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I think you and others misread the original post, nobody is knocking your motorcycle. OP is wondering why Suzuki went from being a force to completely withdrawing from all disciplines of off-road racing world wide. What's retarded about that?
Which is crazy, because the YXZ1000 is absolutely bad ass! My parents have one and its the one thing everyone loves to drive or ride in when we go out to the desert. From my kids all the way up to my grandmother, everyone enjoys the thing.
Nothing went wrong at Suzuki, they just changed directions, racing in the US wasn’t as important as it once was under the new management.
They moved out of MotoGP to invest money into car and scooter sale in Asia and India.
Honda did the same thing once Sochiro died. Now with new management, Honda brought back HRC.
If that is indeed the question, the simple answer is there is not enough ROI to throw money at Pro racing and R&D for production-units of a niche market that is not growing in the USA.
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I will tell you this about most of the kids/families buying these Surrons/Tularias/Whatever brands... Majority of the parents buying them for their kids would never buy a dirt bike for multiple reasons and hate anyone that rides them... So there's that
I heard they're finally sending JS7 a Factory ECU
That chart clearly shows that Suzuki's best opportunity is in developing countries, not the US, Europe, and Japan. Selling transportation motorcycles. Motocross bikes are not a focus in developing countries so Suzuki's strategy has made perfect sense. Motorcycle sales today in the US, Europe, and Japan are a very small percentage of what they were in the 70's when Suzuki was pouring money into racing. If they were selling video games or phones it would be a different story. Sad, but true.
I’m just replying to the general theme of the thread. I completely think the original post and yours nail down a specific question as to why they don’t invest in the racing side AS MUCH as before, to which I don’t know. Maybe they saw things we don’t.
The general tone surrounding Suzuki always turns into a mouth foaming discussion about kick starts and old bikes which, for whatever reason, triggers me and I can’t stop myself from replying.
As a guy who began his switch from European bikes to Japanese ones in the mid-to-late 70's on a Suzuki...I've always had a warm spot for the yellow bikes. They've seen ups & downs, but I'm glad they are jumping back into the fray with two guys like Roczen & Anderson for 2026. It just improves the quality of the racing with both those guys in on the track, and an OEM that's actively invested in the sport again. Good stuff!
At least in America there were two points that messed up their program.
1. The hired ricky Carmichael. His contract depleted a lot of the racing budget even pulling from the amatuer program.
2. The 08 econ crash led to suzuki auto usa eventually having to file bankruptcy in 14ish? Who control suzuki motorcycles budget
None of the big 5 bikes are bad these days. The RM, which I have ridden, reminds me of the 2013-2016 CRF450R. Turns good, feels a bit heavy on low speed track turns and in the woods. Power isn't spread out as much as some of the other bikes so you're shifting more.
My 2022 CRF450R is a different story. Feels much lighter, and the motor had way more bark on the bottom with tons of over-rev. Estart and hydraulic clutch are just icing. I will say my 22 suspension was a disaster. Without a heavier rear spring and a fork revalve it was bad. So the RM isn't a bad bike, but I like the latest Honda and Yamaha offerings significantly more.
I wanna hop on another 450 just to see. My Suzuki is the only 450 I’ve ever been on before.
I’d like to see what the Honda feels like as well.
Listen to the Mike Webb interview on Whiskey Throttle - Team Manager after Decoster left to go to KTM. He goes into detail on it. Basically, from what I can remember, different leadership at Suzuki has a huge influence on what they are willing to spend on off road racing programs. Sounded like the leadership slowly decreased funds.
Suzuki as a company is doing just fine. I really hope they invest more into moto again. In my opinion, Suzuki’s are the best looking bikes in motocross. Something about the yellow and moto is just beautiful.
Yamaha does a really good job getting the mapping and suspension set up out of the box. Honda does not, so they'll never be that pleasant to ride off the floor. The newest Yamaha chassis is much more like Suzuki and Honda though, I liked it. I don't think I've really liked a Yamaha since the early 80s until the current generation. Fix the Honda suspension and maybe 23.5mm triple clamps and that's what I personally like best.
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