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Home >> Suzuki Motorcycle
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Only At MotorHelmets.com
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Suzuki
is a leading manufacturer of motorcycles,
powersports vehicles and watercraft vehicles. They
are a leading maker of sport bikes, off road
motocross bikes and touring bikes that compete with
Harley Davidson.
Suzuki was established in Japan over 80 years ago in
1920. Suzuki owned Suzuki Loom Works and was
re-organized into Suzuki Loom Manufacturing Company,
capitalized at Yen 500,000 with only one goal in
mind: to build better, user friendly weaving looms.
Michio Suzuki is elected president. Suzuki's sole
focus was to produce textile looms that would
surpass the innovation and quality of other
competitors.
In 1952 Suzuki created the motorized bicycle. It
featured a 36CC two-stroke engine with a double
sprocket gear system. I guess the motorized bicycle
never really caught on, as motor assisted bikes are
still considered to be a novelty today.
Suzuki today is a world multi-national company
making motor vehicles water craft vehicles, and
automobiles.
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Suzuki Motor Corporation |
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Suzuki Motor Corporation (Suzuki Kabushikigaisha) is a Japanese multinational corporation that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles, a full range of motorcycles, All-Terrain Vehicles (ATVs), outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines. Suzuki is the 12th largest automobile manufacturer in the world, employs over 45,000 people, has 35 main production facilities in 23 countries and 133 distributors in 192 countries. |
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History |
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In
1909, Michio Suzuki founded the Suzuki Loom Company
in the small seacoast village of Hamamatsu, Japan.
Business boomed as Suzuki built weaving looms for
Japan's giant silk industry. Suzuki's only desire
was to build better, more user-friendly looms. In
1929, Michio Suzuki invented a new type of weaving
machine, which was exported overseas. Suzuki filed
as many as 120 patents and utility model rights. For
the first 30 years of the company's existence, its
focus was on the development and production of these
exceptionally complex machines.
Despite the success of his looms, Suzuki realized
his company had to diversify and he began to look at
other products. Based on consumer demand, he decided
that building a small car would be the most
practical new venture. The project began in 1937,
and within two years Suzuki had completed several
compact prototype cars. These first Suzuki motor
vehicles were powered by a then-innovative,
liquid-cooled, four-stroke, four-cylinder engine. It
featured a cast aluminum crankcase and gearbox and
generated 13 horsepower from a displacement of less
than 800cc.
With the onset of World War II, production plans for
Suzuki's new vehicles were halted when the
government declared civilian passenger cars a
"non-essential commodity." At the conclusion of the
war, Suzuki went back to producing looms. Loom
production was given a boost when the U.S.
government approved the shipping of cotton to Japan.
Suzuki's fortunes brightened as orders began to
increase from domestic textile manufacturers. But
the joy was short-lived as the cotton market
collapsed in 1951.
Faced with this colossal challenge, Suzuki's
thoughts went back to motor vehicles. After the war,
the Japanese had a great need for affordable,
reliable personal transportation. A number of firms
began offering "clip-on" gas-powered engines that
could be attached to the typical bicycle. Suzuki's
first two-wheel ingenuity came in the form of a
motorized bicycle called, the "Power Free." Designed
to be inexpensive and simple to build and maintain,
the 1952 Power Free featured a 36cc 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, Suzuki scored the first of countless racing
victories when the tiny 60cc "Diamond Free" won its
class in the Mount Fuji Hill Climb.
By 1954, Suzuki was producing 6,000 motorcycles per
month and had officially changed its name to Suzuki
Motor Co., Ltd. Following the success of its first
motorcycles, Suzuki created an even more successful
automobile: the 1955 Suzulight. Suzuki showcased its
penchant for innovation from the beginning. The
Suzulight included front-wheel drive, four-wheel
independent suspension and rack-and-pinion steering
-- features common on cars half a century later.
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