So with Ken Roczen recently stating that Suzuki is finally stepping back in, Japanese execs coming to Florida test tracks, etc.. Where did it all go wrong in the first place? I’ve heard it was the recent death of Osamu Suzuki that allowed them to pour interest back into racing. But before that, why’d they pull out of MXGP, MotoGP? If I remember correctly, correct me if I’m wrong, Ken Roczen’s current team had very little factory support, but now it sounds like they’re gaining that support in ‘26 and that’s why Anderson has been finalized? I wonder if they come out with a new RMZ450 and 250, and offer up factory support, if they could make a comeback in MXGP, that would definitely deem more difficult I think now that Ducati and Triumph have stepped in. Also heard a rumor they wanna come back to MotoGP in 2027, with the new 850cc rule and a new V4 engine. 
I'm not sure cost-cutting to save the company is "going wrong"...?
Corporations always work on a cyclical basis.
Not participating in top level racing is not “going wrong”.
Car and motorcycle manufacturers everywhere go in and out of elite racing series all the time. Unless you are a pure racing OEM it’s hard to justify the expenditure on racing and those cycles often coincide with leaders who are interested or passionate about racing.
Suzuki knows they have the fastest bike so they've just been waiting several years for the others manufacturers to catch up.
An ongoing conspiracy is that they lost a metric $hit ton of cash with RC and are afraid to invest in the sport again (not my thoughts on the matter but something I’ve heard throughout the years).
Imho, they make way more money on the other products they sell and don’t see a need to invest more R&D into a bike that not that many people will purchase.
The whole Suzuki thing really makes me scratch my head in that it makes me think how many bikes is every manufacturer actually selling each year and how we are even affording all of this? It must be enough to warrant every other manufacturer to invest in the R&D to produce a new bike every year but maybe ML or someone more close to the subject could break it down for us and possibly shed more light on where it went “wrong” for team yellow.
I could see a long form type write up from Matthes or whoever on this topic if it already doesn’t exist.
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Suzuki is a huge corporation and dirt bike sales are just a small part of that, I’m sure it’s all basic maths on a spreadsheet, they allocate an amount to the moto scene that is a percentage of sales..
It becomes chicken or egg where the cutbacks were due to falling sales, or falling sales due do the bike not being developed enough.
Maybe there is not enough money in the market for rnd.
Maybe outboard motors have better margins.
Part of it was they moved into a new facility factory in Japan. That delayed stuff then there was the massive earthquake. That damaged the new facility so they had to rebuild that again. There's some of the delays.
Wrong? In a way I think they did the smart thing and save huge on r&d costs while still making something reliable and awesome looking for the average Joe.
the Motogp thing was weird, esp when they had big successes at the time. They were competitive in no time which was impressive
Nothing has "gone wrong", maybe Suzuki is the only one 'gone right'?
i think the fallout from the partnership with GM over the 2008 financial crisis has more effect,
but paying RC shit loads and winning championships and not getting the sales might have had a long term effect as well,
I don’t see any “Suzuki is going bankrupt” posts like some other brand. Why are you saying it went wrong? They offer a lineup, a 250 and 450 mx bike, etc. Maybe their logic is that they don’t need to spend tons on R&D to develop feature / function that only a few riders on the planet (a literal few) can fully leverage (unlike other brands (plural)). But these other brands (plural) sure have done a good job at convincing the world that it desperately needs this crap.
Wasn't there some sort of contract with Everts who operated the last factory effort in MXGP and this contract said something along the line that Suzuki had to pay Everts a shot load of koney of they wanted to go racing in europe with someone different than him?
But i don't remeber correct. So don't kill me if i'm wrong here 😅
They did not make a Side by Side when the market was changing from dirt bikes and 4 wheelers. Other Japanese companies were a little slow to create a line up, but all did as that is where the sales and the money is. Just look at Yamaha and Kawasaki, the side by sides are a major part of their sales and marketing revenue.
The OG Joe...
yamaha just announced pulling out of sxs. and . so i'm not so sure yer point is what u think it is
I follow MotoGP as much as this and and never once heard they were coming back in 27.
Don't know where you got that info.
They couldn’t come back anyway. No new teams can come in with out having to buy an existing team.
Only 22 spots available on grid.
BMW thought about joining but not in the plans now.
But I think KTM will be out of MotoGP come 27 so there will be two spots open. And assume Tech3 will be with another brand because they just got bought out and only team to have a contract with Dorna for 27 and beyond.
I think there is a huge gap between perceptions and reality here in our little corner of the motorcycle industry.
Suzuki exhibited 2% motorcycle sales growth for FY2025, after a whopping 12% growth in global motorcycle sales revenue for FY2024 based on strong sales in Asia and Latin America. This while other manufacturers have been experiencing a contraction
Nothing has "all gone wrong" for Suzuki.
That because they already went bankrupt years ago, just checked it was 2012 when they filed chapter 11. Back when they did away with the auto side in the US.
Pit Row
American Suzuki (the U.S. auto subsidiary) filed Chapter 11 as a procedural for closing and liquidating the U.S. auto import business. Suzuki Motor Corporation has never filed bankruptcy.
Where did you see that??
I don't think they are pulling out of the market, but are ending the YXZ1000, so are leaving the sport/performance segment.
He’s wrong. They announced they are discontinuing the YXZ1000, which has been a tough sell and has had very little market share for the past decade mostly due to its manual transmission. Yamaha, while producing quality products, has largely missed the mark on what the US side by side customer wants, and their market share in the segment reflects this.
Yeah I was going to say theres no way they are pulling out completely. It is strange that they pretty much invented the segment but are very uncompetitive with their current lineup. I almost never see YXZ's in shops anymore either, I forgot they even still made those haha.
I have no problem with Suzuki offering a ‘good enough’ bike at a lower price point. As long as they trail the latest technology no less than a couple of years the bike will still be competitive and fun for 95% of the riders. I think they are the smart ones as long as they don’t fall too far behind.
When they stopped making two strokes in 08.
Suzuki had to settle a Billion dollar fiasco with the government over some ECUs being able to be over written. I think it started with the TL1000 and ended with the LT-R four wheeler.
Gotta have a turbo charged automatic with 5 seats and room for a cooler! You can't have fun if there's hand eye foot coordination required. Just mash the gas pedal while chugging beer.
You just described the sport side by side customer. That’s why the YXZ never sold. Wouldn’t have taken much market research to figure that out.
His post is pretty much spot on for that point in time. My family owned the oldest survivng Suzuki franchise in Indiana. Then later on took on Kawasaki and Polaris. They started with Suzuki in 1974, but my brother gave it up around 2016. He said they really weren't making anything he could sell and he didn't sell enough Suzukis to justify being a dealer for them. He sells a ton of SXS as well as dirtbikes, but very few street bikes.
At that time Suzuki was already falling behind on bringing out new or updated products.
Hopefully KR is right and they get back into racing full time.
It’s funny, cuz the yzx whatever the Fook it is, is the one I’d actually want to own literally because it’s 3 pedal manual trans is BAD ASS.
But I don’t do sxs things so I don’t have one, so yeah no sale from me sadly.
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