Baldy

Just curious...has there ever been a rotary motorcycle? Anybody think it would be possible?

winger

there's a seadoo powered by a 170hp 13b....

phinsup

Yes the manufacturer is called Norton, they are extremely loud, but very cool.

dysthymia

There was also a Suzuki rotary bike from the seventies called the RE-5.



Phins, you should know that, you own a GSX-R.

Rutt

Next project... 500cc 1 rotor crotch rocket! Hell yeah!!

Baldy

If you had it in there sideways, you just might be able to make it flip you over the side with a twist of the throttle.

1988RedT2

Check it out.

YucA

yea...there were a few manufacturers that tried the rotary motorcyle concept. norton and Suzuki are the few that actually produced them,,,

dysthymia

Yeah, the RE5 is ugly, but that's nothing you couldn't fix with some customization.

Wooffinn

Hey all, I actually rode a Suzuki Re-5. Our local tech college has one on display. Feels a bit funny leaning into the corners, but off the mark and straight line speed is quite good. They had a quarter time of 13.9seconds and 0-60mph in 5.3seconds so I suppose that's why it was quite quick.

A few others for the list are the Yamaha RZ-201 660cc twin rotor and W2000 294cc single rotor brother, norton and triumph had 588cc twin rotors and Van veen's 1litre OCR-1000. I'm not sure how many were made or weather they were all prototypes.

Hey did you know Suzuki's RE-5 was a factory Peripheral ported engine. There were three ports, two 10mm primary ports and a larger 32mm secondry port below the primaries. Apparently, it had a very complicated engine\fuel system to cope with the port system and after seeing one up close I'd have to agree. Great fun to ride though.