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Here's some details on the Suzuki XN85 turbo found on a Canadian BBS (bulletin board Service) from the 1990's:
I've been reading a lot about turbo motorcycles again lately and I keep seeing the Honda CX500 & 650, Yamaha Seca 650 and Kawasaki 750 Turbo but almost nothing on the Suzuki 650 Turbo so I decided to tell what I know after trying to buy one in 1988. I knew they were not big sellers but I was hoping to find a new old stock bike much like leftover Honda CBX bikes that didn't sell and was on showroom floors till years after. Even finding a used one would have been a big score both from a dealer or privately. They just don't show up for sale used. I had a long chat about the XN85 from a dealer who told me what he knew and as a consolation prize for not finding one, gave me a large dealer XN85 poster, a brochure on the design and technical features on the XN85 and a framed dealer 8 1/2" glossy photo of the bike. I thanked him for my new treasures and hoped one day I would find a used XN85, even if I had to check the classified section in the newspapers and motorcycle magazines every weekend.
This is what I was told when I spoke with a large Suzuki Dealer in Ontario, Canada around the fall of 1988 after trying to find a used or new old stock XN85 turbo. The owner or manager was very knowledgable on the XN85 and said that they didn't sell well because of the high price for a 650, expensive insurance rates compared to other bikes and customers worried about the turbo/EFI giving trouble. He went on to say that Suzuki recalled some of the bikes to send back to Japan. When he asked why, he was told they would be taken out of stock. The manager took this to mean destroyed. When I ask if he knew how many were brought into north america he said the details he had heard from other dealers was that the United states received 305 bikes with 9 Cut away display engines also sent as technological show pieces. He said Canada received 29 Bikes, 2 Cutaway engine displays, an early prototype bike that originally had a full chain guard but was removed from the bike for some reason when put on display and 4 early serial number bikes (less than serial number 20) for display only while the standard production models were on there way from Japan. The bikes came with instructions to return them after the standard production models arrived. Some of the early serial number bikes had Turbo emblems on the muffler that were removed from the pre-production bikes to make them look more like the production bikes.
The early serial numbered bikes were later returned to Japan but he's not sure why. He also heard that at least one of the early serial numbered bikes was sold by mistake and at least that one did not return to Japan. I also heard that the bike's with serial numbers under 50 were a kind of pre-production bike to test production line, checking quality, make minor improvements, etc and from around serial number 50 and up were the real production versions to be sold to the public. The early serial number models was the first to enter Canada with the cut away engines to be send to various dealers while the other 29 bikes were on it's way. Out of the 305 US bikes and 29 Canadian bikes, some of the unsold bikes were recalled to Japan (to be sent to other locations or destroyed?) Out of the 305 US bikes it's believed only around 150 were sold and of the 29 Canadian bikes, only 20 was sold. It's possible that over the years some of the Canadian bikes went over to the US and vise versa in the used market. He told me he knew many details on the bike because at first it was looking like the future of Motorcycles with more power, more engine efficiency and less weight. The Suzuki XN85 was the talk of the town between dealers and drew a lot of interest to the showroom but unfortunately very few buyers. He also said the XN85 bikes original had more power and a bigger turbo kick but after intensive testing, the factory decided it was best to detune it to give a smoother off/on boost and focused more on handling improvements just weeks before the press had a chance to test it on a Japanese test track. That's why the XN85 don't have the doctor jekyll and mr hyde personalities of the other 3 factory turbo bikes.
The manager explained that the XN85 Turbo was considered by Suzuki a test platform that was Suzuki's first EFI motorcycle and employed an early form of oil cooling that was later refined and improved for the state of the Art GSX-R750 oil cooled motorcycle. It also has styling cues taken from the original Katana designed by Hans Muth, a race inspired 16" front wheel, clip-ons handle bars and a mono shock rear suspension. Suzuki was going to closely monitor owners of the XN85 for real world reliability and customer satisfaction. It was possible that this was the first of several Turbocharged models they would release in the future. That's part of the reason Suzuki recalled all the unsold bikes in Canada and USA (being a limited production test platform) that just didn't sell. He believed Suzuki wanted to cut its losses with this designed as a public model and distance itself from its sales failure. The XN85 was a solid reliable bike that was the best handling bike they made at the time, it just didn't sell. It may have been cheaper to take unsold bikes off the market then to continue to try and sell a new complicated design at bargain basement prices that may come back as customer headaches. Approximately 1100 bikes were produced worldwide and one realistic estimate of the bikes titled and sold, totaled around 600 units. The serial numbers of the bikes sent to dealers were usually not sequential so two bikes shipped together could be a few hundred numbers apart. Suzuki dealers from other countries have also reported sending back unsold XN85’s to Japan as complete bikes or the steering column cut and engine side case removed from the bike with the serial numbers on them. Sadly, a non-turbo Suzuki GS750ES released about the same time as the XN85 was quicker, cost less, a lighter design and didn't have the owners worried over the EFI or Turbo giving problems. Suzuki seems to go out of their way to erase the bike from the public's mind by secretly recalling unsold bikes and little or no mention of the bike in Suzuki's dealerships or literature. As time goes on, it's very unlikely that many of these bikes will show up for sale except for the few private collectors or museums that already own them. Some people call bikes like the Honda CBX or the Kawasaki Eddy Lawson Replica rare but I don't know of any factory production motorcycle that is as rare or scarce as the XN85 and likely to sky rocket in price in the next 10 to 20 years. It looks like it will be extremely hard to find a chance to own a bike that was ahead of it's time in technology and that most people don't even know exist.
