For those who have been riding dirt bikes for the last umpteen years, I'm sure we fondly remember Suzuki's first big bore bike, the Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone. It had an ugodly ferocious hit somewhere in the mid-range that varied! It was believed that the powerband was dependent upon engine temperature, jetting configurations, daily PEI ignition performance variations and the alignment of the planets with undiscovered galaxies. This adventuresome engine performance was lodged in a frame that lacked any well considered engineering thought. Supporting this mechanical wonder of Outer Mongolian Engineering were shocks and forks that moved up and down only as a side feature. For the most part, the shocks vertical stroking action did nothing for suspension performance. They only moved this way because they were supposed to. The Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone was, at best, a horrible bike to ride. Racing the thing was courting serious injury, or suicide, at best. In 1971, Suzuki hired Rich Thorwaldson to go out in the desert and win the Number One District 37 Plate for them on the all new TM-400 Suzuki Cyclone. After one very quick ride, Rich came back, face white with fear, and told Suzuki to build a bike that worked! It was either that, or Rich wouldn't race. Suzuki set out to make a whole new TM 400. First, the frame was ditched and a new frame was designed and constructed. This, along with the following, made what is known today as probably the best ever Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone.
All the fasteners were light and small as they could be. A beautiful skid plate was fabricated from thin - but tough - aluminum alloy. A Vesco fat/skinny plastic tank supplied enough fuel for desert pit stops.
With no gas in the tank, the factory TM-400 desert bike weighs under 200 pounds. The result: an incredibly performing machine! A couple of strong boots thrown through the entire kickstart arc gets the unusual 400cc mill barking. The cylinder has no engine exhaust port power valve and no reed valve between the carb and engine intake port. Don't think for a minute this detracts from the bike engine performance. The '72 factory TM 400 engine pulls from the very lowest RPM it can muster, to the upper mid-range RPM's. Beyond that, its power production starts to dwindle, but not alarmingly so. The engine power is exceptionally smooth! There are no weird power spots or powerband hits. Also, the bike has so much low end grunt, its almost impossible to stall. Putting this bike marvelously easy power to the ground are special Works Performance shocks and rebuilt damper rod type forks. The suspension travel is not long, as this machine was built 26 years ago. However, the suspension responds very well to all terrain thrown at it. One cannot call the suspension "plush", since there isn't enough travel to make it plush. But, in most every situation, the forks and shocks perform well, delivering a very predictable and comfortable ride. The suspension's only downfall is its inherit design for this era: short wheel travel. The bike will bottom easily when landing from big jumps, or when nailing the basin between two short hills at speed. The re-designed Cylclone's handling is an absolute delight to experience! The machine doesn't wiggle funny at speed, it carves corners succinctly and is very predictable in every riding situation. Its light weight makes the machine that much easier to ride for long time periods. The re-worked frame geometry, combined with quality, and well balanced, suspension components, offers a riding experience that's even hard for a few of today's bike to match! Today, Rich Thorwaldson's '72 Suzuki TM 400 factory racer is relegated to vintage class racing and trail riding. Its trail capabilities are superb! This author finds it rather astonishing that so much performance can be garnered from an off-road motorcycle design that is so dirt simple. There are no funky "power valves", reed blocks, water-cooling, micro-chip adjusted ignitions, or mondo adjustable suspension components. As it stands, the factory TM 400 is an outstanding performing machine that can keep up with a modern day 250cc motocrosser in many non-motocross riding situations! Perhaps it's time someone takes a look back at this design and crank out some equipment like this on a production basis. After riding this bike, I found there is a lot of truth in the statement that "the best pleasures in life are the simple pleasures". And Rich Thorwaldson's 1972 Suzuki TM 400 Cyclone is just that! A very simple pleasure.
Many thanks to Rick "Super Hunky" Sieman for his time and effort to bring this machine out for Off-Road.com to ride! Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/OffRoadDotCom
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