Tested: 1994 - Suzuki Bravo

I had the opportunity to test brand new 1994 Suzuki Bravo in the middle 1994. The owner was one of my colleague (DS) that bought it new from the dealer. He asked me to test it because he was curious about the top speed of this motorbike.

On a beautiful weekend night, together with a group of my colleagues that used to do on the road motorbike test. At that time, i rode a Yamaha Champ that had been stock-tuned and could reach 140 km/h on the long road in Jakarta (Gatot Soebroto Rd). Yeah, is only a straight road between Palmerah and Kuningan intersection, with approximately 2.5 km in length with no traffic light. FYI, until now, we don't have any speed limit in our country, so it's legal to speed up to the max.

Then the time for me to test the bike was come. I checked the 2T oil level and put some of 2T oil directly to the gas, checked the tyres pressure. Finish with that small check routines, i was about ready to go.

I started the first gear and found out that this bike has similar peaky output to Suzuki Sprinter, which means this bike is reach the max output too fastfor the first gear. I did not push it too long and changed it to the second gear (up to 30 km/h ). I found out that the power (RPM) drop too much from the change from the first gear to the second gear. The second gear was pretty good, i could manage it up to 70 km/h. At the third gear, the power transfered smoothly and i could reach up to 100 km/h. At the top speed, i found out that the engine could do 120 km/h on half distance. The fact with this bike was it running too lean at the top speed and that's why i did not push it too much. My colleagues also did couple tests on this bike that night. We came with the conclussion of this bike:

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  The stock carburettor jetting might be not too be tuned for the top speed, it was running too lean at the top speed.
  
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  The engine itself was good performer, but the first gear was not build up for speed.
  
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  The Brake was amazingly worst compare to Yamaha's bike.
  
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  Stability is not that bad (up to 100 km/h).
  

My colleague was happy about the results, than he asked me what small modification could he do to improve the performance. I recommend him: Carburetor Jetting, Racing muffler, Disk Brake.

Two months after that test, he came back to me and showed me his bike. The bike had Suzuki Tornado GS muffler (still using the stock header), and it comes with the disk brake too. And he said he was happy with the bike after the modification. That modification made it run faster. I tested it back again in a short distance in Meruya, only about 600 metres straight road. That bike could reach up to 100 km/h in 500 metres, which signed a better power output and faster response. He told me that his jetting had been changed, he used #25 size for pilot jet, and many tests he had done, but the use of stock header made him accelerate better.

E-View: Suzuki RC 100, Sprinter and Bravo - Part 3

Specs of Suzuki RC100, Sprinter and Bravo

Extra pictures :

(will be updated soon)

E-View: Suzuki RC 100, Sprinter and Bravo - Part 2

There are three varieties of Suzuki RC100 using same design of frame and engine. They are:

• Suzuki RC100, the original version (1987-1994)
• Suzuki RC100 Sprinter (1989-1991)
• Suzuki Bravo, Facelifted. (1994-2002)

The original Suzuki RC100 was pretty similar to the Suzuki RC80, but the major difference is: RC100 using 4-speed transmission that gives better power output that could work on every road condition.

Suzuki RC100 was actually proposed to be a family bike and meant to be for city use, but in reality young generation really loves it. For that reason, Suzuki participated on many racing events in Sirkuit Ancol (Jakarta) with this bike (Late 80's). Suzuki RC100 did pretty well compared to the Yamaha Alfa at that time

Most of Indonesian racing teams realised that Suzuki RC100 has stability weaknesses on circuit track compared to Yamaha Alfa. By the late 80's, Suzuki released Suzuki Sprinter to solve the stability problem.

Suzuki Sprinter came with new front fork suspension that improves stability. This bike is the first underbone motorcycle that use a full length front suspension fork. The combination of RC100's speed and this type of suspension made Suzuki Sprinter beat Yamaha Alfa in most of racing events up to 1991. But soon as Yamaha Champ came out, Suzuki Sprinter struggled to be the winner because Yamaha Champ was using similar front fork suspension plus disk brake. When the era of 100cc 2-stroke racing was over, this bike still have place in the market, but not as a racing bike anymore. Believe it or not, Suzuki Sprinter history was ended as a reliable 'Pizza Delivery' bike in Jakarta.

Then Suzuki Bravo came out after the 100cc racing era was over. Suzuki Bravo was very similar to Suzuki RC100. Using same suspension, engine and frame as well.

The Suzuki RC100 engine's was still assembled in Indonesia up to year 2002, and had been using by two frame designs, which is Suzuki RC100's frame and Suzuki Tornado GX's frame.

The part 3 of this article will give you information about the specs.

E-View: Suzuki RC 100, Sprinter and Bravo - Part 1

Suzuki RC 100 was first released by Suzuki Indonesia in 1987 to replace its pioneer, Suzuki RC 80. This motorcycle was the first underbone motorcycle in Indonesia that had 100cc engine. It had similar design to Suzuki RC80. The frame, the body and the engine were still the same.

What makes it different compare to Suzuki RC80? As we can see from its name, RC100 means 100cc or 20cc bigger engine capacity than the 80cc one. The other improvement on this bike was 4-speed transmission which makes this motorcycle the first underbone in Indonesia that has 4 speed transmissions.

