New MCN April 11: 60 years of Suzuki

By Liam Marsden

Updated: 20 November 2014

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MCN has worked hard to make sure the all-new paper will feed your passion for motorcycles better than ever before. It’ll take a moment to get used to the new surroundings – but we’ve tried to make as little stand between you and the fantastic stories that biking breeds as possible.

This week we’re celebrating 60 years of Suzuki. We ride an RGV500 GP bike against the latest GSX-R1000, Plot Suzuki’s glorious race heritage, and detail our debt to Suzuki, as well as much more.

Also this week we have all the news from the opening rounds of BSB and MotoGP.

Here’s how the new paper works:

The week
All the news that matters from a week in bikes, all in one place. Catch up quick on all the must-know stories and whet your appetite for the big stories in Focus.

Focus
Where we go in deep on the stories that matter. Road tests, features, analysis, interviews, surprises, MCN brings every tool to bear to crack the story.

Comment
Letters, celeb columns, polls and advice – Comment feeds the discussions that define the week’s debate, and harnesses the power of MCN’s readership.

Bike life
Men and machines with stories to tell. From used bikes to dream garages, epics enjoyed and nightmares survived: why a life in bikes is better.

Sport
The best writers in bike sport. Bringing you the inside story on the riders, race bikes – and rucks – that make up the greatest spectacle in sport.

The week
Everything you need to know from seven days in biking. Pedrosa arrested over yacht exam, roads minister joins MAG, Finance deals on the new ZX-6R and your chance to ride in the GS Trophy.

60 years of Suzuki
Sixty years ago this week Michio Suzuki made a decision that we should all be eternally greatful for. The boss of Suzuki Loom Manufacturing Company decided weaving was for losers, and he should get into bikes. MCN celebrates Suzuki’s decision with 17-pages of Suzuki history.

1998 Suzuki RGV500 vs 2012 GSX-R1000
The ultimate road-going Suzuki meets its Grand Prix opposite number from the fearsome era of the two-stroke 500. In the 14 years that separate them, they appear to have become more alike than we would have dreamed back then. But how much is fact and how much is still fantasy?

Six decades of Suzukis
Sixty years ago the cotton industry was in a slump and in Hamamatsu the Suzuki Loom Manufacturing Company needed a new way of making cash, so they turned to motorcycles…

The big picture
Kevin Schwantz wheelies a 1987 Suzuki GSX-R750 at Sears Point (now known as Infineon Raceway).

Suzuki’s race winners
From rinky-dinky 50cc racers to big and brutal superbikes, Suzuki have won pretty much every championship going on the global racing scene.

Blitz Motorcycles: The future of custom bikes
Two French mavericks are leading the post-chopper customising movement. MCN pops in to see how they became the bikebuilders to Paris’ fashionistas.

Spillage fuels call for rule changes in BSB
Rejoining a race after a crash could be a thing of the past after Easter Monday’s second British Superbike race is called off.

Crutchlow proves he’s the MotoGP real deal
Cooking brakes and a poor start fail to deny Brit hero Cal Crutchlow a hard-fought fourth place in the Qatar MotoGP opener, and there’s even more to come he tells MCN.

By Liam Marsden

Former MCN Web Producer