This 1980s Suzuki Concept Motorcycle Has No Brake Pads And Steers Via Joysticks

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The world of concept motorcycles can be a wacky place. Sure, a lot of the time you’ll see incredible designs that can give you back pain through your computer screen. Other times, the concepts have a novel feature, like being able to fold in on themselves. In 1985, Suzuki rolled into the Tokyo Motor Show with a concept motorcycle that would be advanced even today. The Suzuki Falcorustyco Concept had hub-center steering, a hydraulic pump to drive the rear wheel, electromagnetic brakes, and an engine that was the motorcycle’s frame, and you controlled it with joysticks connected to a hydraulic system.

I love writing about concept motorcycles when I find them. Recently, the newest incarnation of Buell Motorcycles unveiled a touring motorcycle that it thinks you’ll want to use on a track. Meanwhile, there’s a weird electric motorcycle with a hubless wheel and another electric motorcycle that wants to be a robot. All of these motorcycles are something a bit different, but at least grounded in the reality that most riders know motorcycles to be. Those motorcycles are fundamentally similar. When you swing a leg over their seats, you’ll be controlling those motorcycles with a familiar handlebar and power is delivered through common means like a chain or a direct drive. Those motorcycles also have frames with their bits bolted to them.

A whole 38 years ago, Suzuki introduced a concept motorcycle that’s so far out there that its proposed technology still isn’t used in production motorcycles.

The Motorcycle Of The Future, In 1985

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Yahoo Japan Auctions

The Japanese motorcycle industry of the 1980s was one where manufacturers tried out novel ideas. This was the era that gave us a few turbocharged marvels and top speeds inched higher and higher. It’s also one where Suzuki produced perhaps one of the wildest concept bikes ever, and the best part was the fact that Suzuki said it was functional.

In January 1986 issue, Cycle World Magazine proudly proclaimed “Suzuki’s Falcorustyco The Future Is Now.” The magazine further describes the motorcycle printed on its pages as looking like it came from the 21st century, perhaps falling out of a time machine or a Star Wars movie set. Truth be told, Suzuki could slap some LEDs on this, bring it to a show today, and motorcycle media would probably say that it looks like it came from the 22nd century.

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Cycle World Magazine

This motorcycle wasn’t a film prop. The Falcorustyco was supposed to showcase technology that sportbikes might have in the near future for 1985. Cycle World started with the motorcycle’s name. Falcorustyco means “white falcon” in Latin. It refers to the Falco Rusticolus, the Latin name for the Gyrfalcon, the largest falcon species in the world. Suzuki would later name another motorcycle after a falcon. In 1999, Suzuki launched the GSX1300R Hayabusa. At the time, it was the world’s fastest motorcycle and it was named after the Japanese peregrine falcon.

Starting with the front, the Falcorustyco gets weird immediately. It features center-hub steering like a Bimota Tesi. In this steering design, steering pivot points are moved to the wheel rather than at the steering head like with a typical motorcycle. The idea here is to separate steering, braking, and suspension. That way, when you hit the brakes you don’t get suspension dive and your steering geometry doesn’t change. Here’s a video demonstration using a Bimota as an example:

There are different ways to achieve hub-center steering. You could use cables and linkages to translate movement of the bars to movement of the wheel. In this case, Suzuki used hydraulic cylinders and lines to link the grips and the front wheels. This is why Cycle World felt that using a Latin name was perhaps a nod to Bimota.

The weirdness only escalates from here. For the motorcycle’s engine, Suzuki created a square four. In this configuration, you have four cylinders pointing up in a square. The Falcorustyco’s square four was a 400cc unit that revved up to 13,000 RPM. That engine had two banks of cylinders, two linked crankshafts, three camshafts, and it sucked in air from side inlets. Square fours aren’t anything new, but how this one delivers its power is an anomaly in the motorcycle world.

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Suzuki

In place of a transmission sits a hydraulic pump. That pump pushes fluid to the rear swingarm. Oh yeah, I should note that the engine isn’t just an engine, but the motorcycle’s frame. The swingarms mount directly to the engine, as does the rest of the motorcycle’s supporting structure. Anyway, the hydraulic pump pushes fluid to a motor housed in the rear wheel, which propels the motorcycle. Engine speed and wheel speed are moderated through the flow of hydraulic fluid.

