What's The Truth About The Busa's "Reliability"?

JINKSTER

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I'm rapidly approaching 47 years old and have owned and ridden big bore streetbikes most of my adult life..to wit?...numerous Honda's, a couple Kaws and Yami's but this Busa is the first suzuki I've owned.

That said?...I'm hearing quite a few horror stories on the busa boards which mostly consist of ate up tranny gears and shifting forks which has me questioning the integrity of my new-to-me '03 Busa's tranny..as in...do I need to be concerned or replacing such things as shift shafts and forks or checking into undercut gears or is what I have as stock reliable enough for the average street jock?..or?...am I just reading to much into it and most of the damage I'm reading about is operator error or just the result of the abuses of lots of repetitive hard drag launchs and/or worked over or turboed/juiced motors ripping the guts out of the busa tranny?

I normally participate in two drag events per year...real informal run whatcha brung heads up dragging with elite bikers at the outlaw drags in deland during daytonas bike week and biketoberfest...outside of that?...I just your average hyper sport tour kinda guy so....what's up?...do I need to worry about or address my busa's tranny before disaster strikes or is the busa a perfectly reliable machine in stock garb for an average street jock like myself?

T.I.A. Bill.
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if you want a mechanical reliability opinion from someone who's been watching them for 2.5yrs in harsh conditions...

... as long as you are under the 200hp range in all conditions(not sprayin nitrous, etc), the transmission is very reliable... dogs get ate up under dragrace conditions over the 200hp mark occasionally.

my ride still is stock clutch and trans. 8300miles on those parts, on the track has popped out of 2nd gear numerous times, 3rd gear a few times, upper gears maybe a couple times..... and has shown no ill effects.

Last weekend inspected the clutch, and two pressure plate bolts were finger loose.. was causing some slippage under hard accel.

other than that, I have abused this thing pretty hard. I would still consider it the most reliable means of transportation I've ever owned.
 
about 30,000 miles here...

and I ride mine like a three dollar hoar... that gives change.

I pretty much pin mine where ever I go. Clutchless shifting up an' down...etc.

hav a good 1...RSD.
 
You have gotta see the roads in India... there are worse than the worst roads that you have in the US!!
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...The busa is doing pretty good in these conditions, nothing to complain about.... I have not put in as much miles as cache or rubbah, but still nothing to complain about.

Its a sweet machine...
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The only problem I have heard of around here(home) is when you boost the Hp on one of these bikes the cam sprockets tend to slip. They are just pressed on, no bolts,keyways,etc.Suzuki fix is loctite..Chad said he is gonna start spot Tig welding the gears on the cams.
 
53,000 miles including 20+ with Turbos. You take care of it and it will be reliable period. If you d stupid things and don't do the simple things like filters and oil, like anything it will give you trouble.
 
Ninja Eater, you just gave me new found hope. I just turned 18000 miles and was wondering the other day how much life my bike really has left in it and if I should think about trading it in. I don't want to, I love the bike I have and have no desire for a new one, just enjoy piece of mind.
 
I think the thing is most people post when they have a problem. Not many posts saying, "Hey, I woke up today and went to use the Busa, and it worked fine!"
So far I've got about 3,000 on my 05 Busa, and no problems
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how long should a stock clutch last under "normal" daily driver conditions? Not really getting into it super hard, all the time, etc, just commuting with some abusive weekends
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have about 13,000 miles doing 5-6 drag trips a year (figure 5-7 runs each time) track days.. and just normal beating the crap out of it.

Never had anything go bad that wasn't a maintence item..

I do however have a rear bearing that is going bad now though.. but hell... 40$ in 4 years ain't no big deal.
 
how long should a stock clutch last under "normal" daily driver conditions?  Not really getting into it super hard, all the time, etc, just commuting with some abusive weekends
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I've got 18,000 on the stock clutch and it's fine so far. No drag time for me, just street riding. I don't ride easy but I don't abuse it either.
 
Thanks rfor the feedback folks...good stuff here...much of it is pretty much what I suspected I would hear but that's a good thing....I just needed a little confirmation to get the old "warm fuzzy" back to size after reading some of the nightmare cases...proof positive that it's never a good idea to build 1/2 an engine..if ya muscle up the power...then ya muscle up the tranny..makes sense to me.

Again Thank You and L8R, Bill.
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