Rocket Dave
I've been reading a lot about turbo motorcycles again lately and I keep seeing the Honda CX500 & 650, Yamaha Seca 650 and Kawasaki 750 Turbo but almost nothing on the Suzuki 650 Turbo so I decided to tell what I know after trying to buy one in 1988. I knew they were not big sellers but I was hoping to find a new old stock bike much like leftover Honda CBX bikes that didn't sell and was on showroom floors till years after. Even finding a used one would have been a big score both from a dealer or privately. They just don't show up for sale used. I had a long chat about the XN85 from a dealer who told me what he knew and as a consolation prize for not finding one, gave me a large dealer XN85 poster, a brochure on the design and technical features on the XN85 and a framed dealer 8 1/2" glossy photo of the bike. I thanked him for my new treasures and hoped one day I would find a used XN85, even if I had to check the classified section in the newspapers and motorcycle magazines every weekend.
This is what I was told when I spoke with a large Suzuki Dealer in Ontario, Canada around the fall of 1988 after trying to find a used or new old stock XN85 turbo. The owner or manager was very knowledgable on the XN85 and said that they didn't sell well because of the high price for a 650, expensive insurance rates compared to other bikes and customers worried about the turbo/EFI giving trouble. He went on to say that Suzuki recalled some of the bikes to send back to Japan. When he asked why, he was told they would be taken out of stock. The manager took this to mean destroyed. When I ask if he knew how many were brought into north america he said the details he had heard from other dealers was that the United states received 305 bikes with 9 Cut away display engines also sent as technological show pieces. He said Canada received 29 Bikes, 2 Cutaway engine displays, an early prototype bike that originally had a full chain guard but was removed from the bike for some reason when put on display and 4 early serial number bikes (less than serial number 20) for display only while the standard production models were on there way from Japan. The bikes came with instructions to return them after the standard production models arrived. Some of the early serial number bikes had Turbo emblems on the muffler that were removed from the pre-production bikes to make them look more like the production bikes.
The early serial numbered bikes were later returned to Japan but he's not sure why. He also heard that at least one of the early serial numbered bikes was sold by mistake and at least that one did not return to Japan. I also heard that the bike's with serial numbers under 50 were a kind of pre-production bike to test production line, checking quality, make minor improvements, etc and from around serial number 50 and up were the real production versions to be sold to the public. The early serial number models was the first to enter Canada with the cut away engines to be send to various dealers while the other 29 bikes were on it's way. Out of the 305 US bikes and 29 Canadian bikes, some of the unsold bikes were recalled to Japan (to be sent to other locations or destroyed?) Out of the 305 US bikes it's believed only around 150 were sold and of the 29 Canadian bikes, only 20 was sold. It's possible that over the years some of the Canadian bikes went over to the US and vise versa in the used market. He told me he knew many details on the bike because at first it was looking like the future of Motorcycles with more power, more engine efficiency and less weight. The Suzuki XN85 was the talk of the town between dealers and drew a lot of interest to the showroom but unfortunately very few buyers. He also said the XN85 bikes original had more power and a bigger turbo kick but after intensive testing, the factory decided it was best to detune it to give a smoother off/on boost and focused more on handling improvements just weeks before the press had a chance to test it on a Japanese test track. That's why the XN85 don't have the doctor jekyll and mr hyde personalities of the other 3 factory turbo bikes.
The manager explained that the XN85 Turbo was considered by Suzuki a test platform that was Suzuki's first EFI motorcycle and employed an early form of oil cooling that was later refined and improved for the state of the Art GSX-R750 oil cooled motorcycle. It also has styling cues taken from the original Katana designed by Hans Muth, a race inspired 16" front wheel, clip-ons handle bars and a mono shock rear suspension. Suzuki was going to closely monitor owners of the XN85 for real world reliability and customer satisfaction. It was possible that this was the first of several Turbocharged models they would release in the future. That's part of the reason Suzuki recalled all the unsold bikes in Canada and USA (being a limited production test platform) that just didn't sell. He believed Suzuki wanted to cut its losses with this designed as a public model and distance itself from its sales failure. The XN85 was a solid reliable bike that was the best handling bike they made at the time, it just didn't sell. It may have been cheaper to take unsold bikes off the market then to continue to try and sell a new complicated design at bargain basement prices that may come back as customer headaches. Approximately 1100 bikes were produced worldwide and one realistic estimate of the bikes titled and sold, totaled around 600 units. The serial numbers of the bikes sent to dealers were usually not sequential so two bikes shipped together could be a few hundred numbers apart. Suzuki dealers from other countries have also reported sending back unsold XN85’s to Japan as complete bikes or the steering column cut and engine side case removed from the bike with the serial numbers on them. Sadly, a non-turbo Suzuki GS750ES released about the same time as the XN85 was quicker, cost less, a lighter design and didn't have the owners worried over the EFI or Turbo giving problems. Suzuki seems to go out of their way to erase the bike from the public's mind by secretly recalling unsold bikes and little or no mention of the bike in Suzuki's dealerships or literature. As time goes on, it's very unlikely that many of these bikes will show up for sale except for the few private collectors or museums that already own them. Some people call bikes like the Honda CBX or the Kawasaki Eddy Lawson Replica rare but I don't know of any factory production motorcycle that is as rare or scarce as the XN85 and likely to sky rocket in price in the next 10 to 20 years. It looks like it will be extremely hard to find a chance to own a bike that was ahead of it's time in technology and that most people don't even know exist.
Rocket Dave
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