Suzuki Timelines

The Suzuki family tree is perhaps the most complicated tree to piece together. It starts out easily enough with the GS range, then there's the GSX, GSF, GSX-F, and GSX-R. Not to mention the GT, GV, GN, and GL. That's not even getting into the V twins/V fours, and don't get me started on the 2 strokes. Here's the Suzuki basics,

First there's the GS family
The GS evolved into the GSX and the Katana
The GSF Bandit
And the GSX-R family
Put it all together and you get something like thisThese timelines are based on US models (mostly) some overseas models are shown in grey. Now there's plenty of missing and incorrect information. Keep in mind this is the first draft. I hope to make several revisions to these charts.

Suzuki's Big Naked Bikes

Ever since Suzuki introduced the GS1000 the company has been a great source for big bore machines. The GS1000 and 1100 established themselves as the performance benchmark of the day, besting even the Honda CB and Kawasaki Z1. The tradition continued with the GSX series and the radically styled Katana. But the introduction of Suzuki's own plastic wrapped GSX-R series sparked a trend of "non-naked" bikes. In the 1990's Suzuki brought back their naked standard with the Bandit series. The Bandits began with air/oil cooled inline fours from the early GSX-R's, and they continue on today with their own unique liquid cooled engines. Besides these bikes there are a few odd-balls in Suzuki's history. Such as the Japanese market only GS1200SS. Suzuki's V-twin sports bikes, the TL1000S and SV1000S. Each of which offered some some stripped down big bore excitement as well. Finally there's the B-King, the wild Hayabusa based naked motorcycle.

1979 GS1000S

1981 GSX1100 Katana
2002 GS1200SS


2001 GSF1200

2007 GSF1250S
2008 B King

TL1000S/SV1000S

Moto Guzzi Le Mans

In 1976 Moto Guzzi replaced their V7, their popular sporting bike, with the Le Mans. The Le Mans was created to be sexy and fast. One would have a hard time arguing against its style. While the Japanese were busy building cookie cutter motorcycles(so similar they were known as the "universal Japanese motorcycle") the Italians were cooking far more dramatic machines. Not only was the Le Mans a looker, it had performance to match. Its 850cc engine was a powerful piece and allowed the bike to keep up with the big Japanese bikes of the time. As time past Moto Guzzi lost its competitive edge against the Japanese. The Le Mans was updated twice, growing to 946cc's in 1978, but it wasn't enough. Pair this with Guzzi's questionable reliability and the Le Mans faded away. With the resurgence of Moto Guzzi under Piaggio the Le Mans name was revived. The new Le Mans V11 was introduced in the early 2000's (2001?) with a modern version of Guzzi's classic 90 degree V-twin.

Mk I 1976-78

Mk II 1978?

Mk III 1979-?

Le Mans V11

Ducati Timeline

Once again you can find all the timelines at moto-timelines.blogspot.com . More motorcycle retrospectives on the way...

New Timeline Page! Plus H-D Timeline

http://moto-timeline.blogspot.com/

I've created a new blog just for the timelines. The links are on the right. You can expect me to post line for all the major brands in the coming days. I hope to update and refine the timelines as many of them are vague and sometime inaccurate. But to kick it off, here's the Harley Davidson time line.

Motorsport of the Month: Flat Track

Flat Track racing is one of the oldest forms of motorcycle racing. It is probably the most American form of cycle racing as well. Flat track racing involves modified street bikes racing around a dirt oval. The bikes are not equipped with front brakes, instead racers pitch their machines sideways and drift through the corners. This makes for some exciting racing. The sport's roots go back to the 40's and 50's. At the center flat track was the Springfield Mile at Springfield Illinois. The Mile was the Daytona 500 of flat track racing. In 1954 the American Motorcycle Association took control and organizes the sport today. In the 1950's Harley-Davidson dominated the sport withe their flat head twins. In the 1960's English twins from Triumph and BSA started to take victories form Harley. In the 1970's Harley Davidson introduced their over head valve XR750, the bike they continue to race to day. In the 70's however Yamaha decided to enter flat track racing and produced the incredibly powerful TZ750 which Kenny Roberts raced to victory with.

Indian Scout

Harley Davidson KR750
Triumph T140

Harley Davidson XR750Yamaha TZ750

Honda RS750

The 1980's saw an effort from Honda with their new V twin Ascot and Bubba Shobert. Through the late 80's and 90's Harley mostly had the sport to themselves. The AMA decided to shake up the rules in the late 1990's and new classes were introduced. Motocross based singles up to 450cc's (4 stroke) were allowed to compete. This lead to a wide variety of manufacturers who otherwise would have never been in flat track, like Suzuki and Aprilia. Today the Grand Nationals are still dominated by Harley Davidson.

Italian Motorcycles Time Line

This is a time line of all the major Italian marques. The chart shows the years each manufacturer produced motorcycles. You may notice some companies cease operation only to be restarted later. This time line may not be %100 accurate or complete, but it gives a general idea of Italian motorcycle history.


This cart shows the ownership of each company. This chart may be misleading as in some cases a company may own the rights to brand name but not actually produce any bikes, as in Piaggio and Laverda.