Suzuki autos leaving U.S. Market

[kamal]

I think the M109R has a pretty loyal following too.

There's Nothing that I like about cruisers... NOTHING! But, that M109R is nice to look at. That thing looks like its flying just sitting there parked.

Have to admit I had never heard of this model - or seen one. Inquiring minds need to know - so I looked it up. While reading the specs, I came across this gem:

'Massive 112mm bore and 90.5mm stroke utilizing huge 112mm forged aluminum alloy pistons with short skirts, and cut away sides riding on chrome moly steel connecting rods.'

Amazing that the bore is 'massive', but the same size pistons are only 'huge'.

Al.

 

[sickchilly]

Suzuki just didn't have a clue, particularly in the American market, what to do with their automotive business. So this doesn't surprise me at all. But I do like a few of their bikes. Particularly the V-Stroms, although I still don't know why they don't offer ABS on the 1000. I rode a 2009 Boulevard M50 SE for a while and now the wife rides it. It's the best middleweight cruiser on the market as far as I'm concerned with fuel injection, four valve heads, shaft drive, water cooling. It's dead nuts reliable and very easy to ride. Has oodles of style and we get compliments on it everywhere. My only wish is that it had better brakes, but they're pretty standard for the class.

 

[yamafitter]

My local Yamaha / Suzuki dealer was just mentioning that Suzuki needs to do an upgrade to the V-Strom line. The V-Stroms were doing well in the Adventure Bike / Dual Sport market when they first came out but without any upgrades they are now being left behind. There were a number of former V-Strom 1000 owners customers from this shop that are now riding Super-Teneres. I know it is a small sampling of the market but Suzuki seems to be falling way behind the others. Yamaha has a very successful snowmobile line of products that keeps my dealer busy through the cold months and we all know of Honda's success with cars. Suzuki just never seemed to be able to branch out in North America and appears to be in serious trouble.

On a side note all the Japanese manufacturers have dropped direct support of any off-road racing teams in Canada this year. Any support will be at dealer level only which is seriously going to hurt the National Motocross Series in Canada. This may also kill off the Canadian Cross-Country Race Series also which was just starting to get some support.