Suzuki Motorcycles

About Suzuki

Suzuki Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Minami-ku, Hamamatsu, Japan, which specializes in manufacturing automobiles, four-wheel drive vehicles, motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines.

In 1909, Michio Suzuki (1887–1982) founded the Suzuki Loom Works in the small seacoast village of Hamamatsu, Japan. He was making looms, did some cars for a short time, faced cotton market collapse in 1951 and so he came to new products.

Suzuki's first two-wheel ingenuity came in the form a bicycle fitted with a motor called, the "Power Free." Designed to be inexpensive and simple to build and maintain, the 1952 Power Free featured a 36 cc, one horsepower, two-stroke engine. An unprecedented feature was the double-sprocket gear system, enabling the rider to either pedal with the engine assisting, pedal without engine assist, or simply disconnect the pedals and run on engine power alone. The system was so ingenious that the patent office of the new democratic government granted Suzuki a financial subsidy to continue research in motorcycle engineering, and so was born Suzuki Motor Corporation.

In 1953, The Diamond Free is introduced and features double-sprocket wheel mechanism and two-speed transmission. That year Suzuki scored the first of many racing victories when the tiny 60 cc "Diamond Free" won its class in the Mount Fuji Hill Climb.

By 1954, Suzuki had officially changed its name to Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd. S mark was adopted as corporate emblem in 1958.

In 1955 the Colleda COX debuts, a 125cc bike equipped with a steel frame. It features a 4-stroke OHV single-cylinder engine with three-speed transmission.

Using MZ’s technology (Ernst Degner defected to the west while racing for MZ in the Swedish Grand Prix, and he took knowledge of Walter Kaaden’s expansion chamber designs), Suzuki wins the newly created 50cc class in the World Championship. The company will win the class every year until ’67, and win the 125cc class twice in that period, too.

The T20 is released in 1965 (aka Super 6, X-6, Hustler). This two-stroke, street-going Twin is one of the fastest bikes in its class. The ‘6’ in its name(s) refers to its six-speed gearbox. The T500 ‘Titan’ (1968) is an air-cooled parallel-Twin two-stroke.

In 1971 the GT750 2-stroke surprises people with its three-cylinder liquid-cooled engine. In North America, it’s nicknamed the Water Buffalo; in the UK they call them Kettles. Also the TM400A motocrosser goes into production, a 396cc bike designed for 500cc motocross races.

With the GS750, Suzuki finally builds a 4-stroke, four-cylinder road bike in 1976.

The 779cc DR-BIG, dated by 1990, has the largest single-cylinder engine in living memory. The much-loved 16-valve, 1156cc air/oil-cooled Bandit 1200 appears on the scene in 1995.

In 1996 Suzuki calls the new GSX-R750 the ‘turning-point model’ thanks to its twin-spar frame instead of the older double-cradle frame. The engine is also redesigned and featured 3-piece crankcases, chrome-plated cylinders and a side-mount cam chain as well as Suzuki Ram Air Direct (SRAD) system.

Moto blog

Teaser: 2012 Japanese Literbike Shootout – Video

The last time we assembled the superbike offerings from the Big Four Japanese manufacturers to determine the alpha male model was 2009. The CBR won that confrontation, but a lot’s changed since then. For 2012 Honda revamped the CBR1000RR, Yamaha added traction control to the R1, the GSX-R1000 lost a muffler and last year Kawasaki introduced an all-new ZX-10R.

Wrist Surgery for Daytona-Winner Myers

Elena Myers has undergone surgery to repair a broken bone in her left wrist. The SuzukiScoopFans Suzuki GSX-R600 rider originally injured the wrist in a supermoto crash last year but the broken scaphoid bone was not diagnosed until just prior to the Daytona round where Myers picked up her second career AMA Supersport victory. “It bothered me here and there.

AMA Superbike: 2012 Daytona Results

Josh Hayes and Blake Young picked things up where they left off by trading wins at the 2012 season-opening AMA Superbike round at Daytona International Speedway. Reigning champion Hayes of Monster Energy Graves Yamaha took the first race handily, leading almost right from the start of the 15-lap race for the win. Yoshimura Suzuki’s Young, who finished second to Hayes in the 2011 AMA Superbike Championship, responded by taking the second race, but only by a slim 0.002-second margin.

AMA Sportbike: 2012 Daytona 200 Results

The 2012 Daytona 200 delivered another fairy-tale finish with underdog privateer Joey Pascarella and the Project 1 Atlanta team fending off a pack of three other racers to win by a slim 0.048 second margin. Competing in just his first Daytona 200, 19-year-old Pascarella from Victorville, Calif., held the lead for 41 out of 57 laps to finish first ahead of a last year’s winner Jason DiSalvo while Cameron Beaubier squeezed by 2010 Daytona Sportbike Champion Martin Cardenas in a photo-finish to take third. For the Project 1 Atlanta team, the win marked a dramatic turnaround from a let down in 2011.

AMA Supercross: 2012 Indianapolis Results

Six more rounds remain in the 2012 AMA Supercross season and the championship is more or less decided. The first third of the season was a thrilling four-man fight for the title. The middle of the season saw contenders drop like flies and now, what looked to be a dramatic battle for the title is shaping up to be a second consecutive AMA Supercross Championship for Ryan Villopoto.

Elena Myers First Woman to Win at Daytona

Elena Myers made history once again, winning the second of two AMA Supersport races at Daytona International Speedway. The win was Myers’ second professional AMA victory and gives her the distinction of being the first female racer to ever win a professional motorsports race at the famed Daytona circuit. The SuzukiScoopFans M4 Suzuki rider became the first woman to win an AMA race, taking an AMA Supersport race at Infineon Raceway in 2010.

Suzuki Hayabusa Hearse Breaks Triumph Rocket Hearse 2011 Guinness Speed Record [Video]

  As with most contests of speed, it’s only a matter of time before a record falls. In 2011 Rev. Ray Biddiss’ set a Guinness World Record aboard his Triumph Rocket with hearse sidecar for the fastest motorcycle hearse, with a record speed of 114mph.

Oh hi there Mobil!

There was a time when Grand Prix racing was a lucrative affair, with the bikes and their riders resembling the fag packets that sponsored them. However, two unfortunate and costly blows hit the paddock; the banning of tobacco advertising in 2005 followed by the global economic crisis. The off-shoot saw grid numbers drastically dwindle with staple teams, like Kenny Roberts' outfit, and manufacturers, Kawasaki and Suzuki, succumbing to the events and disappearing.

John Reynolds on the latest Gixers, BSB and Loose Women

When John Reynolds was pushing me hard in the late nineties for BSB titles he was always polite and would happily stop to chew the fat and talk about the weather. But that was the limit of our friendship as he never wanted to like rivals too much, just in case it affected his competitive edge. These days, he has no great desire to barge me off the track at Redgate or Cascades so when our paths cross we happily spend time sorting out the problems of the world.

AMA Supercross: 2012 Arlington Results

Defending champion Ryan Villopoto won his third consecutive AMA Supercross race in Arlington, Texas, but the victory was overshadowed by a season-ending injury suffered by one of his main challengers Chad Reed. TwoTwo Motorsport Honda‘s Reed trailed Villopoto in second place for the first six laps at Cowboys Stadium. Disaster struck on Lap 7 however as Reed crashed hard in the whoops.