My latest Classic Steel is a look back at Suzuki's all-new 1986 RM80.

Thanks Tony!  Always enjoy your work, especially on the mini stuff from back then.  I sat on this very bike at Ponca in 85 on my 12th birthday.  They unveiled the 86 bikes on move-in day, and Dean took me to see it under the big yellow tent that had all the new stuff on display.  In 89, when they added the power valve engine, we switched from green.  Fantastic Mini.  Thanks again Tony!

Always loved those blue engines on the 86-87 RMs

I talked to some of the now retired Suzuki engineers about the 86 RM80

The engineer who designed the engine for the mini was the same guy who designed the previous 500cc GP bike engines

Suzuki had quit their factory road race effort (sound familiar) and he didn't have "anything" to design so he designed the 86 RM80

I had a CR80 at the time, which was awesome, but I always wanted one these, so cool.