This Success Story comes to us from BaT member dapi56, who won his 1973 Suzuki TS250 from SeibelsClassics in an October 2023 BaT auction:

I’d been a BaT visitor for, oh, maybe a year and some change, and hoped to satiate my longing for a clean vintage enduro ride—perhaps even street capable, maybe even a big bore dual sport bike! Initially, success on BaT eluded me, and I ended up with a sweet (at first) ’80 Yamaha XT500 off a national sell-all site, only to find it was super temperamental. I sold it after being embarrassed on a group ride and charged with bad behavior. I came back to BaT looking, but again, I chanced upon an ’80s IT425 elsewhere, which I purchased out of Florida and spent a surprising amount of effort making “clean vintage.” Meanwhile, on BaT, I laid eyes on the cleanest Suzuki TS250 Savage—a 1973 edition. Resplendent in green with an orange tank stripe that it pulled off tastefully, this 4.8k-mile Suzuki treasure looked like it had been kept on display, with only brief rides taking place on back roads in good weather. I just had to have it! I endured some determined last-day competition for the TS, and I probably lost hair and years of my life in the process. But in the end I prevailed!

Excited at the prospect of returning to my trail and street roots, I arranged to pick the Suzuki up from its temporary home port while traveling through Pennsylvania en route to my Western New York home. The first picture here shows the bike as a passenger in the truck in Niagara Falls.

Once back home at the shop, I performed the usual maintenance—I lubed the cable, adjusted the chain, and changed the fluids as well as a few toasted light bulbs. The TS lineage is as popular as ever and the bike has continued to be a charmer, getting lots of compliments. Of course, being a 50-year-old bike means it can be gorgeous while showing its age. A bit heavy on the smoky side for an oil-injected engine, it was diagnosed with leaky crank seals. A teardown to refresh those will be in order, and hopefully not much else. In the meantime, this very worthy “green machine” is sharing a space with its stablemate, my other restored 250—an even rarer ’77 PE250 enduro. They get along well as I work to restore yet another ’70s vintage ride. Ya just can’t stop pure enjoyment!

Thanks to the BaT staff and the seller, SeibelsClassics, in Freeport, Pennsylvania. These great folks made the whole process very smooth!

If you have a Success Story about a car you’ve bought or sold on BaT, please send a few lines and pictures (or a video) to community.content@bringatrailer.com, and we’ll send you a $50 credit to the BaT Gear Store when your story posts to the site.

We also love to hear from satisfied BaT buyers and sellers, and a Success Story feature is a great addition to any car’s history when you’re ready to sell.