Motorcycle Makers: Suzuki

A History of the Company's Origins and Current Motorcycle Line-Up

Jul 30, 2007

Suzuki Motor Company's long history began in silk and weaving looms. The company evolved over the years into their current line-up of world-class motorcycles and autos.

Early Success for Suzuki

Suzuki started out its long history with silky smooth success as the Suzuki Loom Works in 1909 in Japan’s booming silk industry. Suzuki committed itself right from the beginning to making better products that were easier to use. For almost 3 decades, Michio Suzuki thrived in the lucrative looming business. He filed scores of patents over the decades, and had even designed an innovative type of weaving loom.

Suzuki worked hard and achieved much success, but he soon realized that he would have to expand if he wanted to continue to prosper as he had in the past. After a lot of research, he quickly realized that the best thing to produce would be a small car, so in 1937 Suzuki started planning and produced several prototypes that featured liquid-cooled, 4-stroke engines.

Suzuki's FIrst Motorcycles

Another victim of war-torn Japan, Suzuki faced a looming threat of failure when it was essentially put out of business by the Japanese government as they deemed civilian cars to be an inessential commodity. After the war, Suzuki realized that Japanese people needed a cheap, reliable mode of transportation, so they started mounting engines to bicycles.

They began building complete motorcycles (motorized peddle bicycles) in 1952, and by 1954 they were building 6,000 a year. For the first 20-30 years they focused primarily on 2-stroke engines, the largest of which was the water-cooled triple GT750.

In 1976, Suzuki built the first 4-stroke engines in the GS400 and GS750's. In doing so, Suzuki established itself as a reputable manufacturer of sport motorcycles which were designed and built very well.

By about 1983, Suzuki had introduced the very first 4-wheeled all-terrain vehicle, the Quad-runner LT125. Shortly after that, they introduced the auto lineup to the United States with the Suzuki Samurai.

In an agreement between General Motors and Suzuki, Suzuki was allowed to start selling a version of their Suzuki Cultus in United States, marketed as the Chevrolet Sprint. This model was initially sold as a 3-door hatchback and was Chevrolet's smallest model at the time.

Current Suzuki Motorcycle Models

With their American headquarters in Brea, California, Suzuki’s current line-up includes a wide variety of motor vehicles including autos, marine engines and others, in addition to the motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles listed above. Deemed a "motor" company, they do motors well.

The copyright of the article Motorcycle Makers: Suzuki in Motorcycles/Off-Road is owned by Matt Finley. Permission to republish Motorcycle Makers: Suzuki in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.