Suzuki Wankel engine

Just curious, has anyone ever ridden one of these? Wankel engine on motorcycle.



http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/mcy/3997437953.html

I rode a 76 model. It was one that had fairing, bags and trunk. I didn't like the sound and it didn't seem very powerful. It was a good price as Suzuki was trying to dump them. It might have been a good collector's item but it wasn't a good motorcycle.

Here is my Suzuki RE5 - I won 1st place with it in the Central Coast Classic Vintage show. I have owned 4 RE5's - I just sold this one to a collector in Europe. I was factory trained on the Re5 in 1975 and presently help many owners with their projects. I have my eye on two more that I will be restoring in the next couple of years. I still have al the factory service tools etc. from my days as a rotary mechanic. These are good solid bikes if setup correctly and are very reliable. I personally have put close to 100K miles on one of my RE5's with no engine problems.

Dan

As an aside, a question to Dan--What are the intakes on the bottom of the exhaust pipe headers? They are openings that look like some sort of air intake into the exhaust pipes?

I've had a mild curiosity about the bikes just because of their unique engines.

Here are a couple of old Suzuki promo video for the RE5's. They are quite funny to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYUqHpOq9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkPeB1rAagU

thumperjdm said:

As an aside, a question to Dan--What are the intakes on the bottom of the exhaust pipe headers? They are openings that look like some sort of air intake into the exhaust pipes?

I've had a mild curiosity about the bikes just because of their unique engines.

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Wankel engines have very high exhaust gas temperatures as compared to a reciprocating engine. The RE5 had double walled exhaust mufflers with the actual muffler contained inside the chrome exterior shell. The front air scoops fed air through the space between the inner and outer shell and then routed back into the exhaust stream just prior to exiting the muffler. This pulled air through this space even at idle and kept the outside of the muffler cooler. Without this double wall design the pipes would glow red and could easily start fires or burn the he** out of you if touched, not to mention chrome plating would turn quite blue. Even with this double wall design the exhaust pipes got quite hot so the heat shield that Suzuki put on the production bikes were pretty large.

Dan

Thanks for the explanation sir!!!

bdalameda said:

Here are a couple of old Suzuki promo video for the RE5's. They are quite funny to watch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biYUqHpOq9c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkPeB1rAagU

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Those were great. i was a Suzuki salesman when they came out. They were unique, and interesting, but tough to sell. No one knew how to measure displacement, customers and mechanics were afraid of the technology, and truthfully the GT 750 2 stroke was a proven performer that cost less. I still see an RE -5 running around occasionally.

I've seen exactly one of these, at L’?pop?e de la Moto (The Epic of the Motorcycle), a museum in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, Quebec. It was cool to look at.

Love watching the promos...thanks for sharing those, Dan.

The RE5 almost killed Suzuki - They spent $39 million in 1974 dollars to develop it and even built a plant just to produce it. The consumer was scared to death of it and the styling looked like it was done by Buck Rodgers. The average guy just could not relate to it. They even had a twin-rotor model ready to be produced but it was canned due to poor sales. Suzuki was lucky that they were in parallel development of the GS series - that saved them! The RE5 is a unique and fun contraption to ride. Handling is excellent and the engine is a torque monster that pulls like an old tractor. It is smooth, has decent performance if the engine is tuned correctly and will consume fuel in enormous amounts if ridden hard. At 55-65 cruise speeds it can sometimes attain 40MPG but if ridden hard it will drop into the low 20's. The engines were pretty bulletproof but few people knew this. Mazda had somewhat poisoned the Wankel reputation in those days. Many of the developments that Suzuki made on the RE5 such as their proprietary internal engine coatings etc. eventually became upgrades that Mazda is still using. The rotary engine is not yet dead at Mazda though it is sleeping for a while, they will be developing new rotary cars in the future. I was asked by Motorcyclist Magazine last year to display my RE5 at the Laguna Seca MotoGP in their 100th Year anniversary display. I was surprised at how many elderly Japanese gentlemen wanted their picture taken with this bike. They were truly proud of it and sad at the same time.

Dan

bdalameda said:

Here is my Suzuki RE5 - I won 1st place with it in the Central Coast Classic Vintage show. I have owned 4 RE5's - I just sold this one to a collector in Europe. I was factory trained on the Re5 in 1975 and presently help many owners with their projects. I have my eye on two more that I will be restoring in the next couple of years. I still have al the factory service tools etc. from my days as a rotary mechanic. These are good solid bikes if setup correctly and are very reliable. I personally have put close to 100K miles on one of my RE5's with no engine problems.

Dan

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Awesome rattie you're holding in that pic. We have two, they're great dogs.

Don-STOC237 said:

Awesome rattie you're holding in that pic. We have two, they're great dogs.

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It's hard to tell but she is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi - she was just a pup when this picture was taken.