Where are all the Suzukis???

K

kiwistasteyummy13

New member
Went on a group thing today for United Way and it was actually a lot more fun this year. I know why - we went a lot faster! Simple as that! I was able to race up through the gears and get some good spurts in so it was in direct contrast to last year's 78 km./hr. average.

Maybe twenty-five bikes went along and my Bandit was the only Suzuki! There were only three non-cruisers in the whole bunch with maybe half Harley-Davidsons and another big chunk Honda Shadows.

Suzuki has a ton of nice bikes in each segment and they are all pretty much priced well. Wonder what is going on?

Should mention the crowd is older and wealthy so maybe that explains the H-D's.

jim
 
I get some stares from my friends when I ride my Suzuki but I like it just fine. All who own bikes are HD riders. I will admit their bikes are prettier than mine and sound really neat, but you know mine gets me from point a to point b without a problem.

It is a 1983 GR650 Tempter. Name is a little on the silly side, but like I said fun bike. Especially for the first timer. I rode it for about 75 miles today leisurely ride.
td-bike.jpg

I just took it over 4200 miles. Original miles.

Stay safe friends,
Dan
 
While Suzuki sport bikes are very popular, Suzuki has only a 3% share of the cruiser market. Harley has an 80% market share, so at any cruiser-oriented event there will be a lot of HDs and very few Suzuki cruisers.
 
I think DrBob hit the nail on the head. While nice & without question reliable...the cruiser suzuki's don't seem to appeal to nearly as many as does the HD's.

It's probably all the marketing done for HD...because I know several HD riders...and they all love my M. I think if they knew about the M, before they spent 3 times what I did for an HD, there's a good chance they would have gone with the M.

Then the peer pressure would hit them square between the eyes...and they'd get the HD anyway. LOL...who knows.

One thing for sure...if not for the people on this site...I'd probably never see another Suzuki Cruiser.
 
Suzuki shoots themselves in the foot also. They make no effort to be on the leading edge of the cruiser market, so they always lag behind. The M109 is a tremendous bike, but it came out years behind the Honda VTX1800, Harley V-Rod, Yamaha Warrior, and Kawasaki Mean Streak. The C90T is a good bike, but the motor is smaller than competors and it lacks the hard bags and fairing of other make's touring offerings. The new "109" series cruisers, the current M109, next year's C109, and the forthcoming C109T, will address these shortcomings, but again, Suzuki is bringing them to market years later than the bikes they compete with. The S50 dates to 1993, and the S83 dates to 1986, except for the tranny which was redone in 1998, and most Suzuki dealers won't carry them because they know they will not sell. Only the C50 still competes well, being the top selling bike in its class.
Suzuki really pissed off their loyal customers with the gas tank recall also: my best friend has been riding Suzuki cruisers for 20 years, but they took over 6 months to repair his leaky gas tank, so he'll never buy another Suzuki.

The new designs are a good start. Rumor has it the obsolete but well-loved S50 and S83 will be replaced in 2008. This should help Suzuki's cruiser sales considerably...but they still need to work on their customer service.
 
I still think that image thing with H-D is a big part of it. A lot of the guys riding with me had those baby 883's! I mean, they didn't even fit on them! But they run out and buy them because of the H-D brainwashing. An M50 is twice the bike with more grunt and better looks and is way more reliable, yet they go for the Hardley!

At bike shows, each bike stands there on its own merit, but Harley has that fashion show going with models running around in H-D clothing, draped all over the bikes....I bet those models wouldn't know a cruiser from a sportbike! I have a good laugh over it.

jim
 
I have to laugh at my Harley riding friends who "bought into" the "Harley family".You have to admit, Harley does have a great marketing strategy. My friends do admit the C50C is a great looking bike that gets be from point A to B and has all I could need in a mid size cruiser, and it KILLS them how much less it costs. They all say I could handle a Harley" FAT BOY" but they push and push... the more they do, the less I like them(Harleys).
 
For three per cent of the market share, we sure have a lot of M50 and C50 riders here.

I'll tell you what, though. When I get 12 grand, I'm running out and buying that M109R.
 
Before becoming the multi-brand "Motorcycle Journal" about a year ago, this site was "The Suzuki Bikes Forums" for several years. Because of that there are still a disportionate number of Suzuki owners here compared to the other brands.
 
As nice as the HD's are I would never trade in or get rid of my Suzuki's. I havent been on street bikes for long but Suzuki has won me over I first started with a 1981 GS400L, not a bad bike. I now own 2 identical 1989 GSX600F Katana Limited Edition(with gold rims). I sleep beside one of them & the other I see outside as soon as I open my eyes. There a thing of beauty.
 
Sadly it happens across the range of bikes, cars, trucks, you name it. I was a pretty loyal to the tuning forks for a long time, but I felt Yamaha lagged behind in the cruiser designs. I think they've improved and I may one day again buy a yamaha...but...
 
Yup, not much in the HD line to excite riders who like sport bikes or sport tourers. But I gave up sport bikes back in the 1980s, so HD is right up my alley now. Every now and then I get the itch to buy a Kawasaki Concours though...
 
No thanks. The only thing a v-rod does well is accelerate. I want comfort, a smooth ride, good handling, and for that matter good looks; the v-rod is just fugly.
 
From a purely business standpoint, Suzuki is probably doing the smart thing. By releasing a few bikes across the spectrum of bike styles they have something to offer everyone. However, they spend most of their advertising dollar promoting the sport bikes. This is what they are known for. If they spent their advertising dollar evenly in all categories they would not have much of an impact. HD has made their name with customer service, customer loyalty, and focusing on a narrow market.

Also, in regards to HD I have been told by a friend, who has ridden more years than I have been alive, that when there is a bike show that the HD owners are the ones seen bringing their bikes across the country on a trailer while many of the other cruiser brands are ridden to the show by their owners - something I had not thought of before.
 
I'm not sure what, if any, advertising has to do with it. I am a certifiable bike fanatic nut so any and all bike stuff I see is drawn in immediately, sometimes even by osmosis! And I never ever see bike ads for Suzuki or anyone. Maybe it's different in the States but unless I am reading a biker magazine, there is nothing up here in Canada. Nothing on the airwaves, radio, internet or billboards...

I don't watch bike racing so maybe that is where Suzuki is spending all their bike advertising dollars?

It seems to me that a bike is introduced, we all read about how it does in the tests, we see one on the road or in a stealership, we talke to people who own one, and see what kind of deal is on it, then buy it if everything is to our liking.

So a bike is sold on its own merits (except for Harleys). If it's not selling, then it is lacking something. I don't think you can point a finger at advertising.

Who knows? That would be an interesting survey....

jim
 
Studies have repeatedly shown that there is a direct correlation between the amount of $$$ spent on ads and the number of vehicles sold.

Yes, Suzuki cruiser ads are lacking. There was a push when they changed the name to Boulevard, but Suzuki spends 90% of thier US motorcycle marketing dollars on sportbikes.

Suzuki, as a whole, has actually been spending most of their marketing $$$ on automobiles. They did a big push in Japan, where their auto sales more than doubled last year to nearly 2 million units. They increased sales of cars in Europe by 140%, and in India (where they built a new car factory) by 130%. Sales across SouthEast Asia totalled almost a million automobiles. Car sales in the US more than doubled also, where they sold nearly 200,000 cars. All told, automobiles accounted for 80% of Suzuki's total sales.

That makes motorcycles as a whole a sideline for Suzuki, as scooters, sportbikes, standards, ATVs, cruisers, and all other types put together account for only 20% of their sales.

Now, let's look at the motorcycles sales. The largest sales were in China, India, Japan and South East Asia. Most of those sales were bikes they don't even sell in the US, 50-250cc standards and scooters. The biggest focus of Suzuki's motorcycle marketing is India, and they are just starting a new factory in China to export small motorcycles to South America, Africa, and Asia, where they expect to sell about 13,000,000 motorcycles for 2007.
Compare that 13 million unit sales figure to the 15,000 cruisers Suzuki sold last year in the US. Compared to sportbikes, scooters, dirtbikes, and even ATVs, that is such a small drop in the bucket that the US cruiser market does not even rate a mention in Suzuki's 2004 or 2005 annual reports. Hell, Suzuki sold more boats and outboard motors last year than they did cruisers, and I didn't even know they made boats!

Yes, Suzuki builds a great bike, and some great cruisers. But they have to spend their marketing $$$ where they can have the biggest impact. And the US cruiser market isn't it.
 
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