re5a

The Suzuki RE5A pictured belongs to Lee Doxey. Suzuki only made the RE5 for a couple of years back in 74 when many car and motorcycle manufacturers thought the rotary engine was the way forward. Suzuki went full speed ahead with development as they wanted to be the first to add a rotor powered motorcycle to their lineup, it was a decision that almost bankrupt Suzuki. Sales of the new "M" model flopped, later in desperation Suzuki released the "A" model that was a little more conventional with it's instruments and slightly improved, that also failed to attract new buyers of this futuristic machine, quietly Suzuki dropped it from their catalogue.

Thirty odd years later classic motorcycle enthusiast are only recently appreciating the rare RE5, this has made it highly collectable and pushed up values of good well maintained running machines.

Lee decided he had to have an RE5 and bought a good unrestored bike from a reliable source, Lee realised that this would be a brave restoration that was due to start in late 2007. After reading everything about the RE5 including all the manuals Lee became quite confident that he could do it. Surprisingly it didn"t take that long to complete as all of the parts needed came from one supplier in the States. In no time at all it was running and being ridden as if a new bike.

This bike turns heads, many bikers know about it but have never seen one and others never knew it existed. Forget what you hear about the RE5 being unreliable or too thirsty for petrol and using too much oil, most of its not true, a well maintained Suzuki rotary can be as reliable as any other machine. A heavy cruiser that Lee rides around South Wales knowing he will never see another one coming from the opposite direction, it's good to be different.

The Club For Classic Japanese Motorcycles

For Japanese Motorcycles 15 years plus