The hydraulic motor in the rear also serves as the rear wheel’s brake. Instead of friction brakes in the rear, the hydraulic motor just runs in reverse, slowing down the rear wheel. You’ll notice that there isn’t a brake disc or drum at the front. Well, Suzuki went left field for that as well. Aside from running the hydraulic motor in reverse, stopping is handled through electromagnetic brakes mounted up front:

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Yahoo Japan Auctions

[Editor’s Note: You’ll notice that Suzuki calls the front system “Electro-Magnetic Power Brakes” as well as “electro-magnetic powder braking system.” This aligns with what I found at magnetic-powder-brake.com, which provides this description of a power/powder braking system:

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Image: magnetic-powder-brake.com

I don’t know for sure that this is how Suzuki’s system worked, but it’s fascinating stuff nonetheless.  -DT. ]

Even the suspension was ahead of its time. The Suzuki Falcorustyco featured an electronically-controlled suspension. That’s something that’s becoming common in motorcycles today. Back in 1985, this suspension was revolutionary.

We’re still not done with this motorcycle’s out-of-this-world engineering. Look at this motorcycle and you’ll notice a lack of foot controls and your “handlebar” is just a pair of grips that look like video game joysticks. Since it uses a hydraulic drive system, there’s no clutch lever. And since it uses electromagnets and hydraulics for braking, there isn’t a brake lever, either. Instead, you control the motorcycle entirely through the grips. For example, the right grip has a pressure-sensitive pad and you squeeze it to stop.

Still Different 38 Years Later

Rusty
Suzuki

 

As I said before, Suzuki reportedly said that this motorcycle was functional. Apparently, Suzuki then told the motorcycle press that the Falcorustyco was so far in its development that it could be produced “almost immediately.” Though, it should be noted that the concept didn’t even have a side stand. The marque also reportedly said that if the motorcycle didn’t enter production, motorcyclists would be seeing the tech soon enough. Cycle World made a bet: “You won’t have to wait a decade to see its like on the street.” 

This bet was supported by the concept’s brochure, which said that the technology was six to 10 years out.

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Yahoo Japan Auctions

Well, 38 years later and much of the proposed technology on this motorcycle is still unique. There are modern hub-steering designs, but you aren’t going to buy a motorcycle today that moves and stops based on hydraulic pressure and brakes are still largely friction-based. You’re also not going to accelerate and stop by squeezing joysticks.

It’s not known exactly what happened with this motorcycle or why none of Suzuki’s claims came to fruition. Some question if Suzuki was even telling the truth when it said that the concept was a running and riding motorcycle. In a modern-day retrospective, Cycle World speculates that the Falcorustyco concept was maybe an internal diversion to keep some engineers distracted during Suzuki GSX-R development.

I’ve reached out to Suzuki to see if I could get some clarification on what’s going on here. I will update if I hear back.

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Yahoo Japan Auctions

If any of the tech on this motorcycle was functional, riding it would likely have been an unforgettable experience. Some parts, like the hydraulic drive system, probably wouldn’t be that fun on a production bike, but the joysticks and the proposed riding position give off Tron Lightcycle vibes. Heck, just give us a motorcycle that looks like this and I’d ride it every day.

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26 thoughts on “This 1980s Suzuki Concept Motorcycle Has No Brake Pads And Steers Via Joysticks

  1. late to the article. There is no way falco rusticolis is latin for white falcon. falco albis more likely. not sure about declensions, only had one year of latin, 40-odd years ago. falco rusticolis means hayseed killerbird. Maybe the common name of the gyrfalcon in japan translates from japanese to english as “white falcon”, but the latin genus/species they derived the model name from doesn’t.

  2. I’m making over $13k a month working part time. I kept hearing other people tell me how much money they can make online so I decided to look into it. Well, it was all true and has totally changed my life.

    That is what I do… https://iplis.ru/2ovyx2

    1. I was also thinking of the bikes in Akira, as well. I’m wondering how well Bubblegum Crisis has aged. Kind of afraid to go back and watch it after all these years…

  3. I find hydraulic drive to be a really interesting obscure technology, because Citroen already showed you can make suspension, braking, and shifting run off of hydraulic systems. Why not add drive to the list of things you can run off of a hydraulic pump? Those hydraulic shifting mechanisms should be applicable to a hydraulic transmission for hydraulic drive, right? You could make an entirely hydraulic car if it could be made efficient enough.

  4. There are a number of industrial vehicles that use hydrologic drive systems. Typically useful when the hydrolics drive peripheral items. Howver my 25 year old zero turn lawn mower is hydrolic. Engine drives two pumps, one for each wheel hub motor. Probably not efficient. But for a 2 wheel drive cycle, why not.

    That said, in world of cycles, it’s hard to beat the proven Japanese UJM concept.

  5. That does look like something being shown this century, not decades ago.
    However, my (non-engineer: someone correct me, please) understanding of hydraulic drive systems is that there are a lot of inefficiencies. I normally only see them in low-speed, relatively high-load situations like boom or scissor lifts. I believe they are also much heavier than conventional drive-types. Unsprung mass on a motorcycle really, really affects the ride.

