From Superbike Mag (UK), MCM is also at the Test.
Al's riding the 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa at the Salzburgring in Austria. Here's his first thoughts on the bike. ...
Well, **** me this is a fast track. Scary. It's not often you find yourself turning into a bend at nearly 300kph, although to be honest, the speedo is the last thing I've been spending too much time looking at here today. I'm here to ride Suzuki's new 2008 Hayabusa, a model which was essentially unchanged over the past decade (almost), but which has now had a major update. There's a new 1,340cc motor with an extra 16kw of power, a revised chassis with new radial brakes and a styling makeover that's based on the old bike, but still on the radical side.
This first riding session has confirmed a few things – firstly that this is a fast fast bike. Although it's still on stock settings, so things are a little wobbly. I'll have more to say in a bit after the next session…
Well it's later in the afternoon now, and we're getting to grips with the track a bit more. Suzuki reckons it's made changes in a few areas of the bike - brakes, engine and styling have had the major tweaks, with detail changes to the rest of the chassis. The biggest apparent change is the brakes - they now have all the stoppping power you need, with the limit now being the sheer mass and length of the bike. Helping out here are the new Bridgestone BT-015 tyres - a special design for the GSX1300, which are frankly performing miracles here under the terrifying 280kph+ braking, not to mention the 300kph kinks. The motor still feels like the strong lump the 'Busa is known for, with none of the peakiness apparent on the Kawasaki ZZR1400 though.
We've had a bit of a suspension fiddle too, and the bike's much more composed around this crazy-fast track.
All this comes with a bit of caveat though - we've not done any road riding. And with that in mind, we'll have to wait until we get a chance to do that before we can speak in depth about the new Hayabusa's road manners. At the moment though, it looks like job done for Suzuki...
Al's riding the 2008 Suzuki Hayabusa at the Salzburgring in Austria. Here's his first thoughts on the bike. ...
Well, **** me this is a fast track. Scary. It's not often you find yourself turning into a bend at nearly 300kph, although to be honest, the speedo is the last thing I've been spending too much time looking at here today. I'm here to ride Suzuki's new 2008 Hayabusa, a model which was essentially unchanged over the past decade (almost), but which has now had a major update. There's a new 1,340cc motor with an extra 16kw of power, a revised chassis with new radial brakes and a styling makeover that's based on the old bike, but still on the radical side.
This first riding session has confirmed a few things – firstly that this is a fast fast bike. Although it's still on stock settings, so things are a little wobbly. I'll have more to say in a bit after the next session…
Well it's later in the afternoon now, and we're getting to grips with the track a bit more. Suzuki reckons it's made changes in a few areas of the bike - brakes, engine and styling have had the major tweaks, with detail changes to the rest of the chassis. The biggest apparent change is the brakes - they now have all the stoppping power you need, with the limit now being the sheer mass and length of the bike. Helping out here are the new Bridgestone BT-015 tyres - a special design for the GSX1300, which are frankly performing miracles here under the terrifying 280kph+ braking, not to mention the 300kph kinks. The motor still feels like the strong lump the 'Busa is known for, with none of the peakiness apparent on the Kawasaki ZZR1400 though.
We've had a bit of a suspension fiddle too, and the bike's much more composed around this crazy-fast track.
All this comes with a bit of caveat though - we've not done any road riding. And with that in mind, we'll have to wait until we get a chance to do that before we can speak in depth about the new Hayabusa's road manners. At the moment though, it looks like job done for Suzuki...
