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I never knew about the Suzuki RE 5 until today!

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McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Obviously I've seen Police Rotary engined Nortons, a bike famously  raced by  local lad Ron Haslam.

Never knew Suzuki built one until I read on old issue may 2003 of m/cycle Mechanics. The main gripe was it's poor fuel consumption.

I've never seen one, has anyone here ridden or owned one?

Johnwebley:
Never ridden one, they are very rare,

Very interesting instrument binacle,

The two exhaust had ducts in the downpipes to get cooling air,

In the early 70's, they were big,shiny and unusual

Sent from my SM-A546E using Tapatalk

McCabe-Thiele (Ted):
Yes the Instrument binacle cover that rolls up when the ignition is switched on.

Laverda Dave:
The later model didn't have the rotary binnacle but made do with normal Suzuki clocks.
The RE5 very nearly bankrupted Suzuki after spending millions on a licence fee, the development costs followed by endless warranty claims due to excessive rotor tip wear and especially in the USA. It was so expensive to take the engine apart to replace the rotor tips Suzuki ended up replacing the whole motor as it was a cheaper (but still expensive option).
The bike was an absolute disaster for the company, heavy, unreliable, excessive heat and expensive to buy and run. I read that Suzuki recalled all the bikes left unsold and crushed them, they also did the same with any bikes with faulty engines giving the owners other models instead.
I know the original VF nearly bankrupted Honda but they had the corporate clout to ride the storm and take the engine back to the drawing board, Suzuki in the early 70’s when they were designing the RE5 were a small player.
Yamaha also dabled with a rotary but knew it was a dead end and didn't really pursue the idea.
The only company who made a rotary work was Norton but that was following years of development.
The Dutch VanVeen OCR was a lovely but expensive bike in the mid 70’s but that used (I think) a Citroen twin rotor engine that Citroen couldn't make work so VanVeen bought them up!
The Hercules (or DKW depending where you live) was a snowmobile engine and was actually the same engine design and capacity as used by Norton although Norton used a twin rotor configuration.
Even in the car world it was Mazda with the RX7 and RX8 who made the rotary work but even they have dumped the idea.
The rotary still remains a great engine and I'll never forget spectating at the Crag on the IOM hearing the wail of the JPS Norton's coming down from the mountain, what a sound.

Bryanj:
There was another firm made rotarys DK had oil mix and injection pnes, saw both at a wholesellers in London called Mobyke, both had been wrecked mechanically by the press notputting oil in!

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