Suzuki's Screaming Stroker

SUZUKI'S SCREAMING STROKER

ROUNDUP

LONG-SUFFERING FANS OF small-caliber sportbikes, avert thine eyes—here's something else you can't have.

Topside is the latest 250cc two-stroke to hit the streets, Suzuki's jewel-like, Japan/Euroonly RGV250, a motorcycle almost as important to Suzuki as the next-generation GSX-R750. Currently, the top bike in the quarter-liter repli-racer class is Aprilia's RS250, ironic because the Italian machine uses a motor supplied by—you guessed it—Suzuki. Unveiled alongside the GSX-R at the 31st-annual Tokyo Motor Show, the new RGV (projected price $8500) is Suzuki's bid to take back the title. Among its long list of mouth-watering features: • Newly designed, liquidcooled, 70-degree V-Twin with counterbalancer that puts out a claimed 70 horsepower in un restricted form (previous RGVs and the Aprilia use a 90-degree, 60-horse motor). • Ram-air intake system, a first for a production two-stroke (air

is drawn from a single intake in the fairing's left front). • Electric start. • Cassette-type six-speed transmission. • Dry clutch. • All-new aluminum-beam chassis with rear ride-height

adjustment. • Drop-nose fairing and race derived, two-stage-inclined windscreen for better air pene tration, less helmet-level turbu lence. So, will two-stroke road-rip pers like the RGV ever make an

appearance in the U.S.? At least one bike-maker offers a ray of hope. Honda's EXP-2 rally bike uses a clean-burning, fuel-in jected 400cc two-stroke, and insiders hint that a streetbike with such technology is a dis tinct possibility.