The Suzuki XN85, released in early 1983, was a

turbocharged In an internal combustion engine, a turbocharger (often called a turbo) is a forced induction device that is powered by the flow of exhaust gases. It uses this energy to compress the intake gas, forcing more air into the engine in order to pro ...

motorcycle A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...

designed as a

sports bike Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

. The name came from the claim that it produced 85 bhp, although rear wheel measurements were in the low 70s. It featured the first factory 16-inch front wheel (at least in the U.S.), previously seen only on race bikes. It also had low clip-on handlebars, rearset foot pegs, four-into-one exhaust,

electronic fuel injection Manifold injection is a mixture formation system for internal combustion engines with external mixture formation. It is commonly used in engines with spark ignition that use petrol as fuel, such as the Otto engine, and the Wankel engine. In a mani ...

, and a monoshock rear suspension called the Suzuki Full Floater—the first to feature this. Its styling was derived from the

Suzuki Katana The Suzuki Katana is a street motorcycle sold between 1981 and 2006 and then since 2019. It was designed in 1979–1980 by Target Design of Germany for Suzuki. The Katana name was later applied to a range of in-house styled sport touring motorc ...

. The engine was rather tame, with boost kicking in around 5,000 rpm. The fuel-injected motor pulled strongly from that point but did not match the performance of larger sportbikes. Oil jets directed onto the bottom of the pistons improved engine cooling. Later iterations of this technique were marketed as the

Suzuki Advanced Cooling System The Suzuki Advanced Cooling System (SACS) was developed by Suzuki engineer Etsuo Yokouchi in the early 1980s. The system was used extensively on GSXR model bikes from 1985 through 1992. Suzuki continued to use the system in its GSF (Bandit) and G ...

. While the XN did not have the power of other sportbikes, it had notably better handling than similar powered machines due to frame and suspension geometry. Total XN85 production was 1,153 units from 1983 to 1985. Three hundred of those were exported to the U.S, where the bike was sold only in 1983. The XN85 was replaced shortly after its release in the U.S. by the lighter and cheaper GS750ES.

References

External links

1983 XN85D specs
at turbomotorcyles.org XN85 {{DEFAULTSORT:Suzuki Gs500 Motorcycles introduced in 1983

See also

References

External links