Suzuki

What is known today as the Suzuki Motor Corporation was born in 1909 when Michio Suzuki founded the Suzuki Loom Company in the small seaside village of Hamamatsu, Japan.

At the time, Suzuki was building weaving looms for Japan's silk industry. For 30 years or so, the company focused on the development and the production of such machines. Conscious of the need to diversify its activities, Suzuki started to build cars that were both small and practical and, by 1939, the first vehicles came out of the factory.

Unfortunately, World War II halted Suzuki’s vehicle production and during this period, the company went back to producing looms. After the war, Suzuki went back to motor vehicles and started to focus on "clip-on" gas-powered engines that could be attached to your average bicycle, and in the 1950's Suzuki produced its first motorised bicycle, the “Power Free”. It had a 36cc two-stroke engine with featured an ingenuous double-sprocket gear system which enabled the rider to either pedal with the engine assisting, pedal without engine assist, or simply disconnect the pedals and run on engine power alone. This innovative idea encouraged the Suzuki Motor Corporation (as it had become known in 1954) to continue its development work in motorcycle engineering.

Nevertheless, it wasn't until 1976 that Suzuki introduced its first motorcycle with a four-stroke engine. Since then, Suzuki has established a reputation as a manufacturer of well-engineered sport motorcycles as well as a key player in the racing world where it won several World Championships over the past decades.

Launched in 1998, the collaboration between Suzuki and Team Alstare has been a successful and fruitful one with 6 titles, culminating in Troy Corser's World Championship title in the Superbike class in 2005 and the manufacturer's title for the Hamamatsu corporation the same year.