Suzuki T 500 Titan

So what changes had been made to the Cobra to convert it into the more appealing Titan? Some obvious changes were made to the appearance. The petrol tank was now a more pleasing shape, reminiscent of a familiar British design, as was the more conventional seat. Additionally, the front mudguard was much lighter and less valanced, the sidecover and oil tank were redesigned, the rear shocks were no longer shrouded and had exposed springs, American style cow-horn bars were introduced, new instruments and a passenger grab rail. Whilst the Cobra had the headlight cowl, instruments and rear shocks all colour co-ordinated, the Titan was very shiny with abundant chrome wherever possible.

The Titan was designed to bring the Suzuki 500 into the 70's, its styling was much flashier, leaner and more colourful. The Cobra had more in common with Suzuki's earlier mid 60's styling efforts with its bulbous, tall tank, complete with chrome side panels and knee rubbers, large sidecovers and studded seat.

Enginewise, the Titan was little changed externally; but gone for good were the Cobra's 10 finned barrels to be replaced by 11 finned barrels with altered porting and new stronger pistons with larger piston porting. Quieter running was possibly one benefit of the new pistons as the piston to cylinder liner tolerance was much closer in the new motors. One outcome of the new pistons was a spate of piston skirt failures when the standard pistons were used in a sporting mode, i.e. over-revving the motor for extended periods. This was easily solved by using the heavier, stronger GT 750 pistons whose engines had precisely the same bore and stroke dimensions as the 500.

The only other significant change to the motor was the dropping of the 34mm carburettors for 32mm Mikunis. There is no evident loss of power as a result and the intake howl is much the same; but, fuel consumption dropped markedly from 35mpg on the Cobra to around 50mpg on the Titan. Cruising at 65mph in the country it was possible to return 63mpg, which is not to bad on a loaded two stroke now is it?

Whilst the changes between the Cobra and the Titan were quite marked there was little change to the character and performance of the machine. Feel and handling had been improved by the use of a longer swingarm much earlier and the test riders of the time while unable to get overly excited about the handling commented favourably on the bikes open road stability.

This stability was enhanced by the standard fitting of a friction steering damper.