A lot of haggling had to take place until I was able, three years ago, to become the proud owner of a 1976 Suzuki RE5. Despite the Used Guide's warnings I desperately wanted to own one of these mobile spaceships. It was a machine that had grabbed my imagination when I was a 14 year old delinquent. And had never really let go. The example I eventually handed over £2750 for had only done 7000 miles and was in immaculate shape. The owner had interrogated me extensively before he would allow the prized possession out of his hands. My lust for the RE5 had convinced him that I would look after it as well as he.
The RE5 has one of those Wankel engines, this one displacing the equivalent of 497cc and producing a liquid smooth 60hp. In terms of money per horsepower it's shit value, but in terms of exclusiveness it was a great bargain - I have yet to see another one on the road! The Suzuki looks huge and feels even bigger once a leg has been swung over the saddle. This impression does not fade once underway, it's like riding some great lumbering elephant. My last bike was a CBR600, so the difference is all the greater; whilst my commuter is a CG125, another huge leap in terms of power and weight.
Either the bike came equipped with very poor suspension from new or, in 7000 miles, it had degenerated completely. As the RE5 is a Japanese classic, modifying or fitting non-standard suspension was completely out of the question! Up to about 50mph the bike is just heavy and awkward. Beyond that, weaves build up as speeds increase, although at around 70mph things settle down a little and it's possible to zoom along motorways without the bike wandering out of one's lane.
80mph was no problem for the motor, still extremely smooth. Power fades after that, but putting 110mph on the clock was not impossible as long as you get your head down between the clocks. The horrendous bit comes from the bike shaking about on its springs. It was so bad that after an hour's fast ride my arm muscles felt like they had taken a real workout. It was bad but, surprisingly, after a couple of weeks I realised the machine did not have a death wish like some old Kawa triple.
If I could live with bike on the motorway, A roads were another matter. I could not happily take the bike above 70mph, the suspension bounced about something awful, letting the undercarriage grind into the ground at minimal angles of lean and the sheer weight of the elephant meant it was as easy to throw the machine off the road as it was to get through a series of bends.
If that wasn't bad enough, the soft suspension tended to seize up over bumpy going, doing little to absorb the road surface, so even when gently meandering through the country my enjoyment of the RE5 was invariably spoilt by the horrendous pains being transmitted straight up my spine.
The exhaust noise was a strange whining that was never fully lost to the slipstream. At lower speeds it left an annoying ringing noises bouncing about inside of my crash helmet but this faded after a few months. The bike never really comes in hard powerwise, it's a very gradual and smooth build up of energy. Once a speed was achieved it was easy to hold it even against heavy winds and steep inclines. There were also a certain amount of weirdness when the throttle was backed off. A lot of banging in the exhaust and, even worse, under some circumstances a sudden surge of acceleration when you were expecting the machine to slow down. Heart palpitation time! Engine braking was conspicuous only in its absence.
The disc brakes were passable on a dry day but suffered from a delayed action if there was any hint of water around. I was so worried about writing off my beloved classic that I tried three different makes of pads with no great improvement. I had to keep a slight pressure on the front brake whilst riding around in the wet. Power was smooth, liquid, which otherwise made riding in the wet an agreeable affair with none of the lurid slides that are associated with more powerful and recent Japanese machines.
However, the mudguards appeared specifically designed to cover the bike with crud every time there was even a hint of a rain shower. I was overcome with a horrible sinking feeling whenever I was caught short in bad weather. The seat also soaked up gallons of water, leaving me with a wet backside for days afterwards. Most embarrassing!
The bike came with new Avons, which have proved perfectly adequate over the past 9000 miles, with plenty of life left yet. There is a school of thought that insists the original, rather plastic Japanese rubber should be fitted but they would only be satisfactory for holding the bike up at shows. The rest of the consumables have proved resistant to wear despite having to haul around 530lbs of metal and 200lbs of rider, down to the extremely smooth production of power. 9000 miles is not a great mileage in three years, I know, but the bike is only used on days when the sun is shining and stored over the worst of the winter. The CG takes the brunt of my commuting.
This relatively gentle life has kept the finish up to scratch. I have been motivated to keep the bike well polished, usually giving the RE5 a going over at least once a week, even over the winter when it is not actually ridden! I was a bit surprised to find that, at 12,200 miles, the swinging arm bearings were shot and at 13,700 miles the wheel bearings started emitting desperate screams for help. Great scabs of paint fell off the swinging arm after I'd removed it, so I had to take it down to bare metal before doing my best with a tin of black enamel.
