Because of the Uninted states poor economy japan was not making the money they thought they should so they cut back on what they imported and the C109 was on the cut list

 

Yea it was sad that they are no longer in the showroom when the time comes for another it would be the first bike on my list.
I can understand the reason as there are so many choices out there for this type of bike but none have all the features. Some have water cool and Fuel injection but do not see many of the same size having the Shaft Drive. I could be wrong but I do not see many choices of bikes with all three and those three are what I'm looking for when it comes time to replace. But by then I may have to go the Goldwing or similar type of bike as the wife really wants a lazy boy on the back.
I plan on keeping the R for as long as I can, I would sell the 800 before I got rid of the R. I like my 800 it was my first street bike but love the R and ride it as much as possible.
Hopefully sometime in the future we will see a new one from Suzuki that would replace the R.

 

I didn't realize that there were only 2 model years available in the US. My local dealership still has a new black 08 on the showroom floor.

 

What I was told is that they wanted to get them cleaned out of the dealers before they imported more in. When the economy went bust they didn't try to force dealers to take more models than what they would be able to sell. Still a few new ones sitting on the floors out there.Good deals can be had.

 

Hi from nz .
i hope to hold on to mine as long as it is holding a bit of value i love the bike and our last shipment was 09 i picked one up for $16500onlyy did 1200k and they were around $21000.00 new .
mine had $1500 spent on pipes before i got it .
I sold my 06 m109r and could not turn down the c at that price and havent looked back .
i hope they don't make any more and the bike becomes collectibleable .:bigthumbsup: ride safe

 

if i recall correctly they do sell them in Canada at least up through a 2010 model but I think it was only available as an RT version . it seems that many asian big motor bikes are not selling well here in the states.

 

I couldn't find the figures specific to the C109, but here is some interesting tables for last years sales :

Japan Motorcycle Exports for 2011February 1, 2012 - Motorcycle Export Data from Japan for the Calendar Year 2011 (January to December 2011) is now available (Source: JAMA).Number of Motorcycles Exported
Motorcycle exports from Japan for Calendar Year 2011 was recorded as 504,985 units. Compared with the 493,464 units total recorded for the previous year, this is an increase of 11,521 units or 2.3%, an export increase after four years of downturn.Value of Motorcycles Exported
Total value of motorcycles exported for the calendar year 2011 was $4,698.934 million including $3,185.216 million for vehicles and $1,513.718 million for parts. This is an increase of $284.369 million or 6.4% as compared with $4,414.565 million recorded for the previous year.​

	Total (Units)	Share (%)	Prev. Year (%)	% Chg.
50cc & under	19,745	3.9	2.3	+71.4
51 - 125cc	45,853	9.1	9.9	-6.4
126 - 250cc	83,594	16.6	17.3	-2.2
Over 250cc	355,793	70.5	70.4	+2.4
Total	504,985	100.0	100.0	+2.3

Calendar Year 2011 Motorcycle Export Figures by Class

​

Export total achieved a 79.0% share of the total production of 638,987 units recorded for calendar year 2011. (*74.3% for calendar year 2010)​

	Total (Units)	Share (%)	Prev. Year (%)	% Chg.
Asia	38,856	7.7	8.3	-4.7
Middle-East	3,774	0.7	0.8	-2.9
Europe	174,286	34.5	46.2	-23.6
North America	179,228	35.5	21.5	+68.7
(U.S.A.)	(164,875)	(32.6)	(17.8)	+87.2
Central America	5,968	1.2	1.1	+11.6
South America	40,194	8.0	6.8	+19.9
Africa	21,103	4.2	5.2	-17.8
Oceania	41,576	8.2	10.1	-16.7
Total	504,985	100.0	100.0	+2.3

Calendar Year 2011 Motorcycle Export Share by Country (%)

Motorcycle Brand	Units	Chg. from prev. year (%)
Honda	121,914	114.6
Suzuki	116,273	102.7
Yamaha	157,731	95.7
Kawasaki	109,067	100.0
Total	504,985	102.3

Calendar Year 2011 Motorcycle Export Figures by Manufacturer

​

 

The economy excuse doesn't make sense. Most other countries on the planet have crappy economies and the bikes cost a lot more $$ to begin with. My biggest problem is the availability of aftermarket parts or the availability of oem parts in a few more years.

 

There's a lot of 1100 + cc bike choices. Word of mouth and being seen is what sells bikes. Sort of a chicken / egg thing with the C109. Not enough sold to be seen,. then they stopped making/selling new ones, and they don't get the publicity if there's no new models, so new buyers don't know they exist. And who wants to lay down 15 grand on a 3-4 year old new bike?