It’s the eleventh year of Suzuki’s 100th anniversary! If you’ve ever loved a Suzuki of any kind, from big cloth-weaving looms to motorcycles, the birthday of one of your favorite manufacturers happens on March 15 every single year. As all of us get older, it gets tempting to fudge the numbers a little bit, so we might seem a little younger than we are. I mean, plenty of humans do it, so why not Suzuki?

Like a lot of big companies, Suzuki likes to create promotional videos to celebrate its numerous successes over the years. I mean, wouldn’t you if you lived to be a hundred years old? Honestly, fair play to Suzuki, and I’m not even being sarcastic. 100 is a big milestone, and let’s be honest, we’d want to make it last at least ten years if we could, too. 101 is cool if you’re a certain glove-wearing mouse with a whole bunch of little puppers circling your feet, but 100 is so nice and round, numerically speaking. 

At any rate, whether Suzuki Loom Manufacturing was truly founded in 1909 or 1920 probably doesn’t matter to those of us who still appreciate the fact that the company exists in 2020, especially on a motorcycle site. Either way, the company started out making looms, and then eventually moved on to other types of machinery, starting with motorized bicycles. Eventually, it moved on to motorcycles, and then cars. Later, it moved on to other things with engines that we don’t care much about because we’re not BoatApart.

We get it, birth records get fuzzy. World events result in birth certificates that might get somewhat fudged, so maybe that happens with business paperwork as well? I’m not sure exactly when you hit the age where you want everyone to know and appreciate exactly how many years you’ve spent on this giant clay ball and circling the sun, but maybe Suzuki hasn’t hit it yet? Or maybe the information on Suzuki’s website right now is a simple typographical error. 

In any case, Suzuki’s global website says it turned 100 two days ago, although the corporate video posted here says that happy date passed in 2009. Anyone who loves Gixxers or ‘Busas or thrashing SV650s at track days knows we have a lot to be happy about, so we’re not above baking a giant cake and letting someone at Suzuki smash it into their face like they’re a proud one-year old. It’s all good, honest!

HBD, Suzuki. Now bring back DR Big

Sources: Suzuki Global, Suzuki Netherlands

Top comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
Comment!
Got a tip for us? Email: tips@rideapart.com