Founded: 1909
Suzuki founder: Michio Suzuki
Suzuki headquarters: Hamamatsu, Japan
Official website: www.globalsuzuki.com
The Suzuki company is a large industrial concern manufacturing more than two million motorcycles a year. Suzuki produces various classes of motorcycles: motor bicycles, scooters, road motorcycles, dual sport motorcycles, sport appliances, as well as four-wheel all-terrain motor vehicles.
Suzuki Logo Meaning and History
Suzuki Motor Co. Ltd. is one of the companies of the big quartet. It was founded more than 60 years ago in Japan as a manufacturer of looms. However, Suzuki is more known for its motorcycles. The company entered motorcycle market in June 1952 with its first development – a small motorcycle under the name of “Power Free.” It was equipped with the two-cycle engine of 36 cm³.
9 months later, “Power Free” got a gearbox with two speeds, its engine volume was increased to 60 cm³. That version was called “Diamond Free.” It was very simple and easy in service mcy.
By 1954, the Suzuki company produced its “real” motorcycle under the name of Colleda CO. After that, the company manufactured 6000 motorcycles a year and was transferred on larger and more powerful models. The mcy Colleda CO was light and had a one-cylinder four-cycle engine 90 cm³ of volume.
In June 1954, the company changed the name from Suzuki Jidosha Kogyo into Suzuki Motor Co., Ltd.
In March 1955, the mcy Suzuki Colleda COX, the largest and more modern in a style one with the one-cylinder four-cycle engine 125 cm³ of the volume was produced. Also, an updated version of popular two-cycle Colleda under the name of Colleda ST saw the light.
The forethought of the engineers of Suzuki was shown: in 1959, the last model of Colleda equipped with electric starters was produced. In 1957, the engineers of Suzuki designed a completely new motorcycle known as TT. It became a predecessor of motorcycles participating in Grand Prix.
In 1958, the company Suzuki Motor Co. Ltd had motorcycles with the engines 50, 125 and 250 cm³ of volume in its arsenal.
The moped Selped, the volume of the engine of which was increased to 80 cm³, was one of the company’s best-sold products.
By the end of 1962, the Suzuki company won its first world championship in the 500ss class and came to the US market, having opened its main representative office under the name of U.S. Suzuki Motor Corp.
The Suzuki company steadily progressed at road racing. Although the Suzuki motorcycles were very fast, it was difficult to drive them. The engineers of Suzuki returned behind their drawing boards. Thus, in 1966, the updated motorcycles appeared. They had a moderate success.
In October 1967, the company produced a highway motorcycle Titan with the engine of 500 cm³ of volume. During 11 years of this model production, its names changed from Cobra, Titan, and Charger to GT500.
In March 1969, the company launched the line TS.
The Suzuki company achieved the major success just with motorcycles with two-stroke engines. In 1969, a new plant was opened in Toyama, where the small capacity two-stroke engines were produced.
However, the motorcycle, which conquered the entire world was incredibly fast GT750 with a three-cylinder two-stroke engine, which could easily accelerate to 170 km/h. At the weight of 244 kg, its effective power of 67 liters/s allowed to accelerate to 100 km/h in just 5 seconds.
After the success of GT750, the Suzuki company announced the production of a completely new racing motorcycle with the four-cylinder two-stroke engine 500 cm³ of volume under the name of RG500.
In 1976, the Suzuki company took a bold decision, having introduced a line of four-cycle mcies. GS400 with 400 cm³ of volume and powerful GS750 of four cylinders with the engine volume of 750 cm³ became the first models.
In October 1978, the Suzuki company produced a powerful mcy GS850G with a driveline. And also the company introduced the world a completely new and stylish revolutionizing line of super motorcycles under the name of Katana.
In March 1982, the world saw a super motorcycle XN85 with the turbo engine 650 cm³ of volume.
At the beginning of the 90s, the Suzuki corporation turned at the crossroads; the company then multiplied. The strong contradictions overproduction of a medium weight motorcycle tore it in the headquarters. In 1992, the company introduced new mcies GSX-R600.
From 2000 to 2008, GSX-R1000 won the Championship of the American motorcycle sport association.
Now, many fans prefer the brand Suzuki in mcies.
Suzuki logo description
In October 1958, the Suzuki company represented its logo.
The company logo is a stylized letter “S.” Someone thinks that the type looks a Gothic one, but the Japanese are sure of the reverse one: the sign is similar to a hieroglyph from the kanji alphabet.