Nortons

**Motu** · 27th May 2004, 12:25

Sachs made some great stationary wankles.When I worked for a trucking company with a fleet of trucks with fridge units on them they were powered by 16 horse Briggs or Kohler engines - to lift one of these cast iron monsters up to the top of the body took about 4 guys grunting.There were also some Sachs wankle units - you could pick these up with one hand,and they would run Christchurch to Auckland on a couple of liters of fuel (shut down and plugged into the ferry) When I was at Hire Pool they put some on lawnmowers - woo hoo,could they scream! The customers found that out pretty quick too.They would turn the blade upside down and level a rotary hoed section down flat.Took them off damn smart,but I couldn't get my hands on one.(we used to pull a motor off and just toss it in the jumbo bin,it was full of Kawa motors!)

**SPman** · 28th May 2004, 12:09

Saw the Norton this year - Westpac run I think.

**moko** · 23rd June 2004, 06:57

On the capacity thing,at the time there was a lot of argument over how to measure it,there were 3 "cylinders" but manufacturers only counted the capacity of one,hence the Suzi was classified as 500cc while others argued it was in fact 1500,which at the time no insurance company would have touched.Likewise it suited Norton,I believe their race bikes were something like 588cc while competitors,probably justifiably,complained that it was 3 times that size.Police bikes were air-cooled I believe (and much hated by the cops)while later models were water-cooled and a lot better but by then the company was on it`s knees.
RE5 was for quite a while rated as a classic until a classic "Emporer`s New Clothes" article in a little mag written almost entirely by a guy called Bill Fowler asked why prices were so high for a bike that was a flop,didnt handle and wasn`t actually very good for anything kicked the arse out the RE5 market and prices crashed,you`d have trouble giving one away these days.
Whatever the size the Norton race bikes were great to look at and a sign of what might have been with better management.

**Dr Bob** · 23rd June 2004, 12:41

What moko said. I have seen the RE5 at a bike shop and another kind of custom style rotary (It was black and I think it was honda, but that just can't be right, it must have been a Suzuki) that was early eighties vintage.

The reason they didn't go into serious r&d was not really reliability and economy - those are the things that they would have fixed through development. It was because the race committees wanted to measure the the full swept path capacity of every chamber. This gave them an horrendous disadvantage in cc rating.

**pete376403** · 23rd June 2004, 12:52

I have no idea if Suzuki ever considered the RE-5 as the basis of a race bike, but the rotary engine in general was more or less killed by the fuel crisis of the mid 70's. Mazda nearly dropped the rotary in the US (who wanted an economy car that did 12 miles to the gallon) and if they died there, the rest of the world would surely have followed. Fortunately Mazda persisted and now we have such gems as the RX8

**vifferman** · 23rd June 2004, 14:14

When I was a teenager I worked in a furniture shop that was next door to the Suzuki dealership. I remember when the RE5 was released, and also the sound it made when it was running - a very unusual noise that is still stuck in my head! The RE5 was an amazing bike for the time, and with features like the unusual instrument panel just seemed really modern compared to anything else. However, as others have said here, it was a failure due to bad handling, poor rotor seals, excessive fuel consumption and an engine that ran very hot. It was also very expensive compared to other bikes that didn't have these problems and also performed better.

**Motu** · 28th June 2004, 07:39

Saw an RE5 on saturday parked in Normanby rd in Mt Eden,outside that trendy Pub - unless he pushed it around the corner from the trendy appartment that means at least one is running and on the road.

**Kickaha** · 28th June 2004, 18:48

Originally Posted by Motu

Saw an RE5 on saturday parked in Normanby rd in Mt Eden,outside that trendy Pub - unless he pushed it around the corner from the trendy appartment that means at least one is running and on the road.

There's at least one in Christchurch which is pretty mint condition,Ive seen it a being ridden a couple of times.

**fastford111** · 10th July 2004, 21:50

their was a norton rotery for sale over here in aussie a collector was selling whole lot of bikes it was $10000 kind of looked like a cop bike thought it wasent a bab price for something so rear

**moko** · 11th July 2004, 05:51

Originally Posted by fastford111

their was a norton rotery for sale over here in aussie a collector was selling whole lot of bikes it was $10000 kind of looked like a cop bike thought it wasent a bab price for something so rear

Brit Police used them for a while and they were very unpopular.They were however early models and the later ones are supposedly a lot better,the Police didn`t stick around long enough to find out though and didn`t come back for more.$10,000 sounds steep for one,you`d get a bloody good "civilian" later model for that over here.They did a really neat race rep but I believe it was basically a homologation special and was priced at $28000-ish,or nearly 3 times the price of a GPZ900 which was top dog at the time.