The B120 was a mistake. I mean, I should've known better - would you buy a bike that rumbled like a conveyor belt and leaked badly enough to impress Royal Enfield owners? The first ride was strange, I kept trying to change up for second and got nowhere. It wasn't until I accidentally rammed the gear lever down that I realised the change wasn't the same as most Japs. The exhaust noise drowned out the rumble which I put down to the chain.
It sort of purred along without the strained or screaming noise most strokers made. I was soon smitten by the bike. It was comfy, too, with an adequate seat and a funny looking set of high bars that made you sit up. £80 wasn't bad for a taxed and tested machine, I thought. It looked deplorable but I assured everyone that it went better than it looked!
Other owners of B120s shouldn't be insulted when I say this one was a heap. The rear light stopped working, the brake light switch fell apart, the white sidepanels looked like chequered flags with all the black tape that held them together. It leaked oil worse than any British bike, and kept cutting out mysteriously and then the clutch gave out after two weeks. It smoked like a steam train until it warmed up, so much so that it was often dangerous to ride behind the bike. It wouldn't pull more than an indicated 50mph and the blinkers only did so when they felt like it.
But despite all the hassle it still kept going and provided a good laugh every so often. A favourite run, which was always treated as a race, was the road down to the Isle of Grain, past Strood in Kent. The Grain Road was a fast A road with lots of sweeping bends. It was flat, though, so you could see a long way ahead and it became our personal race track.
One time the B120 actually overtook a CB125T and CB125RS, achieving speeds over 70mph. When we came to a halt after our Grand Prix, I noticed that the baffle had fallen out of the Suzuki's silencer, thus explaining the remarkable turn of speed. Soon after, a chain and sprocket set was bunged on (£26), the originals having been left to decay inside the full chain enclosure.
The thing was in a sorry state and after dark riding soon became dangerous with no back light and a headlamp so decrepid that it was on par with a bedside candle. This, as you can imagine, quickly became a pain and, so, a determined effort was made to sort out the electrics. The battery was badly cracked and conained about four millilitres of acid. The main fuse was a corroded mess. The brake light suddenly decided to work whilst the tail light refused to glow even dimly.
So, the B120 was very noisy with no lights to speak of. But still it kept going much to the annoyance of the neighbours. A baffleless B120 going up the quiet close at half past six in the morning did nothing for good neigbourly relations....even a new battery and fuse failed to secure proper electrics. I eventually found the rectifier inside the pressed steel frame where it had been sprayed by battery acid, the result a corroded lead. One new rectifier later and the electrics were transformed. The headlamp was brighter, the indicators actually blinked and the tail light worked.
It was very cheap to run, it didn't seem to wear things like brake shoes or tyres. The gearbox oil never needed changing as it all leaked out, it was topped up after each long run. There were 30,000 miles on the clock and it showed it. The engine had probably never had a decoke, which might explain the alarming petrol consumption - never better than 40mpg, instead of the 100mpg quoted in the Used Guide. Parts were never difficult to buy, which surprised me as they stopped making them in '77, although they are rare in breakers.
Apart from the clutch and electrics, which were simply worn out, the bike was reliable enough to depend on. The cutting out was stopped by cleaning out the fuel line. Sometimes the clutch refused to work altogether until it suddenly grabbed on - once the result was a wild wheelie with the bike swinging about on the rear wheel; control was only regained after the machine was directed into a nearby hedge!
After that, the bike was paddled forward and hit into gear when starting off. Careful control of the throttle was required to avoid either a stalled motor or frightening wheelie. This was rather trying in the Maidstone rush hour. £25 to a bike shop solved the problem, but only after the bike had been taken back three times!
After a couple of months, and one occasion when the bike was wringed up to 80mph, it started to refuse to pull in top gear and it was possible to get more speed in third. The nagging fear that the crankshaft oil seals had given up began to intrude. It would no longer struggle up steep hills and could be burned off by a Bantam. Top speed was soon down to 30mph. It was quite sad to see the little B120 run into the ground without mercy....I gave the heap to my 16 yearold brother to see if he can fix it before he's allowed to ride on the road.
Martin Salman