|
- To some of the inhabitants of a planet beset with pollution problems, climate-change issues and a compelling need for conservation, this kind of one-upmanship seemed somewhat irresponsible. Heck, it was irresponsible, even though 1300cc motorcycles don’t use that much fuel compared with exotic cars, and not that many people ride these big, superfast models.
Besides, who can access this much performance in the real world, and for how long? But as public attention was drawn to the subject, the big manufacturers began to see the problem. Finally, realpolitik prevailed in the industry, and the factories consented to a compact limiting maximum speed to just 186 mph. .
But you know it doesn’t end there. There is still the little matter of which bike gets to 60 mph first, and through the standing-start quarter-mile in the quickest time. Also, I’m sure, there’s the question of which machine is first to reach speeds well beyond those parameters. .
So when Kawasaki launched the ZX-14 top-dog aspirant a couple of years ago, Suzuki had to revamp its almost-10-year old Hayabusa to meet the challenge. It was about time anyway. Quite apart from the threat of competitive manufacturers, emissions and sound regulations have continued to tighten, and 10-year old technology isn’t quite up to the job. .
Hence the 2008 GSX1300R, a restyled, re-engineered, reinvented Hayabusa to do exactly what the first one was meant to do; dominate. That, after all, is what attracted the Hayabusa’s astoundingly varied customer base. While the big bike’s ownership profile consists of 37-percent self-described minorities, almost enough to typecast the model, the rest of the demographics are equally interesting. .
With its obvious high-performance credentials, it is not unexpected that 20-percent of its owners are in the 18 to 29 year-old group. But the fact that another 20-percent are between 45 and 59 years old is a bit of a shock. Clearly, there’s an eclectic crowd of Hayabusa devotees out there, making the direction for a second-generation model pretty hard to define.
|
|
|
|
-
The answer was clearly just more of the same. You need to see the old and new bikes side-by-side to really appreciate the differences, but the overall visual similarities are unmistakable. While the proportions have been smoothed and improved, the controversial face (from the movie Aliens, maybe?) looks familiar. And although the whole tail section is now much more curvaceous (looking much like the front of the old bike), the huge seatback hump is still there.
The engine, too, is based on the essential architecture of the first bike, but with a two-millimeter increase in stroke to bring its displacement to 1340cc. The cylinder bores have a hard coating of nickel-phosphorus-silicon-carbide, and new U-shaped cutouts in the sides of each cylinder bore’s base ease the movement of air beneath the pistons to reduce resistance.
Lighter pistons are used, and the engine’s compression ratio was increased from 11.0 to 12.5:1. The connecting rods are shot-peened chromoly steel alloy items, and titanium is now used for the engine’s eight intake valves. Valve timing has been revised, and the cam chain has a new hydraulic tensioner. There are also cooling and crankcase venting upgrades, along with transmission revisions, including a change in sprocket sizes to reduce the chain load.
More importantly, a powerful new-generation fuel-injection and engine-management system is fitted, with dual-valve throttle bodies to maintain optimum intake charge velocity. This puts the Hayabusa into the rare company of motorcycles with seamless throttle response.
Ironically, the test bike we rode had a cold start problem (pronounced atypical by the press relations guys), and would sputter into life and then limp along until warm enough to operate normally. But, once warmed up, the bike’s response to rider input would shame most other motorcycle fuel-injection systems, with a clearly readable and crisp reaction to the rider’s wrist.
Teamed with a smooth and accurate shifter and an easy-pull clutch lever with great engagement feedback, the big Suzuki is easy to ride smoothly, with a refined and sophisticated control sense. Tooling around in the suburbs at low revs is a pleasure, once the rider has become accustomed to the bike’s fairly hefty 500-pound mass and longish wheelbase.
|
|
|
- Out on the open road, the Hayabusa proves to be equally versatile, able to cruise effortlessly at any engine speed. It’s only when the throttle is wound on that the bike demonstrates its remarkable potential. Pulling hard from 4,000 rpm or less, the bike’s thrust increases exponentially as the revs rise, until it is accelerating so hard that one can’t help recalling the Darwin Award nominee who supposedly strapped a JATO thruster to his car and went out in a blaze of glory.
