This is the full factory race bike that Stuart competed on from 1967 to 1970. Barry rode this bike in the 1971 125 World Championship and finished 2nd behind the legend that was Angel Nieto. This really put Barry on the map and earned him factory rides on the TR750. Barry and his dad, Franco, purchased this bike from Stuart Graham at the end of 1970 for £2,000.

This bike is one of the rarest Suzuki race bikes in the world! Its estimated that only two or three are left in the world, one of which is in the Japan factory. The picture is one that was taken back in Barry’s house in Australia where it took pride of place in his collection of race winning machines. Amazing to think of the 2-stroke technology that was around back in the 1960’s, Suzuki also had a full factory V4 125 2-stroke that was banned by the FIM back in 1968, so it was never raced in anger, what a shame!

There were three different types of gearboxes used in this machine: 8, 10 and 12-speed gearboxes. With such a tiny power band and the many different tracks, it was far better to have a mixture of engines with the different gearboxes. This one is using the engine with a 10-speed gear box.

Back then they changed a complete engine rather than just the gear box as you had to remove the engine to change it!