I have always thought the welding on my bike's main frame is just plain crappy, wondering if I got one that was made on Friday or Monday. But after many pictures I've seen here, I don't feel singled out,....its all just plain crappy. I've even seen pcs of Mig wire sticking out of the welds, and gobs of weld hanging like it almost ended up a big drip on the floor. Seems to me like they not only hired anybody off the street to weld, but also have about the worst quality control I've seen.
I commented only because most any other welding I've seen from other countries has been beautiful,....just wondering why Suzuki is different.
But if no history of frame failures here, I guess the welding is good enough, and when the price is right we don't complain. And the only time I really see it is when I'm down low changing oil or something.

I haven't really looked at the welding on other motorcycles to compare, but several years ago I was really into Recumbent bicycles, (bent bikes) and I remember the low end model of EZRacers that was mfg'd in Freedom Ca. It wasn't selling well at around $1,000, and the welding wasn't pretty either. They were forced to get that competive model made overseas to get the price down to the compeditors price of $750.
The first models back were unbelievable,.....not only had the retail price had dropped to $695, all the welding was beautiful Heli-arc !
All the compeditors bikes were from overseas also, and the welding was superb on every one of them. Thats why this sloppy welding on Suzuki frames really surprised me, and also because welding/metal fab was my thing for most of my life.

My wife welded for about fives years,Then they put her in the office for quality control on the welding.

We call them "weld berries" or splatter.....sometimes caused from a machine being too hot. And a welder is sometimes set too hot for the inexperienced welder that can't hardly help get decent weld penetration by accident if nothing else.
I really don't believe that these frames are machine welded,...because the only consistency I see in the welds is that their all sloppy.

Hard to believe, but I'm not complaining, just commenting. As long as my frame doesn't start hi centering over a speed bump, it must be ok ! ?  

Routy, since I don't think you will mind me asking a semi-related question...  my husband does some welding, and the guys where I work weld daily.  I have seen plenty of good welds and bad welds.  I also know there are "specifications" to welding to ensure that the bond will be strong enough for the intended purpose.  Does machine-welded stuff get inspected to make sure the welds are the proper length/thickness/whatever-word-fits-here?  What are the chances of a machine weld being unsafe?  Hopefully they care more about safety than they do about making it look good (because they sure don't care much about the looks, huh)  

BH,
I really don't know much about programmed machine welding, except a lot of it that I have seen is beautiful and consistent. But I would have to guess that a machine weld is no better than what has been programmed into it,....or no better than the programmer.
babyhog wrote on 12/21/10 at 07:30:10:

Just read a little ditty on welding up bicycle frames. Seems the parent material will break, depending on design ( lugged or not) & weld type. IIRC, they decided brazed frames held up better.

Yep, most the welds look like the machines are turned up HOT for hi production. When welding hot, there is a lot better chance of good penetration, but it can sure take its toll in appearance. Being a wellder at trade, I would much rather see the hot splattery welds than cold balled up welds sitting on top (scary) but it does surprise me that there is virtually no cleanup,....not even hitting the lumps on these welds. But we know it all comes back to hi production....productivity. And like said, frame/weld failures are near non existent, so who's to complain.