Suzuki BICYCLES ??

[billjustbill]

Hunting through an outside building at an estate sale, I found this sign. Can't seem to find out about the theme of the sign, nor find another sign like it. The 1/4" thick plastic sign shows scuffing and wear.

I saw that Suzuki made small MX Motorcross bikes, but I can't seem to find anything more.

Any ideas about it?

Thanks for your help,
Bill

 

[SDIceMan]

Apparently Suzuki made bicycles for a brief period. The fella in this thread shares a little info about how he acquired his sign in the 1970s:

http://suzukisavage.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1346716689/0



And this link is a person in WV with a complete sign for sale for $300:

http://for-sale.seehere.com/listing/85191957/

I'm going to add a screenshot from that link because after the guy sells his sign, the link will probably go dead.

 

[Oddjob]

Cool sign man; I have just over 10,000 square of down town Luxembourg city apartment fully decorated in my bikes, velomobiles and other HPV all with various themes.

Take some very fine rubbing compound and buff that sign out, build a nice frame for it and drop in a cheap set of color changing LEDs and bike sluts like me pay good money. The one in that other link is just boring, you want to avoid boring if your looking to sell.

 

[chub]

i thought originality sold?

 

[Oddjob]

It often does, especially well know firms that are vintage, hand made firms that made a great product but went under for some reason.

About 14 months ago I got my hands on a 72 Campagnolo; fram, rims, seat post, bar, rizer and head badge all intact. I dropped about 2K into the bike and took down to someone in Italy who could do a match paint job from that bike; his shop ended up offering me 9,400 for the bike so I sold it; they finish the restoration and got 27K Euro for it.

I rarely ever sell my rigs, especially such a rig, I had a spot picked out on my wall for that one; but I am returning to the US soon and I just purchased 4 new Quatro´s and I am having a custom one built that is running me close to 31K. I also sold off a few extra velomobiles that where either raced out by now or extra ones.

Really just depends on what you have, this sign is sweet but to me it is like Aprilla; if it buffs out properly and the LEDs set up is done right then I would not be shocked to see it go between 200-400 bucks.

Some things are just more desired in their aged form, other things just need to go retro before they appeal enough to turn a good profit.

i thought originality sold?

 

[btripp6]

Cool looking sign!!

 

[chub]

Campagnolo, I recently bought one from a pawn shop for about $20 US !!! only problem was....it was NOT a campagnolo. Had all the stickers....italian rims, italian seat post, old shimano gear set. I tried to flip it next day, but big time fail. Didnt have any of the tell tale Club emblem on top of the forks or serial number stamped under the back of the frame....
sure dont know my bicycles! All I saw was a vintage bicycle with alot of period high end components. But not much lost. The rims alone I can flip to recover the $20

but cool sign! I love the suzuki brand.

Chub

 

[chub]

Sorry mine is a Colgano ( also apologies for temporary hijack )

 

[Oddjob]

Chub these days you can buy full sticker kits for everything, even rims.

But dude, if you try to flip one at your LBS (local bike shop) and they tell that stuff and then offer you a low ball price, just walk away. Go learn about the rig or come here and ask me if you want.

Had a racer down the street from me get killed back in 2007; he had no family so the state came in and sold off his stuff and his house. He had 7 road bikes worth in total of about 400K Euro and the State listened to an LBS about what they where worth, they said 50 Euro each. Then offered out of good faith to come by and clean out the entire bike shop, anything bike related for 1000 bucks.

Only took a week for the State to see the owner of that LBS conned the State for profit but by then he left to the US.

Very few LBSs I will listen to; I do lots of races in Europe and LBS owners show up like roaches trying to give you stuff, offer advice or assistance if you just sign here. Seen lots of LBS owner put on their rear end; if they where worth a crap they would have a horse in the race.

 

[Blkcloud]

In the early 80's a friend of mine had a Suzuki bicycle.. I've never seen one before or after.. amazingly he could ride a wheely on it for blocks and blocks .. with a tackle box in one hand and a fishing pole on the other..

 

[chub]

My siblings had porsche bicycles? back in the late 70s

chub

 

[RustyGold]

1972! Wow! I remember those Campy bikes as I was just getting into them at that very time. Cool post and info, thanks.

 

[Oddjob]

Seriously, do they still have them? Porsche has had a bike produced every year since 71. I know the Volkswagen Corporate event director and at every major Messe each year he has a large section set up just for display of the past Volks Corp bikes. In 2013 he gave me the Lamborghini Road Bike for my birthday, and then again in 2015 I got the Audi Road Bike for my birthday.

I never did get to race either one, or even ride them because they are both 58cm and with that geometry I need 61cm. But thats cool though because I got a bunch of the advert stuff the corp put out that year for those bikes so I could make a nice display in my apartment.

In 2011 I had gotten a Porsche mountain bike, but I broke the frame in like 2 hours. Sent it in for a new one and then never got on it when it came in, just put that on display.

My siblings had porsche bicycles? back in the late 70s

chub

 

[chub]

No, these were more like dragster / kids bikes. Im not sure if it was a marketing thing...or just a sticker and a badge...I live on the other side of the world and havent seen them for 20 years but will try and find out.

Chub

 

[OldSowBreath]

Doesn't Ferrari do bikes also?