SUZUKI HAS filed a new series of patents that suggests it's working to bring a turbocharged bike to production.
Since 2013 we’ve known that Suzuki has been flirting with the possibility of producing a new turbocharged bike - it first revealed the 588cc, 100hp, 78lb/ft, 174kg, turbocharged ‘Recursion’ at the Tokyo Motor Show at the end of 2013.
Fast forward two years, and it turned up to the same show with a new, production ready, forced induction, DOHC parallel-twin engine.
Suzuki called that engine the EX7 and told us that its around 600cc in capacity. At the time, it looked likely that the motor could be heading for production, after Suzuki filed for patents and registered the name ‘Recursion’ as a trademark.
Now, it looks as if the project has taken another step forward, after Suzuki recent filed a series of new patents for the engine with the US Patent Office.
The new patents show the EX7 engine looking the same as it did when it was displayed in Toyko a couple of years ago – a compact piece of engineering with a small intercooler at the top of the engine and twin balance shafts to reduce vibrations. As you can see, it’s housed in a trellis frame, which allows the additional pipework and hoses required by turbocharging to be easily routed around the frame.
There’s no news on what kind of performance to expect from the motor, but with this engine looking like it’ll be capable of delivering more than the 100hp offered by the Recursion’s powerplant, we hope it's going to be somewhere on a par with the kind of power figures offered by inline four-cylinder 600cc sportsbike engines – somewhere around 115hp - which means it could be an interesting prospect for anyone mourning the near-death of middleweight performance engines.
It’s worth noting that filing a patent may not be significant of anything – companies regularly file patents for ideas and designs that get shelved, but the persistence with which Suzuki appears to be pursuing its renewed interest in a turbo’d motorcycle appear to indicate otherwise. Hopefully we’ll find out more at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show at the end of October.
