A patent application by the Suzuki Motor Corporation is causing some waves, and for good reason, as the Japanese manufacturer is teasing an engine that looks very familiar…if you have ever seen the inside of the Ducati Supermono engine.
While Suzuki’s patent centers around the lubricating structure for a motorcycle engine, the diagrams being used for the patent application concern a single-cylinder engine type that includes a dummy cylinder for a balancer.
The same approach was used by Ducati in 1993, when the Italian firm built the famed Supermono motorcycle.
The dummy cylinder allows the single-cylinder setup to be in primary balance, which means that it can rev more, and thus make more power.
Now, we are loath to give too much weight to a design drawing in a patent that isn’t at the core of the patent itself – as we have pointed out before the diagrams in patents are basically worthless in the eyes of the law, and merely illustrate a non-binding idea of how a patent can be applied.
Still, the concept had to come from somewhere within the brainpower at Hamamatsu.
Is Suzuki thinking about a supermono design for an upcoming single-cylinder street bike or dirt bike? Or, is there someone on the Suzuki design team that is paying homage to the 25-year-old Ducati design? That is up for you to decide.
Such an arrangement has the potential to upset the balance (pardon the pun) of the motocross/enduro realm, and push the power and usability limits even further than before…and this is exactly the kind of mojo that the Suzuki brand needs.
For our part, we think the idea would look great on a new DRZ supermoto. It’s about time the venerable street bike got some love from Suzuki’s engineers.
The design would also work well on a large-displacement thumper, that could fill the voids left behind by the Kawasaki KLR 650 and KTM 690 Duke.
Source: USPTO via Cycle World
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