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Old Glory Never Dies: Gaston Rahier's Suzuki DR Big at EICMA 2014

EICMA 2014 was indeed full with all sorts of new bikes, and even some which seemed to belong to the future. However, it looks like the “once a biker, always a biker” saying works for motorcycles, too, as we ran into several really interesting old models.
Gaston Rahier's Suzuki DR Big 26 photos
Photo: Catalin Garmacea
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This Suzuki may have been easily overlooked as we wandered through the halls of EICMA 2014 if it wasn’t for its fiery red livery. That would have been a terrible shame, because this old Suzuki belonged to one of the prominent figures in motocross and in the rally-raid motorcycle class of the Dakar and the Pharaons’ Rally. We’re talking about Gaston Rahier.

3-time world MX champion, 2 Dakar wins, 3 Pharaohs' Rally victories

Gaston Rahier was a Belgian motorcycle rider, born in 1947. He won the FIM Motocross World Championship three times in the 125cc class, in 1975, 1976 and 1977. After this successful streak, he went on to finish 2nd in 1978, 3rd in 1979, 9th in 1980 and 7th in 1981.

Many thought his riding career was over in 1982 after he suffered a severe crash which almost cost him an arm. Still, the world was to receive more from Rahier in the following years. Gaston Rahier not only recovered from his injury, but he decided to switch the racing line and go for the toughest rally-raid race of modern history, the Paris-Dakar.

His 1983 participation ended prematurely with a mechanical failure while he was leading. Still, the next year he clinched the title aboard a BMW R100GS and became the first non-French rider to win the Dakar rally. He repeated the feat in 1985.

Rahier also won the Pharaohs’ Rally in 1984 and 1985 for BMW and added a third victory with this Suzuki in 1988. He went at Suzuki after BMW refused to upgrade his bike because of the expenses such a move would require. There’s no better revenge than massive success, they say. Even though Rahier was not full with vengeance, seeing him win with Suzuki must have been a rather bitter pill for BMW to swallow.

In early 2005, Gaston Rahier, 58, would lose the fight with cancer but he is remembered as one of the iconic figures with a massive contribution to popularizing the rally sports. At the same time, his victories for BMW have also inspired a lot of riders and drawn them into the GS world. Running into his ’88 Pharaons’ Rally Suzuki DR Big at EICMA 2014 was a great chance to remember Gaston Rahier and his rich racing heritage.

The DR Big was the biggest single-cylinder production bike of the world until it was discontinued in 1999. The initial model was the DR750S Big, replaced in 1990 by the DR800S Big. The bike delivered an average of 50 horsepower in stock trim and 55-59 Nm (40-43 lb-ft) of torque.

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