The rear tyre is fine in the dry except for the distinct tendency to track along the linnes of the road, but then once the wet weather arrives..... I had two unnerving slides under very mild low speed braking in the wet, and felt very wary from then on. On the race track the T500 has proved itself over and over, once given the advantage of a good set of tyres and damping.
The front mudguard is solid and works well, keeping much of the water from the rider instead of ading it in it's progress onto the riders knees as is done so successfully by certain other makes. The headlight at one time might have been reguarded as excellent but the presence of 12V equipement on even Italian machines has now deprived the Suzuki of any distinction in this quarter. The main beam was adequate for the job, and the dip suffered from a strange pattern that did not seem to be very sensibile. The handlebar controls for the lighting where very neat and easy to use, and the well lit ans well marked tachometer and speedometer are equally well designed. The handlebars are high wide and ugly.

They are rubber mountet in a vain attempt to hold vibration at bay, and to rub in the hopeless attitude of the designers even the handlebar mirrors have rubber isolation in the stem to make the mirrors usable. The depressed engineer who decided to go to these lengtht might take some heart from the fact that both handlebar and mirror isolation work well over a considerable range of rpm, and it is hardly possible to carp when the vibration only gets through outside the normal crusing range of rpm.
The tank looks a lot bigger than it is and, in spite of the great improvement in fuel consumption over the Cobra tested about six years ago, the 2.8 gallons that went in only produced between 38 & 42 mpg in mixed town and country use. The crusing speed of an indicated 85 on motorways for 30 miles at a time required full throttle and was in fact the top speed under these conditions on many occassions, although once an indicated 95 - 100 crept up under favourable conditions. The overall performance was closely similar to the old Yamaha 350cc R5 model up to 80 mph, and rather worse than the 380 Suzuki subsequently. Two up the T500 would hold an indicated 80 with little if any to come, translating to about 75 real mph. Not too different to any other 500 or good 350, really, and probably a bit more economical than any 350 could manage at that sort of speed. On reflection, 80 two up sounds so slow: the degree or exaggeration of modern "speedometers" is such that one hears complaints that 350's won't hold 80 two up on wide handlebars.......... which, when converted into straight bars and a solo rider, equates to around 100mph in general for bikes of a 350c.cc. styleof torque.

The Suzuki shows its strength here, and really eats up the distance into wind and two-up. With the wind behind, the Suzuki was flogged up to an indicated 90-93 mph and the attendant vibrations were so severe that the passenger lost her grip on a sweater that she was carrying when shifting around to try to escape the toothgrinding tingle. Let the Suzuki drop back down to about 60 and it is mild and smooth enough for comfort. The rate of oil consumption is remarkably low: the level barely shifted over several hundred miles. The Suzuki positive feed system is much more efficient in its use of lubricant than the Yamaha or Kawasaki variants. The oil pump assemblage is fitted to the top at the rear of the crankcases, and the feed pipes can be seen twisting their way to the crankshaft bearings.
The gearbox has five speeds and a very nice action. Switching from a BMW to the Suzuke gave it a pretty easy mark to beat, but the comparison with a Yamaha RD250 gearbox placed the Suzuki firmly as a good gearbox by the standards a few years ago.