Suzuki's in-house museum

Going inside the plant to see what few have seen

By Grant Parsons

Off to one side of Suzuki's sprawling plant in the city of Hamamatsu, Japan, is an unassuming building with full-story windows that make it seem like any other office block in the tightly-packed compound.

But inside is one of the world's best little-known motorcycle museums.

It's Suzuki's own in-house museum, and it contains one of just about every significant motorcycle (and car) that Suzuki ever produced, from the Power Free of 1952 to the grand-prix-winning machine of Kenny Roberts Junior.

It's a pretty impressive place, and Suzuki officials were kind enough to open up the museum on a recent weekend day for a group of American journalists brought over for the press introduction of the new GSX-R 750 (great bike; full review in the June issue of American Motorcyclist).

The layout and design of the place may be a little austere, and it's clear that Suzuki officials have far more cool bikes than they have room to display them. But for any serious motorhead, the attraction is the machines, not the building. And the collection of machines is nothing short of super-cool.

A walk through is a quick education on how Mr. Michio Suzuki went from producing weaving looms to inexpensive post-war bicycles with motors to what is now widely regarded as the world's fastest production motorcycle, the Hayabusa, with a few Grand Prix-winning bikes thrown in along the way. Most all of the machines are either in factory-new condition or carefully restored.

Since the machines are packed in so tightly, it's tough to get good photos. But seeing as how difficult it would be to fly to Japan and talk your way into the place yourself, we figured we'd burn as many pixels as we could to show you the best of the bikes while we were there. Here's what we found.

The cards below the pictures offer a bit of perspective on each machine.

Special thanks to the Japanese execs who came in on a weekend to open the place up for us, and for U.S. Suzuki's Mark Reese, who arranged the trip. Thanks, guys!

Humble beginnings, indeed.	Suzuki started with looms.
GP bikes, anyone?	Two brothers rode this bike around the world in 1956.
Like their U.S. counterparts, Suzuki started with small, bicycle-like machines	Styling wasn't left out of the equation, either.
As the bikes grew, so did the amount of attention engineers paid to making them look good.	You'd be the life of the vintage meet if you showed up on a 1959  Suzuki Colleda SelTwin
Think you could ride this big machine at its limit through the sand of the Paris-Dakar race?	The only Japanese to ride in the famed Paris-Dakar bike rode this machine.
Even today, Suzuki Gammas have tremendous street cred.	We saw the 400cc version in Canada, but the 250cc never came to North America
Believe it or not, this was built in 1991.	Original Suzuki Katana's still look rad.
Before they were big, bikes were small. Here's a few GP contenders.	Not much room, and a big penalty for even touching the brakes.
Barry Sheen's riding machine.	Randy Mamola's look-alike.
Another Mamola machine.	Kevin Schwantz's office.
	Schwantz's '93 GP-winning machine. Wipe the drool off your face.
	Kenny Roberts Junior's Championship-winning machine. Notice a trend?
Nothing says "Get out of my way" like the backwards "Turbo" of the XN85.	How many limited-production intruders have you seen lately?
	Let's all say it together: Hay-a-bus-a. Too cool.
Another Mamola machine.	Barry Sheen's almost-ran-at-Daytona bike.
Bicycle-parts manufactuer Campagnolo actually was a Mamola sponsor at one point.	Forget Fat-Bob tanks and go the skinny route.
When you have a 1, you need nothing else.	The KR bird was cool in the '80s, and still cool today.
Take your pick of GP bikes.	This ad was supposed to sell motorcycles?
Check out what the plant used to look like.	'Nuff said.
Most of the machines are all-original or well-restored.	And there's something for just about everyone.
A possible gas-crisis car.	When's the last time you heard a vehicle described as "clean and friendly?"
Roadster, anyone?	You can parallel park this one straight in.
Maybe the Japanese can come here every day, but for Americans it's a treat.	Coming or going? Your call.
OK, that's kind of sporty, in a retro sort of way.	790 horsepower, anyone?
One of the company's first cars.	The utility version of same.
The Virtual Museum continues with this timeline of Suzuki models. It gives a good idea of how the company came to be one of the leaders in the motorcycle industry.

Related story:

• Visiting the epicenter of Asian Motorcycling
  A trip to the Ueno motorcycle district of Tokyo

© 2004, American Motorcyclist Association