08/08/2026
Rathmells Suzuki….putting it all together.
A quick recap. We have a pile of genuine works Suzuki parts, a complete donor bike with a bit of history and a mission to end up with one of Malcolm Rathmells factory bikes.
As mentioned in previous parts of this story, Malcolm had 3 bikes he used during the 1978 season. The final variation was given to John Reynolds, who rode it in one trial, before handing it back to Beamish’s to get rid of the right hand gear change and left foot brake set up. What he rode in the next event was effectively a new bike utilising some of the trick parts from Malcolm’s bike.
The frame we had bought from Steve Pitt, was from his second bike that had been ridden in the SSDT, what parts of that bike had been passed onto the third version…,nobody knows. Steve had been invited by the Beamish family a few years ago to clear out a storage unit containing the left over supply of works parts from Nick Beamish’s workshop. The frame, magnesium crank cases, works cylinder, magnesium front brake plate, number plates and the SSDT tank had originated from this stash. The low production numbers on the magnesium parts in particular the cases (only 6 sets) would suggest that they could of been fitted on Malcolm’s bike, but if not were period correct and identical to what would have been used.
So, step one build the motor.
The donor motor was split and a new con rod, fitted to the crank courtesy of former World 250 mx champion Neil Hudson. New bearings, seals and gaskets installed and the bottom end was back together. The nikasil lined barrel was in near perfect condition and a new piston kit from the collection of parts from Malcolm was fitted. At the moment, the ignition fitted was from the donor bike, the flywheel needed 5 mm skimmed off the back to clear some webbing in the mag cases. Clutch cover from Malcolm with the right foot gear change mechanism, fitted straight on, and the motor was as dropped straight into the frame. Well it would have done if we had the front engine mounts. The frame, we had heard from Mick Whitlock, was completely unique and different to his other 2 bikes. When we had the bike mocked up with the standard 325 motor, the plates would have needed spacers to line everything up. With the magnesium cases, no spacers required…..and after many hours of fabricating and 4 different versions and we got it all to fit perfectly. Next issue, the frame has no front mount for the sump guard. Couldn’t really see how it was mounted on any of the pics we had, and Mick couldn’t remember how it was fitted. So we designed the front engine mounts to extend down to the sump guard and tags welded to them to connect it.
Front pipe and middle silencer are the chrome version from Alan Wrights bike. We had various mid boxes and front pipes from Malcolm including a full aluminium version, but we couldn’t get any to fit together and then fit the frame. We will keep looking and hopefully find a correct front pipe or find a solution.
Next problem, cylinder head. The “works” one that came with our barrel was for a 250. The standard 325 head has a completely different stud layout to the “works” nikasil barrel. Trawling back through Facebook and I noticed a post from Lee Thornton that he had a magnesium 325 head, that luckily turned out to be correct for our bike.
Rear brake cable and pedal we had and fitted straight away. The works Kayaba billet forks from the donor bike and works alloy bodied Kayaba shocks from Malcolm were fitted, rear mudguard is a Gonelli as used in the SSDT. Hi rise Renthal Rathmell bend bars that we had left over from the Montesa builds were fitted, yellow gators are original Malcolm Smith, that were from Rathmells. We didn’t have a seat, and the one on Malcs bike was nothing like a standard unit. We ended up chopping down a MK3 base, fabricating some fittings, making a foam and manufacturing a cover…..about 4th time lucky and we have ended up with something pretty close to what was originally fitted.
Yes, it all fits, it runs and rides fine….but there’s a few cosmetic jobs that we need to do, so it’s all coming apart again to make it perfect. Stay tuned for the final version….
