First clarification is Suzuki and Kawasaki are NOT the same company. Yes they do have a few bikes made jointly toigether such as the RMZ250/KXF250 etc. The reason for this was to help develop a better more well rounded product line and to secure better prices on manufactuiring of parts. These are some simple reasons and there are many more but just know Kawasaki and Suzuki intend to stay seperate companies.
Now the original question is a good one. In the 30 years of riding and being involved in motorcycling/racing I have come to these conclusions.
1) Suzuki, Honda, Yamaha, Kawasaki are all very good machines and in a given model year one may stand out from the others as "The Best" bike.
2) Given that one bike may be "The Best" bike that year does not make it the best bike for everyone.
3) All of the big 4 bike Manufacturers build bikes using the same parts suppliers for things like Shocks/Forks ( Showa/ KYB) carbs (Mikuni/Kehien) etc. The parts are made to the particular Manufacturers specifications. There in lies the difference in the bikes.
4) Quality in all the bikes over tha last 12 years has become so close it is not even an issue anymore like it was in the 1970's and 1980's.
5) European manufactureres such as KTM have access to companies like WP Suspension, Metzeler, Acerbis and others to supply the parts to make there bikes so you end up paying a bit more ( along with bad exchange rates) for these bikes. but they usually take longer to set up than the Japanese bikes due to the more complicated aftermarket shocks, forks, carbs.
All in all it comes down to what bike fits your budget,. How good the service is at your local dealer and what kind of bikes they offer for the riding you want to do. I like Suzuki's because in all the years of racing I can not blame the bike for not performing up to the competition.Nine times out of ten it is my preperation that will cause my success or failure which is not up to the machine to determine.
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