We recently received a note from Mal of Adventure Bike Australia, who has been a great friend to ProCycle, and whom we’ve enjoyed working with over the years. He was kind enough to share some of his history with selling Suzukis and Suzuki parts, which we’d like to share with you.
Mal started as the owner of Suzuki/Husqvarna Darwin on the northern tip of Australia. Because of its remote location, hot climate, and many abandoned airfields, Suzuki often used Darwin as a testing ground, and Mal had the pleasure of hosting many of the factory engineers that came through.
Later on, Mal moved to the Gold Coast outside Brisbane and became the owner of Gold Coast Suzuki, where he hosted adventure schools and overnight adventure rides for customers. Mal’s technicians would set up a couple dozen DRs and DR-Zs every year in full adventure spec, and pretty much every single one had suspension mods and a ProCycle seat!
Over the years, Suzuki has been consolidating the number of dealerships in Australia, from almost 200 down to around 70 today. Additionally, safety and emissions regulations have taken their toll, with the beloved DR650 getting the axe in 2022 in Australia.
However, Mal and the team at Adventure Bike Australia march on, supporting the existing fleet of DRs as well as other old-school Japanese bikes down under. A toast to our friends at ABA!