A worrying aspect of the rotary engine was the way it needed vast amounts of oil and petrol poured into the tanks....anything from 25 to 33mpg and around 100mpp. The engine's smoothness would make it a dead cert for a grand tourer role but the fuel consumption would make a mockery out of such pretensions. I have done 300 miles in a day without suffering too many unusual pains, although I did limit my top speed to about 70mph, which is all the upright riding position comfortably allows.
Also, starting became poor if spark plugs were not replaced every 2000 miles or so. On the other hand, the motor has needed no maintenance, although its watercooling, unusual engine design and yards of plumbing make it a mind boggling engine to work on. Spares are apparently available from a couple of sources and there's even an owner's club, although I have not joined as I dislike such groupings; I prefer to enjoy my peculiar perversions privately - not that easy on the RE5, as huge crowds gather whenever it's parked in town.
Despite restrained riding I had a couple of close encounters with other vehicles. Although the twin front discs are quite powerful, the huge amount of mass that had to be hauled to a tyre smoking halt meant huge muscular input was needed on the brake lever to pull up in what are considered normal braking distances. I came within millimetres of taking the side off an inconsiderate Cavalier that had launched itself out of a drive into my path. A women, driving a Metro, had hysterics after the bike had swung through 90 degrees as I panicked braked the RE5 in front of her U-turning car. I had to park her car for her and try to calm her down before I could continue on my journey. I supposed it's one way of meeting the other half of the human race.
A lot of UMG readers will be doubtless appalled by the way I revere a machine that is not much use for anything other than posing around on, although if speed is not your middle name it will take you, eventually, anywhere you want to go. But that's the way it goes.....I became bored by the sheer civility of the CBR600 and the CG performs perfectly adequately the need to get to work and back again. I'm probably no better than those old codgers who trailer their British classics to the shows, but at least the RE5 has been very reliable so far and it's a lot better looking than those old British heaps.
Ian Hayes
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There's always the fear, when owning a complex device like this rotary Suzuki, that something will go wrong with the engine. The Wankel motor always had so many limitations, revolving around keeping the rotor's seals cool and intact, that what in theory was a simple design became in practice much more complex than conventional motorcycle schemes. With 32000 miles on the clock, all is so far well; if the worst happens then the spare motor, salvaged from a crashed bike, will be brought into play.
When the RE5 was introduced in 1975 rotary technology was not so far advanced that Suzuki could forgo over-engineering the whole device. Fully fuelled, weight was around 550lbs and only 60 horses was developed. This unlikely combination is better than you'd expect on the road due to the way the motor runs silkily from tickover onwards. At 5000 revs all hell breaks loose, an indication of the directness of the power pulses and the potential of the motor. Alas, such excitement rapidly dies out, the motor feeling like it's been strangled as higher revs are approached. Still, using the excellent gearbox to keep the revs in the 5000-6000rpm range pushes the old girl along in a way that still surprises modern bikes.
Such is the smoothness of the engine and transmission that the drive chain intrudes when it goes out of adjustment or wears out (every 12000 miles). Such is the serene nature of the engine that any intrusion becomes all out of proportion to its amplitude and is sorted out pretty damn quick.
How smooth is smooth? It makes the CB400 four that shares garage space feel like an old dog and my MZ 250 as agricultural as a lawn mower. I stash the RE5 away over the winter, coming back to it after a couple of months on the MZ always brings a huge grin to my face. There's no doubt about it on this one criteria, the RE5 is in a class of its own.
The machine's a bit of a handful in town but a huge crowd puller. Suzuki did nothing to hide its complexity or plain oddness. The spaceship styling with Star Trek instruments, the expanse of polished alloy and chrome, and the sheer bulk of the bike still grabs pedestrians by their eyeballs. It's always amusing to park up next to a crowd of race replicas, the latter completely ignored. If you like to go about your business without being pestered don't buy one of these motorcycles.
