Suzuki SV1000SM

We recently received an interesting email from a CW reader. It seems he has a friend who works somewhere deep in the bowels of the automotive industry, and on a recent trip to Japan found himself in a Suzuki R&D; facility, maybe where he shouldn't have been. From a distance, he spotted what he was "sure" was an SV1000 engine and chassis with DR-Z400SM-like bodywork, wheels and suspension. The reader provided us with this cleverly Photoshopped illustration.

Of course, we urge you to take this with a grain of salt: Suzuki told us they had “no idea” what we were talking about, which is different than saying “we can neither confirm nor deny” by a wide margin. We also have no other information about such a project. But it would make sense if Suzuki is playing around with something along these lines; big motards like the Ducati Hypermotard, KTM 950SM and BMW HP2 Megamoto are taking off in Europe and starting to get a lot of attention here in the States.

You can count on us telling you more about such a Suzuki if it is indeed a model intended for consumers and not just a pet project of some wonderfully demented engineers. Until then, we’ve prepared a small gallery of current motards big and small for you to check out.