Suzuki unveil centenary B-King

The cans look a lot better now but they're shutting the gate after the horse has riddden off. It still looks no where near as good as the Concept bike........they missed a trick big time. Suzuki should take a leaf out of KTM's books (financial results notwithstanding) and build a bike that 99.9% identical to the concepts, not around 60% as the B-King was. They naively thought bikers wouldn't notice the difference............errrrr, wrong.

Posted: 02/12/2009 at 13:31

Fast bike mag have got one of these as a long term test bike & with all the stuff they've done to it they've made a nice looking bike out of the burger king. Biggest difference was the exhaust change. Looks like Suzuki are trying the same trick to sell the unsellable

Posted: 02/12/2009 at 20:46

I have to agree, the B-King's exhaust does look better. But it does not alter the overall style. I've recently met Busa owners who will (once their bikes get high mileages on) turn them into better looking street-fighters than the B-King.

Even at the B-King's launch, the Suzuki dealers did not know how to combat the punter's snears.

Regarding sales, I've only seen one on the road and that was at the Wales demo in Sept., among thousands of bikes!

Posted: 02/12/2009 at 21:15

Maybe they should have used Harley' marketing style. Sell the B-King and have a huge range of aftermarket parts.That way the customer buys the bike, then completely rebuilds it to what he realy wanted in the first place.It's a win,win situation. Suzuki make lot's of money  by selling the additional exhausts,handlebars, chrome fittings,seat, lights etc,etc,etc, and the customer gets a bike that fits his personal needs and style.To take it even further,why not a range of B-King costumes to display what a fast,bad ass group B-King riders are.

Posted: 03/12/2009 at 00:43

My mate had one whilst his TLS was getting MOT'd. He said it was an amazing machine and loved every crazy moment of being on it. So they at least got the lump part right...

Exhausts look loads better though now.

Good idea on the HD marketing ploy there Eojmo 

Posted: 04/12/2009 at 16:07

I rode one on a test we did last year and loved it. If you like wheelies, you can't go wrong. And even though it looks like a bit of a pig, it's really usable and ain't a bad bike to carve around town on. I like my bikes a bit different and the B-King would earn a place in my 10-bike garage..

Posted: 07/12/2009 at 11:05