The other important features on Suzuki RC100 are:
• Suzuki JetCooled
• Suzuki PECS
• Suzuki CCI (Suzuki's 2T autolube system)
• Rectangular swing arm.

Suzuki had released many colors for this motorcycle. We could see red, black, and yellow as a common color for this bike.

Soon, the released of Suzuki RC100 then followed by the competitors that also manufactured 100cc motorbikes. Honda released Astrea Prima (4-stroke), Yamaha released Yamaha Alfa.

In its history, Suzuki RC100 has three different names, which are: Suzuki RC100, Suzuki Sprinter and Suzuki Bravo (we will discuss it on part 2). Suzuki realized that this motorcycle has the best power in its class, therefore Suzuki participated on many racing event in Indonesia. This bike was considered better than Yamaha Alfa on road race events.

Suzuki stopped the production of this motorcycle on 2002, but this motorcycle proved to Indonesian market that this bike was the most reliable two-stroke underbone motorcycle ever and of course the longest on market ever.

What made this motorcycle really famous back in the time?

• The engine's transmission has 4-Speed gearing and works very smooth, Suzuki applied PECS (Power Engagement Clutch System) that working very well.
• Has better power output compared to Yamaha Alfa, which was the only twostroke underbone motorcycle competitor at that time.
• Suzuki JetCooled had been applied to this motorcycle, which makes this motorcycle does not have overheating problems.The durability and reliability is among the best of twostroke motorcycle.
• Average stability compared to other underbone motorcycle at that time. Better than 4-stroke Honda, but not as good as Yamaha Alfa.

The negative sides:
• We could see that this bike 'drink' too much gas and 2T oil compare to the competitor.
• The braking system was also considered not good.
• Suzuki Genuine Parts (SGP) was considered expensive compare to the competitors at that time. (Not anymore for today, we could use IndoParts).

E-View: Suzuki RC 80

Suzuki RC 80 was first released by Suzuki Indonesia in 1984 to replace Suzuki FR-series.

This motorcycle was the first two-stroke underbone motorcycle in Indonesia that introduced Engine-forced cooling system (Suzuki JetCooled) and front telescopic fork system.

What made this motorcycle really famous back in the time?

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  The engine's transmission was very smooth, Suzuki applied PECS (Power Engagement Clutch System) that working very well.
  
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  Has better power output compare to Yamaha V80, which was the only twostroke underbone motorcycle competitor at that time.
  
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  Suzuki JetCooled had been applied to this motorcycle, which makes this motorcycle does not have overheating problems.The durability is among the best of twostroke motorcycle.
  
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  Better stability compare to other underbone motorcycle at that time. (Compare to Yamaha V80 and 4 stroke - Honda Astrea 800)
  

The negative side :

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  We could see that this bike 'drink' too much gas and  2T oil compare to the competitor.
  
  
  
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  The braking system was also considered not good.
  
  
  

This motorcycle was on the market only for three years, therefore if you can own one, it is a very rare item. Suzuki stopped the production of this motorcycle on 1987 and released a new model that has larger capacity, which is Suzuki RC100.

Note: I am still trying to collect more specific information for this motorcycle. If you could help me, please send me message through the comments.. I will update this page later on..  Thanks ..

Introduction : Two stroke bikes

Hello two stroke lovers,

Previously, I have moved and wrote from one blog site to others, but this time I think I am going to settle down on blogspot.com.

Here in my blog, I am going to write about two stroke motorcycles that had been released in my country (Indonesia). It has been my hobby to collect two stroke bikes and of course, work on it. This blog will include articles based on my experience.

In the past, I owned and experienced many of them, so most of my blog articles will be based on to the facts of those motorcycles. Some are good and some are bad, that also makes me want to write on how to improve the performance of this type of bike. Just like you guys, i search information from internet as well. most of my articles will also base on Internet research.

Believe me, I did not hate four stroke bike, but back in my school time era, two stroke bikes proved me that they are the best in performance. Once you tried it, you will never forget. Here is list of two stroke bikes I owned before:

Suzuki Crystal Tune, Yamaha Champ, Kawasaki AR 125, Suzuki RGR 150, Yamaha F1Z, Yamaha F1Z-SE, Yamaha F1ZR, Yamaha RZR, Yamaha RXZ, Yamaha RX-King, Yamaha RX-K, Honda NSR 150R, Suzuki Satria 120R, Yamaha YZ125.

Time has changes now, with our government rules that saying that we have to comply with Euro 2 emission standard, which makes these bikes disappeared from dealers. At the time I wrote this article, only Kawasaki is still producing this bike. And believe it or not, Indonesian people still loves two stroke bikes.

A little bit about me:

I am now a Master of IT student in overseas (if you know kangaroo, then you’ll think about this country), but soon I’ll be back to Jakarta (Ketoprak.. I miss you..). Since I still have couple of two stroke motorcycles, then I will work on it and show results to you guys on this blog. I also have experienced as racing bikes tester and workshop owner in Jakarta.

Please send me requests when you need me to write any article about two stroke motorcycles. But, please note that I am not really a good English writer. I will try to find information that will match your questions as best as I could.

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