Suzuki leaving MotoGP...again?
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I know right? I expressed the same thought to my circle of riding buddies. Mir even stated he was all set to re-sign with Suzuki before he had the rug pulled out from under him.
hi, this is only my personal opinion but I don't believe Suzuki ever had a true commitment to racing they always seemed to do things the other way round from other manufacturers.
where Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati. and such did their development on race bikes. and then produced road bikes to mimic the race bikes. Suzuki tried to develop road bikes into racers. or that is the way it looked to me.
where Honda, Kawasaki, Ducati. and such did their development on race bikes. and then produced road bikes to mimic the race bikes. Suzuki tried to develop road bikes into racers. or that is the way it looked to me.
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Mmm….I don’t know about all that. I mean Suzuki were in the thick of it in the late 70s right through to the beginning of the 4 stroke era.
They had Sheene, Luchinelli, Uncini and Schwantz way back then….Seemed more like their road bikes were developed from lessons learned on the track with those machines. It just seemed to take longer for things to make it from the track to the street.
Let’s face it though, Suzuki is more well known for their GSXRs than anything else. With the 600s essentially no longer a racing class and the demise of them in the sales class Suzuki are really only making and selling GSXR 1000s and a handful of 750s every year.
They’re the only ones still selling a race replica 750. Unfortunately Suzuki doesn’t sell a great deal of anything else. Not like they did sports bikes. Yeah, they got a few other road bikes, adventure bikes and off road bikes but GSXRs were their bread & butter.
The articles I’ve read so far all points to financial considerations as the reasoning behind their decision to pull out of the Grand Prix circus. They could field a full in factory team in WSBK for fractions of what the MotoGP team costs them.
They have not had a presence in WSBK since the Corona Suzuki team folded up. I find it a great loss to MotoGP to lose Suzuki as they have thrown a different aspect in to races in the last few years.
Thing is, race on Sunday; sell on Monday hasn’t translated to sales success for them. Not recently anyway.
I for one wish them success and a speedy return to some form of international racing. Would be a shame to see the GSXR disappear entirely if Suzuki were to go under.
They had Sheene, Luchinelli, Uncini and Schwantz way back then….Seemed more like their road bikes were developed from lessons learned on the track with those machines. It just seemed to take longer for things to make it from the track to the street.
Let’s face it though, Suzuki is more well known for their GSXRs than anything else. With the 600s essentially no longer a racing class and the demise of them in the sales class Suzuki are really only making and selling GSXR 1000s and a handful of 750s every year.
They’re the only ones still selling a race replica 750. Unfortunately Suzuki doesn’t sell a great deal of anything else. Not like they did sports bikes. Yeah, they got a few other road bikes, adventure bikes and off road bikes but GSXRs were their bread & butter.
The articles I’ve read so far all points to financial considerations as the reasoning behind their decision to pull out of the Grand Prix circus. They could field a full in factory team in WSBK for fractions of what the MotoGP team costs them.
They have not had a presence in WSBK since the Corona Suzuki team folded up. I find it a great loss to MotoGP to lose Suzuki as they have thrown a different aspect in to races in the last few years.
Thing is, race on Sunday; sell on Monday hasn’t translated to sales success for them. Not recently anyway.
I for one wish them success and a speedy return to some form of international racing. Would be a shame to see the GSXR disappear entirely if Suzuki were to go under.
yeah I know and hear you but it's like think Suzuki think GSXR. that it mostly. the first concept could well have been on the track. but development stopped at that. buy one, race one virtually the same bike.
where as Honda Kawasaki Yamaha brought out models direct from the race track had it not been the success on the track, bikes like the CR1s, CBR, Fireblade, CBX, R1 R6 ZX10 and many others may not have been built and sold.
obviously when thinking of racing one thinks Honda. Honda only enter a motorsport with one goal winning everything. done it with bikes car racing and last year in F1 it's this mindset that is lacking at Suzuki.
where as Honda Kawasaki Yamaha brought out models direct from the race track had it not been the success on the track, bikes like the CR1s, CBR, Fireblade, CBX, R1 R6 ZX10 and many others may not have been built and sold.
obviously when thinking of racing one thinks Honda. Honda only enter a motorsport with one goal winning everything. done it with bikes car racing and last year in F1 it's this mindset that is lacking at Suzuki.
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This is just from what I’ve read but the 1st GSXR was built from lessons learned with Sheene’s title winning bike.
Sheene won the 500cc title in 76 & 77. The 1st GSXR hit the streets in 1985. If the article I read is historical fact (I have reason to believe otherwise) then the gestation period for that 1st GSXR was minimum 8 years.
Little changed technologically for a decade. Then the SRAD appeared in 1996. Supposedly based on lessons learned from the RGV500 raced by Kevin Schwantz. Kevin’s title year was 1993, so a minimum of 3 years gestation if that is to be believed.
It wasn’t until 2000 that the RGV won another title with Kenny Roberts Jr. 7 years later. The GSXR did not fundamentally change again until 2006 when it was fully revamped. No word on whether it was influenced by Kenny’s winning bike or not.
Troy Corser won a WSBK title aboard the Alstare Suzuki GSXR 1000 in 2005 but again no mention from Suzuki if that bike and the lessons learned from it translated to the 2006 revamp.
With all that in mind I think early on Suzuki used the lessons they learned on the race track and slowly worked the lessons into their GSXRs. That being the crux of the problem. Not much else benefitted from those lessons.
Honda and Yamaha both use technology they develop on the track in their street bikes. Not just one model of those bikes either.
Kawasaki…..somewhat in the same manner though not a broadly or as swiftly as Honda and Yamaha.
I also think after so much success with the GSXR there was less attention focused on other models. Suzuki kinda lost their way in that respect.
Once the GSXR bubble burst….there isn’t much left that excites riders to buy a lower spec bike. The SV650 is a great platform let down by low spec equipment.
A GSXR suspension & brakes upgrade would do wonders to move more of them. They could even offer it as an “R” spec or an “SC” Sport Competition model for club racers.
All I’m saying is, if Suzuki in fact worked backwards from what the other manufacturers do, there would be bikes like that already.
Sheene won the 500cc title in 76 & 77. The 1st GSXR hit the streets in 1985. If the article I read is historical fact (I have reason to believe otherwise) then the gestation period for that 1st GSXR was minimum 8 years.
Little changed technologically for a decade. Then the SRAD appeared in 1996. Supposedly based on lessons learned from the RGV500 raced by Kevin Schwantz. Kevin’s title year was 1993, so a minimum of 3 years gestation if that is to be believed.
It wasn’t until 2000 that the RGV won another title with Kenny Roberts Jr. 7 years later. The GSXR did not fundamentally change again until 2006 when it was fully revamped. No word on whether it was influenced by Kenny’s winning bike or not.
Troy Corser won a WSBK title aboard the Alstare Suzuki GSXR 1000 in 2005 but again no mention from Suzuki if that bike and the lessons learned from it translated to the 2006 revamp.
With all that in mind I think early on Suzuki used the lessons they learned on the race track and slowly worked the lessons into their GSXRs. That being the crux of the problem. Not much else benefitted from those lessons.
Honda and Yamaha both use technology they develop on the track in their street bikes. Not just one model of those bikes either.
Kawasaki…..somewhat in the same manner though not a broadly or as swiftly as Honda and Yamaha.
I also think after so much success with the GSXR there was less attention focused on other models. Suzuki kinda lost their way in that respect.
Once the GSXR bubble burst….there isn’t much left that excites riders to buy a lower spec bike. The SV650 is a great platform let down by low spec equipment.
A GSXR suspension & brakes upgrade would do wonders to move more of them. They could even offer it as an “R” spec or an “SC” Sport Competition model for club racers.
All I’m saying is, if Suzuki in fact worked backwards from what the other manufacturers do, there would be bikes like that already.
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