/RN's...

How could they look so much alike yet be so different? Well, let's take a look...

Suzuki claimed the TM-400 weighed 230 lbs. (actual weight was a bit over 240), and of course it displaced nearly 400cc's (I think actual displacement was 399cc's).

The "works" bike equivalent - the RN71 - displaced 367cc's (hence why it was often called a 370) and weighed only 198 lbs!

The "works" RN's had real chrome-moly frames, whereas the TM-400's frame was made of something more resembling water pipe... that flexed and twisted so much that a TM-400 rarely went over the same section of terrain pointed the same way twice! TM's suspension was terrible, too. Sure, it looked the part, but that was about it.

And the engine... Incredibly powerful, but with those "pork-chop" crankshaft flywheel halves it behaved much like a light switch, revving unbelievably fast for an open-classer, but that only caused it to break traction and snap sideways at the slightest provocation from the throttle. But that's not all... Just the slightest amount of too much rear brake would lock the rear wheel and stall the beast... Hence the popularity of various sized add-on external flywheel weights!

But money on TM-400's wasn't just made on accessory flywheels... No, no, no!

Companies sold thicker head gaskets to cut compression. Fortunes were made on engine lowering kits where customers actually CUT all the downtubes of their frames and welded in sections to lower the engine in the frame cradle! Aftermarket frames from folks like C&J, Cheney, and the like along with even more manufacturers making longer, stronger swingarms... Ignition kits to try and tame the instanteous ignition advance curve... Kits with actually smaller carbuerators to cut power... A myriad of aftermarket pipes to try and calm the beast... The list goes on and on.

Yep, the vicious, cruel, evil, mean, and nasty TM-400 made over 40 HP!

But wait, aren't there 125's that make nearly that much now?

Guess the TM-400's chassis was that bad, after all, eh? :037:

Arby, I sympathize with ya', man! I never owned a TM-400, but I did race two of them on separate occasions (and one was even the original red/orange beastie...), and the thing's handling scared me far worse than the motor. CZ's would bound sideways down a rough straight but the front wheel always stayed pointed the proper direction... Husqvarna's had the often dreaded "Husky Hop" but if you simply drug a tiny bit of rear brake with the throttle still pinned they settled right down (and I won a bunch of races on Husky 400CR's). But the Suzuki TM-400 "Swapalone"... Oh, no... It bounced, bucked, hopped, swapped, and tank-slapped it's way down a whooped straight pointing every direction by the one intended... Barking and lurching forward in big bites of the light-flywheeled motor, looking all the more like a rodeo bull than a true MX'er.

Ah, yes... The memories!

And all of it was great, glorious, and tremendous FUN!

Cheers!

Allan (Dallara - NACD)

[Arby]

Allan

Thanks for the follow up and the posters.

I earned my points to move from novice to intermediate on my TM 400. My buddy rode his into the expert class. They were very reliable. Mine never broke. I think I welded the frame and rebuilt one gear box for my friend.

My buddies TM threw him off on a big downhill at Budds Creek in Southern MD. He was so far in the weeds no one knew he had crashed. I walked the track till I saw his bike at the bottom of the hill. Then I found him laying about 20 feet off the track.

This is the same Budds Creek where they hold the National m/x today. Plus they've held at least one GP there as well.

Thanks again for the follow up.

Bob

[Bake]

I worked in 1972 through 1975 at a bike shop in Kansas City. We had some great bikes come through that shop. We had Monarch 125's with blue frames, we had BSA 650 powered Rickman Metisse's, Honda 750 four powered Rickmans, and we had CZ's and Ossa's and Montesa trials bikes. We would trade for anything, just to have inventory. Guy brings in one of those TM400's, it had about 20 miles on it, scared him to death. We knew the rap on those TM's. Boss trades/sells the guy a nice 175 CZ enduro. Boss, being the joker he was, talks me into test riding the TM "to make sure it was alright." Bitch stood straight up on me the second I wicked it open and dumped the clutch. I rode it with my belly on the seat, totally rolled open throttle, front wheel 2 ft in the air clear across the parking lot, which was gravel, and hit a grass knoll at the end, about a block away. Huge cloud of dirt flew up, the TM landed relatively softly on the grass 15 feet away. I'm laying there gasping when they run up, the Boss, looking out the front door of the place, was laughing so hard he coughed coffee out his nose.

[Arby]

Bake

Your TM 400 needed the 4 lb flywheel too. :>).
Glad we survived them.

Bob

[vintagecycle]

Don't forget the nickname, "widow-maker"

Has anyone here ever read Rick Siemen's book, "Monkey-butt"?
A must read for anyone into the dirt bike scene of yore

[DJ Down Under]

My last dirt bike that I rode was the beast of all bikes, a KTM 550 two stroke motocrosser....now that was something to give the famous Suzuki a run for it's money.

DJ