ON THE BOULEVARD
Suzuki’s C50 Cruiser
Story and Photos by Neale Bayly

Sipping coffee on the sun-baked Main Street sidewalk in Leadville, Colorado, I am enjoying the superb Victorian architecture while chatting with a fellow scribe about the gold and silver mining that was responsible for this fascinating mountain town. I am heading up over Independence Pass en route to Aspen for a lunch stop.
With no clouds in the deep blue sky, and a shiny new Suzuki C50 Boulevard at my disposal for the day, how I am going to convince anyone I don’t have the greatest job in the world?
Twenty minutes later, turning onto Highway 82, and starting the climb up to the incredibly picturesque Twin Lakes, I say a quiet thank you to the gods of motorcycling for this day.
A fellow daytripper by the name of Dave has joined me. A Holistic Doctor from Steamboat Springs, he is riding a Honda Valkyrie and, as we are heading in the same direction, we decide to ride a ways together.
Beneath me, the Suzuki C50’s 800 cc V-twin is running like an energetic young pup and certainly isn’t panting in the rarefied air. At over two miles high it has to be pretty thin, but thanks to the new fuel-injection system derived from Suzuki’s GSXR sport bike range, all is happy in the combustion chamber. With my ride starting at over 10,000 feet, I am not noticing any appreciable loss of power as we approach the 12,093-foot summit, and am very impressed with the way the mid-sized twin is pulling.

Interview

SMALL WONDERS
Interview and photos by Anne Van Beveren

Size matters. But to motorcycle collector Michael Berg, bigger ain’t better.
Berg is a person who firmly believes that nice things come in small packages. In Berg’s case the packages are 50 cc, 80 cc or 100 cc small. They are also old, two-stroke and hail from Japan.
Berg collects classic small-bore Suzukis and, despite the small-bore label, Berg and his bikes are anything but. Boring, that is.
Berg’s favorite among his collection of 14 bikes was also his first—a Candy Apple red Suzuki AS50 that first hit the streets in 1968. Back then the bike was known as the Maverick and its light weight and tiny frame, coupled with an engine that put out an astounding… (wait for it)… four horsepower when it rolled out of the factory, made it about par for the course in its day.
But Suzuki wasn’t content with being any-thing remotely resembling par. No, Siree. Average wasn’t good enough, so the company came out with a race kit for its AS50. The kit consisted of a cylinder, a head and a pipe. Slap that on your AS50 and, miraculously, it more than doubled the horsepower. The mild Suzuki AS50 baby bike turned wild, and came to life with no less than 10 horsepower just raring to go.
Berg discovered one of those kits in the back room of an almost out-of-business Suzuki shop round about 1990. It was in a dusty package that dated back to 1971. It was easy to tell how old it was because the original UPS label from 1971 was still emblazoned across the top.

Ask the Sergeant:

Dear Sarge:

I have been a little slow on my reading but, in the March, 2005 issue of Free 2 Wheel, you said that (you can be cited under) California Vehicle Code Section 21461 for “Failure to obey a lawful sign.” According to my Vehicle Code book of 2005 (Unabridged California Edition by LawTech Publishing), and also from talking to CHP in Fresno, in CVC section 21461A it says (you can be cited if you) fail to obey a Sign or Signal Defined as Regulatory. In the DMV handbook 2005, it shows Regulatory signs as being White and Black (e.g., speed limit) or White, Black and Red. The other signs (Green and White) are guide signs (e.g., freeway off ramps), and Yellow and Black signs are warning signs (e.g., recommended corner speeds).
My question is this. If you were on the freeway in the number four lane and it has the large broken white lines (End of Lane Markings) and a Green and White, or Yellow and Black sign, saying “Exit Only”—and if you stay in that lane it will let you back on the freeway with-out taking an off ramp—is it legal to re-enter the freeway and by-pass stopped traffic as long as it’s done in a safe manner? I can’t find a Vehicle Code Section for this. I don’t think you can write 21461A, because I don’t think it’s a Regulatory Sign. I don’t think 21664 will work either. What VC Section would be used to write this one?
My second question is, is it legal to pass on the right? California Vehicle Code Section 21754 says that there has to be sufficient room for two or more vehicles in the direction of travel, but it does not say car, semi truck or motorcycle. CVC Section 670 says a vehicle is a device in which a person or property may be propelled, but it can’t be 100 percent human powered or used on stationary tracks or rails.
Third question: What do you call the solid white line? The Fog Line?
Fourth (and last) question: Is it legal to cut through a gas station instead of going around the corner, if you do it in a safe manner and yield the right of way to pedestrian and all other traffic, bearing in mind that the gas station is private property?
Thanks Sergeant Mike, and Free 2 Wheel editors, for doing such a nice magazine.

Denis Kerechuk,

Alhambra

To answer all four of your questions in my allotted space is going to require me to abbreviate my responses somewhat but I believe I can still give you fairly accurate information…

Sorry! You’ll have to pick up a magazine to read this rather lengthy answer. We don’t have enough room to do it here.

Project bike story:

DOUBLE TAKE
Photos courtesy of Bob Orabona

Tell me something; if you own a pair of twins, does that make you the owner of a four?
What if one of those twins is a 10 like Bo Derek was and the other is about a 4? Do you then have a 14? How about if the 10 is an ’81, and the other one is a 1980? And what if the ’81 is a 94-point bike in a concours? Confusing, huh?
The twins in question are Yamaha XS650’s, and Bob Orabona has actually owned four of them. In 30 years of riding. Let’s see: 30 years divided by four twins… oh never mind.
Orabona, who lives in Gardena, started his on-again/off-again affair with the twins way back in the 1980’s. He was working as a motorcycle messenger for a travel agency back then and he ran into the first of his XS650’s when he was replacing the company’s worn-out courier bike.
“The bikes had been around for years,” said Orabona. “Yamaha started manufacturing them in 1969 and kept going until about 1983. I had always known about them but I wasn’t too impressed. They weren’t a particularly spectacular seller for Yamaha or a great performer. It was just a solid bike. I happened upon a 1978 650 twin and, kind of on a lark, I went and looked at it. I figured it would be a great messenger bike.”
Back in the early ‘80’s, most of the “larger” Japanese bikes had four cylinders, and, while power is good, four cylinders aren’t the way to go when you’re dashing through traffic with airline tickets in your backpack.
“On a messenger bike, you want to be able to lane split to get through traffic,” Orabona explained. “On a four-cylinder, the weight and balance are different. They are not as agile or nimble, or they weren’t back then, but the twin had certain attributes, like the width and the power band. Having stumbled upon this thing as a fluke I decided it would make a pretty good messenger bike, so I went back to the owner of the travel agency and said I would like to buy it for her.”

Way2go

WHAT A CLASSIC
Hanford, CA
Story and Photos by J.P. Daly

What’s 37 years old and getting in better shape all the time? Sounds interesting, huh? What if I told you that this 37-year-old in increasingly good shape has lots of motorcycles to show off, including some very special classic and antique models? Things you just don’t see every day. How about if I told you that you have an open invitation to visit, every year?
You’ll have to ride to get there, but that’s part of the fun. So jump on board your favorite two-wheeled transportation and head to Hanford, California, for the soon-to-be-38-year-old Hanford Classic Motorcycle Show and Swap Meet, which just keeps getting better and better every year.
For those who have never had the pleasure, Hanford is a town of 41,686 bucolic souls. It is also the county seat of Kings County and is located 40 miles due south of Fresno. There are numerous scenic, motorcycling ways to get there. From Southern California, head out of the megalopolis as though you had just viewed Kurt Russell’s Escape from L.A., and understood the need. Luckily for us in the pre-Armageddon period, the superslab is still working. So choose your nearest to connect with I-5 for the route inland, or U.S. 101 to ride via Ventura and the coast. Do not despair! The superslab drone will not be anywhere near your sole method of escape; you are only using it to access motorcycling ecstacy!
If you head up 101 and the ocean view route, you will enter San Buenaventura (or just plain Ventura for you non-converted Californianos). There, at the northernmost exit, you will carefully keep to the right on the freeway and take the Ojai, State Route 33 exit.
The first double handful of miles off the superslab is trafficky but winds through orchards into the charming community of Ojai. Mark it for future visits because there are a couple of motorcycle-specific museums there.