The
Suzuki Hayabusa (or GSX1300R) is a sport bike motorcycle made by Suzuki
since 1999. It immediately won acclaim as the world's fastest
production motorcycle, with a top speed of 188 to 194 miles per hour
(303 to 312 km/h).
Hayabusa is Japanese for "peregrine falcon", a
bird that often serves as a metaphor for speed due to its vertical
hunting dive, or stoop, speed of 180 to 240 miles per hour (290 to 390
km/h), the fastest of any bird.In particular, the choice of name was
made because the peregrine falcon preys on blackbirds,which reflected
the intent of the original Hayabusa to unseat the Honda CBR1100XX Super
Blackbird as the world's fastest production motorcycle.Eventually, the
Hayabusa managed to surpass the Super Blackbird by at least a full 10
miles per hour (16 km/h).
In 2000, fears of a European regulatory
backlash or import ban led to an informal agreement between the
Japanese and European manufacturers to govern the top speed of their
motorcycles at an arbitrary limit.
The media-reported value for the
speed agreement in miles per hour was consistently 186 mph, while in
kilometers per hour it varied from 299 to 303 km/h, which is typical
given unit conversion rounding errors. This figure may also be affected
by a number of external factors,as can the power and torque values.
The
conditions under which this limitation was adopted led to the 1999–2000
Hayabusa's title to remain, at least technically, unassailable, since
no subsequent model could go faster without being tampered with. Thus,
after the much anticipated Kawasaki Ninja ZX-12R of 2000 fell 4 mph (6
km/h) short of claiming the title, the Hayabusa secured its place as the
fastest standard production bike of the 20th century.This gives the
unrestricted 1999–2000 models even more cachet with collectors.
Besides
its speed, the Hayabusa has been lauded by many reviewers for its
all-around performance, in that it does not drastically compromise other
qualities like handling, comfort, reliability, noise, fuel economy or
price in pursuit of a single function.Jay Koblenz of Motorcycle Consumer
News commented, "If you think the ability of a motorcycle to approach
190 mph or reach the quarter-mile in under 10 seconds is at best
frivolous and at worst offensive, this still remains a motorcycle worthy
of just consideration. The Hayabusa is Speed in all its glory. But
Speed is not all the Hayabusa is."
