Why did the rotarty motorcycle engine fail when it had very little moving parts,and low top speed?
The rotaries were a very simple concept that was very complex to make work. In production for only 2 years, Suzuki’s cost them a fortune. On the early ones, the apex tip seals would wear quickly and Suzuki would graciously replaced th entire engine at a small fortune. The got terrible fuel mileage, 28-30 mpg and the exhaust was so hot the pipes were “air cooled”. They were double walled with an opening in the front to let cool air flow through between the inner and outer pipe. The large combustion surface area not only meant poor gas mileage, but lots of engine heat to get rid of and lots of exhaust emmissions. The quirks of the rotary engine required a two stage ignition to retard the timing on decelleration. Otherwise, when the throttle was cut, the engine might slow down or it might slow down and then speed back up…all by itself. Their’s was a single rotor. To top it all off, the bike was quite heavy for a 500cc. The twin rotor, 1000cc Van Veen was another extremely heavy, gas guz
