Suzuki letter designations.

[Cajun]

The first character represents the type of vehicle:

A - Two stroke
B - Business/commuter
C - Scooter or more recently the Cruisers
F - Family
G - Multi-Cylinder Street Sport
H - Square four
L - Linear Mounted Engine
N - Single-cylinder Street Sport
R - Rotary Engine
S - varies
V - V-engined
U - Utilitarian

The second is the intended surface:

S - Street/Track
R - Motocross/SuperMoto
D - Dirt
J - Junior
Y - Urban inner-city

The third is the engine layout:

H - Square Four Cylinder
M - Single Cylinder
R - Two Stroke
X - Transverse 4
V - V-twin or V-four

The also sometimes add suffixes after the displacement:

E - (last) Air Cooled
F - (last) Fully Faired
F - (next to last) Oil-Air Cooled
L - Larger
LXE or XE - Special eidtion with extra options
Limited - Limited Edition
S - (last) Semi Faired
R - (last) Water Cooled
T - Touring
Turbo - Turbo charged
X - Street hybrid
Z - varies
Z - (last) four-stroke variant of previous 2-stroke offering
Z - (next to last) liquid cooled

R - I believe is Race, as in Race Replica

eg GSXR
G - Multi-Cylinder Street Sport
S - Street/Track
X - Transverse 4
R - Race Replica

[Kickaha]

unless there's some letters missing out of that, it doesn't work for a few of their models

FXR
RGV
RF
GN
RMZ
DR

unless they had a different designation for another market?

[Magua]

Doesn't work for my bike. Rg150 - Rotary Engine :spudwhat:

[Mental Trousers]

So I take it the 4th letter is only used on a couple of models and therefore is optional and is only ever an R ?? eg GSXR, GSVR.

[T.W.R]

there's plenty of failings in those prefix designations.

to many Suzuki models to list that go against those prefixs

[imdying]

As nice a concept as that list is, in practice it's hopeless

[twinkle]

When i find the extra cylinder on my GN i'll be pretty stoked. Thought it was going a bit slow.

[WRT]

Its as if the TL never existed . . .

[quickbuck]

And No wonder the RH250's were so gutsey.

There was a square 4 in there somewhere.

I thought the RG500's were a square four, so where is the "H" in that?

[Bonez]

Doesn't the X stand for 4-valve heads? At least originally in most markets, except for the US initially?

[Jantar]

Suzuki had a sort of logical naming sequence some 25-30 years ago, which has been added to, but not really changed too much. Prior to 1973 Road bikes were either A, B or T.

More recent example are:

1st Letter
G = Road
D = Off road 4 stroke
T = Off road 2 stroke
R = Moto-cross
For the rest I'll stick to road bikes

2nd Letter
S = 4 stroke
T = 2 stroke

3rd and 4th letters
X = 4 valves per cylinder
S = Semi faired
F = Full Faired
R = Racing

Numbers
750 = Capacity in CCs

Subscript letters
Model Year
M = 1975
A = 1976
.
.
.
K5 = 2005
K6 = 2006


I'm not too sure how TL got in there because I'm 99% sure that they aren't an off road 2 stroke.

[thehollowmen]

And my bike don't exist either!
DL-650 and DL1000 are two biggies they've forgotten

[acewheelie]

They used to use the odd suffix to, ie G= Shaft Drive, GS650G Katana, GS850G etc...

[Jantar]

And my bike don't exist either!
DL-650 and DL1000 are two biggies they've forgotten

Yes they do D = off road 4 stroke, L has a number of meanings but generally means that the bike has more than one purpose.

Its the TL designation that still seems out of place.

[Storm]

My single cylinder 4 stroke doesnt quite go either- SG350 N = varies,multi cylinder street sport, 350 single cyl street sport???? Go figure, at least the N is right I spose