There is certainly a sense that things have gotten out of control, and that the experience will intensify to the point that bits of your body will detach due to the sheer ferocity of the forces at work. Sound like an exaggeration? Try one and see for yourself. Having ridden one of these bikes, my mind was truly boggled at the sight of a turbocharged Hayabusa at the Rock Store in Malibu.
Turbocharging? Mmm, that’s just what it needed. No, the Hayabusa has more than enough tractive effort now that it has almost 200-horsepower at its disposal. Given that motorcycles get faster all the time, I suppose we should expect that.
But it is a happy discovery that the Hayabusa chassis also enjoys a decade’s worth of technological advance. Where the old bike was prone to pitching motions on undulating surfaces, the new one maintains a wonderfully composed flat stance.
Despite reasonably firm spring rates and damping values, the suspension blunts the impacts of sharp bumps, neatly soaking imperfections out of the surface before they are transmitted through the bike’s structure.
Honestly, the ride is a revelation, making the Hayabusa a perfectly acceptable touring mount, were it not for the fairly folded up riding position. But bolt a set of higher-rise Heli-bars and hard cases on the Hayabusa, and you’re all set for a trans-continental ride.
Accentuating the bike’s unexpected versatility is a handlebar-switch controlled drive-mode selector like that first seen on Suzuki’s GSX-R1000 sportbike, offering three settings that alter the machine’s power delivery. Mode A gives the rider everything the bike has available. Mode B delivers a more linear power curve with less peak power. And mode C flattens the power delivery throughout the rev range even more.
You can see the Suzuki drive mode selector (S-DMS) as a tool for Hayabusa novices as well as an inclement weather safeguard. Start in C to take the sting out of this bike’s extraordinary high-rev hit, and just ride around until you have adequate machine control familiarity. Then try B for awhile until you have a sense of what’s likely to happen at full throttle and high revs. Then graduate to A, and use the throttle with the discipline it commands.
Getting used to acceleration this vivid takes some doing. Even at moderate engine speeds on the freeway, a twist of the throttle to enable a passing maneuver soon has the traffic heading back towards you like somebody up there hit reverse on the remote. A downshift? Don’t even think about it. The only time you really need recourse to lower ratios is on a mountain road, when elevated engine speeds give you a better feel for cornering. There’s more engine braking going in that way, and tons of thrust available driving out.
Like all motorcycles, only more so, the Hayabusa steers on the throttle. No, not with the rear tire spinning like a MotoGP bike, although it’ll certainly do that too, just enough drive to make it steer properly off turns. Maybe it’s the bike’s size and weight, or perhaps it’s the big 190-section rear tire, but the big ‘Busa sure likes leaving corners under power.
There’s abundant cornering clearance, so the bike can be hustled through your favorite canyon road with alacrity. You want to remember its weight and size, but as long as you ride well ahead of the bike and anticipate all the moves, the Hayabusa is a respectable corner carver. The communicative steering, planted chassis, and reassuring levels of grip help build confidence in a rider, and you can’t help but be impressed with the bike’s roadgoing prowess.
But there’s a limit, and even Team Jordan Suzuki’s star rider Aaron Yates climbed off the bike at its introduction at Road America in Wisconsin at lunchtime and called it a day before his increasing expectations met the limits of available tire technology.
But for what it is—an icon of big-bike performance—the Suzuki Hayabusa manages to integrate ease of operation, a high level of refinement, and blinding performance in one tidy package. The faithful are already rejoicing.
|
|
PHOTOS COURTESY OF SUZUKI -
|
|
- FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE 2008 SUZUKI HAYABUSA GO TO www.suzuki.com
|
|
|
|
|
