![]() ![]() The Suzuki is effortless to ride as it steers quickly and predictably holds its line even when the basic suspension gets a little unsettled in a bumpy corner –although the rear suspension gets a bit harsh when the pavement is not good. We averaged 28 km/l on our two and half day trip and pretty much the same around town. From a fuel economy perspective it is positively frugal. The motor, once broken in, has enough power to run on highways two-up, with a top end of about 130 km/h, if you give it some time and lay on the tank. The cable clutch pull is light and the five-speed gearbox is Suzuki-slick. The seat, the riding position, the controls are all simply and ergonomically placed. I was beginning to see why the little Suzuki has developed a sizeable following. Harris had claimed the Wolf for the day and that left me comfortably in the saddle of the TU. Tate on his BMW about two hours behind schedule… Classic CMG again. This, plus a good dose of Editor ‘arris morning chaos, meant that we connected with Mr. It was a late start the next morning due to a highly entertaining late night with the Adlers in Prince Edward County. Day 2 – My Day With The TU Percy Adler (AKA Scooter Man) previews his work-in-progress Mad Bastard ride. And I was half expecting to use my auto club card to transport the Wolf back to Toronto when it blew up, but despite a good thrashing that didn’t happen. In fact, both bikes pleasantly surprised us the TU with its wide comfy seat and larger capacity made for a fairly effortless ride on the back roads that we had chosen. Okay, we knew we were pushing these bikes beyond the city driving and short commuting that they were designed for, but they managed the first night’s thrashings just fine. ![]() It didn’t take long before the Airhawk was called upon for ass-saving duty. We could feel the engine’s vibes though, via our feet and hands but they weren’t really a big deal, although they were enough to cause one of the bar end weights to walk right out of the Wolf handlebars on day three. Given enough time, we could get about 110kph out of it. Having said that, for a 150cc bike the Wolf is surprisingly peppy and pulls strongly with a pleasing exhaust note. The TU, with 65% more capacity, outguns the Wolf and is significantly less vibey. Logging a few miles on the bike to aid the break-in was likely helping free things up as well. We also discovered that the Wolf was likely running slightly rich on the main jet as, when the evening temperatures dropped, the Wolf actually got a bit livelier. The Airhawk totally transformed the bike and made it easy to ride for the duration of the next two full days. It only took about 45 minutes each in the saddle of the Wolf before the white flag was waved and my ass-saving Airhawk seat was installed. Both bikes came sans any real mileage, so this was pretty much their breaking-in period…. Once out of the city, it was basically wide-open throttle for the Wolf, with the TU spinning at the higher end of its rev range as well. You can even give the kick-start a whirl if you’re feeling old-schooly. When warm, a quick push of the happy button will fire it to life without fuss. The Wolf required a bit of a pull on its gauge-pack-mounted choke knob to fire it to life. Remember those?īoth bikes fired up easily, the TU especially so with its seamless fuel injection. The plan was to make it to Rancho Adler, home to Scooterman (were we supposed to give away his lair?…) Yep, that’s a choke knob between the gauges. With a tight schedule, we hopped on the bikes and and prepared for the ride to Prince Edward County for the night. It’s kind of like putting a featherweight up against an experienced lightweight, but them’s the breaks and besides, it’s a very CMG type of fight to have. ![]() Not having previously tested the Wolf and in the small capacity spirit of the Mad Bastard Rally, we thought we’d give it a go. Below we have the Sym Wolf 150 at $3,199 – a chunky $2,100 less than the TU250X. But which one?Ībove the TU250X stands the venerable Royal Enfield Bullet at double the capacity and an additional $1,600 for their base model. The final scouting run of the 2013 Mad Bastard Rally route offered Editor ‘arris and myself the opportunity to run my Suzuki TU250X long term tester along side a comparable retro model. ![]()
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