Nathan Colombi is the guy in charge of the Team Classic Suzuki workshop in Europe that restores and maintains some amazing motorcycles, some of which are still raced in classic race series. Others are simply championship-winning, or race-winning Suzuki motorcycles from the past, both two-stroke and four-stroke.
Here is a brief press release from Suzuki, followed by a link to a video tour of the Team Classic Suzuki workshop:
Team Suzuki Press Office – December 8. Team Classic Suzuki has released a video of its workshop facilities in an effort to bring fans their classic bike fix, in lieu of the regular shows and events that have fallen victim to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Join chief mechanic and resident expert Nathan Colombi for a guided tour around rare RGV250s, Kevin Schwantz and Kenny Roberts Jr’s RGV500s, World Superbike GSX-Rs, and Guy Martin’s 2012 GSX-R1000 superbike, plus get a look at the GSX-R750 SRAD being built for competition in 2021 onwards, and a new Katana project build.
Browse the shelves to see the collection of parts amassed over the years, from full-factory carbs and triple clamps to remanufactured footrests and a number of genuine Suzuki components still available on the Vintage Parts Programme, before seeing where the magic happens in the ‘engine room’.
To watch the video: CLICK HERE
Gotta like it. At least half of the bikes, and all of the really cool ones, are two strokes.
Just leave the shop door open a crack for me buddy.
Maybe the best job in the world. Thanks for sharing.
I worked 30 years as a line tech, (motorcycle multi line dealership service line technician), then spent another 20 years working for a company who built car racing engines. A dream job, a lot of my friends thought. Its not all cake and ice cream. For someone who thinks you just get to spend all day drooling at cool stuff, you never dreamed of, think again. Its a lot of hard work. And what you do has to be done without error. No mistakes. No, oh yeah, missed that. Or, right, wont do that again stuff. And peoples lives are at stake. Everything gets documented, there’s no just looking at it to decide if you can use a part, you keep track of everything, where it came from, how many miles it had previously, how many miles it new intention is and does it have enough life left in it to make that goal. Everything is cleaned, spotless. then you crack check it, using zyglo and magnaflux dye penetrent. clean it again. Then if its mileaged out, you tag it, possibly for later use when mileage limits change, or to build some lessor engine, a show bike or history engine. The pressure is immense. You watch the race on Sunday, there is a crash. Was it a mistake by the rider, or was there a problem with the engine? you don’t know, till much later, in the mean time your walking on pins and needles. Some cant handle the intensity of the pressure. Maybe the best job in the world, maybe. For the short time, in front of the camera, showing bits and bobs, then throwing them back in the parts box, but the real part came at the end when he says, “now get out of here so I can get to work”, that’s not the joke, that’s real. You dont get to giggle around with your friends.
Man, that RGV engine is one compact 192hp powerplant……..
With all the latest airflow modeling, plus perhaps particle filters and catalytics, I wonder if 2 strokes could now be made viable, if emissions regs were still decided on pragmatically, rather than simply tightened in lockstep with first world lobbying manufacturers’ ability to just barely meet them.
They can be made to run much cleaner, especially with direct injection. As long as they’re ported via cylinder wall they’ll still need to burn oil to facilitate cylinder lubrication. I don’t know how they’ll overcome that problem.
Ceramics. There was a project between Chrysler and an aerospace company for an ICE to power an airborne drone that required little or no lubrication fluids. The results were very good. The less you have, the less to blow. Old Country Proverb.
would you buy a used bike from this man?