1999 Suzuki Street Magic 50

Every so often a manufacturer builds something that makes very little commercial sense and it turns out to be brilliant. The Suzuki Street Magic is one of those. Nobody asked for a fifty that looked like a shrunken supermoto, and Suzuki built one anyway. We take these on whenever we can find a decent one, because people who know what they are looking at tend to move quickly. Look at what you are actually getting here. Upside down forks at the front. A proper alloy trellis frame you can see through. A single rear shock with a yellow spring. Alloy wheels, a disc up front, a stubby upswept silencer, and a riding position that puts you over the front of the bike rather than perched on top of it. On a fifty. In 1999. Most fifties at the time were plastic scooters with a wheel at each end and a shopping hook in the middle. That is the trick of it. The Street Magic rides like a small motorcycle rather than a moped. The chassis is genuinely good, the geometry is sharp, and because it weighs almost nothing you can throw it around in a way that is enormously good fun without ever going particularly fast. It teaches you more about cornering than most bikes three times the size. This one wears the burnt orange and grey combination, which is the colour these are best known in, and it has held up well. The Magic decal on the tank cover is still there, the frame paint is tidy and the alloy has not gone dull the way they often do. Some of the highlights: Two stroke fifty, twist and go automatic Upside down front forks Alloy trellis frame Monoshock rear suspension Front disc brake Alloy wheels front and rear Upswept stainless silencer Original burnt orange and grey finish 8,154 km showing Practically speaking it does everything a fifty needs to do. It is cheap to run, easy to park, and it will get you across town faster than anything on four wheels. The difference is that you will actually enjoy the trip, which is not something you can say about most learner machines. These have quietly become collectible. They were never sold in huge numbers here, a lot of them got ridden into the ground by sixteen year olds, and the survivors are increasingly sought after by people who remember wanting one at the time. If that is you, come down and have a look at it before somebody else does.