Bike of the Century

O

OB_ROR

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Let us now praise the Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa and modestly declare it the best motorcycle of the 20th Century.

By what standard, one might ask. By the standard of being the best all-around street bike ever offered to the general public, among a plethora of wonderful motorcycles.

Top speed: No competition.

Acceleration: No competition.

Racing: Won its class in the WERA 24-hour endurace race.

Real world handling across the spectrum of public roads and highways: Superlative and no competition when you figure in the speeds attainable.

Design: Unique. Cannot be mistaken for any other bike. Set a new standard for wind-tunnel testing and aerodynamics.

Reliability: Excellent. No horror stories and some of you have passed the 10,000 mile mark.

Ease of riding: A very easy bike to ride safely, yet briskly, er, make that outrageously fast. The power is easy to control to what ever degree one wants to control it.

Touring: A superb sport touring bike, comfortable one-up or two. Many options available for luggage.

After-market: A fine and growing selection of after-market gear to tweak the bike in whatever direction fits your fancy.

Presence: Draws admirers wherever it is parked. The only Japanese bike I've ever owned to draw the admiration of the Harley crowd.

Impact: Set a new standard and really has defined a new class of "Ultimate" sport bikes. Will be a measuring yardstick for a long time.

Place in History: Assured. Years from now it will be recalled in stories and columns. It is a bike to inspire legends.

There are other bikes focused on a more narrow target that are better for their narrow purposes than the Hayabusa. Ducati 916/996, Yamaha R1 and Honda Goldwing come to mind. But try to name another bike that will come as close to matching the performance of all three of those machines. I can't.

Merry Christmas. I got my present last June and everytime I've ridden it since has been a gift.
 
I would have to agree with you on that!! NO other bike has made as much of an impact as the Hayabusa...
 
Hmmmmm, some of these arguments are a bit biased I would say.

Design: still don't like the stock looks no matter what colour, although I'm getting used to it and will simply change some things that bother me most visually.

Reliability: don't think that the camchain-tensioner thing was very good to say it gently?

But, all in all I *LOVE* my Busa no end, so I'll forgive the biased reporting for this once.
 
Fer sher it's the best ever built in this century for all the reasons you listed ROR.

But does this make it The Bike of The Century? I don't know. Just a question.

What about the Vincent Black Shadow, the Honda 90 Sport, the H-D 74, the Triumph Bonneville, the ZX11, the FZR 1000, the Britten?

I guess that would be my list of contenders, with the Busa included (and not because I own one either.)
 
Good list DP....I think I would add the Honda CB750 to that list...that was one kick *** bike for the late sixties!
 
Yes Scott, the CB750 was the first hint to the world that Honda was going to kick some serious butt. Or maybe more importantly the first hint that advanced technology was going to have a role to play in motorcycles?

Back to wrapping presents.

I hate deadlines.
 
Impact with Harley guys I agree with. As for best overall balance (power. handling, braking) I still miss the 500 Interceptor that I wadded in '89.
 
My .01
The bike of the century is the first streetable (cow pathable?) motorcyle, probably a tricked out bicycle. Everything that followed was piecemeal inovation, product improvement, metallurgy advances, tire research, copy-catting, etc, etc. The GSX1300R is an excellent example of the end result of all this 90 some years of screwing around.
More importantly I think the Century Award should go to the Japanese motorcycle industry. What would we have today if that industry never existed or existed on the level of H-D and the European bike makers of the fifties and sixties. Motorcycling would be tiny sport inhabited by grease covered wrench lovers.
 
My first bike was also a kawa ,it was the kawa mach II 400 cc two stroke,with full windscreen [don,t know how you call it in englisch,in holland we call it a full tub hehehe lol],and it was kawa green I loved the sound of that bike I still do,a dealer told me "the more they rattle,the harder they go "mine had a topspeed on the tacho of 190 kph [with other spocket,and almost know brakes haha!!]
And now 15 years later I can go 330 kph on a stock bike ,and I own one !!
I never had dreamed that!
I have seen not one hayabusa for sale here in HOLLAND!!
jan :)

[This message has been edited by jan (edited 24 December 1999).]
 
Konrad I'm jealous of your M3 experience. When that bike arrived our English bikes were the Kings of the Road. We dismissed all two strokes as "wingdings" 'cause that's what they sound like. That wingding blew our crowns right off our heads and, just like Harley guys dismiss Jap scrap, damned if we didn't use the same excuse. We went straight into denial.

I got to ride one for a few miles in the city once. Talk about the importance of throttle control and gear selection!

JAN my Dutch brother-in-law is coming over for Christmas dinner tomorrow. I'll ask him to send you greetings in your own language!
 
The Busa should be there,just because it is the most advance style bike out there for the price.Still there a lot of others for the century: H-2 Kaw. Z-1 KAW. CB750.RDs and R-5s,and all the italian/british bikes that made the Japanese possible. and what started this american indian and harleys. so I still say Busa,but we could debate for another 100 years Merry Christmas to all!!!
 
Add the Kawi Z-900 to DPs list. After all, it was the first real sport bike. It's tough to just pick 10 let alone 1.
 
Personally I think that are many contenders for this award. But the list should be kept to the bikes of the last two years.

With the advances being made at the presant rate you can not include bikes that were made even as closely as 97.

My list would include the Hayabusa,ZX9,R1,R6,GSXR750 and the Ducati 996. each bike is unique and has its strong as well as its weak points.

The debate can go on and on. But with the technoligy of todays bikes you can not include the old ones because they just can't compete.

John Turbo810
 
Kawasaki 500 1969 Mach 3 Two Stroke Triple.
1968-71 Suzuki 500 Titan two stroke twins.
1979 RD 400. (7.11 in the eighth)
Ducati Monster 900.
Owned em, loved em. I still have the M-900.

ducmanic

[This message has been edited by ducmanic (edited 24 December 1999).]
 
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