2021 Suzuki Hayabusa

1999-2021 HAYABUSA 12-PAGE BUSA SPECIAL IS BACK! EXCLUSIVE IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS l Faster, lighter and sharper! + The evolution of a legend + NEW BUSA STRIPPED P6 2021 SUZUKI HAYABUSA NEW BIKE SPECIAL Return of the 1999-2021 ‘All everyone original wanted to know hyperbike HAYABUSA If you thought the hyperbike 12-PAGE was how fast it was’ class had finally gone the SPECIAL way of the dinosaurs – CELEBRATING 22 YEARS OF SUZUKI’S HAYABUSA think again. While Suzuki’s ground-breaking Hayabusa has been absent from our shores for a couple of years, it’s now returned just in time to have the sector to WELCOME Richard Newland, Editor itself. It’s lighter, faster, and bristling with new tech. We go under the skin of the new ‘I was flat-out Busa and also look back at 22 years of going ballistic. on the limiter at 186mph’ One of the moments I’ll never forget in my biking life was blasting down the 2-mile long straight at Bruntingthorpe Proving Ground on a Suzuki Hayabusa as it bumped into its limiter in 6th gear. I don’t know how fast I was really going, but it was somewhere north of 180mph. They were limited to 300kmh – that’s 186mph, for a less lardy pilot. What’s the relevance in the ‘real world’? Not a lot, really. Yes, you could go Autobahn baiting on your summer holidays if you have a death wish, or enjoy trying to eke the last few tenths out at somewhere like Elvington, but that momentary top-speed thrill isn’t the real joy of a bike like the Hayabusa. While I never really fell in love with the hyperbike hyperbole, I’ve always relished the extraordinary sensations you get from that exclusive club of rear-tyre-bothering behemoths. Whether it’s the Hayabusa, ZX-12R, H2 SX, ZZR1400, Blackbird... They all have a quality of drive that’s unmistakably different from the norm. So I’m delighted the Hayabusa is back from the wilderness; faster, lighter and sharper than ever. I can’t wait to see just how good it feels in 2021. 02 | Hayabusa Special 1999 - 2021 www.bikes.suzuki.co.uk www.bikes.suzuki.co.uk 1999 - 2021 Hayabusa Special | 03 2021 SUZUKI HAYABUSA Exclusive MCN Special The Busa 1999-2021 HAYABUSA 12-PAGE is back! SPECIAL Suzuki have breathed new life into the original horizon-shrinker – we speak exclusively to the engineers and designers who created the new Hayabusa he 200mph club MotoGP engines such as the 800cc comprised a short- HIGHLIGHTS V4 and 1000cc inline-four which lived explosion Joan Mir won the championship of speed-chasing l 1340cc l/c DOHC inline-four with. But I applied for the hyperbikes that l 187.74bhp @ 9700rpm Hayabusa development team as it hovered menacingly was the reason I joined Suzuki.” around the new l 110.6lb.ft @ 7000rpm Tmillennium like the ominous bug l 264kg kerb mass The same but better that threatened to erase every l The mantras that underpinned the computer on Earth. Of course, they 800mm seat height chassis and engine development couldn’t really do 200mph, but the l Price £16,499 also flowed through the design millennium bug wasn’t real either. language of the new Busa. As the anti-speed lobby girded “I faced lots of difficulties in its loins in preparation for a fight, parts therein – from the crankshaft designing the third-generation the Japanese initiated a self- to the valve train and everything Hayabusa; to keep the traditional policed 300kmh restriction to ‘It had to keep its silhouette, in between – are new. “The engine silhouette, but integrate new deflect more severe legislative development from Gen2 to Gen3, essence and tastes in it,” says meddling – and as soon as the wax despite keeping capacity the Kazutaka Ogawa, Styling Designer. started to solidify on the new pact, to be recognisably a Busa’ same, is actually greater than the “It had to be recognisably a new the game had already changed. changes from Gen1 (1298cc) to Hayabusa, not just any sportsbike. The Hayabusa still felt like Gen2 (1340cc),” says Shunya Togo, My first job at Suzuki was in the apex predator, snarling at superchargers, turbos, every pots. Neither were deemed more Engine Test Engineer. wind tunnel testing the first Honda’s oh-so-refined Blackbird rider aid known to Bosch and a balanced or effective than the Gen2 Balance is the key here. Suzuki’s generation Hayabusa, which gave and Kawasaki’s brutish ZX-12R special hoverboard switch, then engine and chassis package they obsessive total-package mentality me the knowledge to overcome the and ubiquitous ZZR11/12/14 – but you’re both missing the point and were trying to better. that saw them clinch the MotoGP difficulty of optimising the balance they all danced to a similar tune: staring into a (now LED) cyclops “There was an option to take crown in 2020 is now being driven between the comfort of the rider Big inline-four, acres of slippery eye of disappointment. Yes, it looks the Hayabusa in a new direction into their road bikes. As Chief and aerodynamics at 300kmh.” plastic, rider-cocooning capsules familiar. Yes, the engine capacity with a new engine,” says Naoki Engineer Fumihiro Onishi puts it: Suzuki say it’s taken them a ‘The new of aerodynamic efficiency – and is identical to the Gen2 model and Mizoguchi, Engine Designer. “But “The new Hayabusa has inherited decade of development to deliver a promise that the adage of ‘it’s a the twin-spar main frame remains while comparing prototypes with our Suzuki DNA, no compromise in this evolutionary step – something small world’ would feel even more unchanged, too. Yes, it’s lost a little the second-generation model engineering for ‘basic performance that is hard to accept without horizon-shrinkingly true onboard. peak power and torque – while we found that its engine offered as the basis of all’.” But why knowing what they tried during Hayabusa should pleasingly filling them in right better all-around performance. not adopt variable valve timing the process. “Our target was to The Emperor’s new clothes where you want it in the midrange. Therefore, we used the second- from the GSX-R1000? “The make the ultimate sport bike. And here we are, 22 years after If that’s the ‘less’, the ‘more’ is generation engine as a basis from new Hayabusa achieves target It took time to determine what be faster than its the first Hayabusa shocked us that it’s actually faster than its which to improve the power and performance without a variable equipment and price range were with its jelly-mould oddness and forebears and should be more torque in the low to mid-range.” valve mechanism.” required, and to achieve through blistering pace, looking at the agile too, thanks to a tidal surge of This transparency over aborted Without the need for a complex trial and error the performance, third generation of the species electronics and weight loss. development directions is unusual VVT system, servicing will be style and traditional Suzuki forebears and – a sole survivor of the class. from any manufacturer, let alone cheaper, reliability and durability durability that would meet and SUZUKI We could dismiss it by saying The power to move you a Japanese one, and underlines greater, and the overall cost of the exceed expectations,” says Kenichi it’s an evolution of Porsche 911 This isn’t the epitome of lazy their conviction that the new Busa bike constrained. And if you need Kasuya, Assistant Chief Engineer. PICTURES WATCH more agile, too’ proportions (ie: akin to a game of evolution, though. Suzuki’s is chasing the best solution, not more power for the strip, fit a non- “We have kept customers waiting ‘spot the difference’) – but that engineers built a turbo-charged marketing headlines. Euro5 exhaust: “If I am supposed – but are confident the new THE VIDEO would be an injustice. Not least version of the 1340cc second-gen The pursuit of mid-range torque to join a drag race, I will choose the Hayabusa will be worth the wait.” at motorcyclenews.com because of the journey Suzuki went engine to see if they could make is cited as another reason for siding new Hayabusa without hesitation,” on to find their way back home. forced induction work. Then they with capacity, rather than forced says Shunya Togo. He knows a bit RICHARD NEWLAND If you’re looking for pub- built an inline-six with a shade induction. While the capacity and about engine development, too: Let’s go under the skin... bragging power and torque figures, over 1000cc combined between its crankcases remain, the moving “I was engaged in development of WORDS 04 | Hayabusa Special 1999 - 2021 www.bikes.suzuki.co.uk www.bikes.suzuki.co.uk 1999 - 2021 Hayabusa Special | 05 2021 SUZUKI HAYABUSA Holding it Stopping The grunt factory 4 together 5 power 6 Suzuki used the 1340cc extraordinarily powerful performance.” 1999-2021 inline-four from the Gen2 Headline improvements include: Intake The Gen2 aluminium twin-spar Braking power is provided by Brembo Busa as their base, but it’s not the same and exhaust cams get revised profiles frame proved to be more balanced Stylema calipers mated to bigger engine, with major updates to essentially to reduce overlap, valve spring load is Under the skin than any new variations they tested 320mm discs, assisted by the latest every component other than the increased to cope with the increased lift, HAYABUSA during development, so it remains cornering ABS and a combined crankcases.

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