    Sorry! It looks way cool, but I don’t think it would be optimal.

  6. “you aren’t going to buy a motorcycle today that moves and stops based on hydraulic pressure and brakes are still largely friction-based.”

    While these designs are quite interesting, they would almost certainly be much more expensive to produce than the typical parts, especially at first. They would need to be significantly better out of the gate in order to replace components – e.g. brakes with discs and calipers – that are already known to work well and to be [relatively] inexpensive to produce.

    Oddly enough, though, just for grins I would like to see something like this configured with a modern electric motor instead of an ICE.

  7. “The Japanese motorcycle industry of the 1980s was one where manufacturers tried out novel ideas” Did they though? Kawasaki added a turbo to the KZ1000 (officially denied by the factory, but still) in ’78, and the turbo revolution pretty much failed. When I think “novel” I always think Suzuki. The RE5 rotary, the Katana (one non-US model with a pop up headlight!) the domination of the GS series, the introduction of the GSX-R (which was startling the first time I saw one). Honda was more Kaizen, continuous, incremental improvement. One exception was the NR series, however, that was intended to skirt the rules and create a “V8” without creating a V8. Yamaha was maybe a bit unusual, but not until the R1, which created some novel engine designs that centralized mass. Kawasaki, was the same, it was really a series small one-up-manships year to year from 80-the oughts. Novel, even weird though, that was a Suzuki.. Or Bimota.

    1. Counterpoints: I believe the Yamaha RZ350s represent what the multi-cylinder two-stroke street bike should have become: a tunable engine in a good, solid frame. (Or at least one more solid than the 1970s bikes like the Water Buffalo.) Unfortunately they started to sell them after emissions standards had started to become more strict and the two-stroke market died.

      IIRC Yamaha was the first to offer a five-valve head on production street bikes.

      The “turbo revolution” was more of a 1980s thing. Don’t forget that Kawasaki brought out the GPz750 Turbo in 1984. It was a contemporary of the Honda CX650 Turbo and the Yamaha Seca 650 Turbo.

      I didn’t see the plain-jane Suzuki GSs as “dominating” anything, though they were well regarded. (The GS1000/1100/1150 bottom end is still prized by drag racers.) The move to air+oil cooling helped and led to the first Katana, then the E bikes, and later the GSX-Rs, but the KZs had more of a performance reputation. The 1981 GPz550 had air+oil cooling as well and was/is regarded as the seminal middleweight sport bike.

      1. Some fair points, I was referring to the 80s’ turbos, the CX was the first, but none of them lived up to expectations. My point was I don’t think they were being that novel. I thought about the 5 valve Genesis, but was it that big a deal performance wise? The FZR 400/600 was more successful I thought, didn’t they make the 600 for like 20 years? Now in terms of two strokes, here in the US, Yamaha certainly held on the longest, the RD350LC was undoubtedly the better bike though, however overseas the field was larger, with the Suzuki Gamma being a top pick, the mid 90’s Cagiva Mito being the most sexy. The GPz550 was the best middle weight until I guess the VF500, but it was bracketed by the GS1100 and the GS450, the GS1100 IIRC topped a lot of the top 10 lists in the early 80s, before the Race Replica wars began.

  8. Lasers? Check
    Digital Green Grid? Check
    Joysticks for the Atari generation? Check
    TRON influence? Check

    Throw in a Member’s Only jacket and some pastel t-shirts and the 80’s are alive and well.

    1. Just remember to have the flock of seagulls cassette tape handy to put into your sony walkman when riding. A bike this cool needs an even cooler new wave soundtrack.

    1. Came here to say:
      FalcoRUSTYco? Over engineered piece of 80s machinery with weird slightly impractical tech? Impossibly rare and never sold to the public? Slap a jeep badge on it and DT is going on a grail quest.

  9. Falcorustyco?

    I already had a low opinion of marketers who name things. My living room is “Garden Lattice” and “Ancestral Gold.” You’d think the latter would be yellow. You would be wrong. It’s like developers who name roads “Hemlock Hollow” or “Cedar Grove”… After clearcutting the woods to build.

    “Falcorustyco” is just… bad.

  10. That thing is kooky but the body shape still looks compelling and aged well.
    I remember when that Bimota was revealed, and I had to stare at the photos for ages before my nonengineer brain could figure out how the hell it worked.

    1. I had that same problem with the Britten, mostly because so much of the details were undisclosed, but I bought every magazine that had one featured at the time trying to figure out his front suspension, not sure I ever did. Spoiler; the internet didn’t exist.

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