1967 Suzuki X-6 Hustler
(Page 3 of 3)
January/February 2009
Doug Mitchel
The $25 Hustler
To look at Tom Sanecki, you have to wonder where his passion for the Suzuki X-6 stems from. He appears to be much too young to have been around when the machine made its premier offering, so what’s the catch?
In 1974, the story goes, Tom had a buddy who was moving away but owed him the princely sum of $25. To satisfy this debt, the friend offered Tom his 1967 X-6. A deal was made and Tom brought his new ride home. Although non-running, Tom soon had it going and it became his main transportation during his last two years of high school. After high school, he disassembled the bike to correct a problem with the shifting — and there it sat.
At some point, a girl Tom was dating suggested he get rid of the bike because, she said, “it will never run again.” Although Tom reassured her it would, she scoffed at the notion: The gauntlet had been thrown. Within two hours, Tom had the bike reassembled and running. The bike, we should note, is still around, but the girl is long gone. “I threw it together because she dissed me, and it’s still running to this day,” Tom adds.
Tom found the bike shown here on eBay. “It was just a parts bike, and it was rough,” Tom says. “It hadn’t run since 1977, the oil pump was seized, the clutch was locked up, it was junk.” That Tom works as a Lexus technician tells us he has higher than average mechanical ability, and that a build like this wouldn’t likely scare him.
Before beginning the actual restoration, he gathered most of the parts he needed and prepared them. Pulling together his shopping list of parts meant hours spent searching in faraway places like Singapore, Thailand and England. Adding more frustration to the process, many components for early Suzuki models have become scarce on a good day and almost impossible to find on the rest.
“When I was younger, I’d just go down to the Suzuki dealer and get what I needed. Now, it’s all unobtanium,” Tom says, adding he found the correct hand pump for the bike in Japan after exhausting U.S. sources. “NOS [new-old-stock] seats or seat covers are unavailable, and NOS grips are virtually unobtainable now,” Tom adds.
Thanks to his mechanical chops, the only things that Tom didn’t do himself were the paint, powder coating and chroming of parts. From rebuilding the crankshaft (Tom has his own press and the jig to line up the crankshaft) to lacing the wheels, Tom attended to every facet of the restoration to achieve the standard he sought. The end result is stunning, and worthy of any collection.
And Tom’s hardly done. Including the X-6 that kicked off his fascination with the model back in 1974, he’s got four more, including a 1966 with VIN No. 10702, making it the 702nd X-6 ever made. “That’s in the basement waiting to get done,” Tom says. “It has a chunk out of the case, but I’m gonna save it because it’s the lowest numbered one I’ve ever seen.” MC
RELATED CONTENT
As the last of Japan’s Big Four to introduce 4-stroke engine technology to its lineup, Suzuki clear...
The Bikers’ Classics is held each summer at the famed Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, in Belgium. Jun...
Classics will shine at the International Motorcycle Shows in California...
Mark Sept. 5-7, 2008, on your calendars now, because that’s when Motorcycle Classics presents the 3...
Ride with Motorcycle Classics as we explore California’s glorious North Coast and fabled gold count...
Page:
<< Previous 1 |
2 | 3 |