This might be of interest to some people.

Robot says --Perfect — let’s map out a clear timeline of your T250 Suzuki’s journey so you’ve got something polished to share on the Norton Access Forum. I’ll blend the technical details with the racing story so it reads like both a record and a tribute.
Timeline of the T250 Suzuki Race Bike
1977 – The Build
• You built the T250 Suzuki with unique engineering touches:
• Inverted rear shock mounts on opposite sides → more suspension travel, superior cornering.
• Methanol fuelled for higher performance.
• Computer‑calculated porting tables (ahead of its time) → crankshaft degrees converted to piston distance from TDC, giving port timings similar to a four‑stroke’s valve timing.
• Entered one race, won it outright.
• Sold to Ian Whitehead of the Hartwell Motorcycle Club for $800.
1977–2002 – The Legacy
• The bike passed through multiple owners within the Hartwell Club and beyond.
• Over its career, it accumulated:
• 28 race wins
• 4 historic championships
• Riders may have changed, but the engineering DNA you built into it kept it competitive for decades.
2002 – The Encounter
• You met the bike again while racing your Seeley Commando 850.
• In a slow corner, after passing it, you ran wide — but still beat it.
• The victory wasn’t easy, showing how sharp the T250 remained even 25 years later.
Today
• The bike is believed to be with Don Brisbane in Shepparton.
• It stands as a rare example of a machine that outlived its builder’s direct involvement, proving itself across generations of riders.
What This Story Shows
• Engineering foresight: blending geometry tweaks, methanol fueling, and computer‑driven porting in the 1970s.
• Racing philosophy: you valued challenge over easy wins, preferring bikes that made you work.
• Legacy: one machine, many riders, decades of victories — a living piece of Australian racing history.



2003

acotrel said:

Robot says --Perfect — let’s map out a clear timeline of your T250 Suzuki’s journey so you’ve got something polished to share on the Norton Access Forum. I’ll blend the technical details with the racing story so it reads like both a record and a tribute.

Timeline of the T250 Suzuki Race Bike
1977 – The Build
• You built the T250 Suzuki with unique engineering touches:
• Inverted rear shock mounts on opposite sides → more suspension travel, superior cornering.
• Methanol fuelled for higher performance.
• Computer‑calculated porting tables (ahead of its time) → crankshaft degrees converted to piston distance from TDC, giving port timings similar to a four‑stroke’s valve timing.
• Entered one race, won it outright.
• Sold to Ian Whitehead of the Hartwell Motorcycle Club for $800.
1977–2002 – The Legacy
• The bike passed through multiple owners within the Hartwell Club and beyond.
• Over its career, it accumulated:
• 28 race wins
• 4 historic championships
• Riders may have changed, but the engineering DNA you built into it kept it competitive for decades.
2002 – The Encounter
• You met the bike again while racing your Seeley Commando 850.
• In a slow corner, after passing it, you ran wide — but still beat it.
• The victory wasn’t easy, showing how sharp the T250 remained even 25 years later.
Today
• The bike is believed to be with Don Brisbane in Shepparton.
• It stands as a rare example of a machine that outlived its builder’s direct involvement, proving itself across generations of riders.

What This Story Shows
• Engineering foresight: blending geometry tweaks, methanol fueling, and computer‑driven porting in the 1970s.
• Racing philosophy: you valued challenge over easy wins, preferring bikes that made you work.
• Legacy: one machine, many riders, decades of victories — a living piece of Australian racing history.

Alan-1975 hosted at ImgBB

Image Alan-1975 hosted on ImgBB

ibb.co

2003

Winton-20031 hosted at ImgBB

Image Winton-20031 hosted on ImgBB

ibb.co

Click to expand...

WOT?!?!

A 2-stroke with drum brakes? It must have chucked you back into the pits as soon as the green flag dropped?!?!

"Robot says --Perfect — let’s map out a clear timeline of your T250 Suzuki’s journey so you’ve got something polished to share on the Norton Access Forum. I’ll blend the technical details with the racing story so it reads like both a record and a tribute."


Gee whiz, this explains A LOT!!

I thought racing wasn't about the bike, but about the rider. Kidding I know it takes both

What the heck kind of computer where you using in 1975 for the porting.

The PDP11 was around from 1970.

Schwany said:

I thought racing wasn't about the bike, but about the rider. Kidding I know it takes both

What the heck kind of computer where you using in 1975 for the porting.

Click to expand...

It was a Digital Equipment PDP8L minicomputer. It was the reason I took that job with the bad boss instead of the job with the good boss and no computer. Both jobs had direct reading emission spectrometers. The one with the computer was bought to analyse steel - the other one was used for analysing brass, and was less interesting. I actually refitted a laboratory which was upstairs, and installed the spectrometer and computer. My off-sider and I rewrote the high level computer language, and I wrote all of the chemical analysis user programmes. It was pretty funny - one day after ten years, my boss asked to see how I did a chemical analysis, so I showed him. I pressed one button - complete anaysis of 13 elements in a steel sample in 24 seconds, and very precise and accurate. He stood there looking stunned and said 'I know what I do not want to know' and fled. However, he came back later and thanked me. We were making 105mm gun barrels, and we were actually successful in achieving the required properties. My boss had signed all the purchase requisitions for equipment. In the 1970s, a memory expansion from 4K to 8K cost $5000.
For that two stroke motor, I developed the maths to convert crank rotation to piston distance from TDC and put the equation into a programme with the high level language and got the computer to print a table. With most high level languages degrees are expressed as radians, so we always divide by 57.296 in the programmes. None of it is really rocket science - DEC Focal language is almost English. Most of the chemical analysis programmes involved creating by numbers using matrix algebra. I just borrowed a book from Material Research Laboratories to get the method - the equation is the same for every graph - a power series of Y=X. It sounds difficult, but it is actually easy. When I got my next job leading laboratories in an explosive factory, I was actually bored, but some of that stuff was actually rocket science. I have done three lovely things in my life. I have fired a 5 inch naval gun, fired a big rocket motor, and tested hand grenades by exploding them.
You guys all fix motorcycles, I could probably teach any one of you to do what I did.
After I retired, I brought an engineering company through to ISO9000 certification - you might like my manual. - You might find it to be empowering. It is able to be downloaded.

hybridracer said:

The PDP11 was around from 1970.

Click to expand...

Alrighty.

I was thinking it might have been some sort of VAX or Zilog thing or a PONG game.

I think my Apple Watch has more computing power.

It is amazing what can be done with only 8K of memory. If I had thought about what I was going to do before I did it, I would probably never have done it. I always just followed my interests. It is like those guys who are hesitant to rebuild their motors - a lot of things are never as difficult as they might appear. A kid who goes to university gets a piece of paper which does not mean much. I started at the bottom and studied part-time at night school and on day release while working. Some Tradies are shit-stirrers - I am much worse. I know the system backwards and forwards. I really enjoyed working - some people never do. We are all a long time dead. Some people are more money-motivated than others - I never worried about that - if I needed money, I would find a way to get paid. I would never make money out of motorcycles or music. One of my brothers is deluded - he plays harp in a German orchestra. Versatility is probably more important than specialisation.

You guys are probably all much younger than I am. Never create your own stumbling blocks - mindset is very important. Thinking something is impossible often creates a self-fulfilling prophesy. When you road race a motorcycle, it pays to look ahead and see where you are going. I did not plan my career, I followed my interests. In a road race - opportunities are often not predictable, when you are in the middle of the field.