Just curious, has anyone ever ridden one of these? Wankel engine on motorcycle.
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/mcy/3997437953.html
http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/mcy/3997437953.html
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.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
Awesome rattie you're holding in that pic. We have two, they're great dogs.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
It's hard to tell but she is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi - she was just a pup when this picture was taken.Awesome rattie you're holding in that pic. We have two, they're great dogs.