Parking the RE5 is a bit of a problem. Resting against the slightest camber makes it impossible to back out, so the bike always has to be backed into parking spaces. At a walking pace the steering is incredibly heavy, like trying to control a wheelbarrow filled with six bags of cement. There's also a lot of top heaviness. On one occasion I was trying to slip into a narrow gap, got the angle of entrance slightly wrong which had the plot suddenly trying to fall over.
Oooops. It whacked a CB125 off its stand, which promptly fell on to a CX500 which collapsed on top of someone's Yamaha Townmate. They went down like a pack of cards. The RE5 bounced on its massive crash-bar and I pulled it up, suffering screaming muscles, then did a runner before the bikes' owners came back.
The truck sized radiator and crash-bars stick out so far as to make a mockery of any pretensions the RE5 might have towards compactness. The engine runs cleanly at low revs and the overall balance ain't bad, but the width and slow steering makes town riding a real pain. In the early days, when I didn't know any better, I managed to fall over when trying to turn the RE5 through narrow traffic gaps. The cars drivers were not amused by their dented bodywork but the Suzuki remained unscathed. I know better now, if I want to do any serious traffic work I take one of the other bikes.
The RE5 has to be classed as a tourer, it just can't match other bikes on the open road or in town. On the motorway it'd shoot up to the ton then go completely dead. The motor just doesn't want to rev any higher but it's quite possible to cruise at 90 to 100mph for an hour or two. You have to be rich, though, as fuel is appalling - 25mpg! Normally, I'd achieve 35 to 40mpg with an all time low of 20mpg!
Whilst it'd hold a reasonable speed on the motorway going around corners was less thrilling. The main problem was the stand touching down. This was about as much fun as running over an assault course with a broken ankle. The stand likes to dig in, trying to lever the Suzuki right off the tarmac. The RE5's not the kind of lightweight machine that can be twitched upright with ease. The steering is so slow that it makes a GS550 seem fit for chucking around the Isle of Man. It is, though, pretty safe, able to run over large bumps without going into a feeding frenzy.
Suspension seems to have been borrowed from the GT750 triple, another bike not exactly renown for highway class. The front forks went really nasty when the chrome guard rusted through, but a new one brought back a modicum of rigidity. I rebuilt them about 10,000 miles ago - if I hadn't been obsessed with keeping the bike original I would've fitted something much more modern.
The same goes for the rear shocks, just about anything would be better but they don't get any worse with age! One set of swinging arm bearings were replaced, a little bit of grease being noted on the spindle. The frame's tubular and rusts away where it's hidden beneath all the engine bits. No way I was going to pull the motor apart unless I had to, so a bit of scraping and long paintbrush were applied - every damn month! The alloy needs constant polishing and if it's chromed it rusts, needing replacement after 20,000 miles. New RE5 parts do turn up from time to time in MCN trade classifieds, some GT750 cycle bits can be used and I've renovated quite a few parts from the crashed bike.
The front disc brake always seemed a bit dodgy to me. Note the way the calipers are mounted in front of the forks, with all the inertia complication that it causes. A real period piece that was quickly abandoned in later models by every motorcycle company in the world. The discs are solid cast iron, so hard they haven't worn one tiny bit - wet weather lag paints a yellow streak right down my back. Braking power is adequate up to 80mph, but the few times I've really pushed the RE5 some fade turned up. Pad wear was about 7000 miles, more a consequence of the rolling mass than any excessive use of the brake. Caliper rot wasn't that bad, but only because I never rode in the winter.
The rear drum is merely adequate, glowing red hot in the dark when abused. The wheels were another story, spoked jobs with alloy rims. I've had back rims break up and just gently rolling up on to the pavement was all it took to buckle the rim. When the rear bearings went at (15000 miles) they proved so well corroded into the hub that the alloy cracked when they were finally hammered out. The hub from the crashed bike was used with stainless steel spokes and heavy duty alloy rim to match the front wheel. Only a maniac would complain about the non-standard set-up.
Despite all these hassles many a happy summer was spent touring on the bike. On major roads it's a relaxing, smooth and sophisticated little number. Oil had to be watched as rigorously as fuel but a set of Avons would go for more than 10,000 miles. Comfort was good for about 400 miles in a day at 60-80mph.
The UMG doesn't rate the RE5 and seems outraged that prices are in four rather than three figures. I'm obviously happy that it's such a valuable bike but in all honesty can't say that the value is justified. I'll keep mine for a while longer. I like its uniqueness.
Geoff Raymond