SUZUKI CELEBRATES 50 YEARS OF RMs: THE WRAP

MotoFactory · 19 октября, 2024

The guys at Suzuki just had a celebration commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first RM. Chris Wheeler got on the phone and called everyone who was important in the development of the RM line, and got an impressive turnout at Perris Raceway last week. Brad Lackey, Greg Albertyn, Danny LaPorte, Buddy Antunez, Damon Huffman, Tim Ferry and a long list of riders from the glory days of the RM came out, as well as key figures like Hide Sasaki, who started off as Joel Robert’s mechanic in the ‘70s and progressed to be the head of the RM development program.

Carson Brown on the 2025 RM-Z250.

To commemorate 50 years of RM motocross bikes, Suzuki has upscaled its RM Army Edition program. With the purchase of a new 2025 RM-Z250 or RM-Z450, riders can select from five different graphics kits, each representing an era of RM history. Each purchase also includes the Pro Circuit RM Army Edition T-6 full system exhaust. There are graphics kits that pay tribute to the RMs of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and 2000s as well as a current one.

Suzuki had a large number of classic bikes from private collections on hand, The TM125 in front was a perfectly restored 1973 model.

The first RM was the 1975 ½ RM125. It was based largely on the existing TM125, which had been in production since 1973. That first RM did have cantilever shocks, though, and that became the signature feature of the ones that followed. The first all-new RMs came out in 1976–three of them. The 125, 250 and 370 were all big hits. The next big event in RM timeline was 1981, when they got single-shock suspension. That year, the 125 also got liquid-cooling and was far ahead of anything else in the class. The 250 got liquid-cooling in 1982 and it, too, was regarded as being far more advanced than any other production bike of the time. Suzuki had a bit of a slump in the mid-’80s, but virtually every other year, there was a yellow bike in contention in all the shootouts. The Open bike was discontinued after 1984. The RM250 and RM125 lasted until 2007. The RM85 remains in production today.

Jared Hicks on our 2025 RM-Z450 test bike. Our bike had the ’80s graphics.

The graphics packages all look great, but the one that was hands down the best representation of its period was the ‘90s version. That was in the middle of the splash-graphics era in motocross. Suzuki had Throttle Jockey come up with a very brave and accurate rendition of a time that most riders of that age would like to forget. Suzuki is embracing it.

Our RM-Z250 has the current RM-Army graphics.

As for the bikes themselves, they are once again mechanically unchanged. We brought out Carson Brown and Jared Hicks as our test riders, and they reported no surprises. The RMZ450 is still a bike that’s easy to love. It handles well, has smooth, easy-to-use power and is fun to ride. It’s also somewhat affordable at $9299. What holds it back? Everyone expects the lack of electric start to be the big hang-up, but frankly, no one really cares about that. The real issue is that the rear suspension is difficult to set up. It feels stiff and stink-bug like. The good news is that it’s been that way for years and everyone knows how to fix it. As for the 250, it has a bigger issue. It gives away considerable power to virtually every other bike in the class. Once again, everyone knows how to make it faster, but it can be expensive, and the bike isn’t that cheap to start with, at $8199. Handling is still excellent.