The donor bike came to us through a vintage RM/RMX collector, Gary. Despite his obvious passion for Suzuki’s back catalogue of motocross bikes, this particular one came to us in rather rough shape. On the plus side, it had already been lowered and had 19” flat tracker rims fitted. But an ill-fitting exhaust borrowed from its RM brethren was leaking, the wiring was a mess and the carbs were badly in need of a tune. Ever the optimists at Kelpi, we figured we’d have it all running smoothly again in no time.

And in fairness, things started off pretty well. With those fundamentals fixed up, we started to focus on the aesthetics. A new set of black plastics arrived from Europe which we paired with flat tracker front plate we’d designed up for a custom DR650 we’re working on (not pictured at Dust Hustle). Little did we know, the axle’s on the two bikes are identical, meaning our triple tree widths were also identical, so our headlight shroud would fit with minor adjustments, and a prototype print that wasn’t quite up to standard was repurposed for this build. A Honda XL175 fuel tank replaced the stock unit, giving the bike a retro stance. We raided the Kelpi parts catalogue, fitting some Blindsider mini indicators and Hindsight bar-end mirrors and finished it off with a one-off custom Kelpi seat in full-grain tan kangaroo leather.

But that’s where things took a dramatic twist. On the bike’s second shakedown, the crank seals failed in spectacular fashion while we were deep in the Glasshouse Mountains, north of Brisbane. Smoke was billowing out of the exhaust like there was no tomorrow and we knew right away that was the end of our ride for the day.

We threw the RMX onto the operating table at Skinny’s Garage to begin the teardown and diagnosis. While we had the engine apart, we threw in a fresh piston and entertained the idea of doing an RM head swap but decided to save that one for another day. Our focus was on getting this bike ready for the rapidly approaching Dust Hustle event. With residual oil still in the system from its earlier blowout, the bike spewed forth a steady stream of bluish smoke, but it was alive again.

With a few final carb tuning tweaks, we were ready to hit the track at Mick Doohan Raceway in north Brisbane. Our pilot, Jock, in typical Dust Hustle fashion, wore a kangaroo onesie in the spirit of the event (and a subtle nod to our seat leather’s origins). The race commentators mistakenly referred to him as ‘Pikachu’ as Jock was tearing around the 450m dirt track.

The RMX’s off-road heritage shone through. The donor bike weighed only 112kg dry and it’s gone through some significant weight reductions in its current trim. Two-stroke dirt bikes have a reputation for making you a better rider and this one is no exception. The wide bars, lowered chassis and dedicated flat track wheels and tyres make you feel like a hero, egging you on to go a little harder and a little faster on each subsequent lap. Jock kept biting off more and more until the tyres finally said no more and down he went. But with nothing more than a broken clutch lever, the RMX survived its maiden Dust Hustle and lives to ride another day.