CONCEPT bikes tend to fall into two distinct camps. Some are little more than teasers for forthcoming production machines, not ‘concepts’ at all but just an early look at something that’s already been earmarked for production. Others are more worthy of the title; they’re sheer flights of fantasy, and as such stand only the slimmest chance of ever directly influencing a production bike.
Occasionally, though, a bike from the latter category does get enough approval to become a production machine. The Suzuki B-King, for instance, was never intended to be more than eye-candy when it was a supercharged concept machine back in 2001, but seemingly huge demand meant a watered-down production version did appear. Unfortunately, it took six years to happen, by which time tastes had changed and the world was on the verge of entering a financial crisis, so sales were never stellar.
The B-King, in some ways, represents the last big fling we’ve seen from Suzuki. The firm’s current range lacks the ‘wow’ factor of some of its rivals and all-new machines have been thin on the ground; even the new V-Strom 1000 is based around an engine that dates back well into the last millennium.
However, a look back at the concepts the firm has shown over the years – ones that never got the breaks that the B-King was offered – shows that Suzuki engineers have never been short of innovation. If only some of these had been pushed through to production, your local Suzuki dealer might be a very different place today (